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00:0036.4. Now let's test it on the Pixel 8 Pro's thermometer. Excuse me. 36.3! Hey, look at
00:13that! Pretty damn close! As you can tell, I'm actually not feeling 100%. I've had the
00:18worst cold this week, which has been really frustrating during Techtober, but I'm here
00:22because I want to talk about the Pixel 8 Pro and share with you my full review and hopefully
00:27answer the question of whether you should actually buy this. And while it is certainly
00:30the best Pixel they've ever made, obviously, and actually a solid step up even over last
00:35year's 7 Pro, I do still have a couple of issues with this. Some of the most exciting
00:39features just aren't available yet, and this is also the most expensive Pixel they've ever
00:43made. The 8 Pro will set you back a cool £999. That's the same in dollars, which represents
00:49a $100 or £150 price increase versus last year's 7 Pro, so it's pretty expensive, and
00:55that is also for the bog-standard 128GB model. Although, it is only £60 to then double it
01:00to £256, which I would definitely recommend. Or if you can pick up a Pixel 8 Pro with one
01:04of Google's deals where you get a free Pixel Watch 2, which is worth £350, that's a pretty
01:08good deal. Look at that. It is a bit tasty, isn't it? This is the new Bay Blue colour.
01:13Now, fortunately, I actually have all three new colours of the 8 Pro. We've got the Porcelain,
01:19aka Off-White, we've got the Obsidian Black, and also this very tasty new Bay Blue, which
01:24I think is one of the best-looking phones I've seen in a long time. Why do I have three
01:27Pixel 8 Pros? Well, I actually have a fourth one over there, and that's because this is
01:31a review sample sent by Google, and I actually bought these two plus the third one to give
01:36to my dad, my brother, and my wife, who all absolutely love Pixels, as do I. And I suppose
01:41if buying the phones for your friends and family is not, like, the highest recommendation,
01:45the highest score you could give a phone, then I'm not sure what is. Obviously, that
01:49says something about how much I like these guys. The headline upgrades include a much
01:52brighter screen. We have this slightly refreshed design, including a matte rather than glossy
01:57back, and also a flat rather than curved screen. Google have also added a temperature sensor
02:01on the back, for some reason. We also get their faster and more efficient Tensor G3
02:06chip, new camera sensors with wider apertures, pro camera options, ultra-HDR photos, which
02:11make bright areas look much more vibrant on the Pixel's HDR screen. The selfie camera
02:16now supports autofocus, and of course, a whole bunch more of Google's AI magic, with Best
02:20Take, Audio Eraser, the Magic Editor, AI-generated wallpapers, improved call screening. We also
02:26now have Wi-Fi 7, we get tougher Gorilla Glass Victus 2, the face unlocking has been upgraded
02:30so it's more secure, which means you can now log in to your banking apps and autofill
02:34passwords with your face, as previously you'd have to use your fingerprint. We also have
02:38slightly faster charging, and of course it ships with Android 14, and Google promise
02:42a whopping 7 years of Android updates, which is great to see.
