Google Pixel 8 & 8 Pro hands-on review

Design

The Pixel 8 phones may have a seemingly identical design to the Pixel 7 phones but there are several smaller changes here that make a big difference to the way the phones feel.

Pixel 8 Pro next to Pixel 7 Pro

For starters, both phones have a much broader curvature to the sides, which makes them a lot easier to grip. The corners also have a larger radius so the phones dig less into your palms and are more comfortable to hold for longer. The Pixel 8 is also notably smaller than the Pixel 7 in width and height.

Pixel 8

The result of these changes is that the phones feel significantly better in hand, especially the smaller Pixel 8, which feels fantastic. The Pixel 8 Pro is a bit clunky due to its size but nowhere near as much as the Pixel 7 Pro and overall is fairly comfortable to use.

Aesthetically, the new phones do look quite similar to their predecessors. The visor-style camera bar at the back keeps mutating and the camera cutouts keep increasing in size. It's not exactly pretty and lacks the novelty of the original Pixel 6 design, especially since it no longer actually looks like a visor.

Pixel 8 next to Pixel 7

The new designs are also a bit more generic than before and remind of old Galaxy phones. The squared-off design of the previous models definitely looked better even if it wasn't as comfortable. The same goes for the choice of using a flat display on the Pixel 8 Pro, which while functionally superior, does not look as cool as the curved displays on the previous models.

Pixel 8 Pro with a flat display and uniform bezels next to Pixel 7 Pro

The Pixel 8 Pro does mix things up with textures. While the smaller model has a glossy back and matte frame, the Pixel 8 Pro has a matte glass and glossy frame. The glass back has a wonderful satin smooth finish reminiscent of the Pixel 3 phones. It can be quite slippery at times so it's a good thing the side frame is a bit tacky.

That aside, both phones have a high-quality feel to them. They also have IP68 rating so they are protected against dust and water. Having said that, it's not uncommon for Pixel devices to develop some sort of hardware issue shortly after launch. The volume button of our Pixel 7 Pro popped out just a couple of months after getting the phone and ours wasn't even an isolated incident. One would hope there are no such incidents with the Pixel 8 series but Google does not have a great track record for these things.

Display

The displays are where we first start seeing the major differences between the two Pixel 8 phones.

The smaller Pixel 8 has a 6.2-inch, 2400 x 1080 resolution OLED panel with a 20:9 aspect ratio. It can refresh in either 60Hz or 120Hz modes but is set to 60Hz by default. The display has a peak brightness of 1400 nits in HDR mode and 2000 nits absolute peak brightness when outdoors. There is HDR and wide-color support but the panel is only 8-bit. Google calls this screen the Actua display.

Pixel 8 Pro

The Pixel 8 Pro has a 6.7-inch, 2992 x 1344 resolution OLED panel with a 20:9 aspect ratio. It can refresh at either 60Hz or 120Hz but can also drop down 1Hz when the user isn't interacting and there is no moving content on screen. The Pixel 8 Pro does come with 120Hz set out of the box but the resolution is set to 1080p and needs to be changed manually to 1344p if you want the full native resolution. The display has a peak brightness of 1600 nits in HDR mode and an absolute peak brightness of 2400 nits. Once again, there is HDR and wide color support but the panel is 8-bit. Google calls this screen the Super Actua display.

The Pixel 8 Pro has a flat panel compared to the curved displays of the previous two pro models. The glass used on the top is Gorilla Glass Victus 2 whereas the smaller Pixel 8 uses Gorilla Glass Victus. The display on the Pixel 8 Pro has uniform bezels on all four sides whereas the Pixel 8 has slightly thicker bezels on the bottom, although you'd be hard-pressed to notice.

Pixel 8

Both displays have excellent image quality and can get incredibly bright, especially the larger Pixel 8 Pro. HDR content looks great although we wish Google would finally add support for Dolby Vision as it's far more popular than HDR10+. High refresh rate also works well for the most part but it could have been better with more intelligent refresh rate modes that match video content, such as 48Hz or 50Hz. Right now, the display will just drop to 60Hz for all video content.

A bug we had encountered on Pixel 7 devices has been carried over, where if you use the Natural color preset, the display will intermittently switch to wide color whenever the display automatically adjusts its brightness. It happens briefly but is always jarring when the colors suddenly become oversaturated briefly as the brightness changes. Considering it has been around for over a year, it suggests the QA team doesn't seem to test thoroughly in the Natural mode.