iPhones are very handy in taking kids pictures when you don't have time to go fetch a DSLR. Huawei P50 & Xiaomi seem to have better cameras but don't want to go anywhere near them.
Those who are interested in this area should check out their explainer article on what’s iPhone’s ProRAW format: https://lux.camera/understanding-proraw/
I’m from this field (tech for phone photography) and it was really helpful.
I've been looking at the Pixel 6 too, but the combination of much shorter OS support, and what sounds like an endless stream of bugs has really put me off. But I'm also wary of moving to iOS, I like the way Android works. I think Google do a better job with security, while being much worse on their own privacy practices. Neither look perfect at the moment.
I do find the HDR to be a bit in-your-face, even on "neutral" settings. Sunsets are very saturated when you want to take a picture of pastel shades. Cloudy or sunny skies are a bit hit or miss, often there are blown highlights. The lens also seems much more susceptible to flare at night than other phones I've used with the dreaded green dot - not something I ever noticed with the Pixel. Motion photos are pretty great, really handy for low-effort blur on moving water, although you have to use Photos. Google Photos will play the clip, but it won't do the long exposure/bounce modes. Also a pain if you subscribe to G Cloud (which can sync photos fine), because iCloud is incessant about not having enough backup space. I tried Halide, but I didn't see a significant advantage over Slow Shutter Cam which costs a couple of bucks - if you're going to shoot raw, you're going to edit it somewhere else anyway. Maybe aperture and focus control is worth it? The risk with shooting in RAW and post-processing, is that the camera isn't really that good compared to a larger sensor and you're relying on a huge amount of computational photography to fix those limitations. I did try some astrophotography resting the phone on the car roof, but it never really worked.
This part doesn't make a lot of sense. The iPhone 12 ultrawide is fixed focus, so it's sharp if your subject is at infinity (which is pretty close, given the focal length) and blurry if it's not. There's no reason why having a fixed focus should yield 'smudgy images'. I guess maybe the article is suggesting that the fixed focus is set at a hyperfocal distance to increase the sharpness of closer subjects. I'm not sure if that would really make sense for such a short focal length, though, as the majority of elements in the frame would typically be at infinity.