02:46So there's quite a lot new here with the 8 Pro, but let's kick off talking about
02:49this design. Google have dropped this waterfall screen in favour of a flat screen, which funnily
02:54enough is what the cheaper non-Pro models would have, and if I bring in the regular
02:58Pixel 8, you can see in terms of design there isn't really that much in it now, just the
03:02size difference, 6.2 vs 6.7 inches, although the 8 Pro has a matte glass back and also
03:07a glossy frame, and it's the other way around on the 8, also a temperature sensor here,
03:11the extra telephoto lens of course, slightly thinner bezels, and a couple of different
03:15colour options. And I really do like this new design, it feels more comfortable, it's
03:19easier to pick up, and I much prefer this matte rather than glossy back. You can also
03:23see we've got much more rounded corners, so it just feels a little bit smaller in the
03:28hand overall. The only downside is it's actually a millimetre thicker this year, although while
03:33I do appreciate that this doesn't pick up any smudges or fingerprints, this metallic
03:38frame around the camera module does seem to scratch and scuff quite easily. I've only
03:42had this for a week, it might be kind of hard for the camera to pick it up, but I've already
03:45got a couple of little micro scratches on the bottom here. However, we do still get
03:51IP68 water and dust resistance, so it will survive a dunk in fresh water. And it's good
03:56to see in JerryRigEverything's evaluation that it's pretty durable as well. Google's
04:00also changed the screen's aspect ratio, although just a little bit, we've gone from 19.5x9
04:05to 20x9, so it's a tiny bit taller, but you'd be hard pressed to notice. You'd also be forgiven
04:11for not seeing this guy, the new temperature sensor underneath the flash, this contactless
04:16thermometer, and I don't really know why it's there. Maybe seeing how hot a pan is, or baby's
04:22milk? And it could be a basic indicator if you're getting sick I guess, although Google
04:26says it's not really designed for that. I have found it kind of useful to just check
04:29the ambient temperature of a room, let's see how consistent that is. 19.7, 19.9, 19.4,
04:36there's like half a degree variation there, but it can perhaps answer the age old question
04:42of, is it just me, or is it hot in here? Other than that, I'm not quite sure why you'd need
04:48this. If you've got any good suggestions, let me know in the comments. What is more
04:51exciting though is this screen, and boy does it get bright. Now both the 8 and the 8 Pro
04:55offer similarly high brightnesses, and that's thanks to their new Actua and Super Actua
05:00screens as Google call it, and across the board, whether it's typical use indoors, HDR,
05:05and even outdoor use, the new pixels are significantly brighter. But to save some battery,
05:10the 8 Pro's refresh rate now goes between 1 and 120Hz versus 10 and 120 last year. Now
05:15I mentioned they slightly tweaked the aspect ratio, but they've also slightly tweaked the
05:19resolution, it's actually a little bit lower this year. The high res option, the default
05:23one, the 8 Pro gives us 367 pixels per inch versus 384 last year. You'd be hard pressed
05:29to notice, but it is ever so slightly lower res. I also kind of wish they'd added like
05:33a dynamic resolution option so it would switch between the full resolution, which honestly
05:37I'm never going to switch to because with pixels, including the 8 Pro, I want to get
05:41every little bit of drop of battery I possibly can from this, so I'll save that battery.
05:45It also makes it the lowest resolution among the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the iPhone 15 Pro Max,
05:50and these other two also benefit from Dolby Vision HDR support, which sadly we don't get
05:54on the Pixel. The viewing angles don't appear to be quite as good. You can see the new 8
06:01Pro here has a much more sort of green tint to the screen rather than the more natural
06:06white on the 7 Pro. Yeah, I think the viewing angles are actually a tiny bit of a step down
06:12this year, which is strange. So there is still some room for improvement, viewing angles,
06:17maybe a dynamic resolution option, Dolby Vision, but I do much prefer this flat rather than
06:21curved screen and the higher brightness definitely makes a difference. Now on the inside, both
06:26the 8 and the 8 Pro sport the new Tensor G3 chip. Now this is Google's own custom processor
06:31based around Samsung's Exynos architecture, which has historically been a bit rubbish.
06:36Good in the fact that it allows Google to sort of tweak and optimise the chips to allow
06:40for some of these sort of AI magic feature things, the software extras, and also it allows
06:45them to offer longer support for the phone. And also because it's stock Android 14 in
06:49this case, it is still incredibly fast to use. The downside is they've never been particularly
06:53efficient, they've overheated, and the performance, particularly for gaming, has always been
06:58a bit meh. So does the G3, their third generation Tensor chip, which is now built on a more
07:03efficient 4 rather than 5 nanometre design, resolve any of these issues? Well, yes, a
07:10bit. In Geekbench 6, single core scores are 19% higher, multi-core is 13% higher, although
07:15in AnTuTu, which is a broader test of the processor and the graphics, we're looking
07:19at a 25% uptick. And in War Thunder, with maxed out settings, although without ray tracing
07:24because the Pixel doesn't seem to offer this yet, although the Samsung and the iPhone do,
07:29the 7 Pro is averaging around sort of 82 FPS, with the 8 Pro giving us about 105. So a decent
07:34little step up in gaming performance, but it still can't quite match its flagship competition.
