All right, it's been about a week since I bought a Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 8, and I'm
going to answer your questions as well as give you my first impressions of these two devices.
First question: Does this phone overheat while
playing for 5 to 10 minutes basic games like Crossy Road?
Um, no. I actually did try Crossy Road on both of these devices and did not
experience any overheating within 5 to 10 minutes of gameplay.
Next question: How good is the microphone? How does it sound on recording with the front camera,
and how about with the back? And how does it sound on voice messages when
you're talking far away and close up when you put the phone next to your mouth?
Uh, that's a great question. What I'm going to do is I'm actually going to record so you can
kind of hear the difference in my quality since I've got a really good high-quality mic here.
All right, so we're recording. So this is the audio quality of the Pixel 8. Now I'm going to
hold it a little bit closer to my mouth here like I was talking into the speaker doing a
voice memo. Um, now I'm going to hold it like I'm on a phone call so you can kind
of get a sense for how it sounds, and then I'm going to hold it farther away and say
it was like on a table and I'm just talking to it over here off camera.
All right, and now we're going to do the same thing for the Pixel 8.
So this is this is how my voice normally sounds with just this mic,
and now here's how it sounds with the Pixel 8. As if I was talking into a recorder,
now I'm going to hold it up like I'm talking on the phone and then I'm going to hold it
over here like it's on a kitchen counter I'm doing something and I'm just talking
from a distance. Let me know in the comments how you thought it sounded.
Battery life and overheating issues in daily general use. I don't care about
gaming or benchmarks. We all know it's not meant for gamers, just for web browsing,
YouTube, social media, camera photos and videos. Any difference when in a case?
I had them both in cases on a relatively warm day here for fall in North Carolina
out shooting for about 2 hours 4K footage videos and stuff. They were in the sun. Um,
they both got warm, but not anything outside like what I would consider to be normal compared to
my iPhone 15 Pro Max. So I have not experienced overheating issues with either of these phones.
Now, in terms of battery life, um, surprisingly good on the 8 and like what you would expect on
the 8 Pro. I was actually expecting the Eight's battery life to be a bit worse
honestly than it has been so far, and on the 8 Pro it's great. It just zips battery last all
day. It's pretty comparable to what I've been experiencing with my iPhone 15 Pro Max so far.
All right, next question: Is people say the regular Pixel 8 has even bezels, but I kind
of still see a little bit of a chin in some photos. Not a big deal, but I'm just wondering.
Yeah, I'm looking at the eight right now. Yeah,
it definitely does have a little bit of a chin at the bottom.
Now, before we move on to the next question, let's talk about cases and this video's sponsor,
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Alright, next question: Comparison to iPhones. Now that the Pixel 8
Pro has reached price parity with the iPhone 15 Pro, what features do you
like on the Pixel phones that the iPhones don't have, and vice versa?
Wow, alright. I could spend an entire video just on this topic. Uh, I probably will, so make sure
you subscribe to the channel if you want to see my thoughts on Pixel versus iPhone and Android
versus iPhone in general. But I'll go ahead and answer some of the things I like about the Pixel.
Obviously, the camera. There are some Pixel camera features that are just better than what
you find on the iPhone, though not this year in particular. I wouldn't say there's as clear-cut
of a "this phone is obviously the one to get if you like smartphone photography and want the best
possible smartphone to take photos." I don't necessarily think there's a clear winner. The
Pixel has like a lot of really good photography modes and I like the way it processes photos,
but the iPhone's video is even against the uh Pixel 8 Pro's video, which has improved a lot
even this year from last year's phone, especially on the 5x telephoto in 4K 60. It just looks a lot
better, and overall footage, uh video footage in particular on the 8 Pro and the 8 this year,
it's just more usable than it was in previous years. And in like daylight scenarios,
it's like neck and neck with where the iPhone and the S23 Ultra are now, where the iPhone still
shines though is in lowlight videography. Uh, I captured some footage of the Piedmont Amtrak train
coming out of the Cary station. You could just tell that the iPhone just does a way better job
at having a clear, clear picture without as much distortion or noise compared to the Pixel 8 Pro.
