Leak season begins. After the Pixel Fold and Pixel 7a retail leaks not too long ago, the first renders of the Google Pixel 8 Pro have surfaced, showing off a mysterious new sensor in the camera bar.
The first look at the Google Pixel 8 Pro in CAD-based leaks shows a design that is quite similar to the Pixel 7 Pro but with some obvious and welcome changes.
For one thing, the phone seems to have finally ditched its curved display, at least for the most part. The display lacks the signature curve we’ve seen on the previous two versions of Google Pro, but there’s certainly room for slight curves along the edges. Either way, it’s a big improvement in our book, given the frustration that comes with the curved screen.
It’s worth noting that the display seems to have much thinner bezels around it than on older Google phones, although with the CAD-based renderings, that’s a detail that’s easy to go wrong. We’ll have to see the final product to be sure.
But the most intriguing thing here is the addition of a new sensor in the camera bar of the Google Pixel 8 Pro. The phone has the same triple-camera array as the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro, but this time with all three sensors grouped together in the same prominent cutout in the camera bar. But on the right side there is a fourth sensor.
What this sensor does is unclear at this point. It could be as simple as a better autofocus system like what Samsung offers on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, a macro or depth sensor like many other phones offer these days, or something more premium. One possibility could be LIDAR, as our Max Weinbach has heard of in the past.
Either way, it will certainly be interesting to see how Google continually evolves this design over time. The dimensions of the Pixel 8 Pro are 162.6×76.5×8.7mm. That number is slightly smaller than the Pixel 7 Pro’s 162.9×76.6×8.9mm. The screen size of about 6.52 inches is mentioned.
The Pixel 8 Pro, which is expected to launch later this year, will almost certainly come with a Tensor G3 processor. It’s unclear if the standard Pixel 8 will also include this mysterious new sensor, but the phone is expected to be smaller.