Google Pixel 8 Pro review: A big leap for AI

Introduction

It's betting AI-driven features in the Pixel 8 Pro will attract people away from the iPhone and the Galaxy series—so closely associated with Apple and Samsung, respectively—that they wouldn't be able to imagine owning anything else. Seriously. From the crafty camera editing tools that can make anyone look like a Photoshop pro to Google Assistant's new ability to handle phone calls and provide next-level contextual responses, Pixel 8 Pro ships with the full package of Google's latest AI forays.

Hardware is pushed to the forefront as well, boasting a new Tensor G3 chip, a super bright Super Actua Display, a versatile 5x zoom camera, and redesigning that tends to stand out on its own. But the Pixel 8 Pro will also get an exclusive temperature sensor, which adds some distinctly unique utility to the device when it really feels just a bit out of place in a phone that's supposed to be focused on convenience.

But then one asks: Can this feature set justify the sticker price of AED 3,670 for the Pixel 8 Pro? It's still a bit easier on the pocket than the AED 4,400 iPhone 15 Pro Max or Galaxy S23 Ultra, but you can't help but feel if the Pixel 8 Pro might have more value on the dollar count than its sibling, the normal Pixel 8, which comes with AED 2,570 off the price tag.

Price and Availability

Having known for a while that the predecessor to a Pixel 8 Pro started at AED 3,300, a part of me was almost convinced that the new model would have the same value for money. My heart sank a little while nodding to its AED 3,670 price tag, although it still remains pricier than the Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max, which are both priced AED 4,400 as well. Even with this AED 367 increase over the Pixel 7 Pro, this makes the Pixel 8 Pro competitive against several flagships.

Pixel 8 Pro preorders start today and it will be in stores on October 12. Available in Obsidian, Porcelain, and Bay, click classic flagship. Yeah, Obsidian—that's just black. While Bay—it's a lighter blue color—is easy on the eyes, I also appreciate that Google is giving customers the opportunity to choose from five different colors for its official case for the Pixel 8 Pro.

One tiny quibble is that the base storage variant of the Pixel 8 Pro still starts off with just 128GB of storage. In comparison, Apple and Samsung have bottomed out their flagships to start at a more reasonable 256GB. If you need more storage, this model comes in variants such as the 256GB, 512GB, and, of course, the 1TB models that cost AED 4,040, AED 4,400, and AED 4,770, respectively.

Specifications of Google Pixel 8 Pro

Design and Build Quality

At first look, most would probably shrug off the design changes in the Pixel 8 Pro as very minute. Basically, those are the small changes that improve so much of the user experience of the gadget. The design DNA of the phone would be inestimably Pixel—into its camera bar and metal frame.

Two design elements that instantly hit my eyes were the new matte finish, which would definitely offer a much better grip than the older slick glass and metal construction of the Pixels, and Bay for a brand new option among black and white variants in its light blue.

The only design decision that truly bugs me, however, is the Google return to a single piece of covering over the triple camera set. I was really happy when Google fixed this travesty, featuring two different glass pieces after shattering the similar design smashed from the back of the Pixel 6 Pro. Now, that reversion means more vulnerability, with one glass piece, and you'll much want to invest in one of the best Google Pixel 8 Pro cases.

All in all, though, the Pixel 8 Pro doesn't vary much from previous models. It does feel quite solid in hand and appears to be well-constructed. More importantly, it retains the same IP68 rating of its predecessors—all qualities expected from a premium flagship phone.

Temperature Sensor

After spending more time with the Pixel 8 Pro's new temperature sensor, I realize it's not as practical as other implementations I've seen. The sensor, positioned on the back of the phone just below the camera's LED flash, may sound useful for measuring body temperature at first, though Google is still seeking FDA clearance to do that; at the moment, it's designed to measure the surface temperature of things.

