The Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have arrived, and both models come in a choice of different colors that may or may not tempt you. If you've been eyeing a Pixel upgrade, then there's a high chance the color will play a big part in which model you actually decide to buy. Let's weigh up the options.
Of course, none of these were a particular surprise as Google has kept certain colors in play for several Pixel generations.( Looking at you, Obsidian.) But the company does like to throw a new shade in every so often, just to keep things interesting.
Both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are limited to three colors apiece which is the same as we saw with the Pixel 7 series released last year.
If none of these Pixel 8 color options really appeal to you, there are countless cases to choose from that will let you change up the look of your Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro. There's also a chance that Google may follow up later in the year with a new colorway to increase the appeal of its flagship phone.
But for now, here's everything you need to know about the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro color options.
Google Pixel 8 colors
The Pixel 8 comes in a choice of three colors: Rose, Obsidian and Hazel. Roughly translated, that means the phones come in pink, black and a dark greenish shade. Gone is the Lemongrass color from the Pixel 7 line-up last year; there's also no obvious white version.
A mere three colors seems a little bit of a shame, considering the recently-released iPhone 15 came in a choice of five different shades.
The new color option here is Rose, which is a bright and vibrant pinkish hue that looks very light in Google's supplied imagery. We'll need to get it into our hands to be sure of the way it looks, but this could be the best option for those mourning the loss of a white (or as Google called it, Snow) handset.
Pixel 8 Pro colors
The Pixel 8 Pro also comes in a choice of three colors: Obsidian, Porcelain and Bay. The first two are effectively black and a creamy off-white, while the last is an attractive blue hue.
Naturally, Google is releasing the Pixel Watch 2 and new Pixel Buds Pro in matching colors and we wouldn't be surprised if the Bay color is what most people go for. It's a very Google-y color, although we have to say it's lighter and softer in the hand than it appears on Google's marketing material.
Pixel 8 colors: Google's recent history
Now that we know what the new colors are for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, we can add them to our table of recent Pixel color options for comparison dating back to 2019's Pixel 4.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Standard models | Pro models |
| Pixel 8 | Rose, Obsidian, Hazel | Obsidian, Porcelain, Bay |
| Pixel 7 | Obsidian, Snow, Lemongrass | Obsidian, Snow, Hazel |
| Pixel 6 | Kinda Coral, Sorta Seafoam, Stormy Black | Cloudy White, Sorta Sunny, Stormy Black |
| Pixel 5 | Black, Sage | N/A |
| Pixel 4 | Just Black, Clearly White, Oh So Orange | Just Black, Clearly White, Oh So Orange |
As you can see from the table above, Google has always kept to three different colors for its Pixel phones. The outlier was the Pixel 5 which only came in one size and kept to a binary choice of two different colors.
What has changed seems to be the naming convention, with Google moving away from some of the cheekier monikers it employed in the early days of the Pixel toward conventional single-word color names.
While we don't know the exact breakdowns of sales by color, Google has kept a black color variant throughout every single Pixel device. So when the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro start looking likely at some point in 2024, we'd be willing to bet a sizeable chunk of cash there will be a black version of those devices, too.
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