Technologies

Google’s Pixel 8 Pro Has Some Big Problems: Our Review in Progress

Google’s new flagship has some serious early issues that need addressing.

There are big problems with the Google Pixel 8 Pro. With disappointing camera performance, missing features and frustrating quirks, Google’s new flagship feels half-baked at best and it’s certainly not ready to hit shelves on Oct. 12.

CNET editors have spent the past few days testing multiple models of the 8 Pro in the UK and US, and we’ve been taken aback by what we’ve found. The biggest issues are with the camera, which in some high-contrast situations produced bizarre artifacts that ruin the image.

The phone’s DNG raw images — which normally would include all of the detail that the Pixel 8 Pro’s cameras can shoot — were at first incompatible with any raw editors (including Lightroom on the device and Photoshop on desktop). This was fixed with a last-minute update from Google that applies only to new images taken (our early DNG tests are effectively dead). But DNG files remain fuzzy and noisy, beyond what we’d expect from any raw file.

Key new features such as the night time video optimization aren’t available at launch. New AI tools including the updated Call Screen and article summarizing are available in the US but not in the UK, where I’m testing. Both features are discussed at more length in CNET’s Pixel 8 review.

It’s rare to see such glaring problems from a major manufacturer so close to the device going on sale and it’s disappointing to see it on a phone we had such high hopes for. Both the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro received CNET Editors’ Choice awards for their performance, neither of which suffered from these early problems, but right now we don’t recommend buying the Pixel 8 Pro until Google has addressed these issues.

It’s likely that many of the problems we’ve found can be resolved with software updates, and Google has said that a camera update that could help some of the issues we’ve found will arrive in “a couple of weeks.”

But here at CNET, we’ve decided that we need more time to fully understand the depth of the issues and we’ve opted to hold off on giving the Pixel 8 Pro a definitive rated verdict. Below you’ll find my early review of the phone with my opinions on the design, display, processor and battery, informed by multiple editors’ testing.

We’ll be updating this review over the coming days and retesting elements of the phone (especially the camera) as Google pushes out its software update. We would like to note that we haven’t found any of these issues testing the regular Pixel 8.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re sitting clutching your credit card looking to buy the Pixel 8 Pro, we’d advise you to wait. Keep your eye on this review as it develops and wait for our final verdict.

6 days with the Pixel 8 Pro

The Pixel 8 Pro is the latest flagship from Google that packs a host of refinements over its predecessor including a new processor, cameras and more AI skills. I loved the older Pixel 7 Pro and believed it was one of the best Android phones money could buy. The 8 Pro has a lot to live up to.

Putting aside the camera problems I’ve experienced, the Pixel 8 Pro has plenty going for it, from its solid gaming performance, its decent battery life and its slick Android 14 interface. But the most important change is that Google is committing to seven years of software updates for the phone, a huge boost over what it previously offered and a lot more over most other Android manufacturers. It means this thing will still be going strong in 2030.

There’s a lot I like about the phone and while I’ve had some success with the camera, the issues it faces need to be resolved before we could consider recommending anyone buy it.

Design and display

Physically, it’s clear to see the Pixel 8 Pro’s family resemblance to its predecessors, with the big camera bar across the back. It’s not a big design departure from last year’s model, but that rear glass panel is now frosted rather than glossy, which gives it a softer feel to hold while making it a little less prone to fingerprints. I don’t think it looks quite as premium or classy as the Pixel 7 Pro’s sage and gold design, at least not in the plain black variant I’ve been given to test.

The camera bar sticks out a long way — around 4 millimeters in fact, which is even more than on the 7 Pro. The 8 Pro is comfortable to hold, but I do sometimes find it catches when I’m trying to slide it into my jeans pocket. I’m nitpicking here, but it’s one of those things that could become more annoying over time. With a case attached that reduces the height difference between the body and the bar, the problem goes away.

