For the higher a part of a decade, Google has owned the cellular pictures house. Relationship again to, arguably, the very first Pixel in 2016 — and if not, then certainly its successor fashions a yr later — Google’s in-house smartphone ambitions felt born out of a need to shake up what a regular smartphone digital camera may do. At the same time as sensors had been reused time and again, Google discovered the fitting touches inside its software program and the processing carried out on each single shot, resulting in a world the place Apple and Samsung seemingly couldn’t compete.
In 2025, although, I’ve to confess I am beginning to bitter on Google’s present digital camera high quality. There are many causes as to why the Pixel lineup does not really feel indisputably on the prime of its photographic recreation anymore, starting from a scarcity of guide management over the looks of my images to a crutch-like lean on Extremely HDR processing. As a lot as I would like Google’s total taste of Android, I am simply unsure I see the digital camera as an actual promoting level in 2025.
Google’s obsession with AI-powered perfection is basically turning me off
Hey Google, the place’d my distinction go?
Let’s be clear about one factor: I do not assume the Pixel 9 sequence — no matter mannequin — takes unhealthy images. Once I first reviewed the Pixel 9 Professional final August, I (rightfully) heaped loads of reward onto its digital camera system:
Taking a look at my earliest samples taken for this evaluation, pictures taken on Pixel stay my absolute favourite captured by a smartphone. Google’s gadgets are a dependable solution to level, shoot, and seize recollections, which might’t be mentioned about each smartphone. I do not consider myself as a very sturdy photographer, however the Pixel 9 Professional makes me really feel like one.
Learn our evaluation
The Google Pixel 9 Professional is the Goldilocks flagship we have been ready for
Not too huge, not too small; excellent
Wanting again by means of my picture samples, I can fully perceive how I might attain that conclusion. From capturing the marriage of two shut pals to taking images within the park at nightfall, I’ve taken loads of actually wonderful images with the Pixel 9 Professional (and, to a lesser extent, the Pixel 9 Professional Fold, which holds up properly in opposition to its foldable competitors). However regardless of all the hype surrounding Google’s computational pictures abilities and AI-assisted instruments, I am simply unsure the final time I noticed a serious enchancment in how Google’s images really look.
Google’s all the time taken a gradual method to {hardware} upgrades — it basically used the identical digital camera sensor from the Pixel 2 by means of the Pixel 5 with nothing however essentially the most minor of adjustments. Within the 2010s, getting by on improved algorithmic adjustments to how that very same sensor was capturing the surroundings round it was greater than sufficient, particularly with pictures wizard Marc Levoy on the wheel. Levoy left Google simply shy of 5 years in the past, in March of 2020, a very chill month the place so many occasions occurred, it took till Could for anybody to even discover.
I will make it simple on you — listed below are my Pixel 9 Professional picture samples, as seen in final yr’s evaluation.
We have seen a handful of {hardware} adjustments since then, however none large enough or significant sufficient to essentially have an effect on how finish customers take into consideration the Pixel. It is nonetheless the “greatest smartphone digital camera you should buy,” which suggests a very totally different factor within the US than it does within the overwhelming majority of the remainder of the world. As an alternative, all the pieces now’s about AI.
For the reason that launch of the Pixel 6 sequence, we have seen Google push all of its photographic chips in on the idea of machine studying. Every step of the method has pushed the boundaries of what we’re or will not be comfy with relating to automated picture edits. Need to erase one thing within the background of your shot? Magic Eraser has your again. Need to transfer somebody nearer into the group? Magic Editor takes issues to the following stage. Need to ditch the foolish faces your children made whereas using a merry-go-round at Disney? With AI, something is feasible, as long as each picture seems as sterile as potential.
Return and skim the remainder of the digital camera part in my Pixel 9 Professional evaluation, all the pieces I wrote below the blurb I included above. Google’s thrown a lot on the wall this era, I barely have any time to speak about how the precise images look earlier than I’ve to dive deep into discussing among the very instruments I’ve laid out above. In the meantime, relating to the general high quality of the pictures, they’re… positive? Actually within the higher echelon of what yow will discover at your native Verizon retailer, however a far cry from the leaps-and-bounds Google made in opposition to its competitors within the earliest days of Pixel.
