But I guess I’ll leave it to you to decide if the results Video Boost gives are worth the hassle or not. So, here we go…
Pixel 8 Pro Video Boost: One of Google’s most “magical” camera features is also one of the most bizarre Pixel experiences I’ve ever had
Google’s Video Boost aims to deliver three main benefits over the Pixel 8 Pro’s standard video: Night Sight, HDR+ and Unblur. In other words, Google Video Boost is an attempt to bring Google’s computational photography magic to video.
Night Sight is supposed to make your videos brighter and cleaner; HDR+ is expected to bring up more information in the dark and bright parts of the image, and Unblur is supposed to improve video stabilization.
But as you can imagine, bringing computational photography tricks into video is a much more difficult task to pull off, and it seems like Video Boost proves that…
In my experience, processing a 30-second video can take anywhere between 1-2 hours, which is 1-2 hours longer than I’d like to wait for my videos to be ready to use.
- For starters, Video Boost takes forever to complete, and that’s because to use it you need to take a normal video, which you then back up to the cloud for Google to process, and then Google sends the Video Boost-ed video back to you
- Then we have the size of the Boosted videos, and that’s where things get even more confusing; a 20MB video turns into a 250MB video in Video Boost, while a 30 sec 90MB video takes up 1.2GB on my Pixel 8 Pro in its Video Boost-ed version; what’s weird is that the backed-up Video Boost-ed videos appear to be of normal size in the cloud (while taking up tons of storage on my phone)
- Then, there are some straightforward limitations of Video Boost, like the 10 minute limit on videos shot with Video Boost turned on; Google seems to be aware that shooting long videos in Video Boost isn’t a great idea since the phone always defaults to shooting regular videos once you leave the Camera app and come back
- You can only record Video Boost videos with the 1x primary camera of the Pixel 8 Pro, which seems counterintuitive, considering the ultra-wide and zoom snappers would’ve benefited even more compared to the main camera – they take noisier, lower-quality videos (the selfie shooter doesn’t get any Video Boost love either)
Problems with transferring and sharing Video Boost-ed videos from the Pixel 8 Pro
Transferring Video Boost-ed videos from my Pixel 8 Pro without losing the Video Boost effect has been a messy experience.
In a bizarre turn of events, I was eventually able to get ahold of the Video Boost-ed videos of the Pixel 8 Pro through my Galaxy S23 Ultra’s Google Photos app, where they were backed up automatically.
Transferring the videos from the Galaxy to my Google Drive worked just fine, which left me scratching my head as to why the same exercise didn’t work out when I tried it on the Pixel 8 Pro itself – you know… the phone that took the videos?! Other members of our team couldn’t transfer their Video Boost-ed video samples at all.
How good is the Pixel 8 Pro’s Video Boost mode compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and is it actually usable?
But anyway… How’s the video quality of the Pixel 8 Pro’s videos with Video Boost?
- Without a doubt, the main gains you’ll see by using Video Boost will be in the reduced noise of videos (especially in lower lighting conditions), which the Pixel 8 isn’t able to handle by default – it usually takes some of the noisiest videos in the business; I’ve noticed that Boosted videos are also more stable in certain lighting conditions, or at least less jerky when you’re panning around
- Ironically, dynamic range is outright worse with Video Boost turned on, and that’s because Google’s algorithm (or editing team?) lifts up the shadows too much, which makes daytime (and nighttime) videos look unnatural; this can also result in blown-out highlights, which are preserved better in the Pixel 8 Pro’s standard video.
- When taking videos of people, Video Boost seems to exaggerate skin colors, and generally oversaturate the image, which means I’d avoid using it for recording videos of people (or when I want my video to have accurate colors)
- That being said, it’s not all bad, and where Video Boost makes a great deal of (positive) difference is in low-light where videos come out brighter, and far less noisy compared to the Pixel 8 Pro’s standard videos; the difference is seriously huge
Given how long it takes to apply this noise reduction algorithm in Google’s cloud and send the video back to you, the tech savvy amongst you might be better off downloading a video editor like DaVinci Resolve and applying noise reduction yourself – it’d take less time and turn out similar (if not better) results.
Pixel 8 Pro’s Video Boost works but it proves how far ahead Apple is in the area of smartphone videography
Pixel 8 Pro standard video, Pixel 8 Pro Video Boost, iPhone 15 Pro Max video.
So, is the Pixel 8 Pro’s Video Boost enough to compete with the iPhone 15 Pro’s video quality? The short answer to this question is no but the reason it’s a “no” might surprise you.
According to my testing, the iPhone still produces the more stable, more color accurate, and often cleaner videos (with all of its cameras), but what’s more important here is that Apple’s flagship does what the Pixel’s Video Boost is trying to do by default – without the need to jump through hoops and make you wait 2-5 before your minute-long video is ready to share.
That being said, some of the Pixel’s nighttime videos (with Boost turned on) do look super clean and even more detailed than the iPhone’s, which goes overboard with noise reduction (which Apple needs to address sooner or later). It goes without saying, the Boosted videos look far cleaner than the Pixel’s standard videos when the light isn’t perfect.
But again – even if some of the Pixel’s Boosted videos come out dramatically better than the standard videos it takes, I simply doubt waiting hours for a short 10-30 second video to be processed and sent back to your phone by Google is something people are willing to do in this day and age, when taking quick, short, and shareable videos is “all the rage”.
Does Video Boost for Pixel 8 Pro show why making phones isn’t Google’s “main gig”?
Video Boost (right) is another example of Google’s incredible AI, cloud, and data power. But its inability to run natively on the Pixel 8 Pro only makes the iPhone’s video quality look more impressive than before.
The iPhone is able to do most of what Video Boost does without having to send videos to the cloud, which then need to be edited with a separate piece of software and hardware to turn out similar results. Meanwhile, using Video Boost is essentially the same as sending your videos to someone who can edit them for you. Except they’ll probably do it much faster.
I’m struggling to call Video Boost a “Pixel 8 Pro feature”, and that’s because the Pixel 8 Pro’s only job in the Video Boost equation is (or at least seems to be) to send your normal videos to the cloud, where Google’s video editing software and hardware has the job to improve video quality, render, and send the edited version back to you.
Video Boost is the type of feature Apple would be ashamed to release for the iPhone, and I believe this speaks volumes for the way Google is choosing to paint itself in the smartphone race.Now, don’t get me wrong – the sluggish implementation of the hotly anticipated Video Boost feature doesn’t make the Pixel 8 Pro a worse phone – Video Boost is there, and you decide whether you want to use it or not. But the fact that Google is willing to make people wait up to five hours for a decent-looking video isn’t a good sign (if you ask me).
Furthermore, Video Boost isn’t the only “AI-powered Pixel 8 Pro feature” that takes place on an external computer with the help of external software – the entire Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro Magic Editor suite also relies on cloud processing.
