Pixel smartphone camera review: At the top (opens in new tab)

> On my Nexus 4, this is no longer the case as you cannot remove Google's apps and they frequently require updates

While I don't think you can properly "uninstall" Google+ and Hangouts, you can "disable" them, which makes them inaccessible. I don't think you get updates pushed for disabled apps, either.

May be for Nexus 4, but I can uninstall those Google apps from my Nexus 5x, just tested.

I run copperheados and have completely removed google from my phone.

Just root your phone? It's not rocket science for us techies.

Nexus phones have never been about about an "lightweight Android installation or minimal apps" but no crappy heavy skins (TouchWiz) and no 3rd party or carrier apps.

Your point is still valid, but I think you can at least disable the built-in apps. This way the won't require updates and will not clutter your apps list. They still take up space on the internal storage though.

The Pixel phone also reserves a copy of the system partition, so you can update faster (all those 2 times per year that a big update happens), so double the bloat.

Can't forget the quality of the optics, either.

With a 6s or SE or higher you can shoot DNG as well and compare to what Apple spits out of their image processor. I played around in Lightroom for a little bit and the differences were definitely there.

> Based on what we're seeing here, there might be a viable competitor to the iPhone in this space, but that hasn't really been the case until now.

Let's stop perpetuating this falsehood. Agreed that iPhones produce great results. But as you can see from the previous and current DxOMark results, there have been several cameras that had better image quality than the iPhone. High end Samsung and Sony cameras have been consistently good for a while.

I'm not sure about that. DxO rates Sony's very highly, and they're by far the most objective of all the camera ratings.

Sony gets a lot of hate online from people comparing full-resolution pictures at 100%. Sony has been using 23MP/25MP sensors in their own phones for a while, but in auto mode images are supersampled to 8MP. In manual mode you can use the full resolution. People always compare the full 25MP pictures at 100% to full 12MP pictures from other devices at 100%. And at that point, they will indeed look a bit less good and less detailed. At Sony's default 8MP things actually do look great. And their camera apps are pretty good too.

I have to chime in to backup the others here that despite my absolute love affair with the Z3 compact (I had one stolen after a year and bought another immediately to replace it cause I loved the battery life and form factor so much), the camera really was a big letdown. My second Z3 compact finally broke and due to the fact that the current generation of Android devices lacks a sub 5-inch phone with as good of battery life as the Z3 compact had (I'm purposefully ignoring some great Chinese phones cause they lack licensing to be able to run on 4G/LTE in the USA), I ended up switching to iPhone 5 SE and entering iOS for the first time.

So yeah Sony, you used to have shit cameras but amazing battery life, but now the battery life is trending downwards, great job.

And yes everyone, if you look at just the hardware the Sony phone's cameras should be great, but the software and processing has always been so shitty that the pictures you get have been awful despite the great components.

Yeah, that's very strange. My Z5 Compact, for all its upsides, makes terrible photos. Which is strange, since reviewers were positive about it.

DxOMark certainly disagrees with you if you're talking stats. In the real world maybe, but then again, my Sony phone takes very good pictures.

Fujifilm and Canon still make their own sensors. Fuji's seem pretty good. Canon can't compete, opting to sell DSLRs to people already locked into their system.

There are a few other manufacturers, but Sony has pretty much cornered the market. Much in the same way Intel has when it comes to CPUs.

I know Aptina[1] has made sensors used in smartphones in the past. And was also the initial manufacturer for sensors used by Nikon in their 1 series mirrorless cameras.

Toshiba has manufactured some in the past, but sold their image sensor business to Sony[2] last year.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptina [2] http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/4/9848222/sony-buys-toshiba-...

The sensor is probably $1 each when bought in trays anyway, so even if they increased their prices 100%, manufacturers would just soak up the cost.

I have the Lumia 929 and it offers both jpg and raw at the same time. That means I get the best of both worlds. It also does a second or so of video before the pic is taken, which is pretty cool.

You're forgetting some people (like me) don't put price as the top factor. The OP3 is too big, I hate large phones. I also have this borderline allergic reaction to third-party skins after dealing with years and years of Samsung. Then there's the final nail in the coffin - bugs. I used to root and then roll cyanogenmod and there were always these small little bugs that never quite got worked out. I had the same issue with my original OP1, and it appears the same sort of thing exists with the OP3.

