Ex-Google SVP Feels Android Phones Are ‘Years’ Behind iPhone Photography

It’s no secret that a lot of people prefer iPhones because Apple’s smartphones are known to offer an impeccable photography experience. Android OEMs have been rushing to catch up to the iPhone in terms of imaging prowess over the past few years and some claim that their devices can do better than the iPhone. That’s not how the ex-Google senior vice president of social Vic Gundotra feels. He thinks that Android handsets are “years” behind the iPhone as far as photography is concerned.

In a Facebook post, Gundotra praised the quality of the iPhone 7 Plus camera, saying that he left his professional camera at home and took “stunning” photos with his smartphone.

One of his followers commented that the Galaxy S8 has a better camera but Gundotra disagreed, going so far as to say that “I would never use an Android phone for photos!.”

According to Gundotra, the reason why Android smartphones lag behind iPhones in photography is the Android operating system. Gundotra says that the greatest innovation in photography is not happening at the hardware level but at the computational photography level.

Apple doesn’t have the same constraints that Android OEMs do, he says, so the company can not only innovate with the actual camera hardware but also fine tune the software to provide the best possible imaging performance.

On the other hand, Android OEMs can only innovate on the hardware level and then convince Google to allow that innovation to be surfaced to other apps using the appropriate APIs. “That can take YEARS,” says Gundotra.

Many will find it difficult to agree with Gundotra here. In our own roundup of the Best Phone Camera, we found that the iPhone could only take the #4 spot. The Galaxy S8 took the first spot.

What do you think, do you agree that iPhones tend to be better at photography compared to Android flagships?

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: iPhone, _cold