Google Pixel 8 Pro Review | Tom's Guide

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The Google Pixel 8 Pro makes all the right moves in making it a more complete, robust flagship that’s worthy of taking on the competition. Armed with a barrage of new camera features powered by Google AI, it’s the phone that can make the average pro seem like a seasoned Adobe Photoshop and Premiere editor with features like Audio Magic Eraser, Magic Editor, and Pro Controls. If that’s not enough, it’s a phone that can take phone calls for you with Google Assistant — all while providing contextual responses with a very human-sounding voice. In our Google Pixel 8 Pro review, you'll see exactly why this is the smartest phone ever and how it stacks against some of its main rivals like the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra.

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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 Let's talk about Pixel 7 Pro.
00:06 Had a great value in launch, pretty good cameras,
00:10 and design was okay, but it had some shortcomings.
00:13 For example, the battery life was kind of short,
00:15 the G2 processor was kind of lagging behind the competition,
00:19 and the display wasn't as bright as other phones.
00:22 With that in mind, this is the Google Pixel 8 Pro.
00:25 It's meant to address some of those issues
00:28 with last year's model, while also introducing
00:30 some new features, for example, a lot of Google AI stuff,
00:33 better camera here, and overall, hopefully a better phone.
00:36 I will tell you though, it is $100 more
00:39 than last year's model.
00:40 So, does it hold its value?
00:42 We'll find out, but before anything else,
00:44 I wanna talk about the display.
00:46 (upbeat music)
00:48 So the Pixel 8 Pro has a 6.7 inch display,
00:52 same size as the 7 Pro, but it's a totally different panel.
00:55 They call it a Super Actua display,
00:58 and they claim that it gets up to 2,400 nits of brightness,
01:01 which is ungodly more than the 7 Pro.
01:04 So it's one thing to say that claim,
01:06 but it's a totally different thing to see the impressions.
01:08 So I'm gonna show you exactly how it stacks up
01:10 against the 7 Pro.
01:12 Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 7 Pro, show you our website here,
01:16 and right away, I could tell the difference between the two.
01:19 The whites are stronger here with the Pixel 8 Pro,
01:23 a lot brighter, it's a night and day difference.
01:26 It got up to 1,526 nits in my testing,
01:30 which blows away the Pixel 7 Pro.
01:33 It's actually on par with the iPhone 15 Pro Max,
01:36 and a lot better too than the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
01:39 For the most part, it looks like a Pixel,
01:44 just like before you have that noticeable camera hump
01:46 on the back, not really thrilled
01:48 about that single piece of glass, but it is what it is.
01:50 There are some slight changes to its looks,
01:52 but again, like I said,
01:53 it looks similar to last year's model.
01:55 The deal with the Pixel 7 Pro's battery last year
02:03 was that it was underperforming.
02:04 It reached a little bit under eight hours in our testing.
02:07 That was well short of the 12 plus hours
02:09 that we got out of the iPhone 14 Pro Max
02:11 and the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
02:13 This time, there's a slightly larger
02:15 5,050 milliamp hour battery in the Pixel 8 Pro.
02:19 It's still technically stuck at 30 watt wire charging
02:21 and also 12 watt wireless.
02:23 Luckily, the battery life's improved here
02:25 with the Pixel 8 Pro.
02:27 It actually reached 10 hours in our testing
02:29 versus the eight hours with the Pixel 7 Pro,
02:32 so that's great, but it still trails
02:34 some of the other flagships in the space,
02:37 like the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
02:40 Google Assistant works wonders
02:43 with the new call screen feature, the Pixel 8 Pro.
02:46 It's like having an actual person
02:47 who could pick up the phone for me.
02:49 Not only does the Assistant sound human,
02:52 but Google's AI magic comes up with contextual responses
02:55 that actually make sense.
02:57 It even gave me a reply about confirming
02:59 an upcoming appointment that I had,
03:01 along with another message about being 10 minutes late
03:04 to the movies.
03:05 When the rumored features magic audio eraser
03:08 turned out to be true here with the Pixel 8 Pro,
03:11 and it's one of its exclusive features.
03:13 It lets you basically remove background noise
03:16 from your video, so it's almost like
03:18 having noise cancellation.
03:19 Okay, so I'm testing out the Pixel 8 Pro's
03:23 new magic audio eraser to hopefully remove
03:27 some of this background noise.
03:28 I'm in front of the camera because I feel like
03:30 the microphones do a better job of picking it up
03:32 versus me behind the camera, so we'll see
03:35 if it takes out any of this noise around.
03:37 While it does work in certain scenarios,
03:39 I did find that it just kind of has a tougher time,
03:42 especially when there are multiple people talking.
03:45 I need to want to focus on one person,
03:46 but if there's just background noise,
03:48 whether it's music and just you talking,
03:51 it does a pretty good job.
03:52 Magic editor is one of the new features
03:54 with the Pixel 8 Pro, and it's powered
03:55 by the Tensor G3 chip, and I find it really neat
03:59 being able to actually isolate a subject
04:01 and being able to move them around the photo,
04:03 so it looks like you have some Photoshop-like tools
04:06 at your disposal.
04:07 Best takes also another really neat feature.
04:10 If you have a bunch of people in your photos
04:11 and they're not looking at the camera,
04:13 or looking away, and you just want to get the best photo,
04:16 what happens here is that you take a bunch of photos,
04:18 and later on, you can actually mix and match
04:21 using the Tensor G3 chip to know people's faces,
04:24 so the end result is just the perfect photo.
04:28 All those new Google AI-powered camera features
04:30 are wonderful.
