Apple announced the iPhone 15 event on Tuesday, confirming reports that the next iPhone keynote will happen on September 12th. For some reason, Google leaked the Pixel 8 Pro on its website within a few hours.
It might simply be an unfortunate incident that fits the Pixel profile. Google’s phones always get leaked thoroughly before their official launch events. Sometimes, Google has to pre-announce its new Pixel phones. That’s how bad leaks are.
But maybe Google decided to go for this marketing trick precisely because of Apple’s announcement, thinking it might steal some attention from the iPhone 15.
Whatever the case, we are talking about the Pixel 8 Pro, which just leaked on Google’s own website. And it will remind buyers that Google plans to unveil the Pixel 8 series in mid-October. Moreover, the Pixel 8 Pro will be Google’s main weapon against the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Make no mistake, the handset in the image that Google shared on its Google Subscriptions & Services page is definitely a Pixel 8 Pro model. The alt text on the page says the image shows “a person takes a call on a Pixel 8 Pro phone in Porcelain.”
Could that person also be wearing the new Pixel Watch 2? That’s unclear at the time of this writing.
Android fans who are into Pixel phones probably noticed the similarities between the handset in the image above and all the Pixel 8 leaks. Yes, the Pixel 8 Pro looks like the handset in the various renders that popped online in the past few months. And yes, the Pixel 8 will not be a massive upgrade over its predecessor.
Interestingly, Google did not tease the Pixel 8 models at I/O 2023 earlier this year. That event was all about AI products that rival ChatGPT and a few other Pixel hardware announcements. A year earlier, Google showed off the Pixel 7 models during the same event.
On that note, if this was an intentional stunt from Google to attract some attention, the Pixel 8 Pro is hardly going to be a worthy iPhone 15 Pro Max rival.
It’s not that the latter will deliver a massive upgrade over its predecessor. It’s that Apple’s iPhones generate way more buzz than even the most popular Android smartphones, let alone Pixels.
Of note, Apple’s new iPhone 15 series will feature a much better processor than the Pixel 8 Pro’s new Tensor chip. The A17 Bionic won’t just be faster, it’ll be more efficient, too, being the only 3nm chip in the industry for at least a year.
Still, the Pixel 8 Pro should be a solid upgrade if you’re in the Android camp and own an older device. The handset should feature a better camera system, as well as a few neat software tricks. Pixel 8 models should deliver a new way of answering notifications. Also, we’re in for a new Audio Magic Eraser feature and a tool that fixes blurry videos.
With more than a month to go until the Pixel 8 launch event, I expect to see even more leaks featuring Google’s next-gen flagships. It’s likely that we’ll learn everything about them, including the price points and release date.
