The Google Pixel 8 is one of the best phones you can buy for $700.
I’m not afraid to spoil this review right at the top. If you’re looking for a new smartphone and your budget is $800 or less, the Pixel 8 is a stupendous pick-up. With a brighter and faster screen, more powerful performance, a boatload of neat AI tricks and some of the best cameras in the game, the Pixel 8 is a true force to be reckoned with.
Compared to previous Pixels, there isn’t a lot here that’s new, and it’s easy to write this phone off as a “boring” upgrade. But look at the details of it and — like the iPhone 15 from Apple — you’ll find more significant changes than you’d expect.
But the question is, does the Pixel 8 deserve a spot in your pocket? Let’s find out.
The Google Pixel 8 is an excellent Android phone for those looking to spend $800 or less, sporting good performance, solid battery life and great cameras with lots of unique AI features. As of this writing, Google is also throwing in a free pair of Pixel Buds Pro with your purchase.
What we liked about it
A comfortable size with a friendly design
Google’s Pixel phones have always looked friendly and inviting, or at least that’s the vibe they give off. With the Pixel 8, Google took that to the next level: This thing is as bubbly and cute as they come. With aggressively curved corners and a simple single-tone design on the back, this phone could appeal to just about anyone, from serious smartphone enthusiasts to those who want something basic and functional.
Of course, it’s still unapologetically Pixel, with a big camera bar mounted firmly to the back of the phone. Google uses matte aluminum for the visor on the Pixel 8, which makes it far less prone to fingerprints than the glossy visor on its more expensive sibling, the Pixel 8 Pro. Similarly, the sides of the phone are also aluminum with a matte finish. It’s very similar to the Pixel 7 from last year, which is fine by me.
What’s even nicer is the fact the Pixel 8 fits more naturally in your hand. While the 6.3-inch display of the Pixel 7 kept the device nice and compact, Google’s slightly shrunken 6.2-inch screen on the Pixel 8 means the phone is a bit narrower and shorter, making it feel like nothing to hold and use with one hand on the go. If you think phones are getting too big, you’ll dig what the Pixel 8 has going for itself.
It’s also still IP68 certified, so you don’t have to worry about taking it out in the rain or dropping it in the pool. Google touts its use of “durable” materials on its website, and while that may be true (aluminum and Gorilla Glass are pretty strong, all things considered), this is still a glass phone, and the clumsiest of us all will likely want to grab a case.
For colors, you’ve got Obsidian (aka black), Rose (aka sandy-ish pink) and Hazel (aka a shade of green you’d think is darker in person but isn’t). The latter is the one I got to review, and it looks fine. To be perfectly frank, I’m not huge on any of the Pixel 8 colors, and I kind of wish Google brought the fantastic Bay finish on the 8 Pro down to its cheaper phone. Oh well.
The screen gets some big improvements
Google didn’t mess around with the display on the Pixel 8. Yes, it’s technically smaller than the one on the Pixel 7, but the screen itself is a lot nicer to look at.
It’s still an OLED panel with a Full HD+ resolution, which gives it great color and sharpness. But the real kicker is in brightness and refresh rate, which have both been meaningfully increased. On the brightness side, you’re now getting 2,000 nits of peak brightness, up from 1,400 nits on the Pixel 7. Meanwhile, the refresh rate has been cranked up from 90Hz to 120Hz, which makes the screen feel much smoother and more responsive.
Google calls this an “Actua display” which … doesn’t mean much beyond a fancy new name. Companies like to give their screens a unique name to help them stand out (we’ve got “Super Retina XDR” on the iPhone and “Dynamic AMOLED 2X” on the Samsung Galaxy), and Google wants in on the fun. Hence, the Actua display is now a thing.
Whatever it’s called, it doesn’t matter because this screen is killer. It’s a lot easier to see in direct sunlight than ever before, and everything from your X/Twitter feed to system animations is smooth as butter. In a world where the iPhone 15 (which costs $100 more) still comes with a 60Hz panel, I’m glad to see Google up the ante.