If oneplus worked with Google to put vanilla android | a fully supported bug free version | onto the OP3 I'd consider it, but the form factor would still likely be a deal breaker.

And yet, the OnePlus 3 sells a fraction of the amount that the Samsung Galaxy S7 sells.

It really seems like inexpensive high-end phones should sell like hotcakes, but in practice, it doesn't happen. It's arguably very possible that a $650 phone will sell better than a $450 phone even with the same components, because it'll get perceived as "high-end" in a way the inexpensive one wouldn't.

I think they have to price them this high because neither Verizon nor HTC have their logos on the phone. I think that may have cost Google, but of course, I'm just guessing/trying to rationalize why they feel they need to charge so much.

This is even more pronounced in Europe, in Germany OnePlus 3 costs 360€ (~$400) less than the baseline Pixel. Basically you'll get two OnePlus devices (399€) for the price of one Pixel (759€).

Another possible reason: you can price something higher with the intention of discounting it to drive sales later (especially after the early adopters pay full price). Generally, in consumer products at least, something for list $649 on sale for $499 will outsell something for list $499.

I'm not saying Google is doing this specifically, but I don't imagine they're as anti-discounting as Apple is.

May be more to it, if they position it at this level, there won't be much conflict of interest with their partners (Samsung, LG, et all), don't know, just a thought.

I think it's branding with an AI ecosystem. Assistant and VR will be their iMessage.

As someone who bought a Nexus 6P with the tagline 'Always New' and the full belief that I'd be receiving Google's latest and greatest software as soon as it was ready, I'm also hesitant. Being locked out of the new launcher, assistant and various other niceties simply because a phone with 'similar but slightly higher specs and a new name' has been released feels like a kick in the teeth to a long-time Nexus fan (I've had the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 5, Nexus 10 and Nexus 6P). Until 2 days ago it was Google's flagship model; now I'll probably get the new functionality later than iOS users.

First tablet I owned was a HP touchpad, got burned there so decided to go with a safer choice, a year later I bought the Surface RT, what a mistake.

I then had a Nexus 7 that after an update wouldn't turn on. I tried many things until finding on some random forum from another update that you had to hold the power button will holding the volume buttons and then insert the USB charger to start it....

I don't own a tablet anymore.

I just Google Hanged-out (Hungout?) with my mother on the N7 I bought for her a few Christmas' ago and it worked just fine (AFAIK there has been no firmware releases or upgrades that 'brick'ed it - but try this https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus7/comments/2egszj/2012_is_it_d... ). I'd be curious to know what version upgrade bricked you though.

My Nexus 4 is still my favorite form-factor/experience out-of-the-box for my "I just need quick access to my email and sometimes a camera-phone/video" purposes. It was exactly what I wanted in a phone - $200 - no contract, minimalist, no junkware, hackable out of the box, large enough to one-hand for my average male 5'10 hands, decent battery life.

Granted I actively try to stay away from technology when I'm not working - i.e. I mostly use it as an equivalent for a doctors' pager in case anything catastrophic happens. It's mostly used for GPS (which is pretty phenomenal), to listen to music, and track my speeds/path when I run, etc) so I'm certainly not the power-user who needs 16gb of RAM to support 100 active Safari tabs.

When this breaks, I'm going to upgrade just out of necessity at some point at which point, assuming this isn't cluttered with junkware it's one of the few phones I'm entertaining (since there's no real viable 'open' phone on the market right now, as far as I can tell). The alternatives I'm considering is going for one of those Asian vendors (Lenovo, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Huawei). My Euro and Asian friends say they're all are putting out quality (e.g. Samsung level) stuff with no contract lock-in .

Nexus 7, killed? Not sure how you followed it up if they bricked your device, but I owned both Nexus 7s and am still rocking the 2013 regularly.

Android OEM's need to start standardizing bootloader and driver support. Phones are a mature product, and anything I buy I expect to be able to upgrade for a good while longer than 2 years. If it's too much work for component manufacturers to maintain the updates, they need to take it out of their hands.

I agree I use iPhone 5S which is just fine and very likely to last 1 more year from now.

