This $500 Android telephone reveals what Google received flawed with the Pixel 11 digital camera

Google launched the Pixel 11 collection a bit below a month in the past, and there’s rather a lot to love right here. All 4 telephones provide extra succesful silicon, nifty AI tips, some cool digital camera options, and a prolonged software program replace coverage.

Sadly, the usual Pixel 11 lacks many digital camera options in comparison with the Pixel 11 Professional collection. And a model new $500 Android telephone from a rival producer drives residence simply how absurd Google’s observe round this continues to be.

I’ve been utilizing the brand-new Redmi Observe 17 Professional Max for a few days, and it stands out because of a ten,000mAh battery. Actually, Xiaomi guarantees three days of battery life. This telephone isn’t a photographer’s dream, although, because it affords a pedestrian 50MP+8MP rear digital camera system that wouldn’t look misplaced on a $300 gadget.

However issues received fascinating once I dug into the digital camera app and located two options Google nonetheless refuses to convey to its $900 Pixel 11.

For one, the Redmi Observe 17 Professional Max helps full-resolution 50MP photographs. This characteristic is lacking from the Pixel 11 and earlier base fashions, courting again to 2023’s Pixel 8. Full-resolution 50MP photographs on price range telephones are usually a waste of time resulting from their small digital camera sensors and weak chipsets that wrestle with high-resolution multi-frame processing. However Pixel flagships provide extra highly effective chipsets and bigger digital camera sensors, so it’s not like Google can blame the {hardware}.

One other characteristic out there on this $500 telephone however lacking on the $900 Pixel 11 is a handbook or professional mode. For the uninitiated, this allows you to tweak the ISO, white steadiness, shutter velocity, and different choices earlier than taking the shot. Once more, Xiaomi’s new telephone has budget-tier digital camera {hardware}, however the handbook mode nonetheless lets customers fine-tune their settings earlier than hitting the shutter button. That is notably helpful for smartphone photographers on a strict price range who won’t have the ability to purchase a top-tier digital camera telephone. Actually, I’m at all times amazed by what price range Android telephones can do with handbook mode.

The usual Pixel 8, Pixel 9, Pixel 10, and Pixel 11 all lack a handbook mode. As an alternative, Google forces you to purchase a Professional mannequin in case you actually need this feature. There’s actually no technical motive why a Professional mode isn’t out there on these base flagships. It’s nearly definitely only a case of Google manufacturing a motive to purchase the Professional telephone over the vanilla gadget.

What’s maybe extra embarrassing is that the Redmi Observe 17 Professional Max isn’t even the primary Redmi telephone to supply high-resolution seize or handbook mode. These options had been beforehand out there on units just like the Redmi Observe 11 collection within the early 2020s.

I’d nonetheless decide the Pixel 11 and even the Pixel 10a over Xiaomi’s newest mid-ranger relating to the digital camera expertise. Google’s digital camera app has a fame for delivering wonderful photographs, whereas the Redmi Observe 17 Professional Max’s picture high quality doesn’t appear notably nice for a mid-ranger. I additionally recognize latest Pixel 11 additions like Digicam Appears and Magic Seize.

However, Xiaomi’s telephone continues to focus on the truth that Google is withholding primary digital camera options from its commonplace flagship telephones. As a result of let’s face it, these are primary options in 2026.