Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The Pixel 10 Pro sits in quite an awkward spot this year. The main differentiator between the standard Pixel and the Pro model has long been the third camera, but that gap closed with the Pixel 10 also rocking a three-cam setup this time. Getting a solid telephoto camera on a $200 cheaper phone already sabotages the 10 Pro’s position as the real ‘Pro’ for most people.
Since Google’s phones are known for cameras — they are called Pixels after all — the Pixel 10 Pro could’ve redeemed itself by offering better hardware. And I don’t mean the sensor or the lens, which are indeed an improvement over the 10. What I’m talking about is the supplementary camera hardware — something the iPhone 16 Pro Max does so much better that I wish the Pixel 10 Pro had stolen.
Which phone takes better portraits in your experience? 20 votes Pixel 70 % iPhone 5 % Samsung 15 % Other brands 10 %
Pixel cameras haven’t got it anymore
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
I remember the days when Pixels were the benchmark among smartphone cameras — a similar state to where Google’s on-device AI sits today. Google had nailed computational photography, and its older sensors didn’t matter much because the output was so good and instantly recognizable as a ‘Pixel image.’ But that head start is gone, and every other company has caught up.
Asian smartphone brands have upped their game so much that you’d want to ditch a Pixel for an Oppo Find X8 Pro. Sure, Pixels have fun features like Add Me, but Oppo turned out much better at sheer image quality — you know, the basic task of a camera. The same is true for Xiaomi and Vivo. One of my friends even replaced his DSLR with the Vivo X100 Pro for product photography, and the Pixel wasn’t even in contention.
Sure, Pixels have fun features like ‘Add Me,’ but Oppo turned out much better at sheer image quality.
Recent Pixels haven’t been improving iteratively either; on the contrary, they’ve actually been getting worse. Time and again, we’ve seen color tuning go off the rails, leaving photos looking like dull blobs from a cheap throwaway camera instead of a flagship phone. Plenty of Pixel users complain about algorithms butchering colors so much that the final photo looks nothing like what they saw in the viewfinder.
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