Pixel 2 and 2 XL exhibit flickering when using the camera under LED lights

There have been more than a few bugs with the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL since their release last month, and while display controversy surrounding the XL model received the most attention, we've seen other issues here and there that have proven to be equally annoying. Most recently, users are reporting that the camera on the Pixel 2/2XL exhibits a flickering motion when taking a photo or video under LED lights.

So, what exactly is going on here?

All LED lights have a natural flicker that ranges from 50 to 60Hz, and it's something that's not perceivable to the human eye. However, certain cameras are capable of picking up this flickering and display it over what you're trying to capture. As fate would have it, the sensor on the Pixel 2 is one such camera.

It's a bit difficult to describe exactly what's going on with words, so to make things a bit more clear, take a look at this video that was recently uploaded to YouTube by apa1.

This phenomenon was also discovered by Chazzdjr in the Pixel User Community, with images captured on a plane turning out as follows:

A couple of representatives from Google have stated that they're aware of the issue and will make sure that the right people see what's going on. I personally can't replicate the flickering on my Pixel 2, and according to other users, this is something that's only affecting certain handsets. It's unclear if a software update will be able to fix this, so we'll have to wait and see what the Mothership says.

Joe Maring

Joe Maring was a Senior Editor for Android Central between 2017 and 2021. You can reach him on Twitter at @JoeMaring1.