2019: The Year in Smartphone Cameras (Premium)

The conversation about the top smartphone cameras has revolved around Huawei and Google in recent years. But that all changed in 2019. Thanks to the unexpected and profound improvements to its computational photography capabilities, Apple vaulted into the top tier of smartphone camera makers for the first time.

Don’t misunderstand what this means: The latest Google and Huawei handsets outperform Apple’s latest entries in some key areas. But I’m arguing that there is no longer any way to declare that such and such a smartphone as the best overall camera system. Instead, each wins in one or more categories. And that means that the conversation has changed: It’s no longer possible to choose a single handset if the quality of the camera is your number one criteria for choosing a new phone.

That’s a big deal. But it’s an even bigger deal that Apple is even part of this conversation, let alone a contender alongside Google and Huawei. Apple has never had the best smartphone camera despite the constant boasting by executives on stage at company press events. Now, it’s damned close.

How this happened is a topic that many will debate and dissect, especially Apple’s fans. But in some ways, the story of how Google failed to impress in 2019, despite delivering its own best-ever camera system in the Pixel 4 family, is just as important.

2019 should have been a victory lap for Google. The firm had impressed photography experts and enthusiasts over 3.5 generations of Pixel handsets and at least one generation of Nexus phones, and the storyline was solid: Thanks to computational photography, built on Google’s key strengths in AI and machine learning, the company’s handsets delivered incredible quality with just a single camera lens. In fact, it routinely beat the competition across the board until Huawei, another AI and ML powerhouse, stepped up its game, starting in late 2017.

Many were imagining the heights to which Google’s camera systems would rise when the firm finally moved to multi-lens camera systems. But with Huawei already ahead or even in some areas and with Apple surging to prominence this past fall, Google’s late 2019 entries were lackluster by comparison. The jump to two lenses seemed less impressive, given that Apple, Huawei, and others have three. And Google’s tone-deaf denunciation of ultra-wide cameras lenses rang hollow: That’s one of the best features of other camera systems, and it’s sorely missed on Pixel 4.

Don’t get me wrong, the Pixel 4 camera system is fantastic, and it still offers the best night-time and low-light performance, while providing a unique astrophotography feature that the competition will need to address in future years. But iPhone fans can make a compelling case for that platform’s triple camera system, with its ultra-wide lens and market-leading video-taking capabilities.

Apple’s camera experience does leave me flat in a few areas: I find that too many shots...

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