Google has just unveiled its new range of Pixel 8 smartphones. The numerous leaks and rumors had already revealed almost everything. This was without counting on the predominance of AI and a new update policy. A quick tour of what’s new.
It’s difficult to move on after Apple and its keynote on the new iPhone 15 which has taken center stage in the tech scene in recent days. Google therefore had to strike a big blow to praise the merits of its new range of Pixel smartphones. For several years now, Pixels have managed to stand out from the endless stream of Android smartphones hitting the shelves. They adopt, like the iPhone, an identifiable look at a glance but are above all systematically praised by critics for their excellent photographic performance. With the new Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, Google is not changing its strategy. The firm boasts that its devices are those experiencing the strongest sales growth in France (without giving figures) and intends to continue its momentum. Photo and video therefore remain the main axes on which Google relies to support its expertise, leaving the technical aspects of its devices a little more in the shadows. It must be said that the hardware developments are quite meager, most of the efforts having been focused on the software part and more particularly the image processing assisted, of course, by artificial intelligence present at almost all levels.
Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro: technical developments at a minimum
The Pixel 8 range consists – for the moment – of two models: the Pixel 8 in compact format and the Pixel 8 Pro, larger and better equipped for photography. The overall design of the devices has not undergone any revolution compared to previous models. At most we can see a little more roundness. For the Pixel 8, the Oled screen retains its 20:9 format with a size of 6.2 inches for a definition of 2400 x 1080 pixels. It offers a refresh rate of 60 to 120 Hz and a peak brightness of up to 2000 nits in the brightest conditions. On the back, the device still only has two photo lenses. Those who were waiting for the arrival of a real optical telephoto lens on this model will come back. You will have to make do with the sensors already in place on the Pixel 7, namely a 50 Mpx main module (f/1.68) and a 12 Mpx ultra wide-angle module (f/2.2 – f/2.9).
The Pixel 8 Pro, for its part, benefited from more attention. The photo component here consists of a main module of 50 Mpx (f/1.68), a new ultra wide-angle module of 48 Mpx (f/1.95) and a third module offering a 5x optical telephoto lens of 48 Mpx (f(/2.8). For the screen, the 6.7-inch Oled panel remains relevant with a definition of 2992 x 1344 pixels and an adaptive refresh rate of 1 to 120 Hz. Both pixels are animated by the new in-house SoC, Tensor G3 supported by 8 GB of RAM on the Pixel 8 and 12 GB on the Pro model. And it is above all on this new chip that Google has concentrated all its efforts to get the most out of AI processing .
Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro: AI at every level
Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly the queen of ceremony on these new Pixels. Google has sprinkled them just about everywhere. Starting of course with the field of photography and video. Last year the American giant caused a sensation with the magic eraser, a tool that allows you to automatically or not remove unwanted elements from a photo. This year, it is the appearance of Best Take mode which is likely to cause a sensation. It allows you to get perfect group photos. The trick is to capture multiple shots of the same scene. The AI analyzes each of them and recognizes the faces of the people present in all the photos. All that remains for the user to do is choose the best shot (open eyes, smile, head tilt, etc.) for each protagonist. The AI then reconstructs the photo by carrying out careful photomontage to preserve the exposure, the colors and make the necessary adjustments in order to obtain the best shot for everyone. And, from the first tests that we conducted just after the presentation of the devices, the results are quite astonishing.
For audio and video, Google is also introducing a new tool called Magic Eraser. After capturing a sequence in a noisy environment where the voice may be covered by unwanted sounds (music, barking, motors, wind, etc.), the AI analyzes the audio track and manages to identify parasitic noises. All that remains is to choose those that we want, if not to delete, at least to greatly attenuate. And again, we were amazed at the performance of this tool.
Still for video, Google will later offer – on the Pixel 8 Pro only – a mode called Video Boost. This is to improve the image quality of the sequences. But the operation is not carried out locally on the device. It is operated on Google servers, in the cloud. So you will have to wait a little while the processing takes place (and have an Internet connection to send the sequence to be processed and then retrieve it).
Likewise, the Pixel 8 Pro will be able later this year to exploit the night vision mode for video in order to apply processing to lighten the images in a surprising way without distorting the scene. Note that the Pixel 8 Pro also benefits, exclusively, from a Pro mode for photos and videos giving access to more settings.
Finally, the Google Assistant is also evolving. Its diction is more natural and it takes care of many tasks such as summarizing the content of an article on the Web, translating it if necessary, adapting on the fly to the language(s) used in the same sentence, etc. Google also introduced a spam call filtering service. The assistant takes the call for you and determines its reliability. If so, he lets you take the hand, otherwise, he hangs up without you even being disturbed. However, Google has not yet announced the availability of this service in France.
Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro: enough to see coming until 2030
Apart from the company’s progress on the use of artificial intelligence in all directions, this is probably the major announcement of this presentation: the Pixel 8 will benefit from support for Android updates and security patches for 7 years. A real leap forward for the company which, although the originator of the mobile OS, was not the best student in this field. Until now, update tracking for Google devices was limited to three years for the system and five years for security patches. A very short follow-up compared to Samsung which offers a longer term vision with four years for Android updates and five years for security updates or even Fairphone with its FairPhone 5 (five years of Android updates and 8 years of security updates). security). Xiaomi for its part has just aligned itself with Samsung but only, for the moment, for its two new models 13T and 13T Pro. Please note, Google indicates that this is support for Android updates until 2030 but also specifies a subtlety. If for some reason a new version of Android skips a year in that time frame (there’s usually one per year), the count doesn’t change. In other words, if all goes well, the Pixel 8 could run with Android 21 (at the rate of one major update per year) or less if ever during the next seven years, development slows down.
Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro: what are the prices of the new smartphones?
Google is going in the opposite direction to Apple this year. While the Apple company created a surprise by lowering its prices (in France at least), Google is increasing the bill. Thus, while the Pixel 7 in its 128 GB version sold for 649 euros when it was released in 2022, the Pixel 8 immediately sold for 150 euros more, or 799 euros for 128 GB of storage as well. Same observation for the Pixel 8 Pro which this time exceeds the symbolic bar of 1000 euros to display 1099 euros, or 200 euros more than the Pixel 7 Pro last year. At this price, the value for money praised last year is taking a hit. All that remains is to wait for the tests to find out if this fairly significant increase (23% and 22%) is really justified. In the meantime, the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro are available for pre-order. Their delivery is scheduled for October 11, 2023.