The Google Pixel 8’s latest leak shows off big AI camera updates

Pixel 8 camera specs and a new AI promo video for the phone were posted by 91Mobiles, courtesy of leaker Kamila Wojciechowska, giving us our first real look at how Google will integrate more AI into its flagship smartphones (via 9to5Google).

Magic Editor, which the company said earlier this year would come to “select” Pixel phones, is like a supercharged version of Magic Eraser. It enables you to remake any picture you take so it looks like you want it to. That’s shown in a demonstration where a person takes three pictures of a family on a carousel and combines them into one shot so that everyone is smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.

Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

The company also demonstrates Magic Editor by moving subjects around in an image, pulling out background objects, and replacing the midday sky with a sunset, which also changes the whole vibe of the picture’s lighting. It's all very similar to what Google first showed at I/O back in May. It’s also good fodder for the debate about the increasingly blurred line between what’s real and what’s not in photography.

Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

The video also shows off new DSLR-style manual camera controls that let you tweak the shutter speed and ISO of an image, as well as a focus slider, rather than the usual tap-to-focus fare of built-in camera apps.

Specs Wojciechowska posted show the Pixel 8 Pro getting the better camera system with a new 48MP ultrawide camera with a 125.5-degree field of view and a 48MP telephoto, while both cameras get a 50MP wide camera. The specs also show the Pixel 8 getting a similar 12MP ultrawide camera to the one from the Pixel 7 Pro, increasing its field of view from 114 degrees to 125.8.