2 years ago

114

Pixel 6 Pro iPhone 13 Pro Max Galaxy S21 Ultra Pixel 6 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro Max

this is the google pixel 6 pro and it
comes with this giant camera bar which
holds three cameras including an all new
main camera and the first periscope zoom
lens in the pixel and all together it's
a camera system that can compete with
the very best so that's why we brought
our good pals the iphone 13 pro max and
the samsung galaxy s21 ultra to see if
google really has a new camera king on
its hands hello guys my name is vic with
phone arena and let's get this camera
comparison started first let's get the
front camera out of the way and start
with a quick selfie video so that's what
video with the front camera looks like
the pixel clearly goes berserk with
sharpening while the iphone and the
galaxy are not quite as aggressive in
that regard and also interestingly you
can zoom up to four times while
recording selfie videos with the pixel
now it makes more sense to go wider
rather than zooming while you're
recording front camera video but if you
need that in some strange case the pixel
has it and the others don't jumping over
to some selfies the pixel has this
really wide front camera that can
capture more than the other two so if
you have a big group of friends that is
really nice to have and you can also go
of course narrower on all three phones
if it's just you for the selfie in terms
of quality the new pixel is definitely
going for a darker and more contrasty
moody look with very aggressive
sharpening while the iphone and the
galaxy shoot brighter shots with less
contrast than the softer detail
our favorite here is the galaxy which
has the most pleasing colors and most
balanced detail but it's a very close
call so let me know if you have other
preferences now i personally don't think
it's a good idea to take selfies at
night as the quality is quite terrible
but while the iphone and the galaxy
light up their screens as a fill light
for your face to capture a nice selfie
the pixel doesn't it just takes a longer
time to capture a long exposure shot
honestly it's hard to judge these all of
them just don't look like something
you'd want to share but you have that
option and here's a quick low light
video just to demonstrate what you can
get with the front camera at night the
pixel looks quite noisy and by the way
so does the galaxy
and take a look as i
go away from the light
this is what the video recording looks
like on all three phones
let's walk a bit
so overall for selfies our personal
preference goes to the galaxy which has
the most pleasing colors in various
conditions
but the real improvements that the pixel
brings are with the main camera which
for the first time in years uses a
bigger sensor right now we have a 50
megapixel on the pixel 6 pro now you
cannot actually shoot 50 megapixel
photos that's good to know the phone
actually combines 4 pixels into one for
a final image that is 12.5 megapixels
and just looking at the default shots
with automatic settings on all three
phones the pixel kind of stands out with
this cooler color tonality and the way
it very aggressively lifts up the
shadows and you get these kind of flat
looking photos the iphone goes in the
opposite direction with much warmer
colors and deep dark shadows for a more
contrasty look and the galaxy takes a
bit of the middle ground here now if we
had to pick a favorite we'd say that the
pixel sometimes really nails a photo but
often it captures a kind of flat looking
image that doesn't really look that good
while the iphone and the galaxy are more
consistent with what you get and would
give the iphone a slight edge for
daylight photos we just prefer the
colors and that's the time to mention
the new photographic styles on the
iphone that basically allows you to
choose whether you want warmer or cooler
colors whether you want deeper shadows
and more contrast or lighter shadows
with more detail in them and you can
keep that look for all your photos the
other two phones do have manual controls
but you cannot save these controls and
use them to create a new look for all
your future photos and you kind of have
to redo the controls every time you open
the camera app which is not convenient
at all
so photographic styles i think are a big
win for the iphone especially if you
want to customize the colors
but in terms of detail looking at some
crops from photos you can definitely see
the aggressive sharpening on the pixel
and the galaxy goes the opposite
direction trying to smooth detail and
remove excess noise and finally the
iphone kind of strikes the middle ground
here okay you also have an ultra wide
camera on all three phones and the
ultrawide camera on the pixel is not
quite as wide as the galaxy and
especially not as wide as the iphone
but still it's quite wide and it
actually has less distortion and crisper
detail at the edges take a look at a few
shots captured with the ultra wide
camera and pick your favorite here but
come night and the pixel shows that it
can match and surpass the other two but
with two big caveats first one is that
having all that processing power and all
that over processing really means that
just shooting a photo takes a long long
time on the pixel while the galaxy and
especially the iphone can often capture
a picture in a second or two seconds the
pixel often takes twice the time or even
longer to just capture a photo at night
and the other problem is just its
inconsistency sometimes it would get
white balance completely wrong for
example other times the photo would look
just fine and what about zoom quality
the galaxy is the zoom king to beat here
but let's take a look at some shots that
we've captured on all three phones
first at two times zoom where all phones
use digital zoom then we go to three
times zoom where the telephoto cameras
on the iphone and the galaxy kick in and
of course you have a more cleaner photo
while the pixel still uses digital zoom
and doesn't look nearly as good but then
at 4 times zoom the pixel periscope
camera kicks in so the pixel does look
sharper it's only when you reach 10
times zoom where the second zoom camera
on the galaxy kicks in and the pixel
gets its match but even at 10 times and
further the difference between the
galaxy and the pixel is not all that
huge in fact it's minimal and when you
get something brighter in the frame the
galaxy gets captures it with a bit of
glow while the pixel maintains
highlights actually even better so it's
a toss-up when it comes to zoom quality
but we'd say that the pixel might
actually be more practical with its
