(upbeat music)
- What's up, guys?
Saf here on SuperSaf TV
and it's time for the SuperSafStyle camera comparison
between the Google Pixel 7 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Now, as always, we'll be covering all aspects of the cameras
front-facing, rear facing,
low-light, portraits, all of it.
I'll leave some timestamps down below,
but you're going to want to see the full video
to get a good idea of what these devices are capable of.
Let's get to it.
So we'll kick off with the primary cameras.
And I got to say, in good light,
both of these have excellent primary cameras.
Lots of detail, excellent dynamic range.
You can see from this example here,
we've got a lot of light coming in from the background
but both have maintained the shadow details really well.
Now, after taking hundreds of images,
I did notice that the Pixel
generally tends to have slightly better dynamic range
compared to the iPhone,
especially if you look towards the shadow areas
in this image, for example.
Now, when it comes to low-light images,
one of the things you'll notice
is that if there is any lights in a low-light image
then they will bloom up quite a bit on both devices.
But on the Pixel, like we had
on previous year's Pixel 6 Pro,
you do get a lot of these purple flares
which can be quite distracting.
Now, the Pixel tends to give you an overall brighter image.
If you look towards the background with the trees,
they are a little bit brighter on the Pixel
compared to the iPhone.
Now again, on this example,
it's not even an artificial light, it is actually the moon.
You've got a lot of glare coming from both devices,
but you do have these pinkish and purplish flares
on the Pixel.
Here's another low-light example.
Again, all of those pink and purple flares
that you can see on the Pixel,
which are more so compared to the iPhone.
But generally, both are doing a really good job
and I think, for the primary camera, it is very, very close.
Now what about the ultra-wide camera?
Well, both of these
have excellent ultra-wide cameras as well,
and you get lots of detail.
But with the ultra-wide camera, in particular,
I did notice that the Pixel
did overall have better dynamic range.
If you look at this image, you can see that the iPhone
has clipped some of the cloud detail,
whereas the Pixel has maintained that
without crushing the shadows in the foreground.
Here's another example.
Again, I think both are doing really well,
but if you look at the highlight areas on the iPhone,
those have been slightly clipped.
Now, both ultra-wide cameras do have autofocus,
and that means you will be able
to get right up close to your subjects
and get amazing macro shots,
and both of these do a great job, as you can see here.
Now, as with the primary camera,
when it comes to low-light from the ultra-wide camera,
you'll notice that the Pixel tends to give you
a brighter overall image,
whereas the iPhone tends to want
to keep that nighttime look.
So, I guess it really depends on what you prefer.
Here's another example.
Here, I would be leaning a little bit more towards the Pixel
because it is an overall sharper image.