The Pixel 8 is here, and Google doesn't seem to care about picture or sound quality

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Plenty of AI wizardry, but no audio improvements for the Pixel 8 family

Pixel 8 Blue with sunset photography on screen and in the background
(Image credit: Google)

Google just unveiled its new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones, and I have to admit as a tech enthusiast I did find a lot to get excited about.

There are plenty of new AI-powered camera features, which will make it even easier to remove photo bombers from your shots and generally make them look nicer. There's more powerful hardware and of course a wealth of features designed to make the phones more like Iron Man’s Jarvis.

This wasn’t because Google did anything wrong. In fact, quite the opposite, the reason for my annoyance was that it did nothing. Zilch, nada, le rien...

Throughout the entire event, Google didn’t make any significant announcements about how it planned to improve its phones' audio or screen quality for music and movie fans.

The only vaguely relevant update in this area was that its existing Pixel Bud Pro wireless earbuds will be getting a smattering of AI upgrades and two new colour options. But even these didn’t really focus on audio quality. 

But no word whatsoever on either sound or picture quality feels like a wasted opportunity. 

These are the best wireless earbuds we've tried and tested

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Alastair Stevenson
Alastair Stevenson
Editor in Chief

Alastair is What Hi-Fi?’s editor in chief. He has well over a decade’s experience as a journalist working in both B2C and B2B press. During this time he’s covered everything from the launch of the first Amazon Echo to government cyber security policy. Prior to joining What Hi-Fi? he served as Trusted Reviews’ editor-in-chief. Outside of tech, he has a Masters from King’s College London in Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion, is an enthusiastic, but untalented, guitar player and runs a webcomic in his spare time.