cleaner photos all the way from 4x to
9.9 times zoom which is a really great
zoom range to be in
and the iphone here really it's not a
great phone for zoomed in shots the
quality is just bad it's not in the same
league alright next up let's look at
portrait mode i love using it and you
can use it not only for people but also
for food shots and other objects for a
more dramatic effect so it has various
uses now what's peculiar with the pixel
imported mode is that it doesn't show a
preview of the effect as you capture it
in your viewfinder and the effect is
only applied after you take a shot which
is a bit weird but okay you get used to
it so using the one exported mode that's
a bit of a misnomer because while the
iphone and the galaxy do indeed use the
one x main camera the pixel actually
crops in quite a bit and that results in
less detail of course it looks mushier
you don't get such a clean image while
the iphone and the galaxy look a lot
crisper and as for the colors we have
the same cooler colors and somewhat
exaggerated contrast on the pixel which
is not our favorite look especially for
portraits but what i personally find
particularly strange is that google
doesn't allow you to use the periscope
forex zoom camera for portraits that
would have been amazing while on the
iphone and the galaxy you can use their
three times zoom cameras for close-up
portrait shots
and yes just using the forex camera
alone without the portrait mode actually
gives you quite a bit of natural bokeh
but it doesn't look quite as good as the
portrait mode on the other two so that
would have been a really nice thing and
probably something that google can add
via software update so we also took a
few portrait photos of objects that are
not people and a few portrait shots at
night where we got this actually crazy
artifacting on the iphone around my head
just noticed that that's just another
reminder that portrait mode is still far
from perfect on all of these phones and
is still a work in progress one thing
that we have absolutely fallen in love
with are the two new motion photo
options on the pixel 6 pro that usually
take experienced photographers quite a
bit of preparation to capture so the
first one is the long exposure photos
that just look stunning take a look at
that these look particularly great with
moving water and you also have the
action pan that also looks nice so this
is also a good moment to mention that
the pixel lacks a macro mode which i
wouldn't call is something you would use
often but it can be a cool thing to have
and both the iphone and the galaxy have
it so that's an advantage so what about
video capture has the pixel called up
here and can it match the other two
so the galaxy remains the only phone in
this bunch to support 8k video capture
with most detail and even if you don't
use it all the time the files are too
big having that option is actually
awesome for those special moments when
you really want that extra detail but
most of the time we would record at 4k
on these phones
and interestingly we noticed that at
4k60 there are some limitations on the
pixel for example at 4k60 you cannot use
the zoom camera on the pixel which is a
weird but we wouldn't judge it too hard
and we'll be comparing actually 4k 30
footage where all the cameras are
available since that's what we
personally use the most and it seems
that the iphone has the best video
stabilization among the three it's a
very close call as all three phones have
great video stabilization but there is a
bit of a jitter that you can notice on
both the pixel and the galaxy so we give
that slight edge slight advantage to the
iphone on the galaxy you can also enable
the super steady mode but that actually
uses the ultra wide camera and looks far
less detailed and similarly the pixel
has an active stabilization mode which
gives you better stabilization but again
that also comes with worse quality that
i don't think is really worth it and
here's how switching between the lenses
looks like on these three phones while
recording video there is a bit of a
hesitation and jitter on the pixel on
the galaxy 2 while the iphone really
seems a bit more refined in the camera
and how fluid it is and it also
maintains colors looking quite the same
while you do notice a bit of a change in
colors as you switch the cameras on the
pixel anyway here is a look at the
zoomed in video interestingly the iphone
can only go to nine times zoom in video
while both the pixel and the galaxy can
zoom up to 20 times and you can notice
how all across the four to nine 9.9
times zoom range the pixel looks great
and we would say that it's a close call
between the galaxy and the pixel here
and it's super impressive on the part of
the pixel
because it just uses one camera while
the galaxy uses two zoom cameras and the
iphone well it's not a match for these
two when it comes to zooming
i also want to quickly touch up on my
quality because the iphone microphone in
particular sounds great indoors but when
you take it outside where you have a lot
of wind that wind is not filtered out
properly and it's really hard to hear
anything in such conditions here's what
it sounds like all right so right now
we're testing the my quality on all
three phones so right now i'm talking to
the google pixel 6 pro okay and right
now i'm talking to the samsung galaxy
s21 ultra
and finally i'm talking to the iphone 13
pro max
keep in mind with the side voice
there might be some differences in the
mic quality so it's really interesting
to hear which phone does best so let me
know about that in the comments
so is the pixel 6 pro the new smartphone
camera king
well we think it's really close and it
certainly deserves to be in that
conversation but it's probably not quite
there yet photos on it mostly look great
but sometimes they'll turn out
surprisingly flat or have some issues in
low light when with the white balance
for example it's just a bit inconsistent
it's also frustrating how slow the pixel
was to take photos in low light
but then what was really surprising was
just how good that four times zoom
camera is and it gives the pixel a big
advantage in both zoomed photos and
videos
so at the end of the day the pixel 6 pro
is almost there as the ultimate camera
phone but the iphone and the galaxy do
look a bit more refined and more
consistent but we have to once again say
how close of a call this is and let's
not forget how much cheaper the pixel is
than these other phones
so what do you make of it all do you
like the new pixel 6 pro camera and are
you getting a pixel yourself let us know