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Google exec says ‘insanely great cameras’ coming to future Nexus devices

Andrew Kalinchuk
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Google’s leading man of engineering teased in a recent post that future Nexus devices will feature “insanely great cameras.” Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering for Google, made the brag in a comment on his Google+ post about bringing his massive DSLR on a trip to Lake Tahoe.

“For the past several vacations I’ve questioned if it was worth carrying the heavy DLSR and lenses…,” he wrote. “I suspect I’m not the only one who has these struggles.”

Gundotra ultimately decided to “dump all the lenses and carry only one.” He chose the 50mm 1.2 in particular for his Canon 5D. A reader then commented that he hoped someday “we will just carry our future Nexus and we won’t worry about any heavy camera.”

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“We are committed to making Nexus phones (sic) insanely great cameras,” Gundotra replied. “Just you wait and see.”

Camera quality has always been a mediocre aspect of otherwise great Nexus devices. The iPhone 5 is still the industry standard in terms of smartphone shooters, but it certainly won’t stay that way forever. Most reviews of the Nexus 4 didn’t have a lot to say about the pictures being churned out by the device. The photos aren’t awful, but also don’t offer any clear advantage over the competition. Video capture was even worse. For a device that is supposed to lead the Android charge on a market that is becoming increasingly camera-focused, the Nexus 4 really dropped the ball.

It’s a shame that Gundotra didn’t delve into more detail about what sort of camera improvements we will see in future devices, whether software or hardware based. However, there is only so much that can be said in a Google+ comment. We can’t blame him for wanting to save the specifics for a more official product announcement.

Regardless, we can all expect to see a number of improvements to the Nexus line and Android in general at Google’s annual I/O developer conference, happening in May. It is basically guaranteed that cameras will only be the tip of the iceberg for Android’s future. Perhaps if HTC’s recently announced Ultrapixel Camera can deliver on its promise we will see an HTC-branded Nexus. The thought of an aluminum-clad Nexus is positively drool-worthy.

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