Besides the pure Android experience you get from the Google Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel and Pixel XL, these four phones are among the best – if not the best – when it comes to smartphone photography.
While many will agree that the Nexus and Pixel phone cameras might look weaker on paper, especially when compared to other phones on the market, Google does a pretty good job when it comes to software optimizations. The result of this has always seen Google phones rank among the best in photography, with the latest Pixel phone topping the charts from 2016 with 89, at least until the recent release of the HTC U11, which has a DxOMark score of 90.
Still, there are some who will still disagree with DxO, arguing that the Google Pixel and Pixel XL still have the best cameras when compared to the U11.
That aside, Google has always insisted that the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X have the same camera lens, but the former gets its superior performances from the high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 compared to the Snapdragon 808 used in the latter. As for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, the quality is the same since both phones have the same Snapdragon 821 SoC.
Now, looking at these two pairs of phones, there’s no reason to believe that Google will come in with a different strategy. If anything, the camera that will be used on both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL will be one and the same, even if the two will be manufactured by different companies.
So far, there is nothing much to say about the cameras of the two phones, but recent developments suggest that the smaller Google Pixel 2 may use the same camera as the HTC U11, which should also mean the Pixel 2 XL will ship with the same camera. Of course, the hardware might be the same, but the software optimization of HTC and Google are levels apart. And this is what makes a perfect camera.
If the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL come with the same camera hardware package as the HTC U11, the two should become the best, especially after the search giant steps in with its camera software. We’ll have to wait until this fall to confirm this development, but you can be sure that the two Pixel 2 phones will have just about the same camera like previous pairings have had.