If you are a photography geek, the suspiciously sharp VERVE typography and the slightly noisy shadows of the second picture will give away that it was taken with the Pixel 2.

But still, I strongly believe that to the untrained eye the two photographs will look very similar if not equivalent for all intents and purposes, which again confirms how well the Pixel’s portrait mode performs in real life scenarios. The espresso machine blurs exquisitely into the background emulating surprisingly well a real bokeh.

Granted, it’s not the same — nor I was expecting it to be. But Google’s portrait mode comes for free with an already exceptional phone (and camera). If you want to take pictures with authentic shallow depth of field you will have to spend at least twice the phone’s worth in a good camera and lens. Not only that, but you are getting a sufficiently decent (for DSLR-standards) bokeh that fits in your pocket — Not having to haul a bulky 2 Kg camera around for the occasional portrait is an advantage many will appreciate.