Google, the Pixel 8, and the Apple Store: Seven Years of Software Support after Google’s 7 Years of Support for Smartphones Is Hard to Understand

The Pixel 8 is launching with Android 14 out of the box, but what’s more significant is Google’s promise that it will provide seven years of OS and security updates. If you compare the length of time other mainstream phone manufacturers commit to to the duration of time Apple supports the iPhone, this is more than double the time that the previous 2nd and 3rd generation Pixel phones received. Google also says it will continue to add features to the Pixel 8 through Feature Drops every few months.

Compared to what’s been offered before, 7 years of software support is a big step up, with five years of security updates, and only three years of upgrade cycles. It’s also a longer support period than what basically all of Google’s mainstream Android competitors are currently offering. Samsung, OnePlus, and Xiaomi are all promising four generations of Android version updates and five years of security updates for their latest flagships.

It is thought that the phone will get an update to at least 2029’sandroid 20 and possibly even 2030’slah 21depending on when the update gets released. Assuming that’s still the case, we’ll get into its slightly flaky history of ongoing support for other services and initiatives after seven years.

Thanks to using its own Tensor processor in the Pixel 8 series, which gives it more control over the hardware that goes into the phone compared to most of its competitors, it has the freedom to offer a longer support period. Fairphone, a competing Android manufacturer that prioritizes lengthy support periods for its devices, has publicly spoken about how difficult it is to continue to support a phone after a chipset manufacturer like Qualcomm ends support for the processor used. The power is in its own hands.

Apple, another manufacturer that also produces its own processors for its phones, offers similarly lengthy support periods. The company doesn’t promote explicit assurances about the number of years it supports its devices, but it has released five major updates for the iPhone X before it ended support this year. Even then, however, Apple will occasionally release security patches for older devices.

New camera features in the Google Photos app, with an upgrade to the Tensor G3 and Pixel 8 Pro models for Android and Windows Phones

Powering these new features is the new Tensor G3 processor, which is paired with 8GB of RAM in the Pixel 8. The G3 is ten times more complex and can do better things like reduce background audio from video recordings, and make your calls sound clearer, thanks to its artificial intelligence machine learning model. New features in the keyboard and recorder app support seamless switching between multiple languages when using voice transcription, and the Pixel 8 can translate a website and read it aloud to you. It can also provide bullet point summaries for sites in the Google app and Chrome browser, similar to how Bard and other online AI assistants work on the desktop.

Both models get a screen upgrade this year, but only the 8 Pro has an LCp display that can be used with variable refresh rates and can be branded as the Super Actua. It’s still 6.7 inches on the diagonal, but it finally ditches the curved edges for a fully 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. Assuming the Pixel 8 Pro can actually keep up that level of brightness without overheating and ramping it back down, that’s impressive.

Some of the most significant new camera features aren’t related to the hardware at all but are seen in the Google Photos app. The Magic Eraser feature, which was introduced at the I/O event, will allow you to change an image by moving something around and changing background. The Best Take feature will combine images from a series to make sure everyone looks at the camera at the same time.

There’s a 50-megapixel main camera sensor with a slightly brighter f/1.7 lens attached. The Pro’s 5x telephoto module gets an upgraded 48-megapixel camera with faster autofocus, and there’s a higher-res 48-megapixel sensor in the ultrawide camera, which is now capable of focusing as close as 2cm in macro mode. The front-facing camera gets an upgrade to include a feature called auto-focus. The Pro phone has some pro camera controls: you can adjust focus, shutter speed and the number of pictures that can be taken at the same time from the native camera app.

Google Photos 4.0 Feature Setup: Audio Magic Eraser, Video Boost, Zoom Enhance, and Voice Recognition Assistant for Google Photos

Naturally, there are lots of new software features — all housed in Google Photos. After you take photos of a group of people, you have the choice to pick the best face for them and save it in one final frame. Audio Magic Eraser is a device that aims to eliminate or minimize distracting sounds in videos.

There are a couple more features not available at launch, including the generative image editing tool called Magic Editor that will be coming soon. Video boost takes some of the processing out of the device and into the cloud to enable Night Sight Video. And Zoom Enhance — only available to the Pixel 8 Pro, interestingly — can help you zoom in on images and recreate fine detail after capture.

While the Assistant isn’t as advanced as Bard, it does get some updates. With better speech recognition, it will be able to understand pauses and “um” more effectively. It will be able to translate web pages into other languages to read them to you. The keyboard has a one-touch option to clean up errors.

Camera and Face Unlock Improvements for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, and the Impact on On-Demand Payroll and Face-Unlocking

The Pixel 8 has a 50-MP main camera, and a 12-MP ultrawide camera that supports macro capabilities, and it’s the same two-lens setup. The new main camera is claimed to be 21 percent more sensitive to light than the Pixel 7’s camera and is the same sensor as used on the Pixel 8 Pro. Once again, though, if you want a telephoto, you’ll have to buy the Pixel 8 Pro.

That new display now refreshes at 120Hz, up from the Pixel 7’s 90Hz, but it is not LTPO and can only vary between 60 and 120Hz for battery life savings. If you want a screen that can go from 1hertz to 120hertz, you’ll have to pay for the Pixel 8 Pro. Notably, the iPhone 15, which has the same price as the Pixel 8, comes with a 60Hz screen.

Outdoors, the Pixel 8’s OLED screen will ramp up to a peak brightness of 2000 nits, and it supports always-on display features. The Pixel 8’s battery is 4,485mAh, up about 5 percent over the Pixel 7. The battery is small but also not huge and I’m skeptical of the claim that it can last 24 hours. You can either use wireless charging for slower and more convenient top-up, or use a 30W wired charge from Google, which will bring the phone up to 50 percent in 30 minutes.

Under the screen is the same style of fingerprint sensor Google’s used in past models, but now the Pixel 8’s front camera supports face unlocking with the same amount of security as fingerprint unlocking — yes, you can use it to unlock bank and payment apps now. It is not clear how secure Face ID like 3D mapping is because there isn’t any special hardware for it.

Google has also redesigned the Pixel camera app to separate video and shooting modes. Unfortunately for the Pixel 8, the new app doesn’t have the extended manual controls found on the Pixel 8 Pro.