Google Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel Watch 2 (2023): Features, Specs, Release Date Leave a comment

You may be hard-pressed to seek out this subsequent new characteristic on one other smartphone: a temperature sensor. That is unique to the Pixel 8 Professional. Google says you are in a position to measure the temperature of virtually something by pointing the sensor on the again of the Pixel to an object. I measured cups of scorching and iced water, and it delivered outcomes fairly rapidly, although you must get very near the factor you wish to measure, and you will get extra correct outcomes when you select one of many preset choices on the fabric you are attempting to learn, like glass or ceramic. (Google says these presets assist calibrate the sensor.) Theoretically, you may even measure somebody’s physique temperature. Google has submitted the app to the FDA for this objective, nevertheless it hasn’t been cleared for such use.

These new telephones are powered by Tensor G3, Google’s third era of its customized silicon processor, and the corporate says “each subsystem has been upgraded,” together with the picture sign processor to enhance the Pixel’s picture-taking capabilities. Talking of, the Pixel 8 has an upgraded 50-megapixel major digicam with what Google claims is a 20 p.c enchancment in mild sensitivity. (Extra mild sensitivity means brighter and sharper photographs, particularly in low mild.) It is joined by a 12-megapixel ultrawide digicam that helps macro mode from the Pixel 7 Professional, so you may seize close-ups. 

The Pixel 8 Professional has upgraded light-gathering capabilities in all three of its cameras: a 50-megapixel primary digicam, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, and a 48-megapixel telephoto digicam with 5X optical zoom. Its macro mode can now get even nearer to a topic, and the Professional’s autofocus system is now “multi-zone,” permitting for a wider cone of focus in photographs. This Pixel additionally will get an unique Professional digicam mode that enables shutterbugs to tweak issues like ISO and shutter pace whereas nonetheless profiting from the Pixel’s computational pictures.

Each telephones have a ten.5-megapixel selfie digicam, however I’ve excellent news and unhealthy information. There’s lastly autofocus on the front-facing digicam, permitting you to see all of your pores in sharp element. Sadly, that is out there solely on the Pixel 8 Professional. The Pixel 8’s entrance digicam has a hard and fast focus.

There are some new digicam software program methods this 12 months. The best is Video Increase mode, one more unique for the Pixel 8 Professional. Right here, if you take a video in low-light situations (as much as 4K, 30 frames per second), the clip is shipped to Google’s cloud servers for processing and is then despatched again to you—relying on the size of the video, it might probably take a number of hours. Nevertheless, the enhancements are startling. Google confirmed me clips utilizing this mode versus these from the iPhone 14 Professional, and the Pixel’s video was a lot brighter and sharper, with higher stabilization.  

Magic Editor is a brand new device in Google Photographs that permits you to edit a photograph in quite a lot of methods. You may change the place of a topic—in a demo, a Google spokesperson moved a child throwing a basketball from the bottom to the ring, making it appear like he was dunking; you may even transfer shadows, and the software program is aware of to fill within the background with related textures. Google additionally showcased altering the lighting of the scene to golden hour, to simulate heat sundown tones. One other functionality is Audio Magic Eraser, which can be utilized to take away undesirable sounds in your movies, equivalent to an ambulance siren going off when you’re attempting to file a track in your violin. Google’s additionally bringing Actual Tone, which allows extra correct pores and skin tones for folks of colour, to movies. And there is a new device to alter the face of somebody in a gaggle picture—possibly they blinked or appeared away from the digicam—with one other one. These options blew me away a lot once I was sitting by means of the demo that I’ve written about them in greater detail in a separate story.