The Google Pixel 7 Pro’s Camera Has a Dumb, Totally Avoidable Flaw
A Camera That’s Hard to Beat, But a Design Flaw that’s Easy to Critique
A lot has been written about how incredible the Google Pixel 7 Pro’s camera is. The camera itself gets no beef from me. Last week at TechCrunch Disrupt, Brian and I were gawking in amazement at how well the 5x optical zoom lens does, for example. We had plenty of opportunities to contrast and compare.
During Disrupt, I was shooting with about $6,000 worth of camera equipment and as my files were downloading from my mirrorless camera’s SD cards, I snapped this photo:
Image Credits: Haje Kamps/TechCrunch
Granted, my dedicated Sony A7r3 with a 70-200 f/2.8 lens is still capable of taking better photos; a giant hunking piece of glass and a full-frame sensor is hard to beat:
Image Credits: Haje Kamps/TechCrunch
But let’s be clear — for the purposes of shooting pictures for the web, in good light, the Pixel 7 Pro gives it a pretty serious run for its money, at a fraction of the cost.
As soon as I saw the design of the Pixel 7 Pro (and, for that matter, the 7, which has the same stupid gaffe), however, I spotted a pretty fantastically stupid design flaw. That beautiful metal front surrounding the lenses does a great job for marketing purposes. If I point my Pixel 7 Pro at you, there’s no way you’ll mistake it for an iPhone, a Pixel 6 or any other camera on the market. Well done, Google’s industrial designers, for creating an eminently recognizable phone. No doubt, it’ll be a conversation starter for a lot of folks.
The Problem with Reflective Surfaces
The problem with adding any light or reflective surfaces, however, is that it becomes exponentially harder to take photos through reflective surfaces: windows, primarily. As a photographer, I wouldn’t generally recommend that you shoot through glass, but let’s be honest, sometimes we’re in a car, on a plane or in a building, and we might want to shoot a time-lapse or a photo or two. It’s a pretty common use case for most photography applications, which makes it all the harder to grok why Google went out of its way to make that experience worse.
This really is a Camera Design 101 choice of epic stupidity:
Image Credits: Haje Kamps/TechCrunch
A Simple Solution: Matte Black Vinyl
I have a number of friends who have vinyl cutters, and the solution is simple: a small strip of matte black vinyl covering up the high-gloss reflective surface on the front of the phone.
The Problem with Positioning Yourself as the Best Camera Phone
I might be the only person in the world who cares about this, so it feels silly even to complain, but damn it, Google Pixel is positioning itself as the best camera phone out there. If you’re going to make that claim, then you should live up to it and not include design flaws that are easily avoidable.
Conclusion
The Google Pixel 7 Pro’s camera is a mixed bag of wonder and frustration. While it performs incredibly well in many areas, its design flaw with reflective surfaces is a major annoyance for photographers who rely on taking photos through glass.
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