"Supported" -- I'm not sure if you've ever tried to use a last-gen iPhone device with the latest iOS release, but, every device I've ever owned was sketchy at best after the 1st hardware release, and completely unusable as of the 2nd. In my experience, it didn't matter if I upgraded to the S or full version model, this problem happened from 3->4, 4->5, and 5->6. I expect my wife, who is still an Apple user, to be asking me for the iPhone 7 before the year end because her phone is "a slow piece of shit".

That's not true. Apple owns the high end market almost entirely, so it's arguable that Android just isn't able to compete with Apple at that point. So the high price point will just keep the phone from selling at all.

Shutter lag seems to be a common problem with Android phones. Is this a hardware or software issue, or what? I've seen it even on newer phones, like the Nexus 5x.

They said they were able to make it fastest of all the phones they've tested.

I seem to recall them saying the Galaxy Nexus had zero shutter lag as well. Makes one wonder why this isn't the norm now.

Alternatively, double-click the lock button.

DoXMark is probably the only website that has a proper methodology for reviewing mobile phone cameras.

They are consistent, very indepth, have objective scoring metrics and haven't shown any bias towards any brand or maker.

The iPhone 7 plus isn't an easy phone to evaluate because it has dual cameras, reviews of other phones with dual cameras also tended to lag and those were simpler where the 2 cameras were identical and were used to speed up or add additional digital zoom whilst the iPhone 7P uses 2 different cameras.

The iPhone 7 review was up 20 days after it was announced, and effectively about 9-10 days after it has became available in Europe.

It's pretty laughable that pretty much the only objective source out there and the only one that has bothered to take a scientific approach to evaluating the quality of cameras for mobile phones is accused of bias and being a paid lip service just because their current methodology is not compatible with the iPhone 7 Plus not to mention considering that iOS 10 also lacks support for certain modes for the 7P, and they want to actually give it a proper review, which means put it in cases where both cameras can be measured objectively.

Or they are waiting for iOS 10.1 that includes full portrait mode. https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/21/hands-on-portrait-mode-beta-i...

That was a big selling point during the announcement of the iPhone 7+, so seems worth waiting for that feature to be ready before completing the review.

Or... or... they are waiting for the portrait mode to come out of beta. Just a thought.

Seems like a plausible conspiracy theory to me, but it's also a pretty honest way to be shady -- no compromise of the reviews themswlves.

Wow, they better have paid big for that.

Not really: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Smartphones-with-the-widest-c...

It's actually pretty mediocre. I was surprised when I read that it was only f/2.

With a modern low-noise DSLR sensor you might just be able to use that aperture indoors at ISO3200+ On a tiny phone sensor you'll need flash.

No, all 7 series Samsung phones have 1.7

It's really not weird at all, pretty much all high end phones use sensors from Sony because they make the best sensors for this specific application. Some of the phones I know of that had the IMX377: Nexus 5X Nexus 6P HTC One M10

It looks like the Pixel is using the IMX378 -- I'm not sure what differences there are between the IMX377 and IMX378.

It's also worth noting that there is a lot more that goes into a good camera system than the sensor

Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG, OnePlus and Sony all use sensors from the same manufacturer for their high-end models (and often just the same sensors). They're all Sony.

Well, like someone mentioned above, Sony is really dominating this market with its sensors. Which means it's not that strange to have a bunch of similar sized and prices phones use the same sensor.

They've been using the same SoC, memory, etc for years. To your point, it would be interesting to see a breakdown of how much the major Android phone manufacturers actually use unique hardware.

Mainly going by the camera specs: 12.3MP, f/2.0. And it "makes sense" for a phone maker to use the same sensor for two years in a row. At least I know Apple does that (sometimes even keeps it for 3 years, like it did with its first 8MP camera).

I think it would be weirder and less likely if they ordered a "next-gen" camera that had exactly 12.3MP resolution and f/2.0 lens, just as last year's camera. There's still a small chance I could be wrong, though, so just take it with a grain of salt. Perhaps Google will confirm it either way soon.

I've been hanging onto a samsung s4 loaner waiting for the pixel reveal. at CDN$1200 for the flagship, I have to balk.

The oneplus 3 is less than half the price. I can have a very good phone for $520 and save the "leftover" money to purchase the OP5 in 2018 which will probably trump the XL.

