The Google Pixel, Which Is Now Left Behind By Its Camera Designer

Ilustrasi Google Pixel 4 (Popular Mechanics/Photo Trevor Raab)

JAKARTA - Behind the success of the Google Pixel flagship, it turns out that the company has a myriad of hidden problems behind the scenes. Now two important executives who developed the Pixel camera, have secretly left Google.

Both are renowned technicians Marc Levoy and former general manager of Pixel Mario Queiroz. They are better known as the control team from the division that develops computational photography capabilities on Google Pixel cameras.

Reported by The Verge, Queiroz apparently had already resigned from the Pixel development team, two months before the launch of Pixel 4. He was transferred to an important division that coordinates directly with Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

But after a few months, in January 2020 Queiroz actually left Google and joined Palo Alto Networks. Meanwhile, Levoy, based on his LinkedIn page, was also noted to have left Google since last March.

Disappointment over the withdrawal of two important people from the Pixel, was expressed by the leader of Google's hardware team, Rick Osterloh. He suspects that the reason for the two of them to withdraw is because there is a disagreement about the battery capacity that will be embedded in the Pixel 4.

The criticism regarding the battery capacity of the Pixel 4 2,800 mAh and Pixel 4 XL 3,700 mAh, it does not support the performance of the high-end processors on these phones. This also makes Pixel 4 sales figures in the market stagnant, even low compared to the previous year.

Even though at that time, market enthusiasm for the presence of the Pixel 4 was quite high. For comparison, Google shipped about 3.5 million Pixel 3s, as well as nearly 3 million Pixel 3A units for the same period the previous year. However, the Pixel 4 only sold approximately 2 million units in the first quarter since its release.

This sales figure also cannot compete with its competitors, namely Apple. According to an IDC report, Apple sold 73.8 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of 2019 when the Pixel 4 was released.

Not to mention the rumors that Google will delay the launch of Pixel 4A at the end of May. This is because the COVID-19 pandemic has not ended.

Google Pixel 4 Camera (GSM Arena)

In fact, the Pixel 4 is Google's brand-new cellphone launched on October 15, 2019. Google equips the Pixel 4 with a dual camera on the back, each with a 12.2MP telephoto resolution capable of 2x zoom and 16MP wide.

Other features that complement the sophistication of the Pixel 4 duo camera are Night Sight, Live HDR + which can work in real-time, as well as an increase in the White Balance feature in each photo mode.

Google also still maintains a notch-free cellphone design. In this section, Google actually puts a selfie camera that has an 8MP resolution, as well as a time of flight (ToF) sensor. As a result, the front display, the Pixel 4 is thicker compared to other flagship phones on the market.