Google is reportedly upgrading the camera for its upcoming Pixel 8 lineup with bigger sensors which will improve low-light photography and the dynamic range of image processing.

With the Pixel 6 lineup, Google switched to Samsung’s 50MP ISOCELL GN1 and continued with it for last year’s Pixel 7 models as well. According to Android Police, this year, the tech giant is moving to a 'GN2' sensor which is “about 35 percent bigger”.

“This should lead to a substantial increase in light intake, thereby helping low-light imaging and dynamic range. More importantly, the sensor supports Staggered HDR, which allows the camera to simultaneously take a long and short exposure shot, reducing motion blur and ghosting,” the report said.

The upgrade was first discovered by Android Authority, which also noted that while the sensor — along with the Tensor G3 chip, which is likely to power the Pixel 8 series — supports 8K video recording at 30 fps (frames per second), it might not be available on the devices. “It’s currently not supported by GCam running on the Pixel 8 and existing Pixels run notoriously hot at 4K/60fps already.”

The ultrawide camera on the Pixel 8 Pro is also likely to receive an upgrade from the 12MP Sony sensor to a bigger 64MP — the same one used in the main camera for Google Pixel 7a. The telephoto camera on the device seems to remain the same as its predecessor.

The report adds that the Pixel 8 Pro might also receive a more reliable autofocus with a new sensor.

The software on Pixel photography, which plays a huge role in how the photos turn out on the phone, could also see some improvements with the Pixel 8 lineup including an “Adaptive torch” that dynamically modifies the flash's intensity in response to the environment and other inputs.

Another feature users could see is “Segmentation AWB”, which basically segments the scene into different parts using artificial intelligence and selectively applies different processing to said parts of the image.

Qualcomm also introduced a similar feature with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which powers the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, the OnePlus 11, the Xiaomi 13 Pro among other flagships.