Stephen Headrick / Android Authority
What is a photo? I see that question on my timeline more and more, and as phone makers begin to introduce AI-enhanced photos, the question is valid. When Google announced 100x Pro Res Zoom on its new Pixel 10 Pro lineup — which uses AI to enhance a very digitally-zoomed-in photo — that question of what makes a photo a photo rang loudly in my mind. Does it really matter how the photo is created if you like the end result and it looks like what it’s supposed to look like? Well, that depends, and we’ll get to that, but first let’s dive in and take a look at what this 100x zoom looks like in real-life use.
Is AI okay in smartphone photography? 51 votes Yes, I just want the best photo possible. 35 % Yes, as long as it's not overdone. 39 % No, but I still use my smartphone camera a lot. 6 % No, and I actively avoid AI in my photography. 20 %
As far as the eye can see…and then some
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I was shocked the first time I scrolled all the way to the right on the zoom slider, snapped my photo, then watched the sparkles dance around on my screen as Google’s artificial intelligence worked to recreate and enhance what I only saw as a grainy, pixelated scene on my screen. Within a few moments, the dancing pixels dissolved to reveal the final result: an incredibly detailed and very accurate photograph of a scene that I could hardly see with my own eyes. Consider me mind-blown. That moment truly felt shocking.
100x zoom is far. Reeeeally far. Even before the AI processing, you see details on your screen that you’d never know were there; they’re just extremely pixelated. In the above photo, you can hardly see the church in the 1x photo, but thanks to Pro Res Zoom on the Pixel 10 Pro, I can get a good-looking shot right from where I’m standing. Just take a look at this photo of a hotel that I recently took in Phoenix, Arizona:
1x 100x, pre-processing 100x, post-processing
You’ll notice that the enhanced version of the photo does a good job of keeping the details true to life. Look at the stain on the building, for example. It’s there in the original photo, and it seems to hold it’s shape and color relative to the original photo, even after its been enhanced.
100x, pre-processing 100x, post-processing
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