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In the last few years, we saw Google introduce computational photography and take the camera phone world by storm. The new Pixel camera outshot everything in the market and quickly took its place as the camera to beat. And a fanbase quickly grew out of this. Team Pixel was born, and since then, Google Pixel phones have been the de facto kings of smartphone photography.
Other manufacturers, like Apple, Samsung and Huawei, danced around – and a little below – Google Pixel phones for a while. It was clear that the competition were not resting on their oars. Gradually, Huawei began to deliver smartphones with cameras that produced better photos than Google Pixels. They kept pushing. The others too. And it has paid off, because, finally, the Google’s 2019 Pixel phone is so far down the list of best cameraphones that it is almost embarrassing. Is this the beginning of the decline of Team Pixel?
How will Team Pixel react to this development?
I am using data from DXOMARK. That is the outfit that conducts extensive real-world tests on smartphone cameras and then scores them. Some will argue that DXOMARK is not 100% accurate. Maybe so, but then it cannot be argued that their testing is flawed and so untenable. As a matter of fact, much of their scoring agrees with the conclusions of the best smartphone reviewers from around the world. That is proof of the validity of their testing. So, scores from DXOMARK are what I am using to draw up this list.
All the camera phones that beat Google Pixel 4
Here are all the camera phones that have been scored higher than Google Pixel 4 this year [1].
- Huawei Mate 30 Pro – 121 marks
- Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro
- Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus
- Huawei P30 Pro
- OPPO Reno 10x Zoom
- Samsung Galaxy S10 5G
- OnePlus 7 Pro
- Honor 20 Pro
- Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
- Google Pixel 4 – 112 marks
In all, we have 11 smartphones that have a better camera than the Pixel 4 and a total of 6 smartphone manufacturers that have multiple cameraphones that are better than Google’s latest. Huawei has 3. Xiaomi has 1. Apple has 1. Samsung has a whopping 4. OPPO has 1. And lastly, OnePlus has 1.
How is the mighty Google Pixel camera fallen. But let’s not make a big deal of this. It isn’t ther first time that a giant has fallen from the pedestal of superb camera phones. Nokia, for example, used to have the best cameras on smartphones for a while, but look where we are today. There is not a single Nokia phone on this list. No Nokia phone is in the top 10 best cameraphones today – and Google has just dropped out of the list too, seeing that the Pixel 4 is in the number 12 position.
How are the mighty fallen, indeed. This is a big blow to Team Pixel. But then, these are intensely competitive times in the smartphone world.
The brand to keep an eye on for the best camera phones is Huawei. The reigning champ is a Huawei, and there are 2 more Huaweis in the top 10 list. And we are still talking about the main camera. If we flip over to selfie cameras, here is what we get:
Best selfie cameras of 2019
- Huawei nova 6 5G – 100 marks
- Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G
- Asus Zenfone 6
- Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
- Huawei Mate 30 Pro
- Google Pixel 3
- Google Pixel 4
- Samsung Galaxy Note 9
- Huawei P30 Pro
- OnePlus 7 Pro – 86 marks
We see many of the same phones with the best rear cameras listed here as well, just in a different order. The Mate 30 Pro is here, as are Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G, Galaxy S10 Plus, Pixel 4, Huawei P30 Pro, and OnePlus 7 Pro.
Members of Team Pixel will be dismayed to see that the Pixel 3’s selfie camera scores higher than the Pixel 4’s. Was that Google doing a moonwalk?
Anyway, in all, we have 3 Huawei phones, 2 Samsung phones, 1 Asus phone, 2 Google Pixels, and 1 OnePlus phone among the best selfie camera. And once again, a Huawei takes the top spot. See what this is all pointing to? Watch out for Huawei. Of course, Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO and OnePlus are all in the game too and any of them can pull a huge surprise to upset things.
Team Pixel and Team Nokia: The Way the Cookie Crumbles
I mourn the fact that Nokia phones are not even on the radar anymore. The Nokia 9 PureView, while a powerful camera phone in its own right, is clearly not so friendly to non-professional photographers, as mentioned in my earlier article, 4 types of smartphones you are not likely to buy in 2019 . The consumer market is where the huge numbers are.
It is also sad that Google Pixel phones no longer have the brightest smartphone cameras on the block. This is a huge blow to Team Pixel, though I doubt that the above facts will shake their allegiance to Google. If anything, they will argue that their beloved Pixel phones are still the best thing since sliced bread.
The rest of us can humour them. We are pleasant like that. 😉
References
DX0MARK smartphone camera reviews: LINK .
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Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
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OnePlus Android 10 updates have rolled out to 4 smartphones on the Chinese company’s update schedule, and the first one started rolling out 3 weeks after Google released Android 10 .
After the launch of Android 10, it took only three weeks for the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro to begin to receive the update . That, ladies and gentlemen, was absolutely fantastic. Three weeks.
And then in December 2019, barely a month after, older OnePlus devices – 6 and 6T, began receiving the Android 10 update as well. This is amazing work by OnePlus.
By way of contrast, Nokia, who had been hailed as the champion of timely Android OS updates, pushed Android 10 to its first device to be updated in November. The Nokia 8.1 was that first Nokia smartphone to get updated. And it took another month for the next one. Android 10 update started rolling out to Nokia 9 PureView in December 2019.
According to Nokia’s Android 10 update schedule, the next smartphone to get updated will be the Nokia 7.1 and that will happen in December 2019. Everyone else on the schedule can expect to get Android 10 in early 2020.
Nokia is not rolling out Android 10 as fast as OnePlus is, and that is interesting because OnePlus phones have a custom user interface, OxygenOS, that has to be customized, while Nokia phones run stock Android. One wonders how OnePlus is able to pull off their customizations and testings so fast that they have four smartphones updated already.
The appeal of OnePlus Android 10 Updates
It is true that as far as visual appeal is concerned, OxygenOS is as close to stock Android OS as any custom UI can be. But visuals are only a part of the customizations. OxygenOS has plenty of features and tweaks baked into it, and those require time to put in place so they work seamlessly with an update.
It is true that Nokia has many more phones in its portfolio than OnePlus has, but that isn’t the issue here. The issue here is speed of rollout, which is crucial to every smartphone brand’s core fanbase. As far as I am concerned, there is no technically valid reason why the Nokia 9 PureView should not receive the Android 10 update the very day that Pixel and Essential phones did. All of them run stock Android afterall. But it has taken two months after Pixel and Essential smartphones got updated that the Nokia 9 is just getting a taste.
OnePlus fans must be ecstatic. The phone’s fanbase has been mostly the techie, geeky kind, and that class of users love their updates like the English love their tea, and Germans their beer. If anything, this superfast rollout of Android 10 has endeared them more to their favourite brand. Hopefully, OnePlus will keep this up.
The OnePlus Android 10 update adds many new features, including system-wide dark mode
One can only hope that Nokia will rise to this challenge and attempt to do better in 2020 with Android 11. Stock Android is good, but using stock Android OS in their phones should give them an edge in update rollout speed. So far, they have let fans down. Nokia still has the overall edge in that it guarantees 2 years of Android version updates and 3 years of security patches for all its smartphones. Not even OnePlus has made such a guarantee.
But as far as rollout speed is concerned, the Finnish smartphone maker is leaving core fans disappointed. By the end of 2019, only three older Nokia phones will be running Android 10, namely: Nokia 8.1, Nokia 9, and Nokia 7.1. In contrast, four OnePlus phones have it already, and a final one, OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, will be getting updated in early 2020.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
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Author:Mister Mobility
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