Midjourney V8 pre-release coverage is worth reading to calibrate expectations before the model becomes the default
Enhanced text rendering being reliable enough for practical in-image text, improved body coherence for hands and faces addressing the long-standing weak points of V7, and stronger prompt adherence reducing the gap between what you specify and what gets generated are the three improvements the pre-release coverage frames as the core V8 advances.
The optional 2K resolution mode being approximately six times more expensive than 1K at launch is the quality-cost tradeoff that changes the economics of resolution for different use cases. Understanding the cost difference before the model launches means you can make an informed decision about when to use the higher resolution rather than discovering the cost difference after running several high-resolution jobs.
V8 not being the default model at launch, requiring explicit selection initially, is the adoption path that means your existing workflows continue on V7 until you choose to evaluate V8. That is the right approach for evaluating a new model without disrupting production workflows.
What specific improvement in V8 are you most interested in testing against your current V7 workflow?