I've owned my Pixel 8 Pro for almost a year and a half now and I definitely have some mixed thoughts about it it, but it has been mostly a positive experience, here's my takes below:

Positive:

• Google's software experience is pretty great. The UI works well for me and looks refined, and I'm actually quite excited about Material 3 Expressive. There are lots of useful features like Now Playing, Call Screening, Hold For Me, Recorder labels, Quick phrases, Assistant typing and copying text from the recent apps screen are my most used features and work very well.

• Software support is good, but not great. We're already seeing a pretty segmentation between the 8 and 9 series with the 8s not getting the improved battery health feature, but updates are quick, usually free from new bugs and don't break the phone. Hopefully Google can manage 7 years of updates, but I doubt I'll have this phone that long.

• The build quality is again, good but not great. I've used one of the Google cases for the entire time I've had the phone so it isn't exposed aside from the camera bar. The camera bar picks up scratches and nicks here and there, but it is what it is. The phone feels good in hand with the matte glass back and I love how it feels when I take it out of the case to clean it.

• The phone is very quick and smooth in day to day processes and it's very rare for it to slow down or get bogged down. It occasionally reloads apps that should be in memory, but nothing terrible.

• The camera is extremely good, the high point really. I've seen some complaints about the Pixel processing, but I quite like the look and the color theory Google uses for their processing. Video doesn't stabilize super well, and anything more than 20x zoom doesn't look amazing, but it's passable. Either way, it takes very good shots with little motion blur or other issues, and it's quite reliable.

Neutral:

• The modem certainly had it's issues. My wife and I used the same carrier and she routinely had service when I don't with her iPhone 13, but I've also had service a few times when she doesn't. Kind of a wash I guess, but this phone gets really hot when connected to 5G. If I worked outside and my phone was constantly connected to data, this would likely be more of a problem, but it isn't a deal breaker.

• Certain apps certainly don't seem to be well optimized such as Reddit, Firefox and some other apps seem to stutter a bit more and are just less polished than they were on my old S21+ but I may be misremembering. Not sure if this is an app issue, but I never really noticed any janky scrolling or performance on that phone.

• Bugs have been rampant. The phone occasionally has a moment where it seems like it reboots the system without rebooting the phone, something like that? Adaptive brightness sometimes sets the brightness super low in bright environments and super high in dim environments. Sometimes the phone dies at any percentage under 10%. Back gesture sometimes just doesn't work for a minute or so and I have to go to the home screen and close the app, is usually starts working again. Annoying stuff, but nothing terribly deal breaking.

Negative:

• Battery life started out really good, but it has really tanked in recent months. For my usage (lots of YouTube, Spotify, very light gaming, browsing, Reddit and other social media), I could consistently manage to get to the middle of a 2nd day with around 8 hours of screen time on Wi-Fi. Nowadays, it needs to be charged after a day of use and 4-6 hours of screen time. Runtime on Data is pretty short.

• This phone can get toasty. Especially on 5G, it gets quite warm to the point where it's hard to hold. Sometimes it gets really warm on Wi-Fi if I've been scrolling in Chrome for a while. Trying to play games is difficult as it heats up quick.

• The price was too high. With almost high mid-range specs and processors, the P8P would be a more reasonable buy at $700-800 brand new, and it'll be a cold day in hell before I spend $1100-1200 on a Pixel with mid specs.

Overall, this has been a good phone with some notable issues. Nothing is perfect, and I don't expect it to be, but I'm certainly considering another brand for my next phone, maybe OnePlus or Samsung? I don't know yet, but I'm also not in a rush to get rid of my P8P. It's a perfectly reasonable, mid phone with a fantastic camera.

I've been using the Pixel 8 Pro for approximately two weeks now. As a long-time iPhone user (I made the switch back during the early days of TouchWiz, for those who remember), I'd like to share my thoughts and review.

Screen:

Pros: The screen is overall excellent. While transitioning from the iPhone 13 Pro, I didn't notice a significant difference in quality, although the colors on the Pixel might appear slightly muted in comparison. The screen's brightness is impressive, making it highly visible outdoors. Additionally, it boasts sharp resolution, and I've kept it at the default settings.

Cons: One minor drawback is the brightness lag. Adjusting brightness takes a moment, and it can be a bit bothersome. It appears as though the ambient light sensor registers the surroundings only when the phone turns on, resulting in a brief delay in brightness adjustment.

Performance:

In terms of raw power, the Pixel 8 Pro is admittedly not as powerful as my iPhone 13 Pro. However, what most users truly care about is snappiness, and in this regard, the Pixel excels. Almost everything opens instantly (with 0.5x animations). The user interface is fluid, albeit somewhat less exciting compared to OneUI. However, it remains highly capable and well-designed. The only area of concern is RAM management, where Android 14's aggressive background task handling doesn't quite feel "flagship" to me. Nevertheless, the phone performs reliably and swiftly in meeting its intended tasks.

AI:

Google places a significant emphasis on AI. While it holds great potential, it's not particularly practical at the moment, primarily due to the time it takes for processing photos—time that may not always be readily available when interacting with a mobile device. The photo features are impressive and remarkably capable but currently not a priority for me.

Camera:

Pros: The camera performance is widely acclaimed. Photos are exceptionally detailed and clear, with a remarkable night mode. The dynamic range surpasses that of my iPhone 13 Pro. Video quality is good, although iPhones maintain a slight lead, but not by a significant margin.

Cons: Lens switching is probably one of the worst i have ever seen. Apple engineers can't be that smarter to have figured the trick behind smoother transitions between lenses since the iPhone X. Like come on this is a flagship (or at least priced as one).

Front camera in application is dogwater, will talk about this in Apps segment.

Battery:

I've noticed mixed results in terms of battery performance:

On Wi-Fi: The battery performs admirably, offering over 8 hours of screen-on time for a variety of activities, from social media to YouTube and light gaming. It's important to consider that Wi-Fi usage typically occurs indoors, with moderate brightness and minimal GPS usage—all factors contributing to extended battery life.

On 5G cellular: this shit is ass, yesterday i got aroung 2h30 of SOT from 97% to 15% using GPS for around 15min, 5G all day and browsing social media and texting (no calls) (X, instagram and WhatsApp) and listening to music. I don't know what modem Google is using inside this phone but they must change the supplier asap. it's horrendous.

Apps:

Here's where Android seems to lag behind iPhones, and the difference becomes quite noticeable:

Stock Apps: Many stock Google apps work seamlessly, including Settings, Gmail, Chrome, Drive, Clock, and Phone. However, some apps, like Camera and Google News, exhibit lag and unresponsiveness. Notably, the Camera app's viewfinder for photos is prone to lag, crashes, and occasionally displaying the wrong picture.

Third-Party Apps: This is a significant pain point. Waze, spotify, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Banking apps, Microsoft app suite run all MUCH better on iOS than Android, i just can't figure out why but it's facts.

When it comes to camera being used in apps, I won't even rant because people ask if im using some old emergency phone when in video calls. yes it's that bad.

Regarding the Reddit app on Android, well, let's just say it has A LOT of room for improvement (we all know 4 interns made it...).

In contrast, most apps on iOS deliver a consistently smooth and fluid experience, creating an impression that everything was designed by Apple.

In summary, the Pixel 8 Pro is an excellent phone with minimal trade-offs. The camera is outstanding, the screen is beautiful, and the battery performs well on Wi-Fi. It's a no-brainer for Android enthusiasts, but the price point, at 1100 euros, may deter some potential buyers including me even though I pre-ordered it with the Pixel Watch 2.