the HTC Rhyme takes better photos than this thing. [among other devices i've messed with]
These pictures have no crisp and refreshing look to them.. really bland, dull, and grainy.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought the pictures were very realistic looking. Sure, they don't "pop" but to be honest, nothing on my shelf DOES "pop;" there are lots of colors, but any popping would be software enhancement anyways. I kind of like that the camera doesn't automatically do all that stuff to it, and I can just choose to do it later. Oh and as for grainy, all these pictures have been resized anyways so it's hard to say what's actually grainy and what's just an artifact from resizing. If the problem with these pictures was that it wasn't focusing properly and that details were muddy, that'd be one thing, but when it's just the colors I can't see the problem. The software has editing tools for that.
Here's a couple examples, the original and the "popping" images... sure the ones that "pop" are more aesthetically pleasing immediately, but it's not quite real. I like that I'm given the power to choose exactly what the pictures look like, and whether they represent realistic colors, what I think it should look like, or what the software thinks it should look like.
I think the whole camera thing is just another example of something in Android that is made to be tweaked rather than "just work," and therefore what you cite is not a problem imo. Then again, this is my first smartphone (and I think my first 5MP camera believe it or not) so it's possible I just have no good basis for comparison.