Android 4.4.1 improves Nexus 5 camera performance dramatically; Rolling out over the next few days

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Published 5 Dec 2013

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It is no secret that Google has been working on Android 4.4.1, which according to rumors and statements from Google spokesperson, suggest is meant to improve the Nexus 5 awful camera app and experience. Well, it looks like Google is done with the update and will start rolling out the update over the next few days. The folks over at The Verge had a talk with Burke, Google’s Director of Engineering for Android, and he has broken down the camera related changes in Android 4.4.1 in five categories. Post the software update, users should notice the camera app focusing much faster, expose the images better and apply just the right amount of white balance. The Camera app has also been given a major speed boost in this update, and according to The Verge, now opens a full second faster.

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So, does the Android 4.4.1 update make the Nexus 5 camera go from zero to a hero? Well, kind of. From the sample images of The Verge, the improvement in images is quite significant. Google has also made the images more contrasty and vibrant in nature since they wanted to “make photos pop a little more.”

The images, post the update, are extremely good but still fall a bit short of the iPhone 5s level. However, the device will now always manage to provide you with usable images rather than the blurry mess it produces most of the time now.

Google is not done with tweaking the Camera performance of the Nexus 5 though. Burke assures that his team is working on “tuning the edge cases” like strangely lit situations. Hopefully, Google will continue improving the Nexus 5 camera performance with minor updates down the line.