Pixel Perfection: A Rare Look at How Google Tests the Pixel's Cameras

Lit only by the light of a flickering candle, we sit down with the Pixel camera team's product managers and engineering technicians in a cafe without windows, that doesn't serve coffee, and has no customers.

This is Google's secret Pixel camera lab. 

Here, with the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 8 Pro mounted side by side, Google tests videos and photos. Comparing the newest flagship device against the previous one lets Google consider the improvements it's made to video recording and photography.

From left: Pixel camera product managers Kenny Sulaimon and Kevin Fu; Alex Mariconi, Google communications manager; Isaac Reynolds, group product manager for Pixel Camera; and two engineering technicians. They're standing inside Google's camera lab in Mountain View, California.

The lab is set up to test Google Pixel phone cameras in settings that mimic what you'd find in the real world. This living room and kitchen is complete with lighting environments and patterns that users may encounter when shooting indoors -- all designed to improve the quality of photos and video on the Pixel cameras.

There are even fuzzy little (fake) pets!

CNET's Lexy Savvides lounges next to the Google lab's in-house mannequin.

Isaac Reynolds, group product manager for Pixel Camera, sits down with CNET's Lexy Savvides to discuss the changes the Pixel 8 Pro has gone through to improve the camera systems.

The facade of the cafe set, inside Google's camera test lab.

The dimly lit cafe is meant to replicate low-light conditions that photographers might encounter in the real world.

Lit by candlelight, this environment gives the Pixel camera team the chance to measure photo and video performance in low-light and real-world conditions.

Google's Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 8 Pro, mounted side by side on a rig used for testing at the camera lab in Mountain View, California.

Engineering technician Jesse Barbon works inside the faux cafe at the Google camera lab, shooting side-by-side video with the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 8 Pro.

With an array of colors and patterns inside the dimly lit cafe, Google tests and compares the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 8 Pro.