Google Pixel 8 Pro review: the best Pixel I’ve ever used

These changes don’t sound like much on paper, but by holding the Pixel 8 Pro side by side with the Pixel 7 Pro, you can really feel the difference a year has made for Google’s hardware team. The back glass texture is exquisite, the buttons feel better to press, and the phone is just so incredibly comfortable. I really don’t have anything to complain about.

I also need to praise Google for the stunning Bay blue color you’ll see throughout this review. It’s a gorgeous baby blue shade that’s warm and calming in a way that’s difficult to describe.

The way it pairs with the silver camera bar and black camera lenses is incredible. And no matter how light hits the phone, the blue is always apparent without being overbearing. I do wish it wasn’t the only “fun” color available (the other styles are Obsidian and Porcelain, aka black and white), but the Bay shade is a phone color for the ages.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: screen

Google also flaunts its hardware chops with the Pixel 8 Pro’s display. This year’s Pixel offers a 6.7-inch OLED display with a 2992 x 1344 pixel resolution. It’s a similar panel to the Pixel 7 Pro’s, but there are a few important upgrades.

The 120Hz refresh rate returns, and it’s as smooth as ever — offering fluid scrolling and smooth animations. But it can now scale all the way down to 1Hz instead of 10Hz, meaning it’s drawing less energy for things like the always-on display, reading articles on Google Chrome, etc. It’s also a lot brighter this year, now going all the way up to 1,600 nits for HDR content and 2,400 nits for peak brightness. For context, the latest iPhone 15 Pro Max only gets up to 2,000 nits. Whether I was soaking in a late summer sunset while walking the High Line in Manhattan or enjoying the last bits of sunshine in Southwest Michigan, I never once had trouble seeing what was on the Pixel 8 Pro’s screen.

I’m not sure I really notice a difference between it and my iPhone 15 Pro Max, but I appreciate Google going the extra step and ensuring I’ll never have to think about it. What I appreciate even more is how dim the display gets. When turning the brightness all the way down on my iPhone and the Pixel, the Pixel 8 Pro gets noticeably darker, which is great when you’re using your phone in a dark room and don’t want to disturb your sleeping partner next to you.

Beyond the better refresh rate and brightness, everything else about the Pixel 8 Pro’s screen is excellent. The display is plenty sharp, colors look fantastic, and — unlike the Pixel 7 Pro — all of the display bezels are perfectly symmetrical. Just like the Pixel 8 Pro’s design, Google knocked the screen out of the park.

OK, it’s time. Let’s talk about the Google Pixel 8 Pro’s cameras. The Pixel 8 Pro has a similar triple-camera setup compared to the Pixel 7 Pro, and it consists of main, ultrawide, and telephoto sensors. All of them have been upgraded in meaningful ways.

The 50-megapixel main camera has an f/1.68 aperture for 21% more light sensitivity and it is capable of 2x optical zoom. The new 48MP ultrawide camera touts an f/1.95 aperture with a 105% increase in light sensitivity, plus an improved macro mode that allows you to get as close as 2 centimeters away from your subject. The 48MP telephoto camera gets a 56% boost in light sensitivity. It has an f/2.8 aperture and once again offers 5x optical zoom. For the selfie fans out there, the 10.5MP front-facing camera has an f/2.2 aperture and now supports autofocus.

Those are a lot of numbers, and in practice, they translate to the Google Pixel 8 Pro taking exceptional photographs.

The 50MP primary camera on the Pixel 8 Pro is outstanding. It shouldn’t be surprising in 2023 that a Google Pixel device takes great photos, and the Pixel 8 Pro ensures that won’t be changing any time soon.

Whether I’m taking pictures of my dog in broad daylight or capturing the ambiance of a dimly lit bar, the Google Pixel 8 Pro makes me confident that I’ll end up with a photo I’m happy with. And the best part is how effortless it is to get these great-looking shots. Point the Pixel 8 Pro at your subject, tap the shutter button, and you can pretty safely assume you’ll get an excellent image.

The Pixel 8 Pro also performs strongly with its 5x telephoto camera. No, it’s not a 10x optical zoom like you get on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, but the quality of the sensor is outstanding. It delivers excellent details at its 5x range, with very similar colors to the main camera. And even if you punch in all the way to the 30x digital zoom, the Pixel 8 Pro still churns out very usable images.

You interact with the sensor through the Thermometer app on the phone, where you’ll see a feature called “Object temperature.” From here, you can quickly take the temperature of any object by holding the Pixel 8 Pro about two inches away from the thing you want to take the temperature of. Depending on what you’re measuring, you can use one of the material presets in the Thermometer app, including Food & organic, Beverages & water, Cast iron, Fabric, Plastic & rubber, and more.

It all works fine, but I also have zero idea what I’d ever want to use it for. Google says you can use the sensor to check the temperature of a drink to make sure it’s not too hot or cold or to check the temperature of a pan you’re heating up to cook with. And I guess you could do those things, but I can’t seriously picture myself ever wanting to. It’s a goofy party trick to mess around with for a couple of minutes, and that’s about it.

The eventual goal of this sensor, once it gets Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, is to let users take their body temperature and then upload that data to the Fitbit app. That could be legitimately useful if you’re tracking a fever and want to monitor your body temp, but here’s the thing — we have zero idea when that FDA approval is going to happen. It could very well be a year or more before the Pixel 8 Pro is capable of body temperature tracking, and by that time, we’ll be talking about the Google Pixel 9 series.