07:39Another problem we've had with past Pixels, including last year's 7 Pro, is overheating,
07:44and also some pretty average battery life. Now I do have good news. On average, the 8
07:48Pro is 2 degrees Celsius cooler than the 7 Pro. Not a huge difference, but I'll take
07:53it. And only once so far did the 8 Pro tell me it couldn't keep shooting 4K 60 video
07:58because the device was getting too hot. And that was after some pretty extensive use.
08:01So overheating issues are still present, but less than before. The biggest pain point for
08:06me though has been battery life. And after having used the 7 Pro and the 8 Pro as similarly
08:12as possible for a full day, by 11pm at night, I had 22% of my battery left on this guy versus
08:1827% on the 8 Pro. Still not class leading, but it is better. And I think if you're coming from
08:23a Pixel 6 or 5, then you will definitely appreciate the extra battery you get with this.
08:28Even though I think with a 5050 mAh battery, with the performance that we get from the G3
08:34and the improved efficiency, I still think it should last longer than this. And it might do,
08:38because as you guys know with Pixels particularly, the battery can improve over time as the software
08:44learns your patterns and gets used to you essentially. So this may go up a little bit
08:48over the next few weeks and months and I will revisit this in a longer term review.
08:51But yes, the battery life is a little bit better. As is the charging. They've also
08:56sped up the wired charging from 23 to 30 watts and wireless charging is now boosted to 23 watts,
09:02although only if you use Google's own new stand. Otherwise, with standard Qi chargers,
09:07it tops out at 12 watts. And sadly, this doesn't support the new Qi 2 standard.
09:12For me, there's always four things that make a Pixel phone stand out. There's the software,
09:16the fact that you have stock Android, which feels nice and fast, and it's the quickest to get
09:19updates. We also have great cameras, one of the best on the market. And also, historically,
09:25they've been really good value. I'm not quite sure if that still remains with the price increase on
09:30these guys. But number four are the extras, those Google magic AI features. Features that make you
09:35say, well, I can't switch to a Samsung or an iPhone or whatever because, well, I'll be missing
09:40out on this. And that's where these guys really stand out. And they've improved a lot of these AI
09:45features on the 8 series, like call screening, which can answer calls for you and give you a
09:49live transcript of the call on the screen so you can decide whether to answer it or send a message
09:53or just hang up. And I love this. I also really like this feature, which will read aloud whatever
09:58website you have up. So it's kind of like turning a written article into an audio book. It can come
10:03across a little robotic, but I still think it's kind of neat. You just have to create on a holodeck
10:07a grand universe to explore. A brand new feature is this AI-generated wallpaper, which, well, does
10:13exactly what it says on the tin, really. Enter a prompt, wait about 30 seconds and create your very
10:17own slightly trippy wallpapers. And as someone who always struggles to find a good new wallpaper,
10:22I found myself using this a lot. Okay, let's do a live test using the Google Assistant to do voice
10:30to text or dictation, if you will. We've got the 7 Pro, you've got the 8 Pro, and this is me just
10:36talking behind the camera, just waffling on, telling you to like and subscribe and click that
10:41notification bell and all those horrible YouTuber cliches and things like that. Although I can see
10:46the 8 Pro is adding more grammar and is sort of correcting itself as it goes a bit better.
10:52So yeah, seems to be a little bit smarter this year. Then, of course, we have all the camera AI
10:58features, and Magic Eraser and Unblur make a return. And exclusively on the 8 Pro, we now get
11:03Enhanced Magic Eraser, which uses the new on-device AI, and it seems to be a bit better at removing
11:08larger objects from your photos. But it's the convenience of just tapping it on a photo and
11:13doing a quick touch-up with Magic Eraser, using Unblur because, well, why not? And usually it
11:18comes out looking a little bit more detailed. Yes, you can do a lot of this stuff in Lightroom
11:21or Photoshop, but that's several extra steps, and this is much faster and free.