The frame is made in part from recycled aluminum (just like in older Pixel phones) and the phone is IP68 rated for water-resistance, which will keep it safe from spilled drinks or when taking calls in the rain. The 6.7-inch display is the same size as on the Pixel 7 Pro. It’s bright and vibrant and easily does justice to whatever colorful YouTube or Netflix video you want to watch on the bus.

Temperature sensor

One little tweak on the back is a small circle next to the camera flash that houses a brand new feature: a temperature sensor. It allows the phone to give temperature readings from objects or surfaces. It’s easy enough to do, just fire up the temperature app and hold the phone about 5 centimeters from your object, as though you’re taking a close-up photo. Tap the screen and it’ll give you a readout on how hot that object is.

The idea is that you can use it to test the temperature of drinks before you take a big gulp, or to make sure that piece of peach pie isn’t hotter than the sun before you shovel it into your face and burn your mouth to cinders. It works well in my testing so far, with it fairly accurately showing the increase in temperature on my kettle as I boiled water for a cup of tea.

And while I can imagine it sometimes being helpful — parents could use it to check the temperature of a baby’s bottle, for example — I think its real-world application is limited. It feels like a feature that’s been shoehorned in to act as a differentiator from the competition. Heck, it can’t even take your body temperature, though Google is seeking clearance from the US FDA to use it for that purpose. And sure, the Pixel 8 Pro now has a feature that the iPhone 15 doesn’t, but is it really a feature you care about? I’m not sure that I do.

Processor and Android 14

The Pixel 8 Pro comes with Google’s latest homemade processor, the Tensor G3, but we can’t yet tell you how it performs. At the time of writing I’m unable to install any kind of benchmarking apps to directly compare it to its rivals, but anecdotally it seems like a capable chip. Navigation around the Android 14 interface is swift: Apps open without any delays and multitasking between open apps is a breeze.

Graphically demanding games like Genshin Impact, PUBG and Real Racing 3 all play with buttery-smooth frame rates at maximum graphics settings. I’ve yet to find anything that really slows the phone down. The Tensor G3 chipset also enables AI features, but their quality is uneven, with some taking so long to process that I simply didn’t bother (more on these below).

The big advancement we can confirm is longevity. Google committed to providing seven years of software and security updates to the Pixel 8 series, which is a big improvement over the four years it previously offered. By comparison, Samsung offers four years of software and five of security updates. Longer security support times are a huge way of reducing the environmental impact of phones, as the hardware on older models is often still working fine, but it’s simply not safe to keep using devices with outdated software.

Google’s software commitment means the Pixel 8 Pro should still be going strong in 2030, which is the longest of any major Android manufacturer and only really rivaled by Fairphone, which offers eight years of security updates on its latest Fairphone 5. It’s good to see Google extending its support period and I hope it encourages more manufacturers to do the same.

The Pixel 8 Pro launches with Android 14 which itself isn’t that different from Android 13, with a near-identical visual look that includes various ways to customize elements of the interface. Google has sprinkled in some additional AI features throughout though, including a new generative AI wallpaper creator.

The tool lets you select from a variety of prompts, including object words such as “bicycle” or “lighthouse,” texture words like “wood” or “bamboo” and various color and art style words to create a unique backdrop. It’s fun to play with and I’ve enjoyed experimenting with different prompt combinations to find images I like. I don’t always love the results — sometimes the AI hasn’t done a great job — and only being able to choose from a set of predefined prompts means it’s not open to the sort of wild infinite customization you might expect from generative AI.

Google has woven in AI features elsewhere into the phone, including call screening, the ability to summarize articles in web pages (both of which are exclusive to the US at launch) and better speech-to-text and translation tools. But it’s also used for image editing, with AI tools letting you selectively edit the sky in a landscape photo, make objects or people bigger or smaller in the frame or remove them completely. The results don’t always look great — at least not to my eye as a professional photographer — but they can be fun ways of tweaking more casual snaps.

