Right put the camera through some proper tests and tried out most of the editing functions... Pixel 8 Pro 512GB. Generally impressed but certainly not perfect.
1) Recording videos 4K 60FPS, zooming in or out seems to change lens - this creates a jarring/judder effect which looks pretty horrible. The exposure/colours change too - just looks a bit naff, expected better.
2) Some of the videos exhibit stutters on playback, possibly due to exposure/ISO change behind the scenes.
3) Had one video that was set to 4K 60FPS (and viewing file details confirms 8.3MP - 3840x2160) but actually appears really low-res blurry almost like old school Nokia 3210 footage lol. Only 1 video of about 50 recorded today has done this, but a bit random nonetheless.
4) Still pics generally good but some weird ISO cleaning visible on many shots - can see artefacts.
5) Portrait mode pretty good but closer inspection shows poor blur effect especially around hair.
6) The magic eraser and these other "AI" tools kind of work but isn't always great, really depends on the scene and how complex background it. Very poor compared to a 1-2min job in Photoshop.
7) Some of these post image editing features take AGES to process - like 10+ seconds. I find that annoying, especially as the end result generally isn't as good as I would like.
I think a lot of this really depends on your expectations. Overall I am fairly happy, clearly an improvement over my old Note10+ but I just expected more after all the hype and Googles sales pitch. I know I have high expectations, I do not motorsport photography using proper cameras/lenses so I know what pure quality can be achieved. I don't expect to a phone to meet that or frankly get close, but perhaps I did expect better. Better hardware still beats using cleaver software to compensate. That's my 2P anyway. Anyone else agree after putting yours through its paces?