Google Pixel 8: Price, Specs, And Features Revealed

After a torrent of leaks, including images and unboxing videos, Google has officially introduced the Pixel 8. It's smaller, rocks a more refined design, serves hardware upgrades across the board, and brings some notable software-side goodies. The best part is that Google is serving all of it without a price hike. The Pixel 8 starts at $699 and is now up for pre-orders in Hazel, Rose, and Obsidian colors. Google is also offering a deal where shoppers get a free pair of Pixel Buds Pro noise-canceling earbuds.

It arrives with a slightly trimmed-down 6.2-inch OLED display with a higher 120Hz refresh rate and offers an enhanced peak brightness of 2,000 nits. Powering the phone is the new Tensor G3 processor, paired with 8GB of faster LPDDR5X RAM and up to 256GB of onboard storage without scope for expansion.

Google has equipped the Pixel 8 with a slightly larger 4,575 mAh battery that supports 30W wired fast charging and also offers the convenience of wireless charging and power share to juice up other devices. The build is IP68-certified for dust and water resistance, and there is Gorilla Glass Victus protection on both sides.

The Pixel 8 doesn't offer any dramatic bump in camera specs, but there are some meaningful tweaks to enhance the output. The primary 50-megapixel snapper now offers a larger f/1.68 aperture, which means the camera can let in more light to deliver better results. The 12-megapixel ultrawide camera gets its field of view enhanced to 125.8 degrees this time, so you can now capture a wider panorama. 

There's a 10.5-megapixel camera on the front, which also offers a wider capture field compared to the selfie shooter on the Pixel 7. Google says it has also enhanced the image processing pipeline for the Pixel 8 series and introduced a handful of new features. Among them is a new Macro Focus feature for taking close-range photos despite the phone lacking a dedicated macro or zoom camera.

Another new trick called Best Take combines multiple group photos to generate one "where everyone looks their best." The Magic Eraser feature, which lets users erase unwanted objects from the frame, gets an audio version. Thanks to Audio Magic Eraser, users will be able to weed out noise from their videos.

Thanks to enhancements made to the third-generation Tensor chip and its AI chops, Google says its new phones have gotten better at screening spam calls, while the calling system can now filter out noise more effectively. Google is also extending Face Unlock support via the front camera for payments and sign-ins, adding more flexibility to the passkeys ecosystem.

The company is bringing native generative AI abilities to the Pixel 8 line. For example, Google Assistant can now read, describe, and summarize on-screen content. The natural language capabilities of the AI assistant are also getting a boost, while assistant voice typing allows users to dictate their messages in multiple languages.

Google Assistant also gets a bunch of call assist features, such as telling users who is calling them, attending the call on their behalf with a natural conversation tone, and more. There's also an Apple-inspired Magnifier system for accessibility that lets users point their camera at an object to make the text more legible, zoom into the frame, etc.

Another area where the Pixel 8 shines is the software update cycle. Google says it will offer OS upgrades for seven years, more than any other brand. Moreover, the phone will also get feature drops and security updates for the same amount of time.

Google's Pixel 8 will be made available for pre-order starting on October 4, 2023, and has a full "on store shelves" release date of October 12. The Google Pixel 8 will be available for a starting price of approximately $699.