// 9TO5GOOGLE — MOBILE & WEB
The real reason to buy a Pixel 11 Pro
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I’ve owned every phone Google’s ever had a hand in, from the original Nexus One to the heavily subsidized Nexus 5 to the iconic Pixel 6 all the way to today’s Pixel 11. The early days of the Nexus were largely about buying a commodity piece of hardware built by a trusted manufacturing partner — often Samsung, LG, Huawei, or Motorola — and imbuing it with Google’s tasteful (and bloatware-free) build of Android.
But in 2014, with the debut of the Nexus 6 (aka The Whale), Google started experimenting with HDR+ bracketing, and over the years became the de facto leader in computational photography. Now the photo you take on any phone runs through a similar pipeline of multi-frame ingestion, bracketing, sharpening, color correction, and de-noising until it spits out something that may barely resemble the scene you actually framed.
Recently, as AI has infiltrated the photo-taking and editing process, we’ve seen strong pushback from phone users, particularly young ones, who are keen to embrace a more true-to-life aesthetic. Not only have mid-2000s digicams exploded in popularity, but apps like ZeroCam and ProShot on Android, and Halide on iOS, have become common downloads for many would-be photographers.
A few generations after Apple introduced Photographic Styles for its iPhones, Google’s Camera Looks feature takes a broader approach, with fewer specific filters (10 in total compared to Apple’s 15) but more ways to customize them: shadows, highlights, vibrance, sharpness, grain, tint, and warmth. As with all new Google products, Camera Looks has its quirks, but it’s a step in the right direction for people who demonstrably want less processing and more control over the photos they take.
For me, a Pixel phone’s greatest strength has always been how opinionated Google is about the way an owner should use its software. But in recent years, the company has eschewed the contrasty palette of early HDR+ for a more uniform, vibrant, and flat photo output that usually looks good but lacks distinctiveness. This is Google’s way of course-correcting, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a good start.
Read more: Camera Looks on the Pixel 11 delivers what I’ve wanted from Google’s photos for years
It didn’t take long for someone to vibe-code a solution to the Pixel 11’s barebones HiLight feature.