Google Aims Crosshairs At iPhone X Camera With New Pixel 3 Night Sight Ad

We have all been there-- you are trying to take a picture of your friends or family at a dimly-lit event and the photo comes out terribly. This past November Google released “Night Sight” to help Pixel 3 owners take quality photos regardless of their lighting conditions. Google is obviously proud of the Pixel 3 and the company's new Night Sight ad takes a shot at the iPhone X and its supposedly inferior camera.

google pixel night sight

The new ad features the same photo taken with two different camera phones. The iPhone X photo is underexposed and it is difficult to see the subject, however, viewers of course can perfectly see the subject in the Pixel 3 photo perfectly. The sky has been brightened and a white steam emanates from the subject and background buildings. Marvin Chow, Google’s Vice President of Product Marketing, tweeted, “Night Sight on Google Pixel 3-- pretty much speaks for itself.”  One of the key aspects of photography is lighting. If a photographer’s environment is poorly lit, the camera will spend more time trying to capture light. Flash can add light, but the photos are often still not of the best quality.

Google states that Night Sight “constantly adapts to you and the environment.” Night Sight measures how much a person’s hand is shaking and how much motion is in the scene. If the the person is moving quite a bit or there is a lot of motion, Night Sight will use shorter exposures to prevent motion blur. If the photographer and scene are relatively still, Night Sight will try to capture more light. The Pixel 3 will automatically suggest Night Light if the user is in a low light environment.

google pixel 3 on stand

Night Sight was released this past November for all three generations of Pixel phones. It generally received good reviews. We personally found that Night Sight was able to able to greatly brighten scenes while preserving much of the detail that would usually be lost. You can find our full review of the Google Pixel 3 here.

It is quite possible that a variation of Google’s latest ad will appear during the Super Bowl. Speaking of which, Amazon recently posted a number of teasers for their Super Bowl commercial that feature celebrities such as Harrison Ford, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, Forest Whitaker, and Scott and Mark Kelly. Google’s cheeky ad at the very least is attention-grabbing and highlights a feature that will likely appeal to many consumers.