{"id":692630,"date":"2026-07-15T08:12:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692630\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T08:12:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:12:28","slug":"i-wont-buy-the-pixel-11-unless-google-fixes-its-awful-portrait-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692630\/","title":{"rendered":"I won\u2019t buy the Pixel 11 unless Google fixes its awful portrait mode"},"content":{"rendered":"

I used to love shooting photos on Pixels, but recently I\u2019ve been feeling let down by the once high-flying series. While I have quite a few quibbles about Google\u2019s latest entries, my biggest camera bugbear is undoubtedly the phone\u2019s portrait mode \u2014 the results just don\u2019t look good enough for me to ever want to frame my snaps.<\/p>\n

Whether I\u2019m grabbing pics of friends and family or trying to add some bokeh to a macro crop, there\u2019s always some artifact or issue that sticks out like a sore thumb. In fairness, these complaints apply almost equally to Apple and Samsung, but as the Pixel 11 series is right around the corner<\/a>, I\u2019ve been jotting down my wish list for Google\u2019s upcoming flagship. Number one: I really hope they can fix my lingering portrait grievances.<\/p>\n

For a quick comparison, I\u2019ve taken some sample shots on my Pixel 10 Pro XL<\/a>, Fuji X-S10 mirrorless camera, and the OPPO Find X9 Ultra<\/a>. I\u2019ve stuck to 3x zoom, or about a 45mm focal length on my APS-C mirrorless, which all work out to about 70mm full-frame equivalent (the typical reference for smartphone focal lengths). Between the three, we have an ideal reference in my Fuji, what we\u2019re dealing with for the Pixel, and the best of today\u2019s hardware in the OPPO. Let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n

What do you dislike the most about the Pixel 10 Pro?<\/p>\n

803 votes<\/p>\n

Unexciting cameras<\/p>\n

16%<\/p>\n

Poor gaming performance<\/p>\n

11%<\/p>\n

Slow charging<\/p>\n

9%<\/p>\n

Mediocre battery<\/p>\n

30%<\/p>\n

None, I love my Pixel 10 Pro<\/p>\n

27%<\/p>\n

Anything else<\/p>\n

5%<\/p>\n

So much for natural bokeh<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

Ryan Haines \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

My complaints about Pixel portrait photography fall into two camps. The first is pretty obvious to anyone who has compared a smartphone portrait photo with a mirrorless shot; the bokeh is just all wrong.<\/p>\n

Edge detection is an obvious issue that has dogged smartphones for years, even after Google spent years perfecting its computational photography algorithms. Even the best software algorithms struggle to precisely distinguish foreground from background, resulting in smudged hair, gaps in the bokeh, or objects outright floating if the scene is too cluttered. My Pixel is particularly egregious here, with rough edges where there should be smooth lines and regular gaps in the background blur.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t even need to crop in on the shot below to see the issues. The Pixel 10 Pro XL produces horrendously jagged artifacts along virtually every edge of the snap. It also failed to put the wooden pole into the background correctly. I gave the phone five attempts at this picture, and this was the best one. OPPO\u2019s blur might be far too strong (this was just at the default f\/5.0 software setting), but its edges are very smooth, and there\u2019s even a realistic depth roll-off along the bench. It\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s really not bad.<\/p>\n

\"FujiFuji X-S10\"OPPOOPPO Find X9 Ultra \"PixelPixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

Looking closer at the blur effect, both smartphones look unnatural to my eye compared to my mirrorless camera \u2014 they\u2019re more smudgy than deep-looking. The Pixel\u2019s effect resembles a very heavy Gaussian blur, and the light circles are too exaggerated and almost harshly clipped. With the Pixel, anything not immediately in the subject plane is also blurred by roughly the same amount, making the subject look as if it\u2019s sitting on an artificial background rather than living in the scene.<\/p>\n

The shot below shows the extremes of relying on software depth detection with a complex background. Neither smartphone nailed the focus and edges, despite five attempts each. The Pixel is clearly the worst, though; it failed to capture the flower stems and exhibits aggressive artifacts along the petals. It\u2019s terrible.<\/p>\n

\"FujiFuji X-S10 – 33% crop\"OPPOOPPO Find X9 Ultra – 50% crop\"PixelPixel 10 Pro XL – 50% crop<\/p>\n

The fact that better cameras have a proper 70mm-equivalent focal length for portrait mode really helps here, as it allows for optical compression and a natural element of blur to assist with edge detection before reaching the software processing pipeline. On that note, I could actually correct OPPO\u2019s picture after capture by adjusting the software aperture effect in the Gallery app. Setting the aperture to f\/16 essentially removes the added software bokeh errors and apparent lack of focus.<\/p>\n