11:27Another new feature is called Audio Eraser. Now, we've got this lovely trumpeter in the
11:31background here, which is very nice, but I don't want it in my video call or my little vlog, so if
11:37I turn on Audio Eraser, hopefully it's cut out some of that background noise. It'll actually
11:43identify what's in the video, like background noise, pets, sirens, I imagine, then you can sort of
11:48isolate and reduce those background sounds. So it's a bit like Magic Eraser for your photos, but
11:53well, for your sound, which is why it's called Audio Eraser. And you simply shoot your video and
11:57then tap Edit afterwards, and you can reduce that background noise. The 8 Pro also gives us this new
12:02Magic Editor option. Google announced this a few months ago, and right now, at least, it is exclusive
12:06to the 8 Pro and also does require your photo to have been uploaded to Google Photos. But this
12:11generative AI tool, much like the latest versions of Photoshop, lets you move and resize subjects
12:17in your photos. Then we have Best Take. This is also a new feature for the Pixel 8s, and if I
12:22edit my photo, I then go into Tools, you'll see this Best Take option. If I tap that,
12:30give it a second, it'll find all the faces in the photo, hopefully all the faces.
12:35There we go. Five people, five faces. And so if I click on, let's say, Dan's face right here, with
12:42this particular shot, I've got five different options for, well, face swapping Dan, essentially.
12:49Sorry, Dan. And the results range from pretty good to hilarious to a little bit creepy. The caveat
12:55is you do need to upload to Google Photos and have an internet connection, and my experience
13:00has been a little bit hit or miss. The problem is it requires you, or the person you've handed
13:04your phone to, to take several photos in quick succession, so then the Best Take AI has different
13:10options to present to you. But it can also get a bit weird or just miss out faces completely,
13:15and there's also something fundamentally creepy about your faces being swapped. And essentially,
13:20you're creating a new composite photo using real images that were captured, but in different photos
13:25a few seconds before or after. Now, I know a lot of people are freaking out about this and thinking,
13:29well, it's taking photos too far. What is a photo? And I think, like, half of The Verge's
13:34review of this was, like, talking about Best Take and the AI and what is a photo. It doesn't really
13:39matter. It doesn't bother me, at least. You don't have to use it. And I think we have this kind of
13:43continuum of photo editing. At one end, you've got, like, Unblur to make your photo a little
13:48bit sharper. Then maybe moving up, you sort of add filters and change the colours of photos.
13:52Then you have, perhaps, Magic Eraser so you can cut out people in the background or tweak your
13:56shots to make them look a bit more presentable. And then maybe at the other end of the continuum,
14:00you've got Best Take, where you're literally swapping faces, and also the Magic Editor,
14:05where you're moving subjects around the photo. And you don't have to use those things. But I
14:08appreciate that I have the option. I have these tools in my camera arsenal, if you will. And I
14:13think if it allows me to save one great photo that otherwise, perhaps, I wouldn't want to have
14:17shared because someone didn't like the way they looked, then why not? But it's also worth
14:22mentioning these AI features do genuinely get better and smarter over time. And also, we have
14:26seen some of these features go back to earlier Pixels just via the Google Photos app. So it's
14:31hard to say how many of these will always be exclusive 8-series features. Now, all that stuff
14:36comes after you've taken the photo or the video. It's, you know, editing in post. But what about
14:40the actual camera quality? How good is this at taking photos and videos? Well, it's the same
14:47setup as last year, three lenses with an ultra wide that doubles as a macro, the main lens and
14:51a five times telephoto, which you can pinch in up to a 30 times zoom. But this year, we get bigger
14:56sensors and wider apertures, which means it can capture more light. And it should give us clearer,
15:01less noisy photos. Also new this year are a range of pro camera options. So you can tinker and tweak
15:07your shots, including your full resolution raw photos. And I think Google's incorporated it well
15:11into the camera app. It's hidden away behind this cogwheel if you don't want to get overwhelmed,
15:15but it's there if you know what you're doing. Now to my eye, the camera does offer some minor
15:20improvements. The colors seem to be a touch warmer, I think skin tones look a bit more natural.
