Made by Google recap: Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel Watch 2, new AI features revealed

No alarms and no surprises

In the words of Radiohead's Thom Yorke, there will be 'no alarms and no surprises' at this event if all the rumours are to be believed. Weeks ahead of the event, the Pixel 8 and Pro leaked in full and since then we've even been privy to a full unboxing too.

It's a bit of a shame there are no expected surprises as it takes more than a sprinkling of fun out of a launch event. But, Google being Google, perhaps we'll be spoiled with some pre-show antics (remember the duck on stage at Google I/O?) or some AI slip-ups to enhance the viewing...

A pair of Pixels

Tech Staff Writer Andy Sansom here on the early shift (who needs sleep?). In case you've been living under a proverbial rock, or just got back from a months-long expedition in the wilderness, today is the day we will see the Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro announced. There's been plenty of detailed leaks of what we might expect and to be fair they sound like a couple of standout handsets.

The biggest rumoured upgrades seem to be a camera boost, a much brighter display and a small battery life increase. Of course, Google will probably have a bunch of cool Pixel first features too. 

A pocket rocket

Most people are excited about the Pixel 8 Pro but personally, as someone with small hands (woe is me), I'm buzzing for the baby Pixel 8. Most people expect it to be smaller than last year, while still sporting the new Tensor G3 chip, making for a pint-sized powerhouse. 

I love a good small phone. There will always be a small place in my heart for the Sony Xperia X10 mini Pro Compact I had growing up, which was just 3.2 inches big yet still had a slide-out keyboard. The campaign for a new one starts here. 

What's the fuss with Chromebook Plus?

It's been a busy week already for Google with the release of the Chromebook Plus standard. A revitalised take on the humble Chromebook, this is a new guaranteed minimum performance level for some of the best-value laptops on the market, utilising Google's own Chrome OS. 

The requirements include at least an Intel i3 processor (or Ryzen 7000) and a minimum of 8GB of RAM. We've already seen the likes of Acer and Asus announce new machines with HP and Lenovo just some of the names who'll soon join the party.   

Blowing off steam

We'll use any excuse to repost this brilliant picture from Google's Pixel 8 marketing campaign. There is a lot of competition obviously between Android devices and iPhones, but this campaign was before the launch of the iPhone 15. 

Apple managed to avoid a price hike with its latest phones, but there is speculation that the Pixel 8 series could be priced significantly higher than last year. While hopefully not the case, this would put them in iPhone price territory, and further ignite the rivalry.  

Coincidentally, check out our review of the new iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Mac daddy of the new iPhones. 

Under the hood 

It's widely expected that the new range of Pixels will use a shiny new chipset. We're big fans of the Tensor G2 setup in the Pixel 7 series so its successor, presumed to be imaginatively named the Tensor G3, should be something special. 

Compared to Snapdragon and Apple's chips, the Tensor silicon tends not to impress so much on pure benchmark tests, but when it comes to actual performance and machine learning capabilities, Google's setup is second to none.  

Snap happy 

If there's one thing we are particularly enamoured with on the Pixel 7 Pro, it's the camera. Google's camera software is brilliant and packed with useful features you'd never have thought of yourself. We're sure to see some neat new tricks for stills and video later today, including a rumoured Audio Eraser that bins unwanted background noise.

It's a hardware upgrade to the camera that has many people excited, however. Leaks suggest the Ultra-wide lens on the Pro model is jumping from 12MP to 48MP. Unfortunately, it sounds like there still isn't a telephoto lens on the base Pixel 8 so keen photographers should go for the top-end option. 

7 year switch 

We've heard that the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will offer a massive seven years worth of updates. It's expected that they will both launch with Android 14 but that could take us (if my maths is correct, and the yearly cycle continues) up to Android 21! Who knows what the world, and phone landscape, will look like by then? 

Kudos to Google if this is true, keeping the phones up to date and secure for years to come is a great sustainability boost and should help those who don't want to switch handsets every year. 

As for what 2030 would look like? I don't even know what I'm having for lunch so don't look at me.

Game on

Covering the iPhone 15 launch event, I was struck by just how heavy Apple went on mobile gaming and the amount of time they spent talking about the ray tracing capabilities of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. 

We've not heard of anything similar for the Pixel 8 Pro, but I'd love to see some gaming-specific upgrades, and with the Tensor G3 chipset we know that the phone should have enough performance to threaten the best gaming phones. Then again considering Stadia's untimely demise, perhaps Google is steering well clear of the gaming sphere. To be honest, just give me the Chrome dinosaur game and I'm happy.

Google and the technicolour smartphone

Good morning Pixel people! T3 Staff Writer, Sam Cross, here to take you into the afternoon ahead of the Made by Google event.

One thing I want to talk about is the colour options said to be on offer this time out. There are six finishes which have been leaked. The base model Pixel 8 is said to come in Peony, Grey and Obsidian, while the Pro model will have Sky Blue, Porcelain and Obsidian options.

That's a relatively conservative colour palette, though I am a fan of the Peony. It also means the end of that sumptuous Hazel and Rose Gold combo from the Google Pixel 7 Pro. Quick, someone play the Titanic theme...

Watch your step

Right, let's leave the phones alone for a second and talk about another product expected to drop today – the Google Pixel Watch 2. That model looks set to offer a decent boost over the original Google Pixel Watch, making it an attractive proposition.

The key part in that upgrade is a new chip. Rumours suggest Google will include a Snapdragon W5 series chip in the new smartwatch, which should make things much better overall. 

In particular, the added power efficiency should make it possible to tackle more intensive tasks, and offer greater battery life. That's a solid upgrade for the device, and should give the Watch 2 a decent leg up over competitors.

AI integration

Of course, this is Google, and it wouldn't be a Google event without talk of AI – need I remind you of the Google IO event in the Summer, which mentioned it over 140 times? And, if the leaked ad we saw last week is anything to go by, this event will be no different.

The brand appear to be pushing the AI capabilities of the Google Pixel 8 hard this time out. Features spanning the camera, call screening and web pages all utilise AI to enhance the experience.

That should be enhanced with the new processor too. The Tensor chips have always been good for AI tasks, and there's no sign of that changing this time out. All in all, that should make it far easier to use in day to day life – no bad thing at all.

Shot on Pixel 8

While we've talked about the camera hardware already, it's certainly not the only new part of the camera worth mentioning. There's said to be a host of new software improvements too, which should make life with the Google Pixel 8 much easier.

We've even seen some images showing off a few of the features. An account called PBKreviews – who also showed off an