What exactly does the Google Clips do? It’s an automatic digital camera without all the trappings – even the simplest ones, usually found on point-and-shoots. There’s no screen, no controls, just a simple shutter button that you don’t even have to use. Just point the Clips and it will start shooting automatically.
How does it do this? Using the built-in machine learning algorithm, which recognizes faces and stays on the lookout for cool moments to snap. Yup. Google says it’s smart enough to know what an interesting face looks like, to recognize good framing and lighting, and take those pictures of its own volition.
Pretty cool. The Google Clips captures motion pictures, similar to the iPhone’s Live photo, and you can either keep the whole Clips, or screenshot it into a straight photo. And since it is continually learning, it gets better over time, recognizing the faces you shoot most – even those of your pets.
If you’d like to have some control over the camera and ensure you don’t miss anything, simply press the shutter yourself.
As the Clips has no screen, you can view images on your Google phone, selecting the ones you like, sharing them online, creating slideshows with Google Photos, and saving the rest to Pixel. The camera comes with 16GB of storage, and since it doesn’t need any Internet connection to work, Google touts its complete safety. The battery will last up to 3 hours of smart capture function on a single quick-charge.
The Google Clips also features Lens Occlusion detection, which alerts you when it’s blocked so you always get the best shot. And at about two square inches in size, this camera is tiny enough to take with you just about everywhere. The lens has a field-of-view of 130 degrees, and opens up to f2.4 – which is pretty bright for a camera of this caliber.
The Google Clips starts at $249.
