{"id":20967,"date":"2025-09-14T15:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T15:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/20967\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T15:22:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T15:22:15","slug":"did-google-fix-the-pixel-9s-lifeless-photo-colors-on-the-pixel-10-im-shocked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/20967\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Google fix the Pixel 9’s lifeless photo colors on the Pixel 10? I’m shocked."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"google<\/p>\n

Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

What Google did to photo colors on its last few Pixel phones is criminal. There is no other way to say this, but the degradation in color quality and science was so palpable since the Pixel 6, culminating in the washed-out photos of the Pixel 9 Pro<\/a>. Even me, a staunch Pixel camera fan, had somewhat given up on getting good, lively photos from my phone last year. Every time I snapped a picture, especially in a colorful environment or a warm indoor, the result came up dull and boring.<\/p>\n

I say this because I know what the Pixel\u2019s camera was capable of in previous generations and because I\u2019ve been testing the new Pixel 10 Pro XL against the Pixel 9 Pro XL. The results? They\u2019re not even funny. Nearly everything I complained about with the Pixel 9 Pro\u2019s camera has been fixed on the 10 Pro, which makes me equally happy and angry. See for yourself.<\/p>\n

I noticed it first at a concert<\/p>\n

A couple of days after I got my Pixel 10 Pro XL, I was at a concert and had both my Pixel 9 Pro XL and the new phone with me. While the opening band was blasting their music, I decided to snap some pics with both phones. And that\u2019s where I saw it for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

The colors on both phones were different. Where the Pixel 9 had whitened the yellow flood light, the Pixel 10 kept it warmer. It also grabbed the right skin tone and shirt color of the guitarist instead of the pinkish hue that the Pixel 9 had chosen.<\/p>\n

The Pixel 9 over-corrects the white balance and tries to force a uniform look across the whole image. The Pixel 10 doesn’t.<\/p>\n

The most jaw-dropping difference, though, is in the two images below. I don\u2019t think I need to explain what\u2019s happening here, but just look at it. Look at what the Pixel 9 Pro XL did to the warm spotlight shining on the guy\u2019s face. When I use words like \u201cbland,\u201d \u201clifeless,\u201d and \u201cwashed out,\u201d this is the perfect example. The Pixel 9 tries too hard to apply a single white balance across the entire photo and forces tones that aren\u2019t there in reality. The Pixel 10 Pro XL, in comparison, understood the scene; it didn\u2019t take away from the cold blue of the crowd while also letting the warm spotlight effect shine.<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XLSo I did more comparisons<\/p>\n

After I noticed this staggering change, I started looking for more opportunities to see how differently these two phones can interpret colors. During the day, the difference is there, but it\u2019s subtle. A bright outdoor white balance environment was never a challenge for my Pixel 9. But when the lights dim a bit and there\u2019s more nuance to the hues, that\u2019s when the difference in color performance becomes much more obvious between these two phones.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll just leave this example here. (The storefront was green, in case you were wondering, not blue or turquoise.)<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

And this one. I\u2019m sure we all know the real color of a Coca-Cola can.<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

And this one. How did the Pixel 9 Pro XL insist on creating brightness where there wasn\u2019t any, and washing out the purple in the process?<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

And this one, where my nice (fake) indoor plant gets its proper real-life punchy color in the Pixel 10 Pro XL\u2019s shot instead of the desaturated tone the Pixel 9 gave it.<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XLA subtle difference in some scenarios<\/p>\n

In other situations, the difference is more subtle, but it\u2019s still there nonetheless.\u00a0In this one, for example, the Pixel 9 Pro XL warm-washed everything in the photo, whereas the Pixel 10 Pro XL balanced out the beige of the walls, the wood tone of the table, and the very yellow ducky bag. There\u2019s something more one-dimensional about the colors in the Pixel 9\u2019s photos versus a more complex, more nuanced balance in the Pixel 10\u2019s pics, and this is a great example of it.<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

The next two snaps, taken at dusk, show this too. The Pixel 9 Pro XL\u2019s forced white balance paints the Parisian buildings in a colder tone, whereas the Pixel 10 lets the warmer evening glow show its warmth. It also nails the red color in the restaurant shot and makes the small bulbs pop out more. The Pixel 9 Pro tries to even out the brightness between the dark wall and the bulbs, resulting in a flatter look.<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

Putting aside brightness, the Pixel 10\u2019s photos are also generally a little punchier. There\u2019s more contrast and better saturation, all without veering into the absurd or the unnatural. The result in night scenes is more vivid and, yes, more social media-friendly.<\/p>\n

A bit of extra contrast and saturation make the Pixel 10’s photos more natural versus the Pixel 9’s over-processed wash-out effect.<\/p>\n

For me, this extra pop in my Pixel\u2019s photos is more than welcome, and I don\u2019t think it veers too far away from Google\u2019s famously natural \u201cunprocessed\u201d look. As a matter of fact, due to its wash-out effect, it\u2019s the Pixel 9 Pro XL that has looked unnatural and overprocessed by over-correction to me.<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll end this comparison with a few samples that show how the Pixel 10 Pro XL deals with more subtle nuances of color. In both shots below, the Pixel 9 Pro XL decided to adopt a warmer color tone for the globe, while making many other parts of the shot colder (curtain, plant pot). The Pixel 10 Pro XL understood the nuance of what was really a warm yellow-pink light, didn\u2019t make the curtain overly blue, and didn\u2019t let the plant pot veer to a greenish hue. The terracotta lamp and the deer are both a little brighter and better highlighted in the Pixel 10\u2019s shots.<\/p>\n

\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL\"googlePixel 9 Pro XL\"googlePixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

Nearly every snap I\u2019ve taken with both phones shows some difference, and never once did I think, \u201cOh, the Pixel 9 did it better.\u201d The improvement is staggering between last year\u2019s phone and this year\u2019s, to a point where I\u2019m as angry as I am happy about it, honestly. I appreciate Google fixing this and bringing the joy of snapping great photos back into my life, but I\u2019m livid at the year(s) of dull shots we had to endure in the process.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing inherently different in Google\u2019s hardware sensors this year, so all of this could\u2019ve been possible on the Pixel 9 Pro XL, 8 Pro, and 7 Pro\u2026 Why couldn\u2019t we have it then? Why did we have to lose what made the Pixel camera great for so long? And can we please have a software update to fix it, ASAP? Everyone who still uses the older Pixel phones deserves to shoot nicer photos, too.<\/p>\n

See price at Amazon<\/a>\"Google<\/p>\n

Google Pixel 10 Pro<\/p>\n

Top-tier specs with small display
Excellent cameras
Powerful AI tools
Top-notch software<\/p>\n

See price at Amazon<\/a>\"Google<\/p>\n

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

Biggest non-folding Pixel phone
Best specs and AI features<\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority What Google did to photo colors on its last few Pixel phones…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1775,18537,61,60,202,266,18538,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-20967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-google-pixel-10","9":"tag-google-pixel-9","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-mobile","13":"tag-photography","14":"tag-pixel-camera","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}