serendip

The white balance is the most obvious difference.  Google's falls short significantly in some cases.

In general though image quality is rapidly approaching "good enough" status from the major module/lens manufacturers (Chicony, Foxconn, Largen, etc).  Most of these pair comparisons can be chaulked up to photographer preference.  The expertise of these module companys are reaching a point where you can almost drop in any module and get to a point where most people aren't going to notice major differences most of the time.  The fixtures in the factory are pretty much locked in place for calibrating these modules and the sensors all come from same companies.  The differences are now mostly in post processing (bokeh, studio, etc) and are "cute/cool" features that's don't really impact general usage.  Gone are the days where a crappy phone will produce obviously eye sore images 80% of the time (though there are exceptions).

I spend most of my time now on designing and calibrating camera modules for data collection/AR.  3A (AWB, AE, AF) is taking a back seat to intrinsic, extrinsic camera calibration.  You'd be surprised how much a module varies from an individual phone to another.  Same phone, same module, same conditions and the optical center or view angle can be way off but still undetectable.  Minor differences that can't be seen by a person taking images/videos translate into inches when trying to grab data out of camera pairs.

That's where Apple has a serious advantage right now.  They make all the hardware.  The know exactly what the tolerances are and how well the cameras' are calibrated for each product.  On the Android side, you have Google trying to make post processing software while dozens of companies are making the phones with whatever camera specs they want.  It's like trying to herd cats vs cows.

IMHO..
I've worked on cameras at Apple, Nvidia (Tegra 2, Android, HTC, etc), and was head of image quality at a fairly successful camera startup so I'd say I'm fairly unbiased.

I’ve never seen it but The article mentions eye tracking.  That’s not at all common in HMDs.  I’ve never seen it done well in any case.

so that would be different if this article is correct.

In all seriousness though this battery problem has been a very bad experience for me.  I've been suffering this issue for months and took it into the store 2 months ago.  They found nothing... I get that... issue hasn't hit critical mass yet but when they finally knew there was a problem I never got a "hey we found it!" email.  I had to find out about the battery fix on the web.  Then I ended up with a 2 week genius appointment and decided to walk in and maybe sneak myself in.  That worked but no parts so another 2 weeks with a busted phone.

Then comes the kicker... I walked in with a functioning phone with a bad battery and I had to shell out $140 to put in a new screen because they shattered the screen taking it off!  Wtf?  I had a small crack in the corner that was nowhere near the screen I'll admit but Apple broke it trying to fix their problem and I'm out $140?  

If I walk into a Toyota dealership for a recall on my brakes are they going to charge me $700 for new tires?!?  

Also, good luck if you had a 3rd party screen put in.  I've now talked with 3 ppl who said Apple broke their screens, said it was a 3rd part screen and then gave then the choice of walking out with a completely broken phone or paying the $140.

I've been nothing but an evangelist since iPhone 1 but this is just weak... 

iPhone 2,3,3GS,4,4s,5,5s,6+,6s. (Probably not 7)
iPad 1, air, 2xmini 2, pro
ATV 1,2,3
4xiMacs
4xmacbooks

So FYI, I would love this deal given what I was faced with at the Apple store this weekend.

I went in for a 6s battery exchange and was told that because there was a small crack on my screen I would have to pay $130 to fix it if they broke the screen during the battery replacement.  The screen works perfectly as is and the crack is off in the lower left corner near the home button... but if they screw it up fixing their battery problem.... tough... I could either walk out with a broken screen and a functional battery or pay $130 to have them put in a new screen.

Any other company I would just say "eh... I guess..." but I really expected more from Apple.

I wonder if the compromise is to make everyone absolutely secure but then un-secure the devices of the ones the governments have warrants for. AFTER the warrant is served.. any new data (messages, etc) is made available to law enforcement. It would be similar to wire taps in old tech. The government can tap a phone line with proper authorization but it can't get previous conversations before the tap went into effect. No volume data collection for no reason except.. "just in case we can go back and find stuff". Privacy is not guaranteed for those the government has warrants for.. it isn't now and in my opinion it should never be. If the government has reason to suspect someone and has gone through the right channels to conduct surveillance on you then (explained to judge and got a warrant) then it has the right to look through your windows, go through your garbage and track your car. What it doesn't have the right to do is track your car and save all your trash in a warehouse without a warrant so that if anything ever happens they can get a warrant and look back at your history. Leaving a door open for all to enter is just plain stupid... no matter how secure you think the door is.