How long can you use a Pixel? Google promises seven years of OS upgrades for the GOOGLE POLE 8 PRO and the iPhone X
Photo editing features aside, it all feels like a hint of where Google wants to take the Pixel in the next few years as its generative AI technology matures — close, but not there yet. Some of the more robust artificial intelligence photo editing features will be missing from the Pixel 8 Pro, so we will have to keep waiting. The new device from the company, the GOOGLE POLE 8 PRO, is currently available for pre-order for $1k with 128g of storage.
But as Google officially announces the phone this morning, there is one major new feature that still rings as a surprise: it’s getting seven years of OS upgrades. That’s a huge improvement from the three years of OS upgrades and five years of security support Google promised for its previous flagships, and it rivals the lifespan Apple is known for providing its iPhones. If there’s one thing that makes a higher price a little easier to swallow, it’s the promise that you’ll be able to get many more years of use out of your device. You know, if it works out, then Google makes good on it.
The promise is particularly notable for an Android phone, where OS support can often drop off after just a few years. By way of comparison, the Pixel 7A and Pixel Fold, both phones Google announced this year, will lose software support in 2026 and security updates in 2028 — that’s only three years of promised software updates for either, and one of those phones sells for $1,799.
There are a few reasons why Google is now able to make this promise. Apple controls the processor in its phone, and it doesn’t have to rely on manufacturers such as Qualcomm to support older chips. That can be a real roadblock, as Fairphone pointed out a few years ago. (Google perhaps could have made this commitment earlier since we’re three generations into the Tensor series.)
Apple, another manufacturer that also produces its own processors for its phones, offers similarly lengthy support periods. Although the company doesn’t make explicit promises about the number of years it supports its devices, it released five major iOS version updates for the 2016 edition of the iPhone X and ended support for the 17 version this year. Apple will occasionally release security patches for older devices.
On the spec front, both phones sport Google’s new Tensor G3 chip, which is an upgrade over the G2 chip that marked Google’s Pixel 7 lineup. Each contains seven years of software support, as well as a 120Hz max refresh rate. The Pro8 has a maximum of 1TB of storage, along with a new sensor that can be used to measure the temperature of beverages, surfaces and even people.
Both models get a screen upgrade this year, but only the 8 Pro comes with an LTPO display (Google has decided to brand this “Super Actua”) with variable refresh rates from 1Hz to 120Hz. It is 6.7 inches on the diagonal, but it ditches the curved edges for a flat screen. It also comes with a higher claimed peak brightness of 2,400 nits, which is — to use the technical term — hella bright. That will only kick in under very bright conditions in direct sunlight, but the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max only jump up to 2,000 nits in high brightness mode. If the Pixel 8 Pro can keep up that level of brightness without overheating and reverting back down, it will be very impressive.
These are some fairly predictable year-over-year upgrades, but this time around, Google added something harder to guess: a temperature sensor. The company says you can use it to scan objects like beverages and surfaces to read their temperature and that it’s applying to the FDA to allow its use for body temperature sensing. It wasn’t a feature everyone was clamoring for on their phone, and I feel like it was added to the product list sometime in mid-2020. In more useful news, Google has upgraded the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro’s face unlock technology so that it can now be used for payments — previously, it could only be used to unlock your phone.
There’s a 50-megapixel main camera sensor with a slightly brighter f/1.7 lens attached. There is a higher-res 48-mm camera in the ultrawide camera which is capable of focusing as close as 2 cm, and a higher-res 48-Mbps camera in the 5x telephoto module. A upgrade to the front-facing camera is also on the way. The Pro phone comes with pro camera controls such as focusing and shutter speed, which you can use to shoot a 50-resolution picture or a high-resolution one using the native app.
The Google Pixel 8 lineup: Spec department, software features, and future prospects for users seven years after Android OS release of Google’s Pixel 8
Lots of new software features can be found in the photos section of the website. You can choose the best face for the group of people in your photos, and save it all in one final frame. There’s also Audio Magic Eraser, which aims to isolate distracting sounds in videos so you can minimize or remove them.
New photo and video capabilities can be found in the Pixel 8 lineup. The new feature called Best Take combines group photos that are similar into one image, where everybody looks their best. Another new feature, Macro Focus, magnifies small subjects, while Audio Magic Eraser is supposed to get rid of distracting sounds from videos.
The assistant gets a few updates, but is not going full-on Bard. The technology giant says that it will be better able to understand speech and use it more effectively. It’ll also be able to translate web pages to read them aloud to you. There’s a one-touch option for cleaning up the spelling and language on the keyboard.
The design department of the Pixel 7 phones was pretty good as an iterative spec change and nice refinement, but more than that it was their low price that made them special.
One thing about iPhones that allows people to use them for years on end without too many issues is the massive headroom their speedy A-series processors allow. So, how do Google’s new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro stack up in the spec department? If these phones are to last users seven years, what kind of stuff are they packing to make sure they don’t just get a mediocre performance after the new OS version comes out, don’t they?
Both Pixel 8 phones also offer 10.5-megapixel front-facing cameras and feature autofocus. It is lower than the 13MP camera on the Pixel 7A, and it is also lower than the 10.8-megapixel one on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. All of the phones in both lineups also feature 50-megapixel main shooters except for the Pixel 7A, which offers a 64-megapixel main camera.
Even if you own one of the two series, you will be able to use their new features regardless of which series you own. They can only create the wallpapers by describing them on the phones at launch. Signing in to third-party apps with your fingerprints, and using your phone as a webcam, are examples of the features that can be found on the Pixel 7 phones.
We know that thePixel 8 has a larger battery capacity than the one in the predecessor. The 7 Pro has a 5000mAh battery capacity, which is smaller than the 5,050mAh of the Pixel 8 Pro, so it might be that the series could last longer.
That is only a small overview of what distinguishes each phone. If you want to dig in even further, we’ve gathered all the specs you need to know in the table below.
And Android features have been increasingly broken up across releases. There are fewer major features with each version, and among their small assortment of tech improvements some are pushed to feature drops or later updates
Google has also increasingly broken Android up into smaller components. The company baked Project Treble into Android Oreo as a “modular base” that drew lines between parts of the OS, making it easier for Google and third-party manufacturers to add features without concern about breaking other ones. That later led to Project Mainline, which did a similar thing for security features.