Jim P.

Happy to see it return. I would have really missed secure face unlock going from a 4XL to 8 Pro. Though I doubt the 8 Pro will work in complete darkness like the 4XL could.

I don’t understand the recent trends of ditching the upper camera bezel and doing questionable things like cutouts, islands, etc. that disturb the dimensions of the screen in odd ways. Did people really dislike having a dedicated area just for the camera and other sensors? I’d rather have a complete uninterrupted screen and upper bezel.

I hope so! Allegedly they have made it easier to swap out the battery on the 8/8 Pro as well but I’ll believe it when I see it. Google said in the keynote that they are partnering with ifixit for replacement parts and so on. You can already get parts from ifixit for older pixels but the process is rather complex.

I was tempted by the 7 Pro last year but my 4XL still works really well. After being without updates so long, though, it’s hard to justify staying on it any longer.

There is some more Tensor G3 info here: https://blog.google/products/pixel/google-tensor-g3-pixel-8/

Biggest takeaway from that is that the Pixel 8/8 Pro will once again have secure Face Unlock that’s been missing since the 4/4XL.

I ordered an 8 Pro to upgrade from my 4XL, along with some Pixel Buds Pro. I already had a Pixel Watch last year and it still works great, so now I can pass that old one on to someone else.

I can see someone being undewhelmed if they already had a 6 or 7, but for those of us coming from farther back it’s still quite an upgrade, and unlike other OEMs, it’s still the whole Pixel software experience.

With 7 full years of OS updates, too, maybe I can keep this one going even longer. My 4XL is still decent, the battery is starting to show its age but otherwise it runs well, just no more updates.

Exactly my thoughts. I see people making such a fuss over the colors offered for the phone itself, too. I don’t really care about the color as long as it works well, it’s going in a case anyhow.

From what I’ve seen the preorders should open up on October 4th at some point during or just after the Google event which starts at 10AM Eastern time.