Apple didn’t have much to show in the way of AI camera features at WWDC 2025, with its AI-powered Siri delayed until next year. Google, meanwhile, has turned the Pixel 10 series into a photography powerhouse, rolling out camera upgrades that make the iPhone’s updates look modest by comparison.
Google has shared ten of the top features of its new Pixel 10 series cameras and for now, until we find out what’s new in the iPhone 17 series next month, it looks like Apple has been beat.
The base Pixel 10 now gets a 5x telephoto lens, offering sharp 10x optical-quality zoom and up to 20x with Google’s Super Res Zoom.
On the Pro models, a redesigned stabilization system doubles the range of compensation, making both photos and videos far steadier, especially when combined with Google’s Video Boost. The Pro phones can also shoot full 50MP high-resolution photos, with refinements to Portrait Mode that produce sharper details, textures, and more natural depth.
Google’s AI is baked deeply into the camera, which is far ahead of Apple right now. A new feature called Camera Coach uses Gemini models to guide users in framing and composition, essentially teaching photography skills as you shoot. Seeing the demo from the Made by Google video really shows how AI is making taking photos so much easier for photography newbies.
At the same time, Pro Res Zoom pushes into 100x zoom territory on the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL, relying on Tensor G5’s AI processing to recover fine details that would normally be lost at that distance. Group shots also get smarter with Auto Best Take, which scans up to 150 frames to find the perfect moment where everyone looks good—or blends one together if no single frame works.
Editing is now as simple as typing a request in Google Photos. Users can say things like, “remove the glare and add clouds to the sky,” and the edits are handled automatically, which is a massive time saver.
Accessibility has also improved, with Guided Frame using audio cues, vibrations, and AI-generated scene descriptions to help blind and low-vision users take photos on their own. Panorama mode has been expanded with support for telephoto shots up to 100MP, while Pixel Fold users can instantly preview photos without leaving the camera viewfinder.
Google has also built in Content Credentials, embedding metadata into every image to show how it was created, an industry-first step toward transparency in an era of AI-edited photos.
While Apple plays catch-up with AI, Google’s Pixel 10 cameras are setting the pace — and for now, it looks like the iPhone’s lead in mobile photography has slipped.
At WWDC 2025, Apple announced updates to the iPhone Camera app in iOS 26, focusing on a redesigned interface and integration with the Liquid Glass design. The app has a simplified layout with Photo and Video buttons on the main screen, with a swipe to access modes like Slow-Mo and Cinematic.
Apple has tweaked the Camera settings, which are now accessed by tapping at the top, showing toggles for adjustments like FPS and resolution. A new feature, AirPods Camera Control, lets users press the stem of AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with ANC, or AirPods Pro 2 to take photos or start/stop video recording remotely. These changes align the Camera app with iOS 26’s translucent design and add hands-free control functionality.
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Are you really taking a photo when Ai is making modifications to it? Maybe there should be some sort of disclaimer that a photo that was taken has had help from Ai.
I know Apple has always tried to reproduce the same image as you see it.
Use of the generative AI in Pro Res Zoom on occasion is highly problematic because instead of “filling in” the missing details, AI hallucinates and generates non-existing artifacts that don’t exist in the original photo. I just saw an example over at CNET, where at 100x zoom, the Pro Res Zoom generative AI turned the jet plane in the sky into an strange bundle of stick like objects.
Does the Pixel have 100x digital AI zoom like with Samsung? I didn't think so.