I found that it took between 13 and 18 seconds for the AI to make each edit, which felt like a frustratingly long time to wait. It remains to be seen whether that’s down to the processor performance or if it’s a software issue that could be remedied. In my time with the phone, I found these delays long enough to put me off wanting to play around further. On the Pixel 8, however, these edits generally took around 5 seconds.

There’s also a new tool called Best Take, which takes a burst of images and blends them into one shot where everyone should look their best by automatically picking the best faces of a group of subjects. I’ve not found this useful in my time with the phone. It requires at least six different images of a group of people for the AI to choose from and I normally just take one or two of my friends, which isn’t enough. To make use of it, I’d have to learn to start using burst mode more often when taking group shots, which feels like I’m having to create a problem for this feature to solve.

Then again, my colleague Patrick Holland enjoyed putting the feature to use in his review of the smaller Pixel 8. Patrick found it worked well in his shots, with a mostly seamless replacement of people’s faces in the final image. Your experience with it may vary depending on how you use your phone’s camera, so take my opinion here with a grain of salt.

Camera

Speaking of the camera though, the triple rear-camera setup has had some updates, including wider apertures on both the main and telephoto lenses and higher resolution for the ultrawide lens.

But it’s the camera that’s been most problematic for us in our testing so far. Several of our test images with high contrast scenes show bizarre-looking image noise and artifacts in the shadowy areas, along with extremely aggressive software smoothing on areas that should maintain detail. I’ve found similar issues in night mode photos, too.

While it can shoot DNG raw files as I mentioned earlier, these come out worse, with more image noise and a weird muddiness to the scene that can’t be corrected in post. Shooting in the new high-resolution 50-megapixel mode made things even worse. Taking high-res images involved a 1- to 2-second pause with a “hold still” warning on screen, which made taking the shots feel slow and frustrating.

Google pushed out some big updates to the camera software during our testing period, but it’s clear that something is still wrong. As the cameras are such an important factor of any flagship phone, we’re keen to see a solution here and we’ll continue testing over the coming days and weeks.

It’s not all bad, though. Some images taken with the wide, ultrawide or 5x zoom lens have come out perfectly well in good lighting and I’ve enjoyed using the long exposure mode to add some ethereal blurred movement effects to some photos.

pxl-20231008-120542128-long-exposure-01-cover

The Pixel 7 Pro had a superb camera that was capable of taking glorious images with any of its lenses. I don’t know why Google is struggling to get the Pixel 8 Pro working as it should, but it’s clear that fixes are required.

Battery

Stuffed inside the Pixel 8 Pro is a 5,050-mAh battery, which put in a decent performance on our various battery drain tests. After 1 hour of streaming a YouTube video at max brightness the phone had dropped from full to 97% remaining, which is good. After the third hour it had dropped to 84% which is below what we’ve seen from the iPhone 15 series, but in line with the Galaxy S23.

It’s a demanding test and in everyday use you shouldn’t struggle to get through a whole day of mixed use. Just avoid spending hours streaming video or playing demanding games if you want to have juice left to call a cab home after your night on the town. As with most phones, though, you’ll almost certainly want to give it a full charge when you go to bed each night.

Should you buy the Pixel 8 Pro?

The issues we’ve found on multiple models of the Pixel 8 Pro suggest that there are software issues with the phone that aren’t simply restricted to one dud unit. And while we expect Google to quickly roll out fixes to address these, the fact remains that right now, Google wants $1,000 for a phone that has major problems.

CNET’s advice is to hold on to your money and check back with us in the coming days as we continue to test the 8 Pro and the updates it’ll likely receive.

Technologies

Global bond sell-off likely not over yet, Mohamed El-Erian tells CNBC

In a wide-ranging interview, the renowned economist also said the U.S. Treasury had taken “a step too far” with its market intervention.

Investors should expect the sell-off of global government bonds to continue, renowned economist Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC on Friday.

“I don’t see any appetite in the U.S. for immediate fiscal consolidation. So I suspect we will continue to see upward pressures on yields,” he told CNBC’s Carolin Roth at the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy.