While there are good reasons to use this feature, such as to know if the pavement will hurt your pet's feet, common sense may serve you best in many cases. That means you have to hold the sensor about 2 inches from what you're taking a reading from, and, if you're using the Thermometer app, it will prompt you to select the type of material in order to get an accurate reading.

For me, the use of this sensor is somewhat limited in practice, especially when compared to the likes of laser temperature guns and other thermal cameras that can measure from greater distances. It is a bit more interesting-sounding with phones equipped with built-in thermal cameras capable of detecting a heat signature from a distance. In the long run, Google's temp sensor has felt more like a novelty rather than a necessity.

Display

One of the bigger improvements on the Pixel 8 Pro is its screen, fixing the shortcomings realized with the Pixel 7 Pro. This new 6.7-inch Super Actua Display comes with a rendering having a resolution of 1344 × 2992 in the best contrast display settings. It can go for 1600 nits of HDR brightness and 2400 nits of peak brightness power. Google has confidence in its new display improvements—bench testing has confirmed this model as having one of the brightest displays in the world. It maxes out at 1,526 nits, only steps behind the iPhone 15 Pro Max at 1,550 nits.

Also, the refresh rate fluctuates to the extent of 1Hz to 120Hz in support of battery life while not undermining visual execution in the current way. The overall appearance of the Pixel 8 Pro is going to be radically altered just from this display upgrade alone, making it far easier to view content in bright outdoor settings.

Camera Performance

The Pixel 8 Pro, on the other hand, will have one big differentiator over the standard Pixel 8: a camera system. The Pro model ships with a rear rockin' tri-camera setup that combines a 50MP primary sensor with a 48MP ultrawide and the telephoto lens, also 48MP, providing 5x optical zoom.

The ultrawide comes with a significant upgrade from the Pixel 7 Pro's 12MP sensor, while the 5x zoom telephoto lens forms one of the key differentiators from the Pixel 8.

While I had hoped Google would increase the telephoto camera's reach, it goes up actually down to remain at 5x zoom, the same as Pixel 7 Pro. It's a little disappointing really, mainly since the iPhone 15 Pro Max also jumped up to 5x, it means Google can no longer boast superiority in this department.

However, the cameras in the Pixel 8 Pro are still somewhat stratospheric: Google markets it as a device with better low-light photography, sharper selfies, and even better zoom. Take the main camera; it captured details in every shot and dynamic range of the shot taken at Bethesda Terrace in Central Park—rich in contrast and detail.

The Pixel 8 Pro's portrait mode is a great performer in its own right, although it opts to operate with a tight 1.5x zoom setting over flagship rivals like the iPhone 10 Pro Max, which allow a more versatile 1x zoom, in any case. In either case, the Pixel 8 Pro properly renders skin tones well.

Thanks to the front-facing 10.5MP camera capable of quality qualities, well-exposed selfies are effective. Details can use just a tad more focus over at the iPhone 15 Pro Max, where the TrueDepth camera is adding firepower for the sharper result.

Take, for instance, a 5x telephoto camera: shots taken with it display very good dynamic range. The telephoto zoom on the iPhone 15 Pro Max actually takes a bit clearer picture with just a bit more definition. Finally, there is a macro mode surprisingly switched on, which, when needed, provides both clarity and shrewdness.

Low-light performance is great on the Pixel 8 Pro, but still, it does not seem to cross the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23's Ultra bar, which produces brighter images with more detail. It's also thrown in an astrophotography mode for the ultrawide camera as part of its post-release updates.

AI-Assisted Camera Features

Google has crammed each and every Pixel 8 Pro with AI-powered camera features designed to be used by a professional. I've tried a lot of these tools out for this review; they really help to simplify the editing process when working with photos and video. For example, Google's Magic Editor allows a user to effectively select and move their subject in a photo around; AI seamlessly generates back around them.