Classic Pixel cameras with lots of AI goodies
The Pixel 8’s camera system continues Google’s reign of making some of the best cameras you can get on a phone. That’s a testament to the company’s consistency over the years: It’s rare that Google side-steps on any new features or quality improvements it makes to its cameras, and the Pixel 8 is no exception.
On the back, there’s a new 50-megapixel main lens that matches the main sensor on the Pixel 8 Pro, complete with an f/1.68 aperture. Google says it can let in 21% more light than the Pixel 7’s main camera, which is helpful in every lighting situation you find yourself in.
Day to day, I enjoyed capturing photos with the Pixel 8. They still have Google’s signature contrasty look to them with excellent color reproduction and detail, and the company’s HDR processing pipeline continues to deliver well-balanced highlights and shadows. Yes, you’ll run into the occasional over-processed photo here and there (lush landscapes and mornings on Lakes Bay looked especially processed to me), but everything else will look great.
The 12-megapixel ultrawide camera that accompanies the main sensor hasn’t been upgraded year-over-year except in one aspect: the field of view. Google went from 114% on the Pixel 7 to 125.8% on the Pixel 8, which lets you fit a lot more of a scene into a single frame. The wider angle also means that Macro Focus is now available on the Pixel 8, giving you the ability to get closer to your subjects than ever before to capture macro-style photos. This works not just when capturing photos, but when recording video as well.
Both cameras perform exceptionally well at night thanks to Google’s Night Sight and astrophotography. You get really well-detailed shots that don’t look over-processed and still retain a lot of their detail, and compared to the latest iPhones and Galaxies, it’s safe to say that Google’s nighttime photography remains some of the best you can get, especially since you can take photos like this:
Of course, the Pixel isn’t famous for having good camera hardware. That helps, obviously, but it’s the software that makes this phone stand out from the rest. And boy, does Google have some neat tricks up its sleeves for 2023.
The Pixel 8 is what happens when Google tells its camera department to “go hog wild on AI.” I’m not sure if they actually said that, but it definitely seems like it. There are three big new features powered by Google’s artificial intelligence to help make photos and videos look exactly the way you want. Here’s a rundown of each of them.
? Best Take: Best Take is designed for group pictures where multiple photos are captured and the best expressions from your friends are used in the final image. That way, if one person sneezes or looks in the opposite direction, you can choose a different expression and still get a good picture to share.
? Magic Editor: Magic Editor lets you move subjects and objects around in your photo to resize, reposition or remove them. It uses generative AI to fill in the background, which can also be tweaked using AI to look exactly the way you want.
? Audio Magic Eraser: Audio Magic Eraser is a new feature for videos that can eliminate background noise. It’s perfect if the noise you want to remove is specifically loud or complex.
As you’d expect, all three of these features work really well. Best Take is a lifesaver when you’re trying to take a nice picture of your family and friends, and I can see a lot of folks using it all the time for Instagram-quality group selfies.
Magic Editor comes in clutch when you know the edit you want to make and think you can’t make it; Google’s AI is very good at identifying subjects and separating the foreground from the background, which gives you limitless control over what your photo will look like. Because of this, it’s kind of up to you if you agree with its philosophy. You can alter practically anything you want, which can either help you get the exact photo you were trying to take or turn reality into a Photoshop-esque smorgasbord of edits. I think it’s perfect for smaller edits where you might want to move someone closer into the frame or for adding a dramatic long exposure to a shoreline or waterfall, but if you want to go wild with changes, you also have that option.
Pixel 8 Magic Editor
Out of all three of these features, however, Audio Magic Eraser might be the feature that truly becomes a hit. It’s able to suppress noise better than any noise-mitigation microphone setting I’ve ever seen, let alone anything on a smartphone. It can accurately identify the sounds you want to hear and the ones you don’t, and limit their time in the spotlight so you can hear exactly what you want. If you live in a city or your home is usually pretty loud (I can relate), you’ll love this feature.
