Google Pixel 8Pro
Google’s 2023 flagship ushers in a new generation of AI and device support, but does that see it slip up on some basics?
The Google Pixel 8 Pro is one of the phones that most grabbed our interest in 2023. That’s because its predecessor, the Pixel 7 Pro, was one of our favourite phone releases in 2022 – an obvious contender for the best Android phone and, in that instance, the T3 Award-winning handset of the year – so surely the 8 Pro could only be even better? Well, yes and no.
While at first we thought the Pixel 8 Pro was a lot like its predecessor, it’s a fairly different handset overall. First off, it removes the curved screen of the 7 Pro for a flat one. But while we can appreciate the Pixel 8 Pro’s flat screen is more practical, it just looks less special. That’s a ‘head versus heart’ argument there, though: we know a flat screen makes more sense, it’s just that the Pixel 7 Pro looks more appealing overall.
The design does closely resemble previous Pixel models in many ways, though, which we can’t help but appreciate. Sure, the Pixel 8 Pro’s ‘camera bar’ does protrude rather a lot (more than the 7 Pro’s one did by a few millimetres) and, just as before, its sheer protrusion factor means it gets scraped easily. But the design really ensures it stands apart from the competition.
In terms of physical size and scale, the Pixel 8 Pro’s 6.7-inch screen is akin to that of the 7 Pro. But the newer handset is inevitably brighter, so that’s job done, tick in the box. And with no curves, there’s also no fall-off in contrast towards the edges, which delivers a more consistent visual experience.
The newer handset also offers a dynamic refresh-rate, supposedly varying between 1Hz through to 120Hz – although Google’s ‘Smooth display’ feature claims this “automatically raises the refresh rate from 60 to 120 Hz for some content”. Unfortunately, the Pixel 8 Pro isn’t always smooth nor successful with its adaptation, depending on the applications that are in play, which is disappointing.
Otherwise we can’t really find any issue with the displa
