Google Pixel 8 Pro

At Rs. 253,999, the Google Pixel 8 Pro is good value for buyers who want the most complete Pixel camera kit and long software support, and weaker value for anyone chasing performance.

Its strengths are a very bright LTPO display, a 5x periscope telephoto, six to eight hours of screen time, 12GB RAM and seven years of updates. Its weaknesses are a Tensor G3 chip that heats up under sustained load, slow photo editing and video quality that lags the best rivals in tricky light.

The cheaper Google Pixel 8 has the same chip and main camera, while the Google Pixel 9 (Rs. 199,999) has a newer chip but no telephoto. Verdict: buy the 8 Pro for zoom, a big screen and battery life; otherwise the smaller Pixel 8 gives most of the experience for much less.

The Pixel 8 Pro has a 6.7-inch LTPO OLED display at 1344 x 2992 resolution, with a 120Hz refresh rate and up to 2400 nits peak brightness. It is among the brightest phone screens available and stays easy to read outdoors, although the difference from the Pixel 8 is hard to spot side by side.

The screen is now completely flat, replacing the curved edges of earlier Pro models, and the bezels are thin and even. Because it is LTPO, the refresh rate can drop as low as 1Hz on static content, which helps battery life with the always-on display.

The phone ships set to a resolution just below 1080p. It still looks sharp, and full resolution can be switched on in settings. Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protects the front.

The Google Tensor G3 with 12GB RAM keeps everyday use smooth: animations are fluid and the haptics are strong and refined, which makes typing and scrolling feel precise.

Raw power is the weakness. Graphics performance trails rival flagship chips, the photo editing suite can chug, and tasks Google has not specifically optimised run slower than on the competition.

Heat shows up during sustained work such as long video recording or hotspot use; when the phone gets hot, everything lags, including the camera viewfinder. Occasional bugs, such as a briefly unresponsive screen, have also been reported. Signal is generally good but can drop more often during hotspot use, as the 5G modem is a revised older design. The optical fingerprint reader works but is slower than ultrasonic ones.

The Pixel 8 Pro pairs a 50MP main camera with a 48MP ultrawide and a 48MP 5x periscope telephoto. Daylight photos are detailed with realistic colours and wide dynamic range, though processing can overdo HDR or smooth fine texture. Pro controls allow full 50MP shots.

Zoom is the standout: the telephoto stays sharp to about 20x, and sometimes up to its 30x maximum. There are odd limits, though: portrait mode cannot zoom past 3x, so it never uses the telephoto, and slow motion relies on digital zoom.

Video has excellent colours and cleaner shadows than earlier Pixels, but faces get artificial brightening and sharpening, lens switching is laggy, and stabilisation creates blur and artefacts in low light. Cinematic blur is limited to 1080p. Best Take, Magic Editor and Audio Magic Eraser are impressive, although Audio Magic Eraser cannot remove strong wind or loud engine noise.

The Pixel 8 Pro has a 5050 mAh battery, and battery life is one of its strengths. Screen-on time of six to eight hours is regular with normal use, and standby drain is reasonable. Whether it holds up over several years is still an open question, as some older Pixels faded with age.

Wired charging is rated at 30W, and Google quotes 50% in about 30 minutes with its 30W charger. No charger is included in the box. It also supports 23W wireless charging with Google's Pixel Stand (2nd gen) and reverse wireless charging.

A useful battery estimate shows what time the phone will run out at your current usage, rather than only a percentage.

The Pixel 8 Pro launched with Android 14 and Google's clean Pixel interface. Google's official policy promises seven years of updates from the date it first went on sale on the US Google Store, covering OS versions, security patches and feature drops.

Highlights include call screening with a natural-sounding voice and context-aware reply buttons, faster on-device speech-to-text that leaves out filler words, natural read-aloud for web pages and AI-generated wallpapers. The camera app is neatly split into photo and video modes. A thermometer app uses the rear sensor to measure surface temperatures, but readings vary from one try to the next.

Magic Editor and AI wallpapers need an internet connection, Video Boost processes clips in the cloud and can take hours, and some Assistant features launched only in the US, so availability in Pakistan may differ.