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The Google Pixel 8 is here, and it’s likely Google’s most distinct non-Pro model yet. It’s significantly smaller and lighter than its predecessor, giving it a different touch and feel than theGoogle Pixel 8 Pro. It also misses some key features compared to its bigger sibling, giving the $300 price gap between the two a lot more meaning than in previous generations.
It’s clear that Google has learned a lot from the last two generations of its now-iconic new hardware design and its own chipsets, and the Pixel 8 is the culmination of all the things Google stands for: It’s a software-first handset that can set itself apart from the competition with some incredible features, and it’s the one to get if you’re looking for a new flagship Pixel phone without breaking the bank.
At the same time, there are some downright weird differences between the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. Along with making the Pixel 8 smaller and more distinct looking, the company also added arbitrary camera software differences between the two phones, and it rubs me the wrong way. The Pixel 8 is still one of thebest phones of the year, but in this review, I want to dissect both what the Pixel 8 adds to the Pixel lineup, and also what it misses compared to its bigger brother.
Google Pixel 8
The Google Pixel 8 is Google’s best phone yet, and it’s the most distinct regular model when compared to the Pro version. It comes with a wonderful form factor that fits well in the hands and has the usual software prowess that you expect from a Pixel.
UPDATE: 2025-08-01 08:50 EST BY DOMINIC PRESTON
One year later
We’ve updated our Pixel 8 review with our latest long-term video review, and updated buying advice based on the latest launches from rival manufacturers.
Specifications
Availability, price & network
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: The Google Pixel 8 is $100 more expensive than its predecessor and costs $700 in its base 128GB configuration. The same increase also applies for the Pixel 8 Pro, bringing the whole lineup up in price, which makes sense when you consider inflation. Google isn’t just making the phone more expensive, though. With its unmatched seven years of software support and its long battery life, it may just last you much longer than its predecessors, which almost offers remedy for the higher price tag. More on this later.
As with previous generations, the Pixel 8 is available at virtually all major retailers and carriers, including the Google Store itself. Internationally, both the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro are expanding to more countries than their predecessors. Other than the US and Canada, the phones are officially available in many Western European countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, UK) as well as Australia, India, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan.
The Pixel 8 works on all relevant networks in the US and internationally, though if you’re a Verizon customer, you’ll have to pay $100 extra to get a version with the appropriate mmWave antennas.
If you’ve seen theGoogle Pixel 7before, you can describe the Pixel 8’s new design in a single sentence: it’s a smaller, more refined Pixel 7 with more rounded corners and slightly bigger cameras. It retains the signature Pixel look the company introduced with the Pixel 6. The visor-style camera bar stretching across the top of the phone’s back is still the defining design feature of the series, with the raised section smoothly transitioning into the rim of the phone. Like the Pixel 7, all of it is made of brushed aluminum, contrasting with the glossy glass at the front and back. This also means that the top and bottom of the camera array is still prone to catching all the dust and lint from your pockets, an unfortunate side effect of the design since the Pixel 6.
The Pixel 8 next to its predecessor, the Pixel 7
Holding the Pixel 8 in your hands, you will immediately appreciate how small it is and how nice the rounded corners feel in the hand. It’s just a few millimeters shorter and narrower than the Pixel 7 and a few grams lighter, but it makes all the difference. TheSamsung Galaxy S24is still clearly a smaller phone than the Pixel 8, but it’s circling in on thesemodern small phones. The new size also helps distinguish the Pixel 8 more from the Pixel 8 Pro, which is now clearly the iPhone 15 Pro Max of the Google lineup when it comes to size. In fact, the Pixel 8 and the regular iPhone 15 are very comparable in their dimensions, with the Pixel having a slight edge thanks to its more ergonomic shape.
Samsung Galaxy S24 review: Small but super
Bright screen, flat sides, can’t lose
There is one design inspiration I wish the Pixel 8 took from its bigger sibling: a frosted glass back. The Pixel 8 Pro switches to an iPhone 15-like smooth back that does a great job of hiding fingerprints, and it’s a shame that the material is exclusive to the bigger and more expensive model.
