Thoughts on Android Central's article on Pixel 3's "horrendously slow" camera?

[Mike Dee]

What's going on? In Android Central's best phones of 2018 awards - they give the Huawei Mate 20 Pro their official award for best camera phone of 2018. And the Galaxy Note 9 and Pixel 3 taking runners up. I guess there were two different writers, but it's odd that they don't seem to have consistency when writing these things. The article I linked states:

"We're increasingly using our phones to take photos more than any other single function, and 2018 saw some big increases in the quality and flexibility of smartphone photography. But it was the Huawei Mate 20 Pro that, with its incredible resolution and sharpness, along with its flexibility, that took the crown this year."

Anyway, as far as camera lag - I get about 2-3 seconds for the phone to load up before I can take a photo. Obviously if it's still loaded into the ram, then it just takes a second, but if it has to load then 2-3 sec for me. Not as bad as 5, but I don't doubt some people get some really terrible lag on their Pixel 3. Linus showed the slow camera on video:

https://youtu.be/uMqd_ZtWW7M?t=703

Skip to 11:42

As far as the article goes - his phone, his frustration, his right to vent it. This is Google's phone with Google's software afterall - it should be an A+ experience on the only standout feature of the phone, so anything that takes away from that experience would have a huge negative impact on the device overall for the user.

Plus, I didn't read that op-ed as if he were making the argument that all Pixel 3's experience this problem. He said 'my Pixel/phone' a few times, so I understood that it was anecdotal and his personal experience.

And we've seen that the Pixel phones can have serious lag issues. Artem from Andriod Police had atrocious lag on his Pixel 2 XL: https://twitter.com/artemr/status/1024367645892591616?lang=en

Google got him a replacement, and then the replacement started lagging. People thought it could be dodgy NAND memory, but looks like it's not the case. MKBHD also made a video about the lag on his Pixel 2 XL. So definitely looks like there are gremlins in the Pixel code that causes the cameras to lag.

Simple.... Something is wrong on his particular copy of the Pixel or his set up.. He claims his is even slower when listening to music. I'm not seeing any negligible difference in camera operation playing music or anything else for that matter.

Also his credibility fails with me because he uses Top Shot as an example and he only devalues Top Shot because of the lag. Top Shots resolution sucks.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Simple.... Something is wrong on his particular copy of the Pixel or his set up.. He claims his is even slower when listening to music. I'm not seeing any negligible difference in camera operation playing music or anything else for that matter.

Also his credibility fails with me because he uses Top Shot as an example and he only devalues Top Shot because of the lag. Top Shots resolution sucks.

Sure, could be hardware or software, but this isn't an isolated incident. As I showed, other Pixels seem to have similar issues.

Mine isn't like that, so I'm glad. Yes, it's not the fastest camera I've used on a phone, but it's fine for me. However, if I did have a very laggy camera, I'd be really upset too.

Top Shot just flat out sucks. The low resolution makes the feature completely unusable. I don't know if it's laggy, I've turned the motion feature off.

 

[Mike Dee]

Sure, could be hardware or software, but this isn't an isolated incident. As I showed, other Pixels seem to have similar issues.

Mine isn't like that, so I'm glad. Yes, it's not the fastest camera I've used on a phone, but it's fine for me. However, if I did have a very laggy camera, I'd be really upset too.

Top Shot just flat out sucks. The low resolution makes the feature completely unusable. I don't know if it's laggy, I've turned the motion feature off.

Top Shot by itself isn't laggy. He was referring to his lag making Top Shot useless.
Top Shot is useless by itself unless you just want to capture the moment in low resolution. I prefer burst mode.

 

[mustang7757]

Top Shot by itself isn't laggy. He was referring to his lag making Top Shot useless.
Top Shot is useless by itself unless you just want to capture the moment in low resolution. I prefer burst mode.

So on top shot it's only when you have motion on correct?

 

[Mike Dee]

So on top shot it's only when you have motion on correct?

I believe so

 

[mustang7757]

I believe so

Ok so when you view the picture and turn off motion it goes back to the 12mp instead 3mp resolution ?

 

[anon(10092459)]

Oh gawd.. The whiny video guy again. Can we please not use him as a point of reference? Guy's horrible.