04:31 It's like having a Photoshop editor on your phone,
04:35 but it's in your phone.
04:37 Of course, it doesn't really matter
04:38 if the cameras are crap.
04:40 Triple camera system, largely unchanged.
04:43 You still have a five times zoom, telephoto zoom camera
04:47 that's paired with the main 50 megapixel camera,
04:49 and also the 48 megapixel ultra-wide.
04:51 Pro controls, it's another exclusive feature
04:59 on the Pixel 8 Pro, and I'm excited
05:01 because it's like having a DSLR.
05:03 It gives me new opportunities,
05:05 such as long exposure photography,
05:07 so I can do some light painting, astrophotography.
05:10 My only criticism is that it doesn't really come out
05:12 to the video side.
05:14 You're only limited to the color temperature
05:16 and the exposure compensation.
05:18 You don't get that full, rich package
05:20 like you do with photography.
05:22 The main camera is pretty good.
05:23 It rivals pretty much all the other flagships,
05:26 the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
05:28 Takes a lot of great detail.
05:30 I can punch into the shots.
05:31 There's also great dynamic range.
05:34 It seems to balance out the shadows and the highlights,
05:36 and overall, I can't complain about the results.
05:39 I also really like the five times zoom lens
05:42 in the Pixel 8 Pro.
05:43 It captures a lot of detail,
05:45 and when I compare it to the iPhone 15 Pro Max,
05:47 they both look almost identical,
05:50 but I'm gonna probably give it to the Pixel 8 Pro
05:53 because it seems to draw out a little bit more detail
05:56 in the shadows.
05:57 Macro mode is also great.
05:59 It takes a lot of detail, and the best part is
06:02 you don't have to actually go to separate mode.
06:04 You just point your camera, get close to something,
06:07 and it does it for you.
06:08 Portrait mode is really good with the Pixel 8 Pro.
06:11 It's convincing, just like as if
06:14 you're using a standard DSLR camera.
06:16 I like the amount of bokeh it applies,
06:18 and it keeps the subject extra crisp and in focus.
06:22 Looking at these selfies I took myself,
06:24 the iPhone 15 Pro Max is just a little bit sharper
06:27 with its selfie camera,
06:29 but I do like how the Pixel 8 Pro
06:32 portrays my skin tone a lot better,
06:34 and I also like how it has also better dynamic range.
06:38 And finally, low light.
06:40 The Pixel 8 Pro does a pretty good job,
06:42 but against the iPhone 15 Pro Max,
06:44 you can definitely tell that there's a big difference here.
06:47 The iPhone 15 Pro Max just does a better job
06:49 of exposing the scene
06:51 and drawing out more details in the shadows.
06:53 Testing out the stabilization with the front-facing camera.
06:58 Doesn't look like it's working at all or that great.
07:01 It's kind of shaky.
07:02 Video recording still tops out at 4K 60 frames per second.
07:06 As far as the performance go, I think it's not bad.
07:09 You get rich details, punchy colors.
07:11 However, the iPhone 15 Pro Max
07:14 still has the better dynamic range, in my opinion,
07:16 because it's able to better balance out the shadows
07:19 in the trees and leaves
07:20 in these videos of Bethesda Fountain.
07:22 All right, so I'm playing Dead Effect 2 here
07:27 on the Pixel 8 Pro.
07:29 It's very smooth.
07:30 It ran all my apps perfectly fine.
07:32 So the real world stuff, it does great.
07:34 But after running some benchmark tests,
07:36 it tells a different story.
07:38 The results weren't as good as the iPhone 15 Pro Max
07:41 or the Galaxy S23 Ultra,
07:44 but at least it's better than the Pixel 7 Pro.
07:46 So one of the strange things about the Pixel 8 Pro,
07:49 in my opinion, is the temperature sensor.
07:52 It's here in the back, right below the flash.
07:54 Now, it's kind of weird
07:55 because I'm not sure if it's really all that practical to use
07:58 because for starters, you have to be two inches away
08:01 from what you're trying to record
08:03 to actually get an accurate reading.
08:04 And here at the coffee, it's telling me it's 109 degrees,
08:07 which I assume is accurate,
08:09 but there are infrared cameras, thermal cameras,
08:12 where you could actually measure temperature
08:14 from a longer, safer distance.
08:16 You don't have to be so up close.
08:17 Although, it's still waiting on FDA clearance
08:20 so you could use the temperature sensor
08:21 to actually measure your body temperature.
08:24 And I guess in that sense, it might be useful.
08:26 So is the Pixel 8 Pro good value?
08:31 Well, first of all, you should know it's $100 more.
08:34 So the starting price is 999.
08:37 It also starts with 128 gigabytes of storage,
08:40 which is less than some of its rivals.
08:43 But despite that,
08:44 I think it's a pretty good upgrade versus the 7 Pro.
08:47 It also matches some of its main competitors
08:49 like the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
08:53 It's a lot cheaper,
08:54 almost 200 bucks cheaper than those phones.
08:57 And what I love about it most
08:58 is that they really emphasize the camera,
09:01 the new features, the AI stuff,
09:03 and it's all packaged into just
09:05 a really good performing phone.
09:07 And that's it for the Pixel 8 Pro.
09:09 What do you guys think about it?
09:10 Let me know in the comments.
09:11 If you want to learn more about anything
09:12 in Tom's video, check out our website, tomsguide.com.
09:15 I'm John V.
09:16 Don't forget to follow us on social @tomsguide,
09:19 and I'll see you in my next video.
09:20 (upbeat music)
09:23 (upbeat music)
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