An updated camera guide recommends a more hands-off Pixel setup, while iPhone owners should use Preserve Settings to keep their preferred photography controls in place.
In an update to his earlier camera set-up guide, Thurrott says he has made fresh changes to the way he configures his iPhone and Pixel for photography. The iPhone side now centres on the iPhone 17 Pro Max running iOS 27.x, while the Android side has moved to the Pixel 11 Pro XL, which he says brings new camera software and some practical hardware refinements. He writes that he still prefers the stock camera apps on both devices, partly because Apple and Google reserve more control over imaging features for their own software than for third-party developers. On both phones, his focus remains on still photography rather than video.
Across both devices, he keeps several options aligned. Flash is left off, except when the phone is acting as a torch. Night mode on the iPhone and Night Sight on the Pixel are set to activate automatically when conditions demand it, although he says the Pixel 11 Pro XL now brings Night Sight up almost instantly. He also disables Live Photo and Motion Photo, keeps location data enabled so images can be searched by place or event, turns on framing grids, and sets the photo aspect ratio to 4:3. On the Pixel, he prefers the Golden ratio grid over the 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 alternatives, while the iPhone’s viewfinder level is also switched on when a straight horizon matters.
The iPhone, he argues, needs more careful configuration than the Pixel, but rewards that extra effort with strong snapshot quality. Much of the work is done in Camera settings inside the Settings app, where he says the Preserve Settings menu is essential if users want their preferred configuration to survive closing and reopening the app. He enables every option there apart from Exposure Adjustment and Night Mode, so that choices such as camera mode and other custom preferences are retained rather than reset. He describes this as the difference between a camera that merely works and one that continues to behave the way the user intended.
The hardware behind those preferences has also changed since his earlier article. Apple’s support material for the iPhone 17 Pro Max lists an A19 Pro chip and a 48-megapixel Pro Fusion camera system with multiple lenses, Night mode, Portrait Lighting and ProRAW support, while Google’s Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL specifications highlight a 48-megapixel telephoto camera, a 50-megapixel wide camera, a 48-megapixel ultrawide camera with Macro Focus and Pro Zoom of up to 120x. Google has also said the Pixel 11 series uses a Tensor G6 processor and a faster image signal processor for low-light photography, and TechCrunch reported that the new Pro Res Zoom and “Looks” controls extend the phone’s computational photography system rather than acting as simple filters.
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