Google’s Pixel phones are more than just about their clean Android experience. Since the Pixel 6 launch in 2021, the company has used its Pixel devices to showcase its AI prowess. This year’sGoogle Pixel 8and 8 Pro pack many exclusive AI-powered features, like Video Boost and Magic Editor. The latter is Magic Eraser on steroids, firstshowcased by Google at I/O 2023. It uses “semantic understanding and generative AI” to let you significantly alter your photos after they have been taken. So, how well does Magic Editor work? Is it all hype, or does it work in real life?
What can Magic Editor do?
Magic Editor uses the power of generative AI to help you reframe a photo after a shot is taken. Additionally, the tool can help you remove unwanted objects from a picture, like a bag you forgot to remove from the scene before posing for a shot. Lastly, you can change the look and feel of your photo by making the sky brighter and less cloudy or adding a golden hour touch to it.
None of this is new. If you regularly use Photoshop, you know the tool could already do this. But to get the desired results in a reasonable amount of time, you must be a pro at Photoshop. This is where Magic Editor shines, as it reduces the complexity of the task to just a few taps.
The biggest issue with Magic Editor is that all the processing happens in the cloud and not on the phone. So, you will first have to upload the images to Google Photos before you can use the tool. Despite this, I noticed my Pixel 8 Pro got warm when using Magic Editor.
How well does Magic Editor work on the Google Pixel 8?
Magic Editor surprisingly works very, very well. But you need to know where and how to use the tool.
The below photo of the personal flag of King Maha Vajiralongkorn at the Grand Palace in Thailand looks decent. While thePixel 8 Proaccurately captured the scene, it is not a shot that will get me hundreds of likes on Instagram. The sky needs to be a bit more dramatic.
I used the Golden Hour option in Magic Editor and got the below result. This photo looks much more stunning and appealing than the original shot. Is this what I captured or saw during my visit to the Grand Palace? No. Will this get me more Insta likes than the original shot? Yes!
Below is another sample photo. This situation was more challenging, as I wanted to reposition the Swensen’s logo to the center. If you share the photo on social media, it’s hard to tell which is the original and which is the Magic Editor-enhanced photo. But if you download the images on your phone or PC and zoom in, you can quickly identify the issues in the Magic Editor picture.
Left: Original shot; Right: After moving the Swensen’s logo to the center using Magic Editor
In the example below, I wanted to reposition the ice cream cup to the left. It’s a much less challenging scene than Swensen’s example above. And Magic Editor worked very, very well. You can see the original and the Magic Editor output side by side. This is where I believe Google’s AI-powered editing tool shines. The image was already good — I just needed to reframe it a bit, which Magic Editor pulled off easily.
Left: Original shot; Right: Magic Editor output
Magic Editor can’t fix everything, though. This photo of the Apple Store in Centralworld, Bangkok, looks fantastic, but it would have looked even better if the Apple logo was in the center instead of on the right. Magic Editor refused to recognize the Apple logo as an object. Even when I manually brushed over the logo, the tool did not select the entire object.
As expected, the final result was not as impressive as evident in the image below. It’s possible that in the case of the Apple logo in particular, the algorithm is running into some copyright safeguards.
Unsurprisingly, Magic Editor also works on pictures shot on any other camera uploaded to Google Photos. The below picture was taken using the 5x telephoto shooter of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. I used Magic Editor on this image on my Pixel 8 Pro to move the vehicle around and increase its size. Google Photos could not detect the car fully, so I had to zoom in and carefully select the shadows surrounding the Audi. But that’s about it.
The final result left me stunned; I did not expect Magic Editor to do such a good job. And this worries me, as Magic Editor could act as a catalyst in spreading manipulated images.
Since Magic Editor works on non-Pixel photos (and only works with uploaded images in general), it should only be a matter of time before Google opens up the feature as a part of Google One to more smartphones — justlike it did with Magic Eraser.
Does Magic Editor live up to the hype?
Magic Editor lives up to the hype. The feature certainly works. But more than that, I realized that Magic Editor is not for everyone. If you are a power user or someone who tries to frame every shot before clicking the shutter button, you might not find Magic Editor that useful. This is unlike Magic Eraser, which has a much wider use case, like removing unwanted people or objects from your images.
More importantly, Google should make it easier to determine when an image has been modified using Magic Editor. As the technology behind the tool evolves and becomes even better, Magic Editor could be used to spread fake photos during emergencies, which could have serious real-life implications.
Google Pixel 8
The Google Pixel 8 has all the smarts it needs to make Magic Editor run, so right now, it’s your cheapest avenue to trying out the AI-powered image editor. Beyond that, the Pixel 8 is a great phone in and on itself, with seven years of updates, great haptics, a bright screen, and more.
Google Pixel 8 Pro
The Google Pixel 8 Pro is the phone to get when you don’t only want to rely on Magic Editor but also on a great camera setup. Its telephoto and wide-angle cameras are significantly better than what the Pixel 8 offers.
