Following the Made by Google event today, there's quite a bit of hype surrounding multiple upcoming devices from Google, especially the Pixel 8 Pro. At $999, it's not a cheap phone, but it's relatively affordable compared to similar phones from Apple and Samsung.
And at that price, you'll get a top-notch camera setup, dramatically improved benchmarks over the Pixel 7 Pro, a brighter display, and better battery life. But if none of these things have convinced you to pre-order the Pixel 8 Pro, these 5 wild features just might.
1. 7 years of updates
For the first time ever, Google is providing seven years of software support for both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. This includes upgrades to Android OS, security updates, and regular Feature Drops from Google. Previously, Google offered three years of OS upgrades and five years of security updates.
The iPhone has owned the software support crown for years, but Google just stole it.
2. A built-in thermometer
On the back of the Pixel 8 Pro, there's a built-in temperature sensor below the flashlight. You can use it to measure the temperature of a hot pan, your oven, the milk in your baby's bottle, or your bath water. Google's working on getting an application to the FDA approved that would allow the Pixel's Thermometer app to take your body temperature and record it with Fitbit, but that's not going to be available at launch.
3. Remove unwanted audio from videos
Removing unwanted people or distractions from your photos has been a thing for a while, but now, Google's introducing the Audio Magic Eraser. This tool makes it easy to reduce distracting background noise in your recorded videos, like a bustling crowd or wind noise.
4. Improved video processing, even at night
This feature won't reach the Pixel 8 Pro until later this year, but if you pre-order the phone now, you'll be one of the first to try it out. Pixel 8 Pro phones will receive a Video Boost feature that pairs the Tensor G3 with Google's data centers to automatically process your videos for you.
Video Boost can adjust the color, lighting, stabilization, and graininess of your videos. This feature also enables a Night Sight Video tool that helps videos recorded at night, or just in low light, come out just as great as daytime videos.
5. Built-in AI models
The Pixel 8 Pro is the first device that'll run Google's generative AI models. This is thanks to the Tensor G3 chip, which is specifically designed to run less demanding versions of Google's text- and image-generating models.
On the Pixel 8 Pro, you'll see the benefits of these built-in AI models with image editing, live translations, spam call screening, and more. Processes on the Pixel 8 Pro will be about 150x faster than on the Pixel 7 Pro because of Google's modified AI models.
You can pre-order the Google Pixel 8 Pro as soon as today from Google, Best Buy, Amazon, your wireless carrier, or other retailers. If you're still not convinced the Pixel 8 Pro is the phone for you, check out these sample images testing the camera setup or stay tuned for our Pixel 8 Pro review.
