Once again, and in an unsurprising turn of events, Google has missed the leak train. Leakers @OnLeaks and SmartPrix have leaked rumored renders of the upcoming Pixel 8 Pro. Going by the Pixel 7’s launch date, the next Pixel flagship has leaked a good six months ahead of its official introduction.
Google’s terrible track record aside, let’s discuss the leaked renders. It looks like the company’s design team is favoring rounded edges again. The Pixel 7 duo was an improvement over the boxy looks of its predecessor, and the Pixel 8 Pro only appears to add more of that rounded corner profiling. It actually looks good, albeit a bit wider.
The overall design remains more or less the same. Google is sticking to the dual-tone approach with glass on both sides, and a metal frame that also extends over at the back to form the horizontal camera strip. Another change compared to the Pixel 7 Pro’s dual cut-out design is that the Pixel 8 Pro only has single elongated pill-shaped outline housing all three camera sensors.
This triple-lens setup likely includes a primary high-resolution snapper, an ultra-wide angle camera, and a periscope-style telephoto zoom shooter. There’s another round cutout right below the LED flash, but it’s unclear if it’s a macro or depth camera, or some kind of IR or a specialized photosensitive sensor.
Not much appears to have changed in terms of bezel thickness, and the selfie camera also remains at the same spot as the Pixel 7 duo. However, the biggest upgrade (or downgrade) is that the screen looks flat, instead of the curved sides we saw on the Pixel 7 Pro.
The screen reportedly measures 6.52 inches across, and it is most likely an OLED panel with a refresh rate of 90Hz or higher. Dimensions of the phone are 162.6 by 76.5 by 8.7mm, but we don’t know much about the color options save for the ash black trim depicted in the leaked renders.
A major upgrade for the phone will be its third-get Tensor chip, which is reportedly fabricated using the 3nm tech, bringing significant upgrades in raw performance and power efficiency. Here’s to hoping that Google also pays some attention to the thermal hardware inside the Pixel 8 Pro.
Now that the Pro flagship has made a splash in the leak land, it’s only a matter of time before the vanilla Pixel 8 also makes an appearance. As for a tentative launch date, don’t expect these phones to hit the shelves before the fall season. In the meanwhile, the Pixel 7a has been leaked extensively, and it is expected to debut at the Google I/O event in May — potentially alongside a tease of the long-awaited Pixel Fold.