Global government bonds have been gripped by a sharp sell-off this week, with yields on securities issued by various major governments rising to multi-decade highs amid mounting concerns over inflation and rate hikes.

Bond yields and prices move inversely to one another.

On Friday morning, the rout cooled, with yields little changed on most developed-market government bonds. U.S. Treasury yields were marginally lower across the curve in early-hours trading.

El-Erian, the Rene M. Kern Practice Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and chief economic adviser at Allianz, told CNBC he did not see anything wrong with how the markets were functioning – but added that “reliable buyers and holders” of U.S. Treasurys were coming under pressure.

“China, for geopolitical purposes, is no longer as willing,” he said. “Japan and the Gulf countries have domestic issues.”

He also pointed to the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund rethinking its allocation to U.S. government bonds.

“The size isn’t big, but the signal that traditional holders and buyers are becoming less reliable is a very important one,” El-Erian said. “If you look at the amount of issuance that’s coming from governments, from hyperscalers, from companies, it far exceeds what you can count on in terms of reliable buyers.

“And that’s why there’s been pressure on interest rates. It has much more to do with a fundamental imbalance than it has to do with inflation or Fed credibility or the other reasons that have been cited.”

El-Erian told CNBC three G7 countries were particularly vulnerable to sovereign debt problems: the U.K., Japan and France.

“Those by numbers, by everything else, and the U.K. in particular is what I call a high-beta country,” he said. “That every time rates move by a bit in the U.S., they move by a lot more in the U.K.”

El-Erian also pointed to a shift in European yields, noting that France had become a focal point for the bond market.

“In the old days you would worry about Italy. Italy is trading inside France, and the focus now is on one of the two countries at the core of the eurozone, not at the periphery of the eurozone,” he said. “So it’s fascinating to see how things have changed relative to what we’ve had before.”

U.S. Treasury department’s ‘step too far’

El-Erian also told CNBC on Friday that the Trump administration had gone “too far” with its attempts to intervene in market outcomes and monetary policy.

Last month, the U.S. Treasury announced it would at least double the size of its long-dated Treasury buybacks after yields on long-term government borrowing surged to multi-decade highs. On Thursday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, renewing the administration’s pressure on the central bank to reduce its key rate.

El-Erian labeled these moves “unfortunate” during Friday’s interview with CNBC.

“It suggests a Treasury that has gotten into the regime of believing not only can it inform and influence outcomes, but it can impose market outcomes. I think that’s a step too far,” he said. “And the question now is, how do you step back from this? I think the results are clear. It’s a massive market. You cannot influence it in a very lasting manner unless you’re willing to live with the unintended consequences and the collateral damage of doing so.”

CNBC reached out to the U.S. Treasury Department for comment.

He added that Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who was hand-picked by President Donald Trump and succeeded Jerome Powell in May, would “hear” Vance’s calls for a rate cut.

“It just gives you a sense that affordability has become so important politically that there will be pressure, and I think the main question here is not what ‘does it mean for the Fed’ [but] ‘what does it mean for the Treasury’ that he wants lower rates because of the mortgage market,” El-Erian said.

Markets are currently pricing in a near 50-50 chance of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee hiking rates versus holding them at their September meeting, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool.

Warsh gets ‘three things right’ at Jackson Hole

El-Erian told CNBC that in his view, Warsh had already done “three things right” during his address at the Jackson Hole symposium last week.

“First, he addressed the concerns about his reaction function,” he said. “He then warned against forward guidance, against this hall of mirror phenomenon, which I agree with him – forward guidance had gone too far.”

“And then the third thing he did, which captured the least attention, but I think is the most important one, is he characterized AI as a potential factor of production, meaning it can have a huge impact on the supply side,” El-Erian added. “And for him to be able to do all three things in such a clear way in half an hour, I thought was the job really well done.”

Technologies

EU Joins U.S. ‘Economic Outcast’ Campaign Against Iran as South Korea Considers Military Support

The EU has joined the U.S.-led ‘Operation Economic Outcast’ sanctions campaign against Iran, while South Korea considers military support to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as regional tensions escalate.

