Google Admits to Downgrading Image Quality in Android 2.1 Tweet

Earlier this week, Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate Technology Corporation (whose display testing tools we use to evaluate monitors and HDTVs) discovered that Android 2.1's picture gallery offers lower image quality than the previous version's gallery.

Using a Motorola Droid, he found that the picture gallery application in Android 2.0.1 offered 24-bit color depth, but after he updated the Droid to Android 2.1, the new picture gallery application had downgraded images to 16-bit color depth.

Google confirmed Dr. Soneira's findings with the following statement:

The Gallery app in Android 2.0.1 is different from the Gallery app in Android 2.1. Google developed Gallery in Android 2.0.1, which uses 24-bit color rendered using 2D technology. On the other hand, Cooliris created Gallery in Android 2.1, which uses 16-bit textures rendered using 3D technology. We don't have anything specific to share at this time regarding the Gallery app in future versions.

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