TheGoogle Pixel 8 seriesis still at least four months from its official release. But over the last few weeks, extensive details about the phone’sTensor G3 chipand thecamera system have leaked, detailing the significant changes Google has planned. Now, display specs of the Pixel 8 and its Pro sibling have also made their way to the internet, revealing their exact size, higher peak brightness levels, and more.
Corroborating aprevious leak, the Pixel 8 will reportedly feature a 6.17-inch display. That’s a wee bit smaller than the 6.3-inch 90Hz panel that Google currently uses on thePixel 7. More importantly, the company plans to use a higher 120Hz refresh rate panel on the upcoming Pixel, bringing it on par with thebest Android phones. This transition to a 120Hz panel from Google will come after it switched to a 90Hz screen on this year’s mid-rangePixel 7a.
Besides the size reduction, Google plans to double the corner radius, making the display more rounded at the corners.
Android Authoritysources also suggest the Pixel 8 display’s peak brightness will get a bump to 1,400 nits while showing HDR content — up from the Pixel 7’s rated peak brightness of 1,000 nits. Google is testing panels from BOE and Samsung for the smaller Pixel, but it is unclear if both companies will supply screens for the retail units.
With the Pixel 8 Pro, Google purportedly plans to keep the display size unchanged at 6.7 inches. However, it will ditch the curved edges and switch to a screen with flat sides. This should help reduce accidental touches to almost nil and make finding screen protectors that easily fit Google’s upcoming flagship Pixel phone a lot easier. Peak brightness while viewing HDR content could see a bump from 1,400 nits to 1,600 nits.
Like the Pixel 8, the Pro will apparently also see its corner radius more than double to 115px vs. 50px on thePixel 7 Pro.
While the screen’s refresh rate will seemingly remain unchanged at 120Hz, the newer gen Samsung panel will support a more variable refresh rate, with smoother changes between 60 and 120Hz. Plus, the display can reportedly drop its refresh rate to as low as 5Hz, which should help improve battery life. While the report’s source had limited information on this change, the improvement will help reduce screen tearing while playing games or watching videos.
Interestingly, the Pixel 8 Pro’s display resolution will drop slightly to 2992 x 1344 vs. the Pixel 7 Pro’s 3120 x 1080 resolution. This will cause its pixel density to fall to 490 PPI from 512 PPI of the current model. However, this is unlikely to have any real-world impact on the screen’s sharpness.
Google has never included the best displays on its Pixel phones. From the leak, it does not seem like the Pixel 8 series will change that. But the overall upgrades should still lead to a noticeable improvement in daily use.
