What you need to know

Google’s Pixel series hasn’t always convinced us in terms of battery life and charging times, but we’re cautiously optimistic that things have changed for the better with the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. We’ve tested the battery life and charging performance of the two latest Pixel phones, and both have made solid progress toward being some of the best phones for battery life. Here’s everything you need to know.

With a large 4,575mAh battery in the regular Pixel 8 and 5,050mAh cell in the Pixel 8 Pro, the specs alone suggest solid battery life. The Pixel 8 has a 220mAh larger battery than its predecessor, after all. This bears out in our Pixel 8 Pro review, where we noted that the phone often made it to the end of the day with 25% or so capacity to spare on most days and 10% left with heavier use. These certainly aren’t two-day phones, but a day should be comfortable for most.

Google’s Tensor G3 chipset is partly to thank here. Targeting a slightly more conservative footprint than other chipsets and the move to a slightly more efficient manufacturing process helps phones last through most of our daily use cases without sapping the battery. However, we’re a little concerned that the chipset might chug down more juice when pushed to extremes. We ran the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro through our battery life tests with mixed results.

The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro perform well in our web browsing and Wi-Fi video streaming tests, outscoring last year’s 7 Pro by roughly an hour in each test. The lower resolution display and slightly lower performance point seem to help the smaller battery of the Pixel 8 perform slightly better than it’s bigger brother. Note that these are exclusive app tests, meaning mixed workloads will drain the battery faster. Still, the results confirm our hands-on experience that these phones can easily make it through an entire day of the most common mobile workloads. Good job Google.

Our extreme gaming battery test is less convincing, suggesting around just three hours of play time for the most demanding games for both models. That’s notably worse than the Pixel 7 Pro, which scored closer to four hours. More so, the mid-tier performance point of the Tensor G3’s GPU should be more power efficient than a bleeding-edge rival, but we’ve seen more powerful phones score similarly and post much higher frame rates. The good news is that most games aren’t as demanding as our test, so the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro should offer at least three hours of gaming without a charge, which should still be ample for all but the most devoted mobile gamers.

Does the Pixel 8 series charge faster than the Pixel 7?

If you do manage to drain the battery down within the day, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro sport higher charging power levels this year, at 27W and 30W, respectively, according to Google.

As our in-depth Pixel 8 charging tests found, the new models’ higher power levels translate into meaningfully faster charging times. Google has shaved roughly 20 minutes off the full charge time for both the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro when using an optimal 30W USB PD PPS charger. The former takes about 77 minutes to full, while we clocked the Pro to finish charging in around 79 minutes.

The Pixel 8 is also notably faster to key milestones than the Pixel 7, hitting 25% battery in 12 minutes, 50% in 27 minutes, and 75% in 44 minutes compared to 15, 30, and 52 minutes for the old model. The Pixel 8 Pro is also marginally faster to these points, but its most significant benefits over the 7 Pro are seen when the battery is above 60%.

The key to Google’s faster charging isn’t just in the higher power levels, though those are key. The Pixel 8 series, and the regular model in particular, are much better at sustaining these peak power levels, enabling faster charging for longer. Importantly, this has all been accomplished while still keeping temperatures within a reasonable range.

Wireless charging specifications remain unchanged from last year, resulting in similar charging times. The regular Pixel 8 supports wireless charging at 18W with a Pixel Stand 2nd Gen and 12W with Qi-certified chargers. The Pixel 8 Pro also supports 12W Qi and up to 21W power levels on the Pixel Stand 2nd Gen.

Overall, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are improved over their predecessors both in terms of battery life and charging capabilities. They’ll both last a bit longer than last year’s models in most scenarios and can charge up quicker than before on occasions where you can’t quite make it through a full day.

However, the Pixel 8 series isn’t going to win any awards here. Battery life on both models remains marginally on the better side of average rather than exceptional. Power users or those looking for a couple of days of lighter use on a single charge will be better served by the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra or Apple’s gargantuan iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Pixel 8 charging times are still a long way behind the best in the business as well. That title belongs to the latest flagships from OPPO, OnePlus, and Xiaomi, which boast huge levels of charging power to top their phones up to full in around 30 minutes. That said, the Pixel 8 series remains cooler while charging, which should help keep the need for a battery replacement to a minimum.