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The Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have launched with Actua and Super Actua displays, respectively. Google said that the two phones can reach 2,000 and 2,400 nits of brightness, respectively. Well, it seems like the company might have undersold the Pixel 8 a bit, as the phone’s display can get brighter than initially stated.
The Google Pixel 8 display can get brighter than Google promised
Folks over at XDA Developers revealed that. Now, Google uses a measurement of “5% on-pixel ratio” in order to measure the brightness on these displays. In other words, it only measures a small percentage of the display.
Also, do note that in real life, you won’t really see the Pixel 8 jump up to 2,000 nits brightness, nor the Pixel 8 Pro jump to 2,400 nits. Well, unlike you’re running HDR content, actually. In regular use, that won’t happen. That’s common for smartphones.
Google did say that the Pixel 8 can reach 1,400 nits brightness in regular use, and the Pixel 8 Pro go up to 1,600 nits. Well, based on what XDA Developers shared, the Pixel 8 can actually jump up to 1,600 nits. That basically means Google undersold the phone’s capability a bit.
That goes for fullscreen brightness, by the way. In other measurements, the display can get even brighter. If you check out the table below, you’ll see a huge difference compared to the Pixel 7. The Pixel 7 wasn’t all that impressive when it comes to display brightness, so… it’s great to see a new display on the Pixel 8.
It gets even brighter than the Pixel 8 Pro panel
What’s interesting is that the Pixel 8 even outperformed the Pixel 8 Pro in this regard. XDA Developers also published their findings for the Pixel 8 Pro about a week ago. The Pixel 8 display actually gets brighter than the Pixel 8 Pro in their tests, slightly.
One thing to note is that the Pixel 8 can reach 1,600 nits only when the Smooth Display option is turned on. In their words, only when you allow the phone to run at 120Hz, which is interesting.