Of course, all of Google’s other AI-powered features like Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Super Res Zoom are also here, rounding off a compelling list of camera features unique to the Pixel. It’s worth mentioning that you won’t find all of Google’s camera chops on the Pixel 8; instead, they live on the Pixel 8 Pro, which gets a bunch of professional shooting modes and other features that have yet to ship. Serious photographers might want to consider the 8 Pro for their photo-capturing needs, but the Pixel 8 is still plenty capable of capturing just about any type of photo you want, which can’t be said for a lot of phones in its price range.
Still the smartest Android experience, now with seven years of support
It’s no secret that the Pixel’s software experience is one of the best on the market. I’ve been a massive fan of its clean and simplistic approach since its inception back in 2016, and with Android 14 on the Pixel 8, it gets even better with new AI-powered features that make it even smarter than before.
For the first time in a while, the Google Assistant is getting some meaningful improvements, such as the ability to summarize web pages in Chrome using generative AI (the same type of AI that ChatGPT uses). Visit a website, long-press the power button to bring up the Assistant, and tap the “Summarize” button to get a brief rundown of what the page describes. It doesn’t always summarize the content properly, however, and there were a few sites where the feature refused to work altogether. But when it does work, it’s pretty cool, especially if you’re just looking for some quick information on the go.
The Assistant can now also read web pages aloud, and even translate them into Spanish or Hindi in real-time. It’s not the most natural-sounding transcription of all time, but it works well nonetheless. Google also added the ability to use the Assistant for voice typing using different languages, emojis, edit requests and more, all concurrently. This is a pretty hard thing to pull off on a smartphone, but Google managed to nail it on the Pixel 8; voice typing has never been this good.
Call Screen, Google’s unique feature that uses the Assistant to answer unknown phone calls on your behalf, also gets an upgrade with the ability to detect and filter more spam calls. (You can even choose to have every call from numbers not in your contacts to be screened.) Google is also relying on its conversational AI models so the Assistant can have a natural conversation with the person on the other line. I tried it with a few calls and it worked really well; I was given contextual options on the screen to use as responses to the other person, and I never had to actually speak to anyone.
You also get all the normal Android 14 stuff like improved customization options, better security settings and improved support for larger screens. I love Google’s new AI Wallpaper generator, which gives you a set of pre-programmed prompts for generating a new wallpaper of your choosing. Google’s At a Glance widget on the lock has been upgraded with live updates for trains (handy for anyone who likes to travel via locomotives), and there are lots of new options for tweaking the lock screen to your liking.
This is on top of all the pre-existing Pixel features like Now Playing, Direct My Call, Clear Calling, the AI-powered Recorder app and a minimal Android interface that’s clean and clutter-free.
But here’s the best part of it all: Google is promising seven years of software updates for the Pixel 8 family. That includes major OS upgrades, security updates and Feature Drops. This is unheard of in the smartphone industry, with most manufacturers promising two to five years of updates for their high-end phones. Apple isn’t even this good; the longest they’ve ever supported an iPhone with new versions of iOS is six years, so it looks like Google may have them beat.
Google’s Tensor G3 is a speedy little chip
The Tensor G3 is Google’s latest in-house processor for Pixel devices, which the company touts as one of the best processors for handling AI and machine learning tasks. That’s certainly true; with the amount of AI and machine learning features on the Pixel 8, you need a chipset that can handle it all, and the Tensor G3 is that chipset and more.
You don’t notice how quickly all of Google’s smart features work because they just work. The G3 does a tremendous job at handling all of the advanced processing each feature like Magic Editor, Call Screen and the Google Assistant need to function properly. There are no stutters or unexpected issues — it all just works.
Day-to-day performance is also terrific. Using the Pixel 8 feels like using any other modern-day flagship Android phone, with ultra-fast responsiveness and the ability to multitask with ease. Games run smoothly, apps are quick to load and the entire system feels fast and fluid.
