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Google’s Pixel 8 Pro improved in all of the right areas, making it the Best Smartphone of 2023
It’s December, so it is time to start handing out some end-of-the-year awards. First up is the Best Smartphone of 2023. The staff at AndroidHeadlines has decided that the Google Pixel 8 Pro has earned the honor of being called the Best Smartphone of 2023. It’s unsurprising after Google Pixel 7 won the award last year.
With the Google Pixel 8 Pro, the company made some slight changes to the phone, but summing those changes up makes it a massive upgrade compared to last year’s model. For instance, the outside of the phone now has a matte finish. This is perhaps my favorite feature of the phone, making it much easier to hold onto. It looks so much better, as my fingerprints aren’t all over the phone now.
Google has also made some significant changes to the display. The company debuted its Super Actua Display on-board the Pixel 8 Pro, which can bring the brightness up to 2400 nits. That makes it one of the brightest displays on the market. And let me say you will not have any trouble seeing this phone outdoors. I’ve been using it since it came out in October, and even outdoors in the snow, with direct sunlight, which makes everything even brighter, it’s still very easy to see. It is so bright that it doesn’t even get to 100% brightness all the time, as I mentioned in my review.
The display didn’t stop there either. It’s simply stunning, with super-accurate colors and bright SDR content.
Google brought in useful AI features, too.
Google has been the year of artificial intelligence. If you launched a tech product this year, you likely used the word “AI” or “Artificial Intelligence” when describing at least one aspect of the product. Or, you’re Apple. Google is no stranger to AI. The search giant has been using AI in its phones for many years already. However, this year, Google added more Generative AI features.
Some of my favorite AI features on the Google Pixel 8 Pro include Magic Editor. This is a camera feature that I can’t stop using. It takes the Magic Eraser that debuted on the Pixel 7 series last year and really puts it on steroids. Magic Editor is able to replace the sky in landscape photos, replace other backgrounds, remove objects and recreate that area, and even stylize your photos. A lot of Google Photos became popular around 2015.
Google also used Generative AI for things like the new AI Wallpaper feature. With the Pixel 8 Pro, you’re able to create your own wallpapers with AI. It’s sort of like a MadLibs style of creating wallpapers, but it does make some truly incredible wallpapers. My only complaint is that I cannot export these wallpapers to use on other devices.
That’s really just scratching the surface of what Google has brought to the table with the Pixel 8 Pro, so it’s really not hard to see why it has earned our Best Smartphone of 2023 award.