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Sample footage of Google Pixel’s camera capabilities is pretty impressive

by 3 Comments

google_pixel_footage

Google’s Pixel phone has received a lot of attention since it was announced just a few short weeks ago. This attention is most notably caused by its camera. After quite a boastful announcement, DxOMark gave it the highest score it’s ever given to a mobile device. There’s a little sample footage out there now, but not a lot of it shows off the true range of capabilities.

YouTubers Nat and Lo were given a pair of Google Pixel phones for a day to go and play with. And play they did. They tested many of the phone’s features on both the front facing 1080p and rear facing 4K cameras. They shot in bright outdoor and dark indoor conditions, and discovered a couple of very neat features.

A neat feature is the ability to switch the camera around between front & rear with just a flick of the wrist. Most of the camera apps I’ve seen have the button to switch cameras up near the top of the screen, and if your other hand’s busy, it can be a pain to switch. So, pretty cool for quickly switching to grab a selfie.

flick_to_switch_cameras

The Pixel’s camera contains 12.3MP 1/2.3″ chip with a 6 element f/2.0 lens. It has on-sensor phase detection with laser assist and a gyroscope based electronic video stabilisation system. I have to say, it certainly seems to be one of the better electronic image stabilisation systems I’ve seen.

google_pixel_stabilisation

The autofocus also seems to be ridiculously quick.

google_pixel_fast_af

Despite not having dual cameras, the Google Pixel also seems to do quite well with faking depth of field. It’s still not perfect, though. You can see in the sample below that the Godzilla toy on her shoulder is blurred just as much as the rest of the background.

fake_depth_of_field

But for only having a single lens, it’s a fairly impressive result. Your mileage may vary, though, and other comparisons have shown that it’s not always so great. Of course, neither is the iPhone 7 Plus.

So, if you’ve recently returned your Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and are wondering what to pick up as a replacement, the Google Pixel looks like it could be a very viable alternative. That is, if you haven’t already switched to the other side and picked up an iPhone.

What do you think? Does the Google Pixel look like it could be your next phone? How do you think it compares to what we’ve seen from the iPhone 7 & 7 Plus? Let us know in the comments.

[via DPReview]

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  • …another month, another “best phone camera ever made”…

  • JMB

    Google gives a pair of phones (and payment) to a pair of YouTubers — basically they hired these people to make a commercial for their phone.

    And that’s fine — nothing wrong with savvy marketing.

    But you watch their videos and take that as an accurate review of the phone’s capabilities? That’s kinda ludicrous.

    For the record: Most reviewers (the ones who work for journalistic outfits, who don’t get paid by Google) have said — DxOMark’s rating notwithstanding — the camera is pretty meh compared to the other top performers out there. And also: electronic stabilization is fine, but it’s not anywhere near as effective as optical image stabilization.

    • JMB

      Strike that. The “youtubers” are Google employees, whose job it is to make videos about how awesome Google is. (Again — nothing wrong with that.)

      So basically you watched an advertisement and wrote a blog post about it? Jesus.

      (I guess that’s how you know a site is no longer worth reading. Sigh.)

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