Also, Best Take enables the user to pick the best possible face in one group image, taken from several shots, so that each person's best image will be seen in one group picture. This will only be possible by taking several snaps of the same scene by one user, though it could be solved if input could be taken from images already captured or by using the burst mode.

Among those outstanding features is Audio Magic Eraser, which gets rid of any form of background noise from the video. The available feature may really work alright with simple background noises, but in a complicated sound environment, this doesn't do well and increases distortion in the final video.

Video Boost, we are told, will enable RAW video recording, processing in the cloud, and more colorful grading and detail enhancement. This, once again, makes them look very promising on paper, but is quite surprising when this much reliance on cloud processing is placed on the capabilities of the Tensor G3 chip.
Another excellent new feature is Pro Controls for manual settings of items like shutter speed, ISO, and color temperature on the Pixel 8 Pro. Equally at home in a software update for the Pixel 8 would be playback and monitoring controls for when you're shooting video.

One other feature released with Pixel 8 Pro is Zoom Enhance: this software allows zooming into existing photos, leveraging AI to guess and sustain the picture quality. It does not work with live subjects but becomes a great tool for detailed shots.

Video Performance

The video recording arsenal of the Pixel 8 Pro is strong, but there is nothing groundbreaking. Well, sure, 4K recording at 60fps is quite confirmed by now to be settled as a peak resolution for video, but the lack of 8K video recording is in some way but unsurprising when we think about the Tensor G3 chip. Anyway, Pixel 8 Pro has a couple of various video modes in order for, say, Cinematic Pan, to bring stabilization of panning.

In bright conditions, the Pixel 8 Pro spits out a very detailed video with plenty of color vibrancy but much more DG on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Under lesser light, the video from the Pixel 8 Pro suffers from a bit of underexposure and is noisier than what our iPhone 15 Pro Max with Galaxy S23 Ultra is capable of capturing.

The Pixel 8 Pro can also record 4K movies in 10-bit HDR, which helps enrich details in high-contrast scenes. The quality from the phone is generally good, including just a slight underexposure tendency. However, 10-bit HDR allows better post-processing, where exposure can be adjusted without losing details.

Software and AI Integration

Because it's running on Android 14, the Pixel 8 Pro comes with several exclusive features, a lot of which are under the hood from Google's AI. Long-time users will be familiar with the interface, but there is now more AI integration going on in the background.

For instance, Google Assistant now plays deeper within the Pixel experience, with improved call screening such that the assistant sounds more human answering a call, giving contextual interaction just like a human assistant would.

Another AI-driven feature called "Fix It" works like an embedded grammar corrector, proofreading words and correcting mistakes such as "their, there, and they're." The Assistant also uses multiple languages simultaneously, typing messages in a mixture of languages without switching keyboards.

But the really handy feature is now with Summarize, people can squeeze their phone in Chrome or the Google app to get the gist of long texts and paragraphs. And the Assistant will answer you with a summation of granular, dot-pointed details.

So, these AI capabilities prove that Google did the due diligence to make sure the Pixel 8 Pro became a smarter device, and hence efficient, right out of the box. Moreover, by providing software and security updates for the next seven years, Google has set an unprecedented standard for the longevity of its products, with the Pixel 8 Pro defining a new category.

Performances

The Google Tensor G3 chip is said to be the most powerful chip Google has ever made. And that is true: it comfortably leaves last year's generation in the dust in terms of speed. For now, 'somewhat behind' remains the lot in life for the likes of Apple's A17 Pro or even Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

But that said, the Pixel 8 Pro is all smooth sailing in almost all the tasks, with seamless transitions and animations across the whole of Android 14. However, benchmark scores are just not that shiny.

In GeekBench, the Pixel 8 Pro scores 1,699 in single-core and 3,666 in multi-core tests. The Pixel 8 Pro surpasses the Galaxy S23 Ultra in terms of single-core tests, and pushes out the iPhone 15 Pro Max by a number of patches with respect to multi-core.

