Android cameras of recent years have typically been better performers than their Apple counterparts. However, iPhones are capable of one trick that Android has yet to adopt – wide gamut colour capture. The feature allows iPhones to take and display photos with more colour differentiation. While iPhones have long used the DCI-P3 colour gamut, only a select few Android phones have adopted the standard – until now.
An XDA Developers member recently uncovered code in the Google Camera app that seems to allow for wide-gamut colour capture. With a specially-compiled build of the app, photos could be taken with the DCI-P3 colour space.
Most physical camera sensors in current mobile phones are capable of taking photos outside the current standard sRGB colour space – the problem is building apps to support the functionality. Additionally, the screen must be capable of displaying wider colour gamuts – there’s little point in taking wide-colour photos if you can’t view those extra colours.
Essentially this means that unless the app you’re using and the device you’re using both support the DCI-P3 colour gamut, you won’t benefit from the functionality. No current social media Android apps can display wide-colour photos. In fact, wide-colour is relegated to Samsung’s Gallery app and a select few other apps. Hopefully the new camera support will push app developers to support the new standard.
Based on the renders shared around, the Pixel 4 will have an impressive camera array to take advantage of more colours. At least three rear sensors are shown in Google’s official leak, and if the Pixel 3 series is anything to go by, it’s not going to slack off on imaging capability.
