Some of the image processing that goes on for Pixel 2 & 3 is done in a special ASIC. https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/google/pixel_visual_core https://en.wikichip.

Some of the image processing that goes on for Pixel 2 & 3 is done in a special ASIC. https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/google/pixel_visual_core https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/google/pixel_visual_core Apple probably has a similar block built into their SoCs directly. Computational photography will require more and better HW to handle the compute, so I wouldn't bank on camera improvements stalling out for some time. As an example of runway, look at the Light L16 (which the Nokia 9 Pureview is rumored to use their tech). It takes medium format DSLR quality photos that you can adjust depth of view in post processing. That will filter out to Android & Apple phones eventually.