When was the last time you used Google Assistant beyond asking for the weather, setting an alarm, or finding the nearest insert restaurant type/place? The Google Pixel 8 series marks a new beginning for one of the world’s most popular voice assistants, with several AI enhancements and features that should make it more worthwhile to use for more people.

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The list includes a context-aware call assistant that sounds more human-like than ever, the ability the summarize and read aloud webpages while ignoring unnecessary content like ad copy and logos, visual processing of images and generating social media captions for you, and more. The practicality of some of these AI features may just convince me to shift my power button function back to “default”.

I’m especially curious to see how effective Google Assistant with Bard is, which ships “over the next few months.” It was only a matter of time before Google integrated the AI chatbot with its voice assistant, becoming the Android/mobile version of what Microsoft is doing with Copilot and Windows PCs.

If there’s one thing I never miss when switching from a Pixel phone to an iPhone or Samsung, it’s display brightness. That’s always been a big miss for me with Google phones because it went against the company’s focus on camera performance. 

If you’re capturing photos and videos outdoors, how bright a display (and viewfinder) gets can mean the difference between a perfectly framed image and an off-centered disaster.

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With the new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, Google has upped the peak brightness to 2,000 and 2,400 nits, respectively. The demo area at the Made by Google event was relatively well-lit, so I naturally dialed up the brightness of the phones when I first went hands-on. To my surprise, the displays were much more visible — too bright in some cases to capture hands-on shots without blowing out the background. 

This display upgrade should impact the day-the-day experience of the new Pixel phones, not just for picture-taking, so I’m feeling optimistic going into the reviews.

Speaking of brightness, the Pixel 8 Pro gets a new video-enhancing feature called Video Boost. By leveraging the handsets’ HDR+ image pipeline, it can capture better dynamic range and, therefore, details, in both well-lit and darker environments. 

A demo video during the keynote showcased how the dimmed city streets of Japan could be uplifted, revealing subtle accents and architecture that you typically wouldn’t be able to capture without the right lighting equipment.

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The interesting thing about Video Boost is that most of the post-processing happens in the cloud, meaning once you capture a video, the original copy will be stored like normal, while the revamped version is rendered out and exported back to you sometime later. A Google spokesperson noted that it took hours for one of their videos to fully process.

Video Boost will be available with the December Pixel Feature Drop, and you can bet I’ll be testing its capabilities in the streets of New York City.

The ZDNET team has had its fair share of cellular connectivity problems with Pixel phones, me included, so I’m cautiously optimistic about the new Clear Calling feature. Thanks to improved training models and AI, the Pixel 8 can better detect background noise and filter it out, putting your voice in clear focus.

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The same function is present on the older Pixel 7 and Pixel Fold, but on both devices, I was often met with a “Sorry, can you repeat that?” or “You sound muffled” comment. It got to the point where friends and family members would know when I was testing a Pixel phone because of the lower mic quality. 

Based on the audio samples demoed during the keynote and a series of Google Meets calls I was able to squeeze in during my timed hands-on session, the Pixel 8 series should yield greater results than before. I’ll know for sure if I don’t get the “Are you testing a Pixel?” comment in my next phone call. 

Google is proving the doubters wrong with its latest software commitment, topping both Apple and Samsung when it comes to future updates and longevity. Both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will receive up to seven years of operating system (OS), features, and security updates, meaning they’ll be supported until 2030.

Considering how many AI features are on the docket with this year’s models, the hope is for Google to bring on even more useful capabilities over time. 

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That’s a big promise, especially for a company that’s notorious for killing off programs and services just years after release. One of the more recent victims came in the form of the Pixel Pass Subscription, which granted Pixel phone users the ability to upgrade to the latest model after paying off their existing one over two years. The service was axed just weeks before Pixel 6 users would be eligible to upgrade to the new Pixel 8.

The big question that I have, given how much longer Google is planning to refresh the software of the new Pixel phones, is how it will handle hardware support. Unlike Apple, which fields hundreds of retail stores across the country, getting a Pixel phone fixed is less convenient. Not to mention, the device is not globally available, so your chances of finding spare parts in certain regions may be difficult.