I think Google's following this strategy to show they're just as valuable as apple from a mobile device perspective, but they lost me. With the mid-range high-quality chinese phones available i can't justify flagship prices anymore

I think we're the same person :) I too have a nexus 5 that I'd been hoping to upgrade to a pixel, but after the released price yesterday I simply can't justify it. I ended up ordering a 32g Nexus 5x yesterday from newegg for $280 USD.

I am in the same boat (of waiting to update my Nexus 5, which I love dearly). What do you think of Moto Z Play---unlocked version coming at the end of the month? Inexpensive, a giant battery, USBC, quick charge, and reasonable price.

Oh, and internal addons are only useful where the case can come off!

I have been on the lookout for addons. The only ones I've seen so far for most models have been quite ugly external stickers that plug in to the usb port.

I was hoping the MotoZ would have a 'mod' that provided it, but the only mod they sell that provides wireless charging is also a massive backup battery and adds significant weight and thickness.

It's a single line, top to bottom at a slight angle to vertical, about two thirds of the way from left to right. I've lived with it since late June, waiting for the next Nexus. Doesn't seem to be getting worse!

I might hang on for another month or so, until a couple more potential replacements are released.

Cool. Liking the OnePlus so far?

I'm also kinda-sorta interested in the elephone "P9000 edge", but it seems to have been in "unconfirmed release date" hell for about 9 months.

Thanks for this! At least they are being more transparent than in the past.

By my calculations, Apple is doubling this (based on iPhone 5, and OS updates, not security updates). I think in $/month for disposable hardware like phones.

Plus, Apple's model is to charge for software development, while Google subsidizes it with ads/surveillance/platform lock-in. I'm happy to (and did, with the iPhone 6) pay 2x to opt-out of the OS-level surveillance.

So, for me, this phone is 4x more expensive than an iPhone. That takes real "courage". Of course, most people don't think like me, so they'll probably sell lots of these.

Unfortunately there are some models of the S4 which cannot run a custom rom (AT&T model, for example).

> I would rather worry about the non-replaceable battery and the missing microSD card slot.

You're one of the last few remaining ;)

What is more relevant than when it was released is when it was last sold as a new device through official channels. If a phone is for sale though a legitimate distributor, then I think it's reasonable to expect security updates for 3 years after that point.

Full res is exclusive to Pixel.

Images of such high resolution that the human retina can no longer resolve individual pixels. It's an Apple buzzword for High DPI. Back in the day Apple retina displays were way higher resolution than anything from their competitors. They even invested heavily in the manufacturing equipment themselves to push the technology forward, but nowadays screens with those sorts of resolutions are commodity.

It's one of those cases where Apple identifies a technological gap of a few years they can open up between them and the rest of the pack and then invests in stealing a march on everybody else. Eventually the others catch up, but meanwhile if you want the best in that category only Apple has it. Right now in screen tech it's wide colour gamut and 5K desktop displays.

Retina in this sense is an Apple marketing buzzword for high DPI anything. Back in the day they used to have higher DPI items, but today they still put 1080p displays on their 5.5" phones while most other flagships use 1440p in the same size display (and are thus much higher DPI).

High resolution images for High-DPI displays. Eg. 3200x1800 on a 13" screen.

Very impressive. I had no idea the software had gotten this good. Thanks for the links.

You can get some subjective improvement, although it's far from perfect. Eg:

http://avisynth.nl/index.php/External_filters#Deringing_.26_...

See also: https://people.xiph.org/~jm/daala/deringing_demo/

How is that relevant? Neither did iPhone 3G, but why would you compare Google's newest phone with iPhone 6s, when iPhone 7 is already out?

What I mean is that getting the label of the "best" phone camera isn't easy. Samsung and Apple basically go back and forth with each release. Then Google comes along with this brand new phone that pips the just-released iPhone 7. Impressive is all.

The reviewer took several shots in sequence to demonstrate the random nature of the auto HDR.

I'm just pondering how it happens. The HDR flag not a decision the software makes at the instant of capture. While composing the shot, there is a liveview from the sensor plus the processing pipeline, including the HDR processing. Does the user not realize/perceive that HDR is enabled before pressing the shutter?

I made a joke. (whether it is funny or necessary is another thing of course, I like humor and obviously I found it funny)

Furthermore my comment was also about the shot with the chair, showing very different framing for the pixel cam.