As 2023 draws to a close, it sure looks like 2024 is shaping up to begin with an insane amount of AI news and innovations. Not only does it appear that pretty much every major player in the tech world is doubling down on AI, it also looks like these AI innovations are coming directly to some of the most popular tools and products on the market.
With a new update set to hit the Pixel 8 Pro, Google is signaling that AI will be a huge part of their flagship smartphone’s future.
Let’s take a look at some of these new AI-powered features, plus some pretty significant camera and video recording mode updates coming to the Pixel 8 Pro — plus see how these updates might elevate the Pixel 8 Pro to better compete with the iPhone 15 Pro and its industry-leading video capabilities.
New AI Smarts and Features
From updates announced in a Google blog post, there are quite a bit of new AI smarts and features coming to the Pixel 8 Pro. From a new summarize in recorder feature to smart replies in Gboard, Google is certainly ramping up its AI capabilities in the smartphone.
There are also some significant updates made for higher-quality video calls, better document scans, more sophisticated photo preview controls, plus even some nifty new photo unblur capabilities that could transition over to video as well.
However, the most intriguing AI updates (from a smartphone filmmaking perspective at least) have to do with the new AI video features. Let’s look at these updates below.
Video Boost for the Pixel 8 Pro
Google reports that by using the power of Google Tensor G3, a major video boost is coming to the Pixel 8 Pro, specifically aimed at better night sight and helping with shaky and imperfect videos. Users will now be able to upload their videos to the cloud, where Google’s computational photography models will be able to adjust color, lighting, stability, and graininess for you. Google will then send the results back to you and your videos will look much more true to life.
The video boost will also enable a new Night Sight video mode on the Pixel 8 Pro that will use AI to apply noise reduction to videos recorded at night (or in other low-light conditions) so that your footage will see richer detail and color.
It sounds like Google is doubling down on night and low-light capabilities for the Pixel 8 Pro as well with more AI models aimed at removing harsh shadows in photos, plus new timelapse video capabilities for these same low-light environments.
Better night timelapses coming to the Pixel 8 Pro
The Pixel vs the iPhone
Still, at the end of the day, while these improvements are of course helpful and wanted by those who already own and use Google mobile devices like the Pixel 8 Pro, it’s hard to say if these AI features will move the needle much when specifically comparing the Pixel 8 Pro to the iPhone 15 Pro.
The iPhone 15 Pro’s calling card is its Apple Log recording and ProRes capabilities, and these AI features don’t really add anything as significant to the Pixel 8 Pro. Not just yet at least. The good sign for those looking for more options outside of Apple is that this does indicate that Google is focusing on the Pixel.
With more updates likely to come throughout 2024, and with perhaps the next-gen Pixel ready to go after Apple’s iPhone dominance, we could see these AI models power up the next Pixel to be a more serious contender.
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