The European Union has officially signed onto the U.S.-led sanctions drive targeting Iran, even as South Korea indicated it is evaluating a potential military contribution to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with Washington urging allies to support its conflict with Tehran across both economic and military dimensions.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent commended the EU for joining ‘Operation Economic Outcast,’ the initiative designed to cut Tehran off from the international financial network.

“We value their firm and prompt position,” Bessent wrote in a Thursday evening social media post. “The international community is delivering an unambiguous signal to the Iranian government: We will not relent until every last financial lifeline has been cut,” he continued.

The remarks followed an Aug. 31 statement from Brussels expressing backing for efforts to halt Tehran’s ‘destabilizing activities’ and restart peace negotiations, including via Operation Economic Outcast, to impose further economic strain on the Islamic government.

The bloc’s approval coincided with this week’s gathering of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Asheville, North Carolina.

“The United States remains steadfast alongside our allies in preventing the lethal Iranian regime from leveraging the global financial system to finance its nuclear aspirations, weapons development, and proxy terror networks,” Bessent stated in the Thursday post.

The Trump administration initiated the Operation Economic Outcast campaign in late August, taking aim at Iran’s access to digital assets, advanced technology acquisition, gold holdings, commercial aviation, and maritime shipping.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, countered the EU’s decision to endorse what he labeled Washington’s ‘economic terrorism.’ In a Sept. 1 post, Baghaei accused the bloc of having ‘surrendered its sovereignty, its laws and regulations, values and ethics to U.S. coercion.’

Bessent characterized the campaign as an ‘economic onslaught’ on Iran’s worldwide financial ties, cautioning that nations assisting Tehran should ‘anticipate sharing in the isolation of a decaying regime.’ China stood as Iran’s top trading partner, purchasing approximately 90% of Iran’s sanctioned crude oil exports prior to the conflict.

The EU separately upholds its own sanctions framework aimed at Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs as well as its military assistance to Russia.

Ahead of the summit, Bessent had indicated he would urge G20 counterparts to sever financial links with Tehran or confront secondary sanctions. He also signaled weekly new secondary sanctions, initially targeting banks, with a warning to completely disconnect institutions facilitating Iran-linked transactions from the dollar-based financial system.

Seoul Considers Role in Hormuz

Separately, South Korea is evaluating options that include military aid to back the U.S. effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, Reuters reported Friday, citing the presidential office.

The government, however, refuted local media reports that a decision had already been reached, stating ‘details related to the issue have yet to be decided,’ in a statement to reporters, per Yonhap News.

Multiple South Korean media outlets reported Thursday that Seoul was readying to deploy troops to the Gulf region before year-end, and might request parliamentary approval as early as this month.

The deliberation comes as Washington has voiced frustration with Seoul’s hesitance to provide military support in its war against Iran, including by reducing an annual joint military exercise last month and canceling a landing drill planned for September.

Impasse

Military clashes in the region escalated in recent days, rekindling concerns of a wider conflict.

The U.S. military executed a fresh round of strikes earlier this week, targeting military sites in Iran in response to attacks on vessels and American forces in the area. Iran has answered back, firing missiles at U.S. military installations throughout the Middle East.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint for about one-fifth of global oil flows prior to the war — stayed muted, with Iran conducting intermittent strikes on ships using the southern shipping lane off the Omani coast.

The U.S. has kept a naval blockade in the strait, preventing vessels from entering or departing Iranian ports to hinder the country’s crude oil exports. U.S. Central Command stated Friday that it has diverted 87 commercial vessels, disabled three, and boarded two to guarantee full compliance.

Technologies

Buy these cheap dividend-paying energy stocks, Goldman Sachs says

The firm still sees an opportunity to grab attractive dividend-paying energy names, despite the sector’s run higher this year.

