Zoom Enhance is finally here, on Google Pixel 9 Pro (and Pixel 8 Pro), after being announced last year. This is a rather interesting feature from Google, where you essentially can crop in on a photo and still have a very high-resolution photo. However, there is a bit more to it than just that, and also some tricks to get great photos with Zoom Enhance.
In this guide, we’re going to show you how you can use Zoom Enhance on your Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL or Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Unfortunately, this is not available on the vanilla Pixel 8 and Pixel 9.
How to use Zoom Enhance
It’s pretty simple to use Zoom Enhance, simply take a photo or open a photo in Google Photos since Zoom Enhance does work on photos that were not taken with Pixel.
Next, tap on Edit.
Then tap on Tools.
On this next screen, you should see an option for Zoom Enhance available. Tap on that.
Here, you will want to pinch-to-zoom until you are zoomed in as much as you’d like and centered. Then tap on “Crop and enhance.”
In just a few seconds, your new picture will be available. You can choose to either do it over and reset, or save as a copy. It’s important to note that this will never overwrite your original photo. It will always be saved as a copy.
And that’s Zoom Enhance. It’s a pretty simple and straight forward feature that works really well too.
How to get the best out of Zoom Enhance
Google says that to get the best out of Zoom Enhance, use photos that were taken at 15X or greater Zoom. However, I’ve found the opposite to be true. It works well at 1x and 2x, but the best at 5x. Keep in mind that the primary sensor is 50-megapixels, and the telephoto is 48-megapixels. So there’s plenty of resolution there.
A 5x photo taken with the telephoto camera works the best, as you can zoom in quite a bit without killing the quality. You will also want to do it with plenty of light. Google sells a well-composed image that works the best, which we’ve found to be true as well. Photos taken outdoors with plenty of sunlight look really good, but those like a macro shot or indoors with much less light are sometimes hit or miss.
So what it comes down to here is, use optical zoom for your photo, make sure it is composed well, and then Zoom Enhance can work its magic.
