Massive Pixel 8 series leaks reveal price hike, camera specs, more

Update 15/09/2023 10:29am ET: The leaks haven’t stopped. Kamila Wojciechowska, the leaker behind most of the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro leaks over the weekend (and covered below), dropped more material Monday morning on X (Twitter). That includes Pixel 8 Pro promotional content:

(P8P 2/2) pic.twitter.com/RCcEY2Fppx

— kamila 🌸 (@Za_Raczke) September 25, 2023

And Pixel 8 promotional content:

(P8 2/2) pic.twitter.com/024u0ZwHiB

— kamila 🌸 (@Za_Raczke) September 25, 2023

Wojciechowska also highlighted this pre-order offer to get a free Pixel Watch 2 with a Pixel 8 Pro pre-order, but it’s worth noting that the offer is likely only in the U.S.

oh and also this is happening pic.twitter.com/oZqTn2Wbtx

— kamila 🌸 (@Za_Raczke) September 25, 2023

The original story follows below.

Over the weekend, a ton of information about Google’s upcoming Pixel 8 and 8 Pro leaked online. In all, details about the phones’ pricing in the U.S. and U.K. leaked, along with full spec lists and details about the handsets’ cameras.

Below, you’ll find a roundup of all the leaked information, along with highlights and links to more so you can read it all.

Pricing

Let’s start with pricing, arguably the most important metric. Like many of the leaks to follow, the pricing info originated from Kamila Wojciechowska, who has leaked many details about Pixel phones over the last couple years. Wojciechowska posted an image reportedly from Google itself detailing the U.S. pricing for the Pixel 8 series.

I wasn’t really going to do this today, but someone claims they know the prices of the Pixel 8 series in the US, which isn’t really true, so here it is-

The Pixel 8 series pricing in the US from the most credible source there is – Google themselves. pic.twitter.com/t0dv4YtMl5

— kamila 🌸 (@Za_Raczke) September 24, 2023

According to the document, the regular Pixel 8 will see a $100 price hike over the Pixel 7, and will cost $699 USD (about $942.79 CAD) instead of $599 USD. Meanwhile, the Pixel 8 Pro won’t see a price hike and will start at $899 USD (about $1,212.54 CAD) as before.

For those interested in leaker drama, Wojciechowska shared the U.S. pricing to disprove another claim about the Pixel 8 series’ U.S. pricing. Though Wojciechowska didn’t name names, a 9to5Google report from Sunday claimed both the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro would see a $100 USD price hike.

UK base prices for the new Google products:

Google Pixel 8: 699 GBP
Google Pixel 8 Pro: 999 GBP.
Google Pixel Watch 2: 349 GBP.

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) September 24, 2023

Another leaker, Roland Quandt, shared the base prices for the Pixel 8, 8 Pro and Pixel Watch 2 in the U.K., confirming a likely price hike. In the U.K., the Pixel 8 will cost £699 ($1,153.97 CAD), the 8 Pro will cost £999 ($1,649.23 CAD), and the Pixel Watch 2 will cost £349 ($576.16 CAD).

No matter how you slice it, it looks like some of Google’s upcoming Pixel hardware will cost more. This does leave questions about how much the phones will cost in Canada. The Pixel 7 costs $799 in Canada and the 7 Pro costs $1,179. Unfortunately, you can really assume Canadian pricing by converting another currency, though it’s worth noting that previous Canadian Pixel pricing closely matched U.S. pricing (e.g. the Pixel 7 cost $599 USD and $799 CAD — at the time of writing, $599 USD converts to $807.91 CAD).

With that in mind, it seems likely that at least the Pixel 8 will cost more in Canada, likely somewhere between $899 and $949 CAD based on the leaked U.S. pricing. Unfortunately, I think a Pixel 8 price increase is likely, especially after the base Pixel 6 and base Pixel 7 were often very similar to the Pixel 6a and 7a and, thanks to the close pricing, were likely often competing for sales.

It is possible Canada won’t see a price increase. For example, the Pixel 7a price jumped $50 to $499 USD in the U.S., while in Canada the phone maintained its $599 CAD price. It’s unlikely, but Google could do that again with the Pixel 8.

Another possibility, given the differing reports, is that the leakers are working with older information and things have changed. Pricing sometimes is the last thing a company finalizes, so things could change, or might still change. We’ll have to see what Google announces on October 4th.

New camera features and spec lists

Wojciechowska had a busy weekend. Along with leaked the U.S. pricing, Wojciechowska partnered with 91mobiles to share a promotional video highlighting various Pixel 8 series camera features. You can check it out here.

The promo video highlights Pro controls (an 8 Pro exclusive feature), Real Tone, Night Sight, Astrophotography, Super Res Zoom, and the ability to swap faces in images. It also highlights some video features, including Video Boost, Night Sight for low-light videos, Audio Eraser to reduce ambient background sounds, and improved skin tones.

Separately on X (Twitter), Wojciechowska noted that Video Boost, Night Sight video, an auto-focus selfie camera module, and a full-resolution capture option would be exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro.

The Wojciechowska/91mobiles post also shared a full camera spec list for both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro — you can view that here. Highlights include a 50-megapixel wide angle main camera and, on the 8 Pro, a 48-megapixel ultra-wide (the Pixel 8 sticks with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide). The 8 Pro also sports a 48-megapixel telephoto camera.

here are the full specs we were working with, for reference (left P8, right P8P) pic.twitter.com/HnJWlknc2f

— kamila 🌸 (@Za_Raczke) September 23, 2023

Finally, Wojciechowska shared pictures of the full Pixel 8 and 8 Pro spec sheets on X (Twitter), capping off the weekend of leaks. You can view the specs in the above embed or at this link.

Source: Wojciechowska, (2), (3), (4) Roland Quandt, 91mobiles Via: Android Police