World enews: The first genuine Pixel 8 Pro leak is seemingly from Google itself

Google has historically been terrible at maintaining confidentiality and secrecy around its Pixel devices. It’s become a given that we’ll see prototype hardware several months ahead of the company’s annual October hardware event. This has led Google to tease upcoming flagships well in advance. But with the Pixel 7A, Pixel Fold, and Pixel Tablet all taking center stage at last week’s I/O keynote, we didn’t get an early glimpse of the Pixel 8 lineup.

It didn’t take much time for that to change.

The phone’s design closely matches early renders of the phone, with all three cameras now enclosed in the same glass oval within the metal camera bar. And yep, that looks like a flat display. Finally, am I right?

In the demo, the person holds the Pixel 8 Pro extremely close to their forehead and then smoothly moves it across to record an accurate temperature reading. It looks as though a new sensor beneath the flash is used for this purpose. Glasses and other obstructions must be removed to use the thermometer.

It’s fascinating to see Google pursuing this type of functionality on a Pixel; after toying with experimental features like radar on the Pixel 4, the company has been more restrained with its last several flagships, focusing on camera upgrades, its in-house Tensor chip, and AI features.

The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are likely to be announced in October — perhaps with a second-generation Pixel Watch — a few months after Google ships its $1,800 foldable. They might look a little boring by comparison, but you can expect the company’s latest Tensor G3 silicon and even more software tricks.

Update May 18th, 1:12PM ET: The original video has been removed from YouTube due to a copyright claim from Google. So if you needed further confirmation that these images are legitimate, there you go.