I don't think it's that bad, it's just that it still needs a lot of refinement. Seeing how the Google Pixel cam port makes the camera looks way better, goes to show that Google / HMD Global may have did halfass job optimising the camera of the 7 Plus.
I think selected M1 Shop do have Nokia 7 Plus for testing, but may need to request for it. M1 Customer Service Centre Paragon is one of them. Reason being they don't have shelf to display alr lol
IMO that has more to do with the pixel cam's HDR+ rather than the phone
HDR+ is not perfect but the algorithm it uses to combine multiple shots together is actually surprisingly effective. I came from a LG G6 before this, and that was a flagship phone with horrible auto mode quality. The G6 also had a pixel cam apk port to let it use the same HDR+ and deliver auto mode quality that is way better than the stock app could provide. You could even HDR+ on the selfie cam.
in fact i feel that google is probably intentionally withholding HDR+ from being on their play store as an app, because HDR+ is a huge selling point of the pixel's camera. If some dev can one day reverse engineer how HDR+ works and make a similar behaving app it can easily be the #1 camera app on play store.
for the 7 plus i dont think google had anything to do with its camera development even if this is an android one device.
about the Mi A2, if they really base it on the mi 6X, thats a primary camera with smaller micron pixels than the 7 plus and also no OIS, so honestly not sure how competent the camera hardware is without having to rely on software tricks like HDR/EIS/etc
abotu zenfone 5, camera specs look on par with 7 plus (including the glaring flaw of no OIS), does anyone have samples of ZF5 though? I havent seen any of how it holds up in low light.
The Mi 6X also has no microSD and no headphone jack so I'd rather buy a pixel if I personally had to live with such compromises
