This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

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

Considering who he is, this claim is getting some coverage. You might call up Gundotra would know the topic well enough to make his point ably, simply his rationale doesn't make any sense. Let'southward suspension information technology downward.

Gundotra joined Google in 2007 later many years at Microsoft. He started by pushing Google to get more serious about mobile apps, then went on to run the visitor'due south social efforts in 2022. And so, any insights he has on Google's mobile applied science are about 7 years out of appointment.

The Facebook post started innocently plenty, with Gundotra praising the iPhone vii Plus photo quality and noting that he doesn't employ his DSLR anymore. That'southward an experience many people take had in the final couple years as they stopped conveying around separate cameras. Nevertheless, someone in the comments said the Milky way S8 is even better in his opinion. Gundotra disagreed, blaming Android for an imagined problem, and this is where things go off the rail.

Gundotra swore he "would never utilise an Android phone for photos," complaining that Android is open source. Therefore, according to Gundotra, all the hardware innovations implemented by Samsung in its camera have to be "surfaced" via the appropriate API on Google'south finish, and that tin can take years. Except, that'due south in no way accurate. Samsung manages its own camera app and epitome processing algorithms (like all OEMs). Information technology doesn't have to wait on anyone else to implement APIs to make its camera work properly.

Vic-Gundotra-AliveCor

The comment too lamented the confusing assortment of photograph options. "Should I use the Samsung Photographic camera? Or the Android Camera?" Gundotra asked. At that place is, of course, no such thing as the "Android Camera," and the Galaxy S8 only ships with a single photographic camera app. He made a similar claim nearly the Samsung gallery versus Google Photos, which could be a valid business organization in some ways. Yet, that's irrelevant to image quality.

Gundotra likewise made the rather astonishing claim that Google has dropped the ball on computational photography. Nosotros've covered a few examples of the wild things Google is doing in this field, and anyone who has used a Pixel tin can tell you computational photography is live and well. The HDR+ image processing on that phone is magical.

Shaky reasoning bated, Gundotra is demonstrably wrong about the quality of Android telephone cameras. Sites like DxO and Consumer Reports list multiple Android phones equally the same or amend for photos compared with the iPhone seven. Likewise, phone reviewers like myself have been increasingly impressed with these devices. Whether or non you lot concord on all counts, Android phones are certainly not "years behind" the iPhone as Gundotra claims.

It seems like Vic Gundotra still thinks he's an dominance on mobile technology, but in reality, his cognition is several years out of date. Yous tin accept great photos on Android — full terminate.

Now read: 25 All-time Android Tips to Make Your Phone More than Useful