15:24There's also a bit more detail and less noise. Although often you have to sort of punch right
15:29in and squint to really see the difference. And it does seem to handle dynamic range a little bit
15:32better overall, particularly with brighter highlights. And in low light, while some shots
15:37you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference, which is kind of surprising given the bigger
15:41sensors and the wider apertures. Others, the 8 Pro is noticeably brighter, particularly this
15:46Astro mode photo with its four minute long multiple exposure. Although I don't know if I
15:50prefer the new one. But overall, it is a step up. And while perhaps not a significant one,
15:55the Pixel 8 Pro continues to be one of, if not the best cameras for pure photography.
16:01Up front, the selfie camera now supports autofocus, which is particularly useful for video.
16:06And quality is definitely sharper, although not necessarily in a good way. It almost looks like
16:11Google's just dragged the sharpener slider up on Photoshop. Now video is still pretty solid,
16:17if not perhaps the strongest area of the Pixel's camera, I'd say. But it does well,
16:20even if it can come across a little bit sort of over sharpened, a touch washed out.
16:24So I'm shooting this at 4K on the Pixel 8 Pro. As I'm just walking down looking at the screen,
16:30it's pretty remarkable how stable the video is. I think it's using a combination of OIS and EIS.
16:40Although it does do a surprisingly good job in low light. And that's without Google's upcoming
16:44and much hyped video boost mode, which they claim will make the 8 Pro the best phone for
16:49low light video. We'll see about that. And then we do also have blur video,
16:53which is like Samsung's portrait video or Apple's cinematic mode on iPhone.
16:58And it just gives you that sort of blurry bokeh behind you. Although I am shooting this on the
17:03back of the phone with the main camera, so I actually can't see what it looks like. Hopefully
17:06you get a bit of an idea of how well it's dealing with the sort of edge detection around me,
17:10the video quality. So I've only had about a week with this so far. I do want to spend more time
17:15with the Pixel 8 Pro and its camera over the coming months. Google say more updates are coming,
17:19including these new features later in the year. But on the whole, my experience has been very good.
17:23And this is one of the best cameras you can get. It's a nice refinement over the 7 Pro.
17:28Photos look a bit more natural. The Pro options are nice to have, as are all those magic tools
17:32you have to enhance and improve your photos in post. Although one limitation I've come across
17:37is why if portraits can only be taken with the main lens or then with a two or three times crop,
17:42the five times lens isn't an option for portraits. So should you buy a Pixel 8 Pro? Well, my answer
17:47is yes. I absolutely love these phones. I think there's always room for improvement. Battery is
17:52still a little bit meddling. Gaming performance still isn't up there with the competition.
17:55And we're soon to see new chips as well, which will be even more powerful. So if you're a big
17:59gamer or if you want the absolute best battery life, probably look elsewhere. But I love the
18:04software. That stock Android experience is super duper fast. It is more expensive this year,
18:09but considering it offers comparable size cameras and features to, say, an iPhone 15 Pro Max or a
18:14Galaxy S23 Ultra, even if the battery life and gaming performance perhaps isn't quite at the
18:19same level, the price isn't actually too bad, especially if you can bag yourself a free watch.
18:25However, you do also have to consider the regular Pixel 8, which is £300 cheaper. This is £699.
18:31This is £999. The main differences, of course, are the smaller screen size. This is 6.2 inches
18:35versus 6.7. Same Tensor G3 chip, although 8 gigs of RAM rather than 12. The main differences are
18:41the camera. We lose the telephoto lens. We lose that temperature sensor as well, but I'm sure
18:45we'll survive. And also slightly smaller sensors with narrow apertures. So the camera quality is a
18:49bit of a step down. But overall, if you do prefer a smaller phone, it's got similar battery life,
18:55the same lovely bright screen, but just in a more compact form factor, for £300 less, I reckon the
19:01Pixel 8 actually may be the better option. Which is awkward because I've just spent all my time
19:06talking about the Pixel 8 Pro. But what do you reckon? Would you be tempted to buy one of these?
19:09Have you already got one? Let me know what you make of the new Pixel 8s in the comments below.
19:13Thank you so much for watching, guys. If you've got any questions at all, let me know in the
19:15comments below. And if you enjoyed the video, a like and subscribe would be lovely. And I'll
19:19see you next time right here on The Tech Chat.