In everyday use, I appreciate the small size of the Pixel 8 even more. Without a case, it’s a lot less noticeable in my pocket, and thanks to the better grip it provides, I’m a lot less afraid of dropping and shattering it than the Pixel 7. That said, you probably want toput it in a good case, be it for design reasons or only to protect your investment. Just don’t drop money on Google’s first party case if you don’t like soft-touch silicone — it collects dust and lint like a magnet and is rather hard to clean, even if it’s those same qualities makes it very grippy.
The Pixel 8 switches up the color selection significantly. It only retains the Obsidian black color from the last generation and instead introduces new Rose and Hazel options. The good old green and white (Lemongrass and Snow, if you will) are missing altogether. With the smaller iPhone 15 also losing its white option, it looks like this color is currently not in fashion
The Google Pixel 8 next to the much bigger Pixel 8 Pro
If you were lucky with your color selection on other Google purchases over the past year, this phone generation allows you to match colors across Pixel products now. you may get the Pixel Tablet, the Pixel 8, and the Pixel Watch 2 (or 1) in Hazel, the one color they all share.
Moving on to the front of the Pixel 8, you’re presented with a 6.2-inch 1080 x 2400 OLED with a 20:9 aspect ratio. Google calls it an Actua display, a term that Google coined and that is supposed to mean that the display gets particularly bright. The numbers speak for themselves: The Pixel 8 can reach up to 1,400 nits in HDR and 2,000 nits in peak brightness, making it among the brightest in the industry. It supports a variable refresh rate between 60Hz and 120Hz.
While the display is smaller than the Pixel 7’s 6.3-inch screen, the increased brightness and the higher refresh rate make more than up for that. The Pixel 8’s screen is beautiful to look at, with rich colors, stable viewing angles, and good visibility even in sunlight. The display also seems to be laminated closer to its Gorilla Glass Victus cover, suggesting that it’s a flexible OLED that takes up less internal space. The screen basically feels like it protrudes from the phone itself, an illusion reinforced by the curved glass surrounding it.
The bezels around the screen have gotten a tiny bit smaller, allowing the big screen to sit in a smaller body than possible in a downsized Pixel 7 body. The bezel to shrink the most is certainly the bottom bezel, though unlike the Pixel 8 Pro, the Pixel 8’s bottom bezel is still a little thicker than the others. It’s not as obvious on the Pixel 8 as on the Pixel 7 or other similar phones, but it bugs me that this is what Google stopped short of.
Another point of contention for those upgrading from an older Pixel might be the extremely rounded corners that may help with grip, but that also affect the display itself. It’s one of the roundest screens I’ve ever seen on an Android phone, giving it an iPhone-like look at the very first glance. It doesn’t negatively affect interface elements in any app I’ve used and I don’t mind it, but you should certainly be aware of it.
Tensor G3 performance and heat
At the centerpiece of the Pixel 8 you will find the Tensor G3 SoC, Google’s third-generation self-made chipset. During the announcement, Google was surprisingly shy about the exact internals. The first Tensor chip and the Tensor G2 are known for their tendency to run hot and overheat, especially on the super-thin Google Pixel Fold. Inan interview with Michael Fisher, Google’s Rick Osterloh wouldn’t even acknowledge the heating issues directly saying that “all SoCs will get hot if you use it a lot” though he followed up with, “we’re really focused in this area, though, and we think we have big improvements in G3 with this.”
With this promising statement in mind, the Pixel 8 does get plenty warm when using it for extended periods of time. This is particularly true for more intensive tasks like taking high resolution images, using AI to magically edit photos (more on that later), and even when browsing the web and multitasking while on a poor mobile connection. At the same time, I never got the dreaded warning that flash can’t be used on the camera due to the heat, which is something I sawa loton the Pixel Fold and sometimes on the Pixel 7 Pro. To be fair, I’ve used both these phones in warmer weather than the Pixel 8 in the summer. With local temperatures currently maxing out at 70 Fahrenheit, there is only so much external heat for the Tensor to fight.
