Google

October is the month of new Google Pixel phones, and this year, we got the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. I've been very intrigued with Pixel phones ever since their inception in the late 1900s, just kidding, the first Pixel launched in 2016. Feel old yet? I was too poor to afford the original Pixel, although it wasn't an expensive phone to begin with. Fast forward to Pixel 3, and I was able to get my first Pixel, and I've been an avid Pixel user ever since. The camera was and still is the best part of the Pixel experience, apart from the software.

The Google Pixel 7 Pro was a good smartphone overall. It packed in everything a casual smartphone user would expect from an Android smartphone including, the now standard, timely software updates. But it came up short in a few areas like battery life, charging and had its fair share of heating issues and camera-related bugs as well. With the new Pixel 8 Pro, there's a brand-new design, plenty of AI-enabled features and even a new processor. Keeping this in mind, one would naturally expect Google to have worked on some if not all of the shortcomings of its predecessor. But that's not exactly the case with Google's newest Pixel flagship.

Google's Pixel smartphones have always been known for their excellent camera capabilities, despite not always having the most competitive hardware. But with some of the recent crop of flagship Android phones sporting add-on imaging chipsets, manufacturers have been able to deliver a similar level of imaging quality that easily rival the Pixel's AI photography smarts. Google's return to the premium smartphone segment in India after four long years may have enthusiasts and Android purists very excited, but can it still attract the vast majority of users who have moved on to competing brands? Read on to find out.

Once every couple of years, Apple brings some big, meaningful changes to its hardware products. And in the years that it doesn't, we get some hilarious memes. 2023 is not a meme year for the iPhone though as the standard iPhone models are once again exciting. We've seen this shift before with some older models too like the iPhone 12, which was the first non-Pro model to get an OLED screen. This year, the iPhone 15 is the most exciting iPhone for me as it finally gets some big-boy upgrades, and all those with an iPhone 12 (or older) holding off for something better can finally take the plunge.