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See the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro Up Close and Personal

Google's newest Android phones sport better cameras and new generative AI tools.

Stephen Shankland
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Stephen Shankland
Google's Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones in their rose and bay colors
1 of 12 Stephen Shankland/CNET

Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro

The 6.2-inch Pixel 8 and 6.7-inch Pixel 8 Pro are Google's newest attempts to persuade you that the creator of Android is the best smartphone maker.

Google Pixel 8 Pro's three-camera camera bar
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Google Pixel 8 Pro Camera Bar

Photos and videos are a top priority and a competitive strong suit for for Google's phones. This closeup of the "obsidian" colored Google Pixel 8 Pro shows its larger new 48-megapixel ultrawide camera at left, its updated 50-megapixel main camera in the center and 48-megapixel 5x telephoto camera at right.

the Pixel 8 smartphone in Google's rose color
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Google Pixel 8

Google's Pixel 8 smartphone has a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera at left in a pill-shaped area of the camera bar. Toward the center is the same 50-megapixel main camera as in the higher-end Pixel 8 Pro. It's got better light-gathering abilities than the Pixel 7 models, plus "Dual Exposure" technology to boost shadow detail in videos.

Google Pixel 8 Pro in its "bay" blue color
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Google Pixel 8 Pro

The Google Pixel 8 Pro introduces a new "bay" blue color. Inside is Google's new Tensor G3 processor.

The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro next to one another in someone's hands.
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Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro

The Pixel 8 (left) and Pixel 8 Pro include Google's in-house version of the Android operating system software.

The Google Pixel 8 Pro has a thick section, the "camera bar," to house its cameras
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Google Pixel 8 Pro Camera Bar

Flagship smartphone manufacturers have embraced bulging cameras as a signature design element. This shows the Google Pixel 8 Pro's thick "camera bar" that houses its cameras. Larger image sensors can capture higher-quality imagery, but they require physically wider and longer lenses that protrude from the rest of the phone body.

Google Pixel 8 Pro in its "bay" blue color
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Google Pixel 8 Pro

The Google Pixel 8 Pro weighs 7.5 ounces (213g) and gets a new matte-finish glass back cover.

The Pixel 8 Pro showing temperature readings on screen
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Pixel 8 Pro temperature

The Pixel 8 Pro has a temperature sensor that can measure how hot or cold beverages and other materials are. 

A photo of the Pixel 8 Pro with the Temperature app on screen.
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Pixel 8 Pro temperature

To use the Pixel 8 Pro's Thermometer app, you have to tell the phone which material you're measuring.

The Google Pixel 8 Pro's camera bar houses in its oval "pill": an ultrawide angle camera (left), the main wide-angle camera (center) and the telephoto camera (right).
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Google Pixel 8 Pro Camera Bar

The Google Pixel 8 Pro's camera bar houses in its oval "pill": a 48-megapixel ultrawide angle camera (left) with an f1.95 lens, the main 50-megapixel wide-angle camera with an f1.68 lens (center) and the 48-megapixel telephoto camera with an f2.8 lens (right).

The Google Pixel 8 Pro's camera bar
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Google Pixel 8 Pro Camera Bar

If you look closely, you can see the lens elements for the Google Pixel 8 Pro's central main camera.

Google's Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 8 smartphones in their bay and rose colors
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Google Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 8

New colors in 2023 include "bay" blue for the Google Pixel 8 Pro and "rose," a pale pinkish orange, for the Pixel 8.

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