The Pixel has no such luxury; it combines pixel data from its 1x and 5x lenses to add detail and depth, but lacks the natural blur created by a proper lens. The end result is a much heavier reliance on software to fill the gaps. Worse, there\u2019s no way to adjust or remove it once the photo has been taken. If the phone captures errors like this, you\u2019re stuck with the shot.<\/p>\n

Details that don\u2019t stand up to inspection<\/p>\n

This leads me to my second, but no less important, complaint about the Pixel 10 Pro XL: natural-looking details. Without a dedicated camera in the 2x to 3x range, Google\u2019s computational photography can\u2019t fill in the blanks when shooting cropped in portrait shots using data from the primary camera. It has to make do with some form of upscaling and\/or computational pixel merging, but the results hardly flatter compared to the competition.<\/p>\n

The end result produces additional noise, color banding, and oversharpened details, resulting in blotchy, rough skin textures and smudged-looking hair. To be fair to the Pixel, this isn\u2019t always obvious when looking at full frame. But zoom in on any detail just a little bit, and it becomes glaringly obvious. Especially when placed side by side with dedicated portrait lenses.<\/p>\n

\"FujiFuji X-S10 – 100% crop\"OPPOOPPO Find X9 Ultra – 100% crop\"PixelPixel 10 Pro XL – 100% crop<\/p>\n

Pay particular attention to the fine hairs, eyebrows, and other subtle details in the shots above. The Find X9 Ultra is every bit as good as my Fuji mirrorless, which is very impressive for a sensor a fraction of the size. The Pixel just isn\u2019t in the same league; the level of detail drops sharply the moment you look closely at the picture. Worse, the irises of my eyes even loses its shape, appearing as wobbly blobs.<\/p>\n

\"FujiFuji X-S10 – 50% crop\"OPPOOPPO Find X9 Ultra – 67% crop\"PixelPixel 10 Pro XL – 67% crop<\/p>\n

OPPO\u2019s impressive detail capture is all thanks to its large 200MP sensor powering this 3x lens, which captures high levels of detail even in dimmer lighting conditions, such as the environment above. Again, there\u2019s nothing to pick between them and my Fuji in terms of detail; the difference is mainly color science and bokeh.\u00a0 By contrast, the Pixel looks incredibly rough in this low-light snap. Cropping in from its admittedly decent-sized main sensor and blending details from the smaller periscope camera just can\u2019t close the gap. Looking at my hair, we can see those dreaded depth segmentation errors appear again, too.<\/p>\n

Fine detail on the Pixel remains such a disappointment because portrait photography is all about capturing the subtle details. A twinkle in the eye or a crease in the smile is the difference between a bland and a memorable photograph. Having these fine details obscured or ruined by heavy post-processing is a photographer\u2019s nightmare.<\/p>\n

I doubt the Pixel 11 will fix my complaints<\/p>\n

\"Pixel<\/p>\n

Robert Triggs \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

I\u2019m eager for Google to address these portrait problems so the Pixel series can return to the top of the photography pack. However, I don\u2019t see the Pixel 11 series<\/a> improving things.<\/p>\n

Based on the latest reports, any camera upgrades look set to be incremental tweaks to the current formula. Swapping out the sensors for newer models might improve the handset\u2019s HDR and detail capture, but it doesn\u2019t address the fundamental lack of hardware specifically designed for portrait photography \u2014 the Pixel\u2019s biggest weakness in my experience. A 25mm primary lens will always be too wide, while the 113mm telephoto is too tight for natural face shapes and framing (and can\u2019t even be selected for portrait mode on the 10 Pro XL). Ideally, a dedicated lens in the 50-70mm range is required, preferably with a large sensor and robust light-gathering and autofocus capabilities, but it doesn\u2019t look like Google will introduce such a lens in its upcoming generation.<\/p>\n

Apple, Google, and Samsung are all sleeping on the power of larger telephoto cameras.<\/p>\n

The prevalence of large 200MP sensors and 70mm telephoto cameras has propelled China\u2019s Ultra flagships to the top of the mobile photography charts. They both excel for their impressive image quality and versatility, whether it\u2019s capturing details at long distances or shooting portraits of friends, family, and pets. Google isn\u2019t the only one sleeping on this trend; Apple and Samsung are also lagging behind with tiny zoom sensors and a dogged fixation on the wide-angle lens, as if a single, large primary sensor were the most important camera feature. At least in my opinion, they\u2019re increasingly wrong on that front.<\/p>\n

I hope the Pixel 11 Pro XL offers something more than just new software gimmicks for more discerning photographers. At the very least, it could aim to improve its dog\u2019s dinner of a portrait blur algorithm, but I\u2019m not holding my breath. Worse, it\u2019s going to cost $100 more this year<\/a>. Avid photographers like me might just have to skip it.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I used to love shooting photos on Pixels, but recently I\u2019ve been feeling let down by the once…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1632,92184,2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-692630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-google-pixel-10","tag-google-pixel-11","tag-mobile","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}