Google Pixel 8 phone may see a major camera upgrade. See details

The Google Pixel phones have always been known for their camera performance. When the first Pixel device arrived, the google camera software blew the competition apart with a single 12MP lens, and they stuck to the same sensor size for a long time, up until two years ago when the Pixel 6 launched with a 50MP camera. The Pixel 7 followed suit with the same ISOCELL GN1 sensor.

But things are about to change with the next Pixel launch, as there is speculation that Google has some big upgrades for the Pixel 8. A new 'staggered HDR' feature is in the works, suggests a TOI report, which also means a new sensor. This information was leaked by Kuba Wojciechowski, who scoured the Google Camera source code and found out that the Pixel team was testing this 'staggered HDR' feature.

The HDR+ on Pixel devices takes a series of short-exposure images and merges them to create an image. Pixel 5 launched with the modified HDR+ with bracketing, which takes 5 short-exposure shots before the shutter is pressed and then takes a long-exposure shot and stitches them to create an image. With the 'staggered HDR', the camera will click three separate exposures- short, medium and long in instant succession and merge them to produce the best shot with less blurriness and greater dynamic range. The support for staggered HDR arrived in Snapdragon 888 chip, but the first sensor to support this was the 50MP Samsung ISOCELL GN2 sensor which will be seen on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro next year.


Q. When did the first Pixel phone launch?
A. The Pixel phone was launched in October 2016.

Q. When will the Pixel 8 launch?
A. It is most likely to launch in October 2023.