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For a long time, the iPhone was the indisputable male monarch of mobile photography. Even those of us who used Android phones were doing information technology for other reasons, but you don't have to brand that sort of trade-off anymore. At that place are plenty of Android phones with a good camera, and even some with amazing cameras. Don't tell that to former Google SVP Vic Gundotra, who opined on his Facebook page recently that Android phones are bad for photography.

Considering who he is, this merits is getting some coverage. You might think Gundotra would know the topic well enough to make his point ably, but his rationale doesn't make whatsoever sense. Let'south pause information technology down.

Gundotra joined Google in 2007 later on many years at Microsoft. He started past pushing Google to go more serious virtually mobile apps, and so went on to run the company'southward social efforts in 2010. So, any insights he has on Google'south mobile engineering are about 7 years out of date.

The Facebook post started innocently enough, with Gundotra praising the iPhone vii Plus photo quality and noting that he doesn't use his DSLR anymore. That'due south an experience many people have had in the terminal couple years as they stopped carrying around split cameras. However, someone in the comments said the Galaxy S8 is even improve in his stance. Gundotra disagreed, blaming Android for an imagined trouble, and this is where things get off the rails.

Gundotra swore he "would never utilize an Android phone for photos," complaining that Android is open up source. Therefore, according to Gundotra, all the hardware innovations implemented by Samsung in its photographic camera have to be "surfaced" via the appropriate API on Google's end, and that can have years. Except, that's in no mode accurate. Samsung manages its own camera app and prototype processing algorithms (like all OEMs). It doesn't take to await on anyone else to implement APIs to brand its photographic camera work properly.

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The comment besides lamented the confusing array of photo options. "Should I use the Samsung Camera? Or the Android Camera?" Gundotra asked. There is, of course, no such thing as the "Android Camera," and the Galaxy S8 only ships with a unmarried photographic camera app. He fabricated a similar merits about the Samsung gallery versus Google Photos, which could exist a valid concern in some ways. However, that'southward irrelevant to image quality.

Gundotra also fabricated the rather astonishing claim that Google has dropped the brawl on computational photography. We've covered a few examples of the wild things Google is doing in this field, and anyone who has used a Pixel tin tell you computational photography is alive and well. The HDR+ paradigm processing on that telephone is magical.

Shaky reasoning aside, Gundotra is demonstrably wrong about the quality of Android phone cameras. Sites like DxO and Consumer Reports listing multiple Android phones as the same or better for photos compared with the iPhone vii. Likewise, phone reviewers like myself take been increasingly impressed with these devices. Whether or not y'all agree on all counts, Android phones are certainly not "years behind" the iPhone equally Gundotra claims.

It seems similar Vic Gundotra still thinks he's an authorisation on mobile technology, but in reality, his knowledge is several years out of engagement. Y'all can take smashing photos on Android — full stop.

Now read: 25 All-time Android Tips to Brand Your Telephone More Useful