One of my consistent complaints with most smartphone cameras is performance. While I'd personally single out Google's Pixels as among the worst, I think it's fair to say that most phones experience significant speed degradation in the camera as they age. I'm not going to claim I understand why this happens—a multitude of factors could be at play—but I do think on some level you have to look at hardware. And with Qualcomm's new Spectra 480 ISP in the Snapdragon 865, it sure looks like we're about to take a generational leap when it comes to imaging performance.

For background, the ISP (Image Signal Processor) is the "brain" of your smartphone's camera.