Pixel 8 Pro's Video Boost Fails to Deliver Expected Results

Google's Pixel phones have long been known for their exceptional photo capabilities, thanks to computational photography and image processing. However, video recording has often lagged behind that of other manufacturers like Apple and Samsung.

Enter Video Boost, a feature introduced with the Pixel 8 Pro that sends footage to Google's servers for cloud-based processing. The idea is to improve video quality by leveraging Google's computational power.

I put Video Boost through its paces in two different lighting conditions: one very dark and another well-lit room. In the low-light test, the regular video recording showed visible grain and noise, while the boosted version was slightly cleaner and brighter. However, it didn't quite live up to expectations, feeling more like a cleaning up of existing issues rather than a fundamental improvement.

When tested in good lighting conditions, the difference between regular and boosted video recordings was even less pronounced. The initial video already looked relatively clean, making it difficult to see what benefit Video Boost provided.