30 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 68
occasionally feature more muted colours thanks to
different exposure.
The main lens is similar to last year’s from a
hardware perspective (12.2Mp, f/1.7) but Google’s
continued to improve things on the software side –
though for the most part photo quality is on a par
with the Pixel 3, with the same distinctive Pixel tone
and slight blue-leaning colour palette. For one, the
HDR Plus effect is now applied to the viewfinder
- not just the final shot – so that what you see
as you line your photos up will be a much closer
approximation of the end result.
This ‘Live HDR’ is one of those wonderful quality
of life features that you’ll forget about as you get
used to the phone, but helps make the Pixel 4’s
camera even better if you just want to point-and-
shoot and know what you’re going to get. It doesn’t
apply to the Night Sight or Portrait modes sadly – the
former because it relies on long exposures, and the
latter because Google says the live previews aren’t
good enough yet, but I’d be surprised if it doesn’t
appear as an over-the-air update or in next year’s
probable Pixel 5.
Even better is Dual Exposure, which adds a second
brightness slider to the main camera. While one
handles overall brightness the other only brightens
shadows and dark areas, letting you dynamically
alter exposure in the simplest possible way. It lets
you manage light levels in shots with a high dynamic
range, either to fine tune the algorithm’s suggestions
or to go to extremes to get arty silhouette shots
straight out of the main camera app.