The main issue I have with Andrew's piece is that there isn't anything established about his circumstances with the device. If it's truly his third, somewhere along the line he should've considered his own missteps. Perhaps, it's a third party app or has he tried safe mode?? The things discussed in this very thread.

If's it's truly 5 seconds, then clock that on video. Otherwise, you might as well say it takes a full 30 seconds or it's faster than the speed of light. Nobody's interested in him "eyeballing it" and guesstimating.

 

[Mike Dee]

Ok so when you view the picture and turn off motion it goes back to the 12mp instead 3mp resolution ?

One picture is still high resolution

 

[Mike Dee]

Oh gawd.. The whiny video guy again. Can we please not use him as a point of reference? Guy's horrible.

The main issue I have with Andrew's piece is that there isn't anything established about his circumstances with the device. If it's truly his third, somewhere along the line he should've considered his own missteps. Perhaps, it's a third party app or has he tried safe mode?? The things discussed in this very thread.

If's it's truly 5 seconds, then clock that on video. Otherwise, you might as well say it takes a full 30 seconds or it's faster than the speed of light. Nobody's interested in him "eyeballing it" and guesstimating.

Interesting....I can no longer find a reference to it happening on 3 cameras

 

[mustang7757]

One picture is still high resolution

Ok thanks

 

[anon(10092459)]

Interesting....I can no longer find a reference to it happening on 3 cameras

His claim is in the comments section..

 

[Jeremy8000]

Anectodal, but haven't seen anything Andrew posted contradicting this or elsewhere explaining any troubleshooting he has done...

....what [Andrew] said was that after a factory reset, it works normally for a short while, but then after installing "a few apps," it starts again...

A problem that appears with an app after another app is installed is likely caused or at least aggravated by that installation. He could try 50 different Pixel 3's, but if he only has the issue after installing a specific app (or apps) yet keeps installing the app that generates the problem, he's going to continue having it.

If this is the case, I submit that it is not productive or fair to hold Google accountable for issues stemming from installation of 3rd party apps.

Unfortunately I have seen no direct reporting (disclosure - haven't bothered to dig deep, just having read his initial article and his entries in the comments) from him of having done any troubleshooting whatsoever other than indicating he tried it on a few phones. Without that - and especially with an issue that I have not experienced and, looking through the comments there and here, seems to be an extremely isolated issue - I tend to dismiss complaints like these since they don't show any evidence of having taken any effort to determine what may have caused the problem.

I would be surprised if Andrew hasn't done some at least basic troubleshooting, but can't fathom how, if he has, he would deem that fact, if not the detail, not relevant enough to included.

 

[mustang7757]

Would like him to participate in this thread to see what's going on with his phones he tested and give some feedback. That way if he finds that a app or something else caused it he can update his story.

 

[Mike Dee]

His claim is in the comments section..

Thanks....now I remember

 

[Mike Dee]

Would like him to participate in this thread to see what's going on with his phones he tested and give some feedback. That way if he finds that a app or something else caused it he can update his story.

That's not going to happen for a variety of reasons.

 

[mustang7757]

That's not going to happen for a variety of reasons.

I'm pretty sure on that also lol

 

[Robisan]

Plus, I didn't read that op-ed as if he were making the argument that all Pixel 3's experience this problem. He said 'my Pixel/phone' a few times, so I understood that it was anecdotal and his personal experience.

As I noted upthread, this is the highlighted call-out from his article and is a declarative statement about the entire Pixel product line:

Google is simply the only company selling a high-end phone with terrible camera performance.

 

[KillerQ]

We're getting off topic....

The fact of the matter is, after disabling Bluetooth on my Pixel 3XL, I'm now on day 5 of instant camera shutter.... No more lag.

If I turn Bluetooth on, within 20 minutes the camera is slow again.

 

[Javier P]

We're getting off topic....

The fact of the matter is, after disabling Bluetooth on my Pixel 3XL, I'm now on day 5 of instant camera shutter.... No more lag.

If I turn Bluetooth on, within 20 minutes the camera is slow again.

Excellent! Are you using a smartwatch or is this happening with any Bluetooth device?

 

[KillerQ]

Excellent! Are you using a smartwatch or is this happening with any Bluetooth device?

I Do have a Garmin Fenix 5 watch connected.... I have not had time to enable Bluetooth but unpair the watch yet. To test if it's Bluetooth, or a connected device doing it.