There is still an opportunity to grab attractive dividend-paying energy names, despite the sector’s run higher this year, according to Goldman Sachs. While the firm continues to see long-term value in the oil and gas sector, it recognizes the area is outperforming the broader market right now. The State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) has gained 45% so far this year and hit a 52-week high on Thursday. In comparison, the S & P 500 is up 13% year to date. XLE YTD mountain State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF year to date Energy companies have benefited from the jump in oil prices due to the conflict in the Middle East. Brent crude futures closed above $95 per barrel . “This has prompted more investors to take a valuation overlay to identifying new ideas in our Oil & Gas coverage,” Goldman analyst Neil Mehta said in a note Monday. “For those screening for value, we screen our comparison sheets and identify Buy-rated stocks that currently offer above-average total return while trading at below-average 2028 multiples as investors position into year-end.” Here are some of the names that made the cut: Devon Energy has gained roughly 33% so far this year, versus a 40% advance for its large-cap oil exploration and production peers, said Mehta, calling the name “a compelling valuation opportunity.” “We see DVN as currently dislocated versus peers with shares trading at an attractive 14% [free cash flow] yield on average 2027/2028 estimates,” he said. He also has a constructive view on Devon Energy’s development and focus on the Delaware Basin asset as the core of its long-term portfolio. Plus, the company seeks to return up to 70% of its free cash flow to shareholders, he added. Last month, Devon Energy handily beat earnings and revenue expectations for its second quarter. It announced a dividend hike in May. Mehta’s $55 price target implies 12% upside from Wednesday’s close. The stock pays a 2.3% dividend yield. Gas exploration and production name, Expand Energy , also has a compelling valuation relative to its Appalachian peers, according to Mehta. He sees it currently trading at a 10% free-cash-flow yield on his average 2027/2028 estimates relative to its peer average of 8%. Expand Energy, which yields 2.3%, has reliable free cash flow and a steady capital return program, Mehta said. In addition, he believes in its ability to “generate sustainable cash flow improvement through incremental marketing and commercial initiative.” The company posted mixed second-quarter results in July, with its adjusted earnings per share topping expectations and its revenue falling short. Shares are down roughly 10% so far in 2026. U.S. refiner HF Sinclair , on the other hand, has rallied 131% year to date — and also hit a 52-week high on Thursday. Despite that, Mehta believes the stock trades at a discount to its refiner peers due to uncertainty around the CEO and chief financial officer transitions. Both are currently interim roles. ”[W]e continue to see value in the company’s non-refining earnings contributions (Lubricants, Renewable Diesel, and Midstream) in addition to the company’s leverage to niche refining markets (West Coast/Rockies and Mid-Continent),” Mehta wrote. HF Sinclair posted a beat on both its top and bottom lines for the second quarter and raised its quarterly dividend. The stock currently yields about 2%. Mehta’s $114 price target suggests 7.5% upside from Wednesday’s close. Lastly, oil major ConocoPhillips has a $146 price target, which implies more than 6% upside ahead. Goldman’s buy rating is based on a $7 billion free-cash-flow inflection by 2029 as four major growth projects come online and the company cuts $1 billion in costs. The stock is trading at a discounted multiple, which reflects “a heavy phase of the capital cycle, with the market hesitant to pay for a back-half-weighted free cash flow inflection, where the bulk of the uplift lands in 2029,” Mehta wrote. ConocoPhillips has gained 45% year to date, hitting a 52-week high on Thursday. It currently yields 2.5%.

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– Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 573 partners can use this purposeReports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).

– Develop and improve services 680 partners can use this purposeInformation about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.

– Use limited data to select content 179 partners can use this purposeContent presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).

These Cookies and SDKs are used to collect data about your browsing habits, use of the Services, your preferences, and your interaction with advertisements across platforms and devices for the purpose of delivering targeted advertising content, both on our Services and on third party sites. Third-party sites and services also use Targeting Cookies to deliver content, including advertisements relevant to your interests on the Services. If you reject these Cookies or SDKs, you will see less relevant advertising.

Data collected under this category through Cookies and SDKs can also be used to select and deliver personalized content, such as news articles and videos.

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