I ran Geekbench 6 on the device to see how it stacked up against Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (found in devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 5) and Apple’s A17 Pro (found in the iPhone 15 Pro), and while it doesn’t meet either of these devices in terms of numbers, it feels just as speedy in real-life.
The Tensor G3 is paired with 8GB of RAM, which I find to be adequate for most Android phones. Some devices like the Pixel 8 Pro or Galaxy S23 Ultra come with even more RAM, but most folks will be happy with what Google provides here.
Battery life is surprisingly solid
Battery life on the Pixel 8 has actually been quite good. It’s not the best you can get from a flagship smartphone, but compared to the Pixel 7, it’s served me well.
The device can last a full 16-hour day filled with doomscrolling social media, checking email, taking photos, streaming Spotify and firing up the occasional round of Sudoku. In our battery test where we loop a 4K video at 50% brightness with airplane mode on, the phone lasted over 16.5 hours, which was quite good.
Of course, when you do need to charge back up, Google includes 27W wired charging over USB-C and Qi wireless charging at 18W, so long as you buy the company’s second-generation Pixel Stand (otherwise you’ll be stuck with 12W wireless charging). It’s worth mentioning that while these aren’t the fastest charging speeds available, they beat out what Apple’s doing with the iPhone 15 line, which is somehow still stuck on 20W charging.
What we didn’t like about it
The main camera has some focus issues at night
I noticed during my testing that the Pixel 8 struggled to lock in focus at night on inanimate objects. For example, I took a can of Kona Big Wave outside and held it up against the night sky, and the main camera struggled to focus on it. It didn’t seem to have a problem finding people once I tapped on their faces, but trying to tap on random objects at night led to the camera failing to focus entirely.
In broad daylight, I never experienced an instance where the cameras wouldn’t focus properly, and the ultrawide lens didn’t seem to have the same problem. I’m not sure if this is an inherent problem with my review unit or the Pixel 8 itself, but I’ll be reaching out to Google to figure it out.
Video quality could use an upgrade
The video quality on the Pixel 8 isn’t bad, necessarily. It’s perfectly fine for casually recording a video for social media, and it can go up to 4K at 60 frames per second which is nice. But it’s still a few steps behind the iPhone in terms of overall quality. There’s still a weird choppiness in the footage I’ve shot, with strange pixelated artifacts around edges and a jagged transition when switching between lenses.
These are all complaints I’ve had about Pixel phones for years, and now that we’re on the eighth generation, I think it’s time Google starts to think of new ways to make it better and compete on the same playing field as Apple.
It still gets too warm
Like the Pixel 7, the Pixel 8 tends to run pretty warm most of the time. It’s mostly an issue with Google’s Tensor processors, which usually run at a hotter temperature than chips made by Qualcomm or Apple.
Google told me in an email that it worked on reducing how hot the Pixel 8 series gets during key times like setting the device up and in the middle of video calls. That’s nice and all, but it still gets warm at odd times, like when you’re just scrolling social media and listening to music over Bluetooth.
This issue could be improved over time with software updates, and I’ll be paying close attention to it. But for right now, if you buy a Pixel 8, be prepared for it to run a little warmer than you might expect.
Bottom line
The Pixel 8 is another solid entry in Google’s eight-year run of Pixel phones, and at $700, it’s a terrific option if all you need is a dependable, well-rounded smartphone (with some neat AI smarts in tow).
If you’re looking to upgrade to a Pixel 8, anyone with a Pixel 6 or newer might have a hard time justifying the jump since there isn’t a lot that’ll be different. Similarly, if you own a flagship Android phone or an iPhone from the past couple of years, you’ll be fine waiting out another year or so.
But for everyone else, the Pixel 8 is a great device to jump to. With a vibrant screen, great cameras, long battery life and excellent software (with seven whole years of updates), this is one of the best smartphones you can buy — period.
