Google’s Night Sight was incredible when it first leaked. It allows Pixel phones to take almost impossible photos in near darkness, and the results are simply amazing.
Now that the Night Sight feature is official, Google is advertising its phones’ prowess, and it’s going after Apple. Hard.
Shared earlier today by a product marketing VP at Google, the company is going for a side-by-side comparison of the same scene approach. The comparison is between Google’s Pixel 3 on the right, and a “Phone X” on the left, which is clearly an iPhone XS.
The photo shows a neon green-clad subject clearly, while her face is almost imperceptible on the “Phone X”. The dark sky is brightened slightly, and though the colours of the lighting in the background are a bit washed, the overall scene is amazing on Pixel’s Night Sight, and fairly well .. crap .. on the Phone X.
It’s not the first bit of advertising for Night Sight, either. Google Australia has been running ads on TV for a little while now showing the pros of night photography without resorting to a flash, and the impact is strong.
This particular ad, though, is a fairly simple ad – likely destined for billboards or the like rather than a motion TVC. However, with major sporting events lining up in the US – including the Super Bowl – it’s likely Google has another advertising offensive around the corner.
This is where DxOMark tests don’t reveal the prowess of a phone.
The DxOMark tests for the Pixel 3 phone had Night Sight switched off. Yet it is one of the most revolutionary features in the history of photography. Even the big camera manufacturers like Canon and Nikon can’t do this.
DxOMark can’t really include something like nightsight without invalidating their testing process. That’s the same reason why some of the features on (say) the Huawei Mate 20 Pro weren’t tested, because it would make for an unfair comparison with other mobiles.