Google admits to deteriorating your photos … to make you pay better

We told you about it at the start of 2021. Google Photos is about to become chargeable from June 2021. In other words, you will no longer be able to store your photos unlimited. From this date, two solutions will be available to you: stay on the 15 GB of free storage or migrate to the paid offers of 100 GB, 200 GB or 2 TB.

And as you may know, Google Photos allows you to store your images under two quality standards: Original Quality and High Quality. The first proposes ” to preserve all the details and allows you to zoom, crop and print your photos with less pixelation ”, Google specifies in a recent email sent to its users.

As for the High Quality standard, these are compressed versions of your photos, which weigh between 400 kb and 1 Mb. Apart from this difference in weight, Google had always ensured that the quality of the images was almost the same with the two standards (an assertion that dates from the launch of the service in 2015). However, the discourse is no longer really the same, as we can see in this previously cited email.

An image not really representative

Indeed, the manufacturer is now putting forward the “Original Quality” standard. Just to show you the difference, Google posted an image on which it is possible to compare the rendering in “Original Quality” and in “High Quality”. As much to say it right away, the visual quality is clearly superior on the first standard, judge for yourself.

However, this illustration does not reflect reality at all. In truth, only the most knowledgeable users will notice the difference. Indeed, “High quality” shots are limited to a resolution of 16MP or 1080p. As for the “Original Quality” standard, the quality of the photos is simply subject to the performance of your smartphone’s main sensor.

However, the vast majority of smartphones in circulation today have one or more sensors. less than 16 MP. Certainly, high-end devices like the Galaxy S21 offer main sensors of 64 or 108 MP, but these smartphones are far from representing the bulk of the current market. Clear, So Google is just trying to worry you with an alarmist photo, just to motivate you to opt for a paid subscription to store your photos in the best possible quality. But in fact, the quality will remain more or less the same, especially if you have a smartphone whose sensors do not exceed 16 MP. For now, migrating to a premium Google One storage offer is not imperative, unlike what Google wants to think.

Source: Phonandroid