Do you regret buying the vanilla Pixel 8?

Every year, Google launches two flagship Pixel phones and they’re never made equal. However, there’s even more reason to be disappointed about the differences between the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro — Google’s current crop of premium Android handsets.

Just yesterday, we were told that the vanilla Pixel 8 model would not be getting one of the biggest attractions of the Pixel 8 Pro — the Gemini Nano AI model. It appears that Google will skip adding the on-device AI to the base Pixel 8 owing to some “hardware limitations.”

If you’re wondering what’s the big deal, here’s what the regular Pixel 8 model will miss out on. Gemini Nano powers a bunch of on-device AI features on the Pixel 8 Pro. That means all the processing for these features happens mostly on the phone, without having to go to a cloud server using the internet.

For instance, inside the Pixel 8 Pro, Gemini Nano powers features like Summarize in the Recorder app and Smart Reply in Gboard — all without a network connection. It’s not just these, but Google will surely plan more Gemini Nano-powered features for the Pixel 8 Pro going forward, and it’s sad that the vanilla model won’t be able to enjoy any of them.

What’s another blow to Pixel 8 users is that Google has said it’ll bring Gemini Nano to phones from other manufacturers. The full Galaxy S24 lineup also supports the on-device AI.

Add to that the spec differences and you get a greater separation between the base and the Pro Pixel 8 models this year (see video above).

So keeping the latest developments in mind, we want to know if you bought a Pixel 8 instead of the 8 Pro because of the price difference but are now regretting your decision. Do you feel Google should have been upfront about the AI differences on both models at the time of their launch to help you make a more informed decision?

Share your thoughts in the comments section and don’t forget to vote in our poll above.