Whereas it is simple responsible Google’s deal with AI for this alteration — it is definitely responsible for loads of different issues — I additionally assume the corporate, like Apple and Samsung, have determined that crafting as flat a picture as potential is what shoppers need. That is how you find yourself with photographs the place shadows look as overexposed because the solar shining round them. Certain, it is positive for posting to social media in one in all your many picture dumps, however they lack the pure distinction or depth that makes a very nice picture pop.
At night time, issues get even worse, as Google’s processing chooses to brighten total scenes moderately than work with current gentle sources. Sure, there’s technically extra element than ever — it isn’t exhausting to zoom in on an evening shot and discover particulars in bushes or leaves that you simply in all probability would not have seen out of your Pixel 2 — however a whole lot of the time, the ultimate outcome finally ends up wanting overprocessed and faux. Evaluating images from the Pixel 9 to its older predecessors, I am unable to deny that Google’s picture high quality has clearly improved. However do I like these photographs greater than what I used to be getting in 2017, 2018, and even 2019? Not significantly.
Google can win me again, however it may take effort
And I am unsure the corporate cares
In truth, I am modifying greater than ever. Whereas the samples in my evaluation are untouched — as they’re in each evaluation, excluding fixing unrotated photographs and downsizing file dimension — as soon as that evaluation wrapped, I discovered myself tapping the edit button in Images much more than I ever beforehand wanted. It is potential to get some really jaw-dropping photographs out of the Pixel 9 Professional, however in nearly each case, you may must tweak your shade settings within the gallery app of your selection. I am speaking white steadiness, saturation, and above all else, distinction — all issues, I believe, that might be dealt with behind the scenes.
If Google needs to make its picture efforts really feel a little bit extra thrilling to these of us who know our approach round Photoshop or Lightroom, it has a number of strikes it will possibly make. On the software program aspect, taking a web page out of the OnePlus playbook may make for a reasonably compelling expertise. Whereas the Hasselblad partnership began off as a advertising and marketing gimmick, it is since reworked into, in my eyes, among the best examples of shade science on a smartphone. The OnePlus 13 makes use of distinction in virtually each shot it takes, all with out dropping out on element, creating photographs that really feel vibrant in a approach the Pixel’s images don’t.
In my eyes, OnePlus is now leagues above the place I’ve seen different corporations, frankly, and it will solely get higher on future gadgets. I am not saying Google ought to exit and get some type of Hasselblad-esque partnership. Reasonably, rethinking the colour science behind each picture you’re taking — moderately than merely attempting to make all the pieces look seen — may end in an enormous enchancment. On the very least, I believe it is value Google optimizing how these closing images seem after processing.
On the {hardware} aspect, I might like to see Google transfer to meaningfully enhance the sensors it selects on new telephones. Google is amongst these manufacturers who’ve crossed properly over the 4 digit mark, and I might prefer to see its specs match that price ticket. Why not pair its AI optimizations — which, for higher or worse, are the very best within the recreation — with higher {hardware}? What’s stopping Google from being the primary firm to ship a 1-inch sensor inside a cellphone formally bought within the US? Why should not the Pixel workforce push boundaries whereas enjoying inside an area that has grown more and more stagnant all through this decade?
I might additionally prefer to echo what my fellow AP editor Taylor Kerns wrote about final month, and that is the necessity for one thing like Photographic Types on Android. Apple launched its up to date Photographic Types characteristic with the iPhone 16 final yr, and whereas actively utilizing it’s about as user-hostile as most of Apple’s current-day software program — get higher, Apple — it is the right middleground, permitting for these of us who need further distinction or a hotter look in our images to get them with out having to edit the shot each single time.
I nonetheless love the Pixel sequence, and I am excited for the Pixel 10 Professional (to not point out the Pixel 10 Professional Fold, which can possible take the OnePlus Open 2’s spot because the foldable I am significantly hyped to see this yr). But when Google needs to maintain me round as a consumer outdoors of evaluation durations, it must refocus on producing higher photographs, and never simply tossing in additional AI-powered modifying tips. Till then, I am left questioning whether or not the Pixel 9 Professional has actually earned a spot in my pocket, or if that upcoming mini OnePlus 13T would possibly take it for good.