So the iPhone's performance in video, in particular, does a really good job. The
iPhone also has a new feature this year where you can basically uh when you're taking photos
of a person or pet it captures the depth information of that photo and allows you
to refocus on a different subject after you took the photo. The Pixel doesn't have anything quite
like that. There is like you can do some stuff in Google Photos with like adding blur and focusing,
but it's not necessarily the same thing as what Apple's doing by capturing that depth information.
Now the Pixel though this year, uh specifically on the 8 Pro, gives you actual Pro photography
features that Apple refuses to give you like adjusting the shutter speed or being able to
actually like see what you're focusing in on and have that focus peaking. I've run into
scenarios every year when I benchmark these phones where I like, especially in October,
there's spiders everywhere. I put the phone up next to a spider and it just cannot focus on that
spider well. With this phone, I can just manually focus in and get a sharp focus on that spider.
Now in general, there are other things besides cameras I really like on the new Pixels that I've
liked on Pixels previously. Specifically, the call screening features of Hold for Me and the
ability to direct your call and see the directory and like a visual thing like all of that is very
useful. I always find I get less spam calls and texts on Pixel devices than I do on iPhones,
so that's something that definitely Pixel devices are great for. The other thing is
just ergonomics. This phone is so much lighter, even though Apple's new titanium shaved like 20
grams off its weight. This thing's still just more of a joy to hold in your hand and doesn't
just feel heavy. The iPhone definitely feels a little bit more bulky and heavy.
Now some other things I prefer on the iPhone: obviously ecosystems. Apple has just still had
more time to develop their Apple ecosystem and services, which I'll talk about in a second,
than Google. Though Google this year, for the first time, you can now get a Google Pixel phone,
a Pixel Watch, Pixel Buds, and you can have a Pixel tablet, all kind of within the same
ecosystem. And the nice thing about Google's ecosystem is it is a little bit more open,
actually a lot more open than Apple's, because you know you can mix and match what Android
phone you have and you can your Pixel tablet will still sync it'll still work, you can still wear a
Google Pixel Watch if you want or you could have a Pixel and Samsung Galaxy Watch. Um,
that's something that's just not available in Apple's ecosystem. What Apple's ecosystem
gives you though is just a lot of really good features and one thing that I particularly have
become fond of this year in particular is Apple Services, specifically Apple Fitness, Apple Music,
that bundle of services in their Apple One subscription. If you actually end up using quite
a few of those Services, it's a really sticky product and you feel like you're getting a lot
of value from it. The thing that's different about Google Services is it's something that's not like
phone ecosystem specific, uh Apple stuff is really specific to their Hardware outside of Apple Music.
Alright, next question: Is it worth upgrading from a Pixel 6?
I can't really tell you whether or not I think these devices are worth it yet. I typically do
that at the uh month Mark. Although if you're trying to upgrade, you know, within this year,
that's probably not as helpful to you. What I can say is for the Pixel 6 and let me,
this this goes into something that somebody else asked that I saw ah yeah the screen quality of
the regular Pixel 8 last year you said the screen on the seven had a blue shift issue is it solved
yes I am so so happy to say Google finally put a good screen in the non-pro Pixel she doesn't
have these annoying screen refractions that make it look like a cheap OLED like this actually is
a screen that I would be happy looking at every day for a phone that I bought another question
here is tired of big phones so would you explain in short how the Pixel 8 would be a good daily
driver well it would be a great daily driver if you don't want the 8 Pro and you don't care about
like the pro photography features and you really don't care about the temperature sensor and you
want the smaller form factor it still has the Tensor G3 chip and it's got an excellent screen
on it it can it's not an ltpo display but you can enable 120 HZ on it once you put 120 HZ on this
and you just look at the 8 Pro and you scroll through them I can't tell a difference between
which screen is the ltpo display or not and back to is it worth upgrading from the pixel 6 the
only reason I would potentially upgrade if I had a pixel 6 is I wanted the better screen quality but
if you've had it this long now the screen you're probably used to it it's not not really going to
bother you the other reason I would potentially upgrade is just the cameras are better even if
you're looking at upgrading to the eight the camera quality is still going to be a little
bit of an upgrade from where it was on the six especially in video all right next question does
the bigger camera bump cause problems does it make holding the phone more difficult um
no without the case no this wouldn't cause me any issue I kind of like the bump it gives you
just a nice Natural Area to place your finger when you're holding the phone uh with pixel 8
the camera bump I don't think has increased all that much there wouldn't bother me there either.