This translates to the overall graphics benchmarks of 3DMark at which the Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max outpaced the Pixel 8 Pro, as well. For the longest time, that software chasm could be seen in the task below: the first runs through the rendering front end of Adobe Premiere Rush. In those iterations, the Pixel 8 Pro took 71 seconds to complete the task, whereas the iPhone needed 24.5 seconds and the S series S23 just 40 seconds. Apparently, this is another status quo Google seems to have usurped, as with a new update, the Pixel 8 Pro has gone down to 46sec in the same test.

Leave aside these benchmark discrepancies, and the Pixel 8 Pro is one of the most responsive phones I've reviewed this year. Mobile games run fluidly, and performance is thoroughly decent; however, it still is lagging behind in some key areas compared to close rivals.

Another bonus is that the Pixel 8 Pro comes with Wi-Fi 7 support, making it more future-proof. Most people will skip right over that last part, but if you switch over to a Wi-Fi 7 router, this is going to help immensely with streaming and downloading large files.

Benchmark Results

Battery Life

The Pixel 7 Pro did horribly in battery life, yielding a below-average performance of a touch less than 8 hours in battery tests. The Pixel 8 Pro is a little better off, with a slightly larger 5,050 mAh, scoring a respectable 10-hour resilience but still falling behind the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra, both of which break the 13-hour mark. In regular use, the Pixel 8 Pro usually goes off two hours before going to bed, which is kind of a letdown compared to that of other flagships, some of which are still alive by the end of the day.

Charging speeds remain average, with a charging rate of 23W on wireless charging and 12W on standard Qi wireless. Now, lots of positives are drawn from those, but these are chopping and changing, majorly needed improvements. On the massively positive side, the Pixel 8 Pro does really charge rapidly, with the figures provided by Google showing 59% by 30 minutes of fast charging from a flat start.

Conclusion

The Pixel 8 Pro is perhaps one of the smartest phones I have ever touched, fitting in its plethora of functionalities powered by AI. It's said to be a device that makes basic daily tasks hassle-free: photo-editing functions with its Magic Editor and smart screening of calls with Call Screen.

The Pixel 8 Pro is, however, a significant step up from last year's Pixel 7 Pro in almost every way—though it is mostly behind in crucial departments next to its competitors, like battery life, performance, or camera quality, which, though improved, the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra continue to have ahead of the curve.

FAQs

1. How much is the Google Pixel 8 Pro in Dubai?

Best Google Pixel 8 Pro, which has 128GB storage, costs AED 3,670. The other configurations that cost more are those with higher storage options: the 256GB variant costs AED 4,040, the 512GB version costs AED 4,400, while the top version with 1TB will put you.

2. How does the camera of the Google Pixel 8 Pro compare to other flagship phones?

The Pixel 8 Pro comes with a tripod camera system that includes a 50MP main camera, an available ultrawide up to 48MP, and a telephoto at 48MP, 5x zoom. Though it is loaded with many AI assistant capabilities and renders a really good photo, it suffers just a little when comparing it to rivalry landscapes from the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra in both low light and zoom functions.

3. What are the key AI features on Pixel 8 Pro?

AI features are completed in the Pixel 8 Pro with new and improved ones in Magic Editor for editing photos; with Best Take, pickling the best facial expressions in group photos; Audio Magic Eraser, cleaning video recordings from background noise; and an array of Google Assistant features, among others, call screening and grammar correction.

4. What is the expected battery life of the Pixel 8 Pro?

On the benchmarking tests, it lasted about 10 hours, which is better than its predecessors but still lower than the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra, both of which lasted over 13 hours in similar tests.

5. Is future-proof technology supported by the Pixel 8 Pro?

So, in other words, the Pixel 8 Pro comes with Wi-Fi 7 support, which means it is better future-proofed toward faster and reliable connectivity. Of course, one would need a Wi-Fi 7-compatible router to take full advantage of the feature.