The Pixel 8 Pro has picked up critical acclaim, and as it goes on sale, Google hopes to find similar success with consumers. Those who have bought the new smartphone in the first wave believe they have picked up on a problem with the Pixel 8 Pro’s performance.
The $1000 smartphone is not the best at playing high-end games. Which begs the question, does this matter?
YouTube channel Golden Reviewer has measured the new Pixel 8 Pro through the medium of the popular game Genshin Impact, and Google’s latest flagship has been found wanting. The Pixel 8 Pro is close to the bottom of the performance charts when playing one of the world’s most popular games.
For anyone paying attention, this will not come as a huge surprise. Google has never promoted or pushed the Tensor Mobile chipsets as seeking to deliver the ultimate in raw performance. They are not hot-rod chips designed to push the absolute limit; they are designed to support applications using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning routines. High-end gaming, such as the aforementioned Genshin Impact, relies more on graphical performance than AI routines.
Look at the situation through a mirror. A high-performance smartphone designed around the gaming experience, such as Nubia’s Redmagic 8 Pro, will have a huge focus on delivering performance relevant to gaming. It offers increased thermal controls and active cooling with a fan drawing air over the internal radiators, a choice that helps gaming but makes waterproofing the phone almost impossible.
That’s why the Redmagic 8 Pro sits at the top of Golden Reviewer’s rankings, running at nearly double the frames per second offered by the Pixel 8 Pro at a fractionally lower surface temperature.
The Redmagic 8 Pro does not have the hardware to support a tool such as Magic Eraser, which allows you to circle an object and remove it from a photo or to lift that object, place it elsewhere in the picture, and zoom on the object so it appears closer (something that will arrive with the Pixel 8 Pro’s Magic Editor app). But the Redmagic 8 Pro sure plays a mean game of Genshin Impact.
Google has been clear about its Pixel phones; the company is working to make the best AI experience possible. It’s right there in the blog post from the launch, “Meet Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, engineered by Google and built with AI at the center for a more helpful and personal experience.”
There isn’t a problem if you choose the right tool for the job. If you want a smartphone that offers a great gaming experience, you have many gaming-focused smartphones to choose from. If you want an AI-focused phone that delivers for everyday life, there’s nothing that can rival the Pixel 8 Pro at this moment in time.
Now read my review of the Pixel 8 Pro and the difference AI and the Tensor G3 make to the day-to-day user experience…
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