It’s also worth noting that I haven’t experienced big problems with the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro when I was using them last winter. The problems only cropped up in the summer, and even then, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro were a lot cooler for me than the Pixel Fold. I wouldn’t say that the Tensor’s heating issues are blown out of proportion, but I think that the super-thin Fold did a big part to further tarnish the chip’s reputation. It’s likely that it was just not meant to be crammed into this extremely thin device.
While my Pixel 8 did good in my initial testing period, other people haven’t been so lucky.Reports have popped up on Redditwith people describing that their phones run abnormally hot when relying on poor mobile networks. Battery life takes a huge hit in these conditions, too. I can confirm this to some extend having now spent more time with the phone over the past month. My unit also has a tendency to get hot when the connection isn’t great. However, I can’t say that it shows such an extreme hit on battery life.
Pixel 6 and some Pixel 7 users have experienced a lot of issues with their connection, with phones barely able to stay connected to radio towers, though Tensor G2 already improved things for most people. I also haven’t experienced any big problems with the Pixel 6’s connectivity, for what it’s worth, but it’s clear that Google still has some issues with its modem that it absolutely needs to fix either in software or with a hardware upgrade next year.
Disregarding heat and mobile connectivity, the performance of the Tensor G3 is good, but not up there with other flagship phones. The Google Pixel 8 remains responsive and snappy even during more difficult tasks like photo editing and extensive camera usage. Even when getting warm, the phone doesn’t begin to throttle or stutter, which is something I feared could happen on a longer train ride with poor connectivity.
Other hardware and what’s in the box
The Tensor G3 is accompanied by 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM on all variants of the Pixel 8 and 128 or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. It also reuses the familiar Titan M2 security chip for encryption and more. The phone additionally supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, USB Type-C 3.2, and offers IP68 water and dust resistance.
The stereo speakers are an improvement compared to the previous generation. While it’s obviously not as good as somegreat portable Bluetooth speakers, the sound is more refined and less distorted at high volumes. Like most other modern phones, the Pixel 8 also suffers from uneven stereo sound, though, with the bottom-firing speaker significantly clearer and louder than the earpiece at the top. It’s also easy to block the audio inadvertently by obstructing the speaker at the bottom. This is a problem on most other modern phones, too, but it still deserves mentioning.
In the classic understated white box with the image of the phone on it, you will find the handset itself, a USB-A to C adapter, a USB-C charging and data cable, and warranty and quick setup information with the SIM ejector tool tucked inside. The box mostly does without plastic, there is only a slim paper film protecting the display during transport.
The Pixels are software-first products, and the same is true for the Pixel 8, though there are some caveats I will discuss in the camera section. Let’s start with the good stuff, though: The Pixel 8 will get seven years of full OS updates, surpassing virtually any other phone brand out there, including Apple. You can argue that theFairphone 5will get security updates for eight years, but the company only promises five full OS updates.
Google has burned us a lot with discontinued products, includingthe laughably short life of the Pixel Pass, so take the update guarantee with a grain of salt, but if the company sticks with it, it’s the best policy we’ve ever seen on a mainstream phone. To me, this shows Google’s commitment to the Pixel project, and I really want to believe the company. I can understand why the reception of this 7-year promise isn’t as positive as it could have been, though. If things pan out as they should and Google keeps its current Android numbering scheme, the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro will get Android 21 in 2030 (if the company sticks with its numbering scheme). That’s bonkers if you think about it!
Apart from being the first phone to launch withAndroid 14, which you canread all about in my Android 14 review, there are a ton of new software features that Google launched first on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.
More secure biometric face unlock
On the security front, Pixel 8 and 8 Pro users can enjoy biometric face unlocks with Class 3 support. That’s a fancy way of saying that the phones can securely use your face to unlock online banking and payments.
