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The Nexus 6P camera is certainly the best of any Google Nexus phone today, with strong performance in proper light. To dig deeper into what proper light means, you can see that photos with too much direct light and low light don't come out as well.
Yes, Google claims that Nexus 6P is a low light performer and to an extent that's true. But dimly lit bars and outdoor nighttime shots aren't going to compare to something like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5. Let's dive further into the Nexus 6P camera review.
It take take excellent close-up shots with medium light and delivers a rich bokeh effect. But as you can see below, its biggest weakness isn't quality with medium light, it's autofocus. I tried three times to take this bar scene beer photo, but autofocus kept wanting to focus on the background and not the more obvious subjects in front of me.
Here's what the Samsung Galaxy S7 did, without me needing to adjust the focus.
View original Samsung Galaxy S7 photo
Autofocus worked fine on the iPhone 6S, too.
Outdoors, it's able to autofocus without a problem, I found. It's just when you turn down the lights a smidge that it wants to focus on the least interesting parts of a picture.
In fact, it can look like a postcard at times. It has a little more saturation than more realistic colors of the iPhone 6S, but people prefer punchy colors (I do too). After all, you know this pic is going to Instagram in a second.
That said, it's nowhere near as punchy and vibrant as the Samsung Galaxy S7, which takes stunning photos, even if they make the landscapes seem unrealistic (in a good way)
View original Samsung Galaxy S7 photo
iPhone 6S falls toward the more realistic side when it comes to reproducing accurate colors. That means Nexus 6P falls somewhere in between. Google's camera software is definitely on the darker side compared to the bright Samsung camera.
Too much light can overexpose photos, but generally, that was a rare occurrence with the Nexus 6P rear camera. As you'll see on the next page, the Nexus 6P front-facing camera didn't perform as well with too much light present. It needed to be just right.
