Former Google Exec Praises iPhone Camera, Says Android Years Behind

Vic Gundotra, Google‘s former senior vice president of engineering, has said that Android phones are literally years behind the iPhone when it comes to photography.

In the Facebook post, Gundotra praised Apple for its camera on the iPhone 7 Plus, and panned the Android ecosystem for a slow march in photography technology because of how innovations need to propagate across the entire codebase.

Sharing two gorgeous photos of his children, Gundotra said the “end of the DSLR for most people has already arrived. I left my professional camera at home and took these shots at dinner with my iPhone 7 using computational photography (portrait mode as Apple calls it). Hard not to call these results (in a restaurant, taken on a mobile phone with no flash) stunning. Great job Apple.”

Gundotra, who led Google’s mobile efforts for a couple of years, helped create Google+, and is an avid photographer, claims that Android is actually “a few years behind” the iPhone for mobile photography, and that, if a user really cares about photography, he or she should get an iPhone 7 Plus.

“Android is an open source (mostly) operating system that has to be neutral to all parties,” Gundotra wrote in a reply. “This sounds good until you get into the details. Ever wonder why a Samsung phone has a confused and bewildering array of photo-options?”

“Apple doesn’t have all these constraints,” he continues. “They innovate in the underlying hardware, and just simply update the software with their latest innovations (like portrait mode) and ship it.”

Gundotra served as the Senior Vice President of Social Networking Services at Google — but not before he was the Vice President of Engineering for the company. He was responsible for developer evangelism, overseas applications development, and open source programs — specifically Android.

“Bottom line: If you truly care about great photography, you own an iPhone. If you don’t mind being a few years behind, buy an Android,” he concluded.

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.