While joining Damir Franc’s podcast, we got to talking about the Nokia 9 PureView. I’ve been showing off some samples on social media, but it’s tough to fully express why this camera feels different, when we only get to look at compressed samples on Instagram. Why does IG compression have to suck so hard still?

I digress…

The good news is, we can get around that, and YOU can check this out on your own Android phone!

Nokia did something REALLY smart by leaning on Google Photos. The 9 is an Android One phone, and the experience is as stock as you can get without getting a Pixel. Even though the camera hardware is somewhat radical, all of the information it collects is processed and finished in a way that works with Google Photos.

There’s nothing proprietary about the editing, once the JPG is created.

That means, once the processing is finished, and the depth info is built into the photo, Google Photos knows what to do with it. Not “Google Photos on the Nokia”, ANY phone with the Google Photos app should recognize that depth info.

I’ve tried on a Razer Phone 2, One plus 6T, and an LG V40, and they all properly apply the blur filtering that I see on the Nokia 9.

So, try it yourself! Download the photo, open up Google Photos, and edit away.

Specifically, look at the differences between the different layers identified by the camera. The leaves immediately on the left, versus the leaves farther on the right, and then the trees even farther away on the right edge.

Share your thoughts on the process and the effect in the comments below. Will this be a new phase of mobile photography? Will this chip away further at traditional cameras? Let’s chat!

Right click here to download the rose sample photo.