Next question: Does it feel bigger in hand than the 6 and 7 Pro with a flat display? You get
more screen working area, so I was wondering if you feel it. Am I in the minority where I
want it to feel bigger? I have huge hands, so my 6 Pro feels quite small. This is going to be good
for people who don't like big phones, but this is not going to be the answer you probably wanted.
**To me, when I hold it, like, these phones are pretty – I mean, they're pretty similar
in size. Let me tell you what it is: it feels like it's not as wide. They rounded the corners – uh,
here the corners stick out a little bit more, like an S23 Ultra, and they've rounded them a little
bit more on the 8 Pro. And I think it's that, and they just slimmed it down ever so slightly
to make it feel less wide, and so it feels a little bit less bulky. Oh, and another thing
that makes these things even nicer to hold is the back material. Google has this matte black
that looks really good on this color, the 8 Pro, versus the glossy here with your fingerprints and
fingers. It just sticks a little bit more, and this is just a little bit more smooth.
Alright, next question: I genuinely wonder how useful the temperature sensor is. Uh,
yeah, me too. That seems like a feature that, like, Google greenlit during the pandemic,
where we were all just like, "Ah, we've got to check our temperatures every day." And
something like that, and they like finally got it through the supply chain and put it in the Pixel,
but now people are just kind of like, "Wait, why do we need this again?"
Alright, next question: Honestly, I just want to know if the Pixel 8 Pro feels too big in
day-to-day use. I love the LTPO display and the pro features, but it looks so big on paper. For
me, I kind of felt this way. This is why I always got, like, the smaller iPhones,
um, because Apple had a smaller version of the Pro, so I would go with the smaller Pro phone
until this year. I finally went with the iPhone 15 Pro Max because it had the better camera,
but with the Pixels in particular though, compared to like what Apple and Samsung are doing, uh,
they do not feel very heavy compared to those other phones, so actually holding it in your
hand is quite easy. It's one of the lighter phones of this size. Once you get used to
this display size and holding a phone like it, in my experience, you never really want to go back.
Alright, and our last question: After using both the 8 Pro and the 7 Pro, do you think
it's worth the upgrade or is it better to wait for what comes in the next 1 to 2 years? Okay,
this is really going to depend. Um, if you want to shoot a lot of video with your phone, uh,
I would actually like upgrade, like, the video footage on this is quite usable. That would
even though it's expensive, if I was using a smartphone as like my main video camera,
if I was doing video in my business or something like that, then I would upgrade to this phone
now. We don't even have access to all of the video features of the 8 Pro yet, like video
boost things like that. That's still coming in a later software update, so I can't comment on that.
If neither of those two things really spoke to you, I would wait. I'm not necessarily somebody,
unless I was doing this for a living, where I would even upgrade my phone every year because
it's like a computer, right? You just kind of buy a new one when you need a new one.
Alright, and those were my thoughts and my answers to your questions on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
Now, if you have any remaining questions or you want to share your thoughts on these Pixels,
leave those in a comment below. And consider giving this video a thumbs up if you liked
it and found it helpful, and subscribe to the channel to see more videos on these two phones.
I'm going to be doing a comparison video, and then of course I'll be doing a six-month review
of each of these phones as well, so make sure you're subscribed to the channel to see those
videos and to see more of our videos on Google and other Tech products. You can get to those
by clicking on the links above. For 6 Months Later, I’m Josh Teder, thanks for watching!