You can easily ignore the temperature sensor on the Pixel 8 Pro, and I’d recommend that you do. Even so, it’s a bit embarrassing that — presumably — a lot of time, money, and research went into such a niche feature that’s lacking the main reason you’d want to use it in the first place.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: Face Unlock

Face Unlock on the Pixel 8 Pro still works great for getting past your lock screen, but it also works perfectly for all of those other things. I’ve been using Face Unlock on my Pixel 8 Pro to view my passwords in 1Password, approve Google Play purchases, and log into apps like American Express and Chase. It works just as seamlessly as Face ID on recent iPhones or Google’s first attempt at Face Unlock on the Pixel 4.

Unlike iPhones or the Pixel 4, however, Face Unlock on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro doesn’t require any specialized hardware sensors. The only hardware component is the selfie camera, and while that typically hasn’t been secure enough for this level of facial recognition, Google says AI and machine learning upgrades in the Tensor G3 chip allow it to meet necessary security standards without any extra hardware.

That’s a legitimately impressive feat, and the convenience of having Face Unlock and an in-screen fingerprint sensor as biometric security options on the Pixel 8 Pro has been outstanding. Both of them work really well, and the freedom to use whichever one is easiest has been a treat. If I’m using the Pixel 8 Pro around the house, Face Unlock works quickly, reliably, and effortlessly. If I’m out shopping and have a face mask on, I can fall back on the fingerprint sensor (which is equally great).

I can’t imagine this was an easy task on Google’s end, but I’m thrilled the company found a way to make it work. It’s great to see one of the Pixel 4’s best features make a proper return — and to have it and a quality fingerprint sensor on one phone feels too good to be true.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: Tensor G3

For as excellent as the Pixel 8 Pro’s hardware is, Google’s Pixel phones are still very much about the software experience — so let’s dig into it.

I’ve personally been having a blast with Android 14’s new lock screen customization. Similar to iOS 16’s lock screen editing tools, Android 14 allows you to change your lock screen’s clock design, color, and size. You can also customize the shortcuts that appear in the bottom corners of the lock screen, including options for launching the camera, enabling Do Not Disturb, toggling the flashlight, launching a QR code scanner, using Google Home and Wallet shortcuts, and more. It’s something we’ve seen on other Android phones from Samsung and OnePlus, but it’s still great now having these options on a Pixel.

There are other good updates to be found. Android 14 introduces an AI wallpaper generator that allows you to create a wide variety of wallpapers with different prompts. It’s a bit silly, and not every AI-created wallpaper is my cup of tea, but it’s a fun addition regardless. Android 14 also lets you use your phone as a webcam with your computer, use more secure six-digit PIN codes, and more.

Beyond the more general Android 14 changes, there are some other new features debuting exclusively on the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. Summarize and Read Aloud are two of the most interesting. If you’re viewing a website on Google Chrome, you can hold the power button to have Google Assistant summarize a webpage or read it aloud to you.

Summarize analyzes the page you’re viewing and breaks down the main gist of it into a few bullet points. It’s a great idea on paper, but it’s also a bit finicky. Sometimes Summarize simply refuses to work. Other times, it gets certain facts from the article or website wrong. It’s neat when it works as intended, but that doesn’t always happen. Read Aloud, on the other hand, has been much more reliable at reading webpages out loud in a clear, easy-to-hear voice. I’m not sure I’ll use these things all the time, but they’re interesting expansions of the Google Assistant’s toolkit.

Google also has a lot of other neat software features in the works. Zoom Enhance will let you zoom into a photo you’ve taken and see the details much more clearly thanks to AI enhancements. Smart Reply in Gboard will provide more natural and better responses to your messages, while Contextual Replies for Call Screen will allow you to confirm appointments and other requests from phone calls without ever having to answer the call.

The problem with these other features is that I can’t use any of them. Many of the Pixel 8 Pro’s coolest software tricks won’t be available until December (or later). Google’s not the only company pulling stunts like this (see the Apple Watch Series 9 and its Double Tap feature), but it’s irritating nonetheless.

Thankfully, even with those other features yet to come, the overall Pixel 8 Pro software experience is still excellent. All of the older Pixel features — like excellent voice typing in Gboard, message translations, and having the Google Assistant hold your place in line during wait times on phone calls — are all here still (and still excellent!).

But the really big software news for the Google Pixel 8 Pro is its update policy. For this phone (and the regular Pixel 8), Google promises seven years of Android OS updates, security patches, and feature drops. It’s an unprecedented level of support for Android phones and even a little better than what we typically see for iPhone updates.

Do I wish the Pixel 8 Pro still cost $899? Of course! But I also don’t think the $100 increase is unreasonable, especially considering how many upgrades Google made this year.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: verdict

We’re now at the end of this review, which took multiple days and a lot of caffeine to power through. And you know what? I’m no longer nervous about the Google Pixel 8 Pro. Instead, I’m ecstatic about it. Elated, even. Or whatever other synonyms you want to use!

There’s no doubt that 2023 has given us a lot of outstanding handsets, many of which are fierce competitors against this one. But if you have $999 to spend and want a superb mix of design, screen quality, camera performance, AI magic tricks, and robust software, the Google Pixel 8 Pro is the phone to buy.

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