The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro introduced face unlock as an option to bypass your lock screen, but Google wasn’t confident enough to allow for more critical security applications. Given that the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro come without a front-facing IR blaster, the secure unlock option is fully implemented in software, with Google saying that it improved the algorithm and machine learning capabilities to enable it.
In my book, it’s an incredible achievement to provide the same level of security solely in software whereas other companies need to rely on expensive and complicated hardware. It was a long journey for Google to get there, with the Pixel 4 still featuring an IR blaster, the Google Pixel 6 never getting face unlock support despite a short development period for the feature, and the Pixel 7 only offering it for lock screen bypasses.
The big advantage is how little space this solution takes up, whereas Apple and other Android manufacturers have to use bigger camera cutouts at the front of the screen. At the same time, the disadvantage is that Google’s solution doesn’t work in the dark. Given that the Pixel 8 still has its optical fingerprint sensor as a fallback, I think that Google manages to offer the best of both worlds, though. You’re still going to press and hold the fingerprint scanner area when you unlock your phone or your online bank, so your phone will just use whatever solution works best in the circumstances. This is particularly useful when you want to unlock your phone while wearing sunglasses or a mask or while laying in bed with part of your face obstructed by your pillow (this last one may be a me problem). The iPhone’s IR blaster doesn’t always work in these conditions.
Assistant improvements, on-board AI features, and more
Google Assistant may seem like it’s become the neglected stepchild in Google’s quest to bring itsAI chat tool Bardto the masses, but the company still keeps adding new features to the good old voice assistant. Google says that the on-board Assistant is able to process speech even faster than before, and it can also pick up pauses and all your “ahs” and “ums,” making it easier to finish your thought or sentence without Assistant given an answer to an incomplete question.
Comparing the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 8 side-by-side, this works just as intended, and it’s incredible how much easier it makes talking to Assistant. On the Pixel 7, you basically have to think of your command or question before you start talking, which the Pixel 8 is okay with waiting for you to finish your sentence. It’s a much more natural way of speaking, and I can only hope it will make its way toAssistant smart home devices. That said, I’m not someone who uses Assistant on their phone a lot in everyday life, and it shows: After experimenting with Assistant for the initial review, I haven’t really used it much in the following month.
Similar improvements are coming to Google’s on-board voice dictation. The company promises that it’s twice as fast at processing speech, and it also supports multilingual input, which previously only worked with the company’s older speech recognition model. I was very skeptical about that last part, consideringAssistant’s multi-language version has never worked particularly well for me, and after testing it extensively, I’m split about how much I like it when dictating. I’m running into unintentional switches between German and English way more often than I would like, to the point where I’m mostly back to typing rather than dictating. If you’re interested in a deep dive, check out myhands-on with the multi-language typing on the Pixel 8.
Google also updated the At a Glance widget with a few more options that I’m sure will make their way to older phones soon, too. For example, it will now always show you a weather forecast for the next day the evening before. The company also says that it will now show event tickets and travel updates in this space, but I haven’t seen that during my review yet.
Pixel’s Call Assist has some new features on board, as well. The tool is now even better at filtering out spam, proactively asking callers what they want and then determining their intentions on its own. Since I’m fortunate enough to be mostly spared from spam calls (knock on wood), I don’t have much to report on this front, though. It can also offer you dynamic answer suggestions based on the conversation rather than the canned answers of old.
Battery life & charging
The battery life is a delightful surprise on the Google Pixel 8. Despite heavy usage during my testing period, I haven’t been able to run down the battery completely before the end of the day. That’s even during a short trip to Germany’s coastal town of Rostock, with a three-hour train ride with pretty much the worst mobile connection you can imagine (resulting in some of that dreaded heating). At the end of that day of Wi-Fi, said poor mobile connectivity, and some photo taking, I was left with a total of 5 hours and 50 minutes of screen-on time. On a day mostly spent on Wi-Fi, I could extend that number to 6 hours and 30 minutes. When I wasn’t trying to run the battery down on other days, I achieved rates ranging from 4 to 5:30 hours with 15 to 30 percent of battery reserves left.
While this is within the ballpark of what you may expect from other Android manufacturers, I’ve never been able to reach numbers this high on Pixel phones. In my Pixel 7 review, five hours was usually the maximum I could achieve. This impressive difference makes sense when you consider that the Pixel 8 has a smaller display but still sports a bigger battery than its predecessor, upping the capacity by 220mAh to 4575mAh. It’s an impressive engineering feat when you consider that the new Pixel is overall smaller in most dimensions and only 0.2mm thicker. I can still confirm this positive experience a month later, after the initial review.
Google also improved the charging rate ever so slightly. During my tests, I was able to fully recharge the Pixel 8 from 1 to 100 percent in 1 hour and 33 minutes via cable while leaving the phone idling with its radios turned on. This is slightly better than the Pixel 7, which we could top off in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Despite the small improvement, the Pixel still pales compared to high-end Xiaomi and Oppo phones that can reach charging speeds of more than 100W, allowing you to fully charge your phone within less than 40 minutes or sometimes even less than half an hour. Still, if Google keeps improving charging speed with every generation without sacrificing long-term battery health (a big concern I have with all these superfast charging phones), I can’t complain too much.
The Pixel 8 supports up to 18W of wireless charging with the second-gen Pixel Stand and up to 12W with other Qi chargers. That’s the same as it has been on the Pixel 7, and like that last generation, it’s also a little slower than the Pro model, which can go up to 23W on the Pixel Stand. The Pixel 8 also doesn’t support Qi2’s MagSafe-like magnetic connectivity, which is a bummer. Like other Qi-compatible phones, the Pixel 8 is a little magnetic, but it’s not enough to securely hold MagSafe equipment in place (I tried).
Google wants to change what constitutes an image with the Pixel 8 series. While we can talk all about the new and improved cameras and the redesigned app, the highlighting features to be released with the Pixel 8 series are all about AI and image manipulation. Magic Editor lets you completely redo an image’s composition and tone, Best Take finally offers a fix for that one person always looking away in group images, and Ultra HDR photography offers a brand-new way to look at HDR content.
Camera hardware and samples
First things first, though. The Pixel 8 has a primary camera that’s supposed to be 21 percent more sensitive to light than the one before it thanks to a bigger sensor. Google didn’t tell, but it’s the Samsung GN2, a newer generation camera than the GN1 in the Pixel 7 series. It still offers 50MP binned down to 12.5MP, but it should capture more light in darker scenes.
The ultrawide is still the Sony IMX386, but it’s the Pixel 7 Pro variant rather than the Pixel 7 variant. That means it can capture just a little more of a scene with a 125.8° field of view (denoted in the camera app as 0.5x zoom rather than 0.7x on the Pixel 7), and it’s also finally capable of macro photography, a feature missing from the Pixel 7.
On the front, the Pixel 8 gets upgraded to a 10.5MP Dual PD selfie camera, but it retains the fixed focus from the older generation — the Pixel 8 Pro gets autofocus here. The new sensor might be another piece of the puzzle when it comes to the Pixel 8’s Class 3 biometric unlock support, but for visuals, it doesn’t provide a big upgrade.
As expected, the Pixel 8 excels as a camera phone. The camera app is quick to load and lets you take a picture stutter-free almost immediately. No matter what you point it at, you’re basically guaranteed to get at least a decent shot in good lighting. The Pixel 8 is the best option when you just want to point and shoot and forget about the whole process of photography other than framing.
The Pixel 8 is also a beast in low light. While it doesn’t seem any faster in capturing low-light scenes, night mode kicks in later than on the Pixel 7 without any quality loss. This allows you to take shots of fast moving subjects and objects in less light, without having to worry about as much motion blur — which you can get rid of with Google Photos' camera magic, to an extent. I’ve run into a few processing issues, though, with some lighting artifacts in a few pictures like the one below here. This is a rare exception, though, with most shots turning out fine.
For a look at the full resolution images, as well as a shot at viewing the Ultra HDR variants of the photos if you have a device that’s supported (more on that in a second), check outthis Google Photos album.
Ultrawide, 1x, 2x, 8x
The Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro bring some interesting changes to photography as a whole to the table. Both are capable of capturing and displaying Ultra HDR images. In essence, Ultra HDR makes HDR images look more realistic. Rather than mapping different brightness levels to approximate RGB ranges to show more details, it utilizes the Pixel 8’s display’s full HDR range, making HDR images look almost true to life. When testing both the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, this managed to impress me for the most part. When you compare the same image in its Ultra HDR version and its regular version, shots without Ultra HDR seem colorless and dull. At the same time, there are a handful of outliers where the bright parts of an image seem brighter than it truly was in the scene, but for the most part, Ultra HDR works great.
Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to show the difference if you’re reading this on most currently available devices. To view Ultra HDR content, you need to have the latest version of Chrome on Windows, macOS, or Android 14 and a compatible Ultra HDR display. The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro support displaying this content, for example, but it will take some time until the technology is really ready for prime time. While not as big a step, you can compare it with black and white TV screens not capable of displaying color images, or, for a more recent example, an LCD screen not capable of showing true blacks like an OLED.
We have an extensivedeep dive into Android 14’s Ultra HDRfor you courtesy of Mishaal Rahman, who explains exactly how this feature works across all the operating system, not just the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.
Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, and Best Take
Going into the review, I was skeptical about Magic Editor, a tool that allows you to fully recompose and re-design an image after the fact using Google’s AI image model. you may tap or circle objects and subjects and move them around freely in your image, you can change the sky to show more dramatic clouds or make the sea a deeper blue. You can also stylize the image to create a fantasy-like look. Your imagination is only limited by the tools that Google gives you with Magic Editor.
When I tested Magic Editor, I went in expecting nothing, and I came away impressed. Images edited with the Magic Editor look perfectly fine at first glance and only show minor stitching errors and artifacts upon closer inspection. There is also some of the usual weirdness you may have seen in AI images before. When you consider that it took me no more than two to three minutes to edit each of the samples below, it’s quite incredible just how okay these are and how accessible they make image editing.
Original first, magically edited second
In the past, you would need to spend at least a few hours in Photoshop to achieve the same results, and I’d argue that Magic Editor’s results look better than what I could do manually in, say, half an hour (I knowsomePhotoshop, but I’m definitely not an expert). In fact, I could probably take the output from Magic Editor and touch it up myself to get a truly good result. It’s scary to think about what this means for the creative industry, but here we are.
Along with the introduction of Magic Editor, Google has also improved Magic Eraser. The tool lets you remove objects and subjects from images and was introduced with the Pixel 7 series. Google says it now works for larger distractions and items with more complex structures. Magic Eraser still isn’t perfect, but in my testing, it’s certainly better now. Like with Magic Editor, you have to keep in mind that Magic Eraser mostly wants to win you over with ease of use and speed. Editing an image in Photoshop and replacing objects there is always going to give you better results, but without prior knowledge, you might spend the better part of a day and still end up with an equally imperfect result.
First pair: Magic Eraser on the Pixel 8. Last pair: Magic Eraser on the Pixel 7
Another brand-new feature is Best Take, though unfortunately, I can’t showcase much of my testing here since I don’t have clearance from friends and family to post their images online (privacy is a human right, m’kay). You will have to take my word for it that it works pretty well, though I share my colleagueWill’s sentiment that both Magic Editor and Best Take could take things to far, making us question what is even real. At the same time,photo editing and compositingis almost as old as photography itself, so maybe it’s just the next natural step.
Magic Audio Eraser
Magic Audio Eraser certainly earns its name. The Google Photos editing feature allows you to use machine learning to change your video’s audio, making it possible to reduce distracting noise, wind, speech, and more. When I tested the feature in the sample below, I was able to eradicate all distracting wind sounds while keeping the sound of the waves intact.
If I wanted to, I could get rid of all the background noise or at least turn it down a notch, with a sliding scale from 0 to 100 allowing me to decide exactly how I want the video to sound. I remember hopelessly giving up on eliminating distracting background noise in one of my video projects a long time ago, and it’s incredible that a simple fix like this is now available on our phones.
It’s definitely not perfect though — as you may be able to tell, some of my speech is just missing in the last video. The algorithm likely tried to eliminate the wind noise that was louder than me and inadvertedly erased my voice in the process.
Not all new features are available on the Pixel 8
Unfortunately, Google decided not to bring some features to the Pixel 8 that are available on the Pixel 8 Pro. First and foremost, you may’t use the Pro’s manual camera controls. While manually tweaking your ISO, shutter speed, and focus are arguably “pro” features, it’s still clear that they are entirely achieved via software, as demonstrated by Android expert Kamila Wojciechowska, whoported the Pixel 8 Pro’s manual controls to the Pixel 7 Pro.
Something similar is true for some other Pixel 8 Pro features slated to come later this year. You won’t be able to use Video Night Sight on the Pixel 8, even thoughthe processing takes place in the cloud entirely.
Many people won’t need these features, and I personally will likely not miss them 99 percent of the time either, but I just dislike the idea of arbitrarily limiting features to one device. It’s not that this is the first time that Google does this, with apps like Google Recorder still Pixel-exclusive and some camera features only coming to new generations of Pixel phones, but it’s odd to see this divide across the same generation of phones.
Competition
The most obvious phone to compare the Pixel 8 to is its sibling, the Pixel 8 Pro. The difference between the two devices in Google’s flagship lineup is very distinct, and I’d argue you could call the Pixel 8 Pro the most pro Pixel ever. It offers an even more incredible camera system, smooth frosted glass on the back that’s nicer than the Pixel 8’s regular glass, and it has some extra software features that aren’t making the cut on the Pixel 8. If this is worth $300 extra for you, that’s up to you — I’d argue it’s not. The Pixel 8 is the sweet spot for most people.
The Pixel 8’s smaller size also makes it a contender for the small flagship crown, even if the Samsung Galaxy S24 is still comfortably smaller. Opt for that phone if size is really your number one priority, or even look at a flip phone like the Galaxy Z Flip 6 or Motorola Razr+.
Best small phones in 2025
Small phones are more powerful than ever
Looking at the other side, the iPhone 15 is also a good choice if you’re looking for a phone that will last you for a long time thanks to a software support window of 6+ years and an extensive repair network, with Apple Stores and mail-in service available in many countries. I’d argue that Apple’s long-term support track record is a lot more proven than Google’s, too, so if you want a phone that you know you will more than likely be able to rely on for the next six years, the iPhone is a safe choice.
Should you buy it?
The Pixel 8 is a clear purchase recommendation in my book, even clearer than the Pixel 7 before it. That’s based on the seven-year update promise and the much improved battery life. It’s definitely once again the most refined Pixel yet. Even if I’m still concerned about the long-term viability of the Tensor G3 chip, things are looking great for the smaller Pixel. It’s an all-round good choice if you want a small and still powerful phone that lasts you all day without breaking the $1,000 barrier. You really don’t need to spend $300 more on the Pro model.
At the same time, there is a bigger divide than ever between the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. If you want the latest and greatest hardwareandsoftware in this Pixel generation, you have to pick the 8 Pro. There is no reason why manual camera controls or Night Sight Video should be exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro other than forcing people to pay a $300 premium to get in on them (orsaving Google some money on server costs). I can live without these features, but it still rubs me the wrong way, and it makes me question what other features will not make the cut on the Pixel 8 in the future.
Going into this review, I thought that I would ultimately gravitate towards the Pixel 8 Pro due to its bigger year-over-year improvements to the Pixel 7 Pro. But the Pixel 8’s small form that fits so well in the hand and pocket has me excited about the future of small phones, because it gives me almost all the things I want in a great form factor.
The Google Pixel 8 is the Google phone for most people. It has most of the latest and greatest hardware and software without breaking the bank as much as its bigger sibling, and it should last you more than a few years without issues.
