Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus earns praise from Google’s former senior vice president of social, Vic Gundotra. The executive, who now works as the CEO of AliveCor,  thinks the iPhone has a better camera than any other Android device.

Vic Gundotra recently posted some photographs of his two young children on Facebook. In the accompanying text, Gundotra raves about the photo quality taken with the iPhone. He further said that the “end of the DSLR has arrived”.

It is somewhat surprising to see that Gundotra, a former Google executive, is openly praising the iPhone 7 Plus’ camera capabilities on a social media. He doesn’t stop there by posting the photographs on his Facebook page. Gundotra further engages in the comments section of his post and goes on to criticize Google’s Android in response to someone saying that the Galaxy S8 does come with an equally good camera.

“Here is the problem: It’s Android. Android is an open source (mostly) operating system that has to be neutral to all parties. This sounds good until you get into the details. Ever wonder why a Samsung phone has a confused and bewildering array of photo options? Should I use the Samsung Camera? Or the Android Camera? Samsung gallery or Google Photos?”

“It’s because when Samsung innovates with the underlying hardware (like a better camera) they have to convince Google to allow that innovation to be surfaced to other applications via the appropriate API. That can take YEARS”, Gundotra added.

“Also the greatest innovation isn’t even happening at the hardware level – it’s happening at the computational photography level. (Google was crushing this 5 years ago – they had had “auto awesome” that used AI techniques to automatically remove wrinkles, whiten teeth, add vignetting, etc… but recently Google has fallen back).”

“Apple doesn’t have all these constraints. They innovate in the underlying hardware, and just simply update the software with their latest innovations (like portrait mode) and ship it,  Gundotra says. “Bottom line: If you truly care about great photography, you own an iPhone. If you don’t mind being a few years behind, buy an Android.”

Gundotra made the comments at a time when both Google and Apple are looking to launch their respective flagship smartphones later this year. There’s no doubt that Android smartphones have been inherently weaker when it comes to photography and camera skills. However, it’s wrong to say that the Android phones are years behind the iPhone in the camera department. For instance, Google Pixel has been praised for its camera capabilities. Naturally, Android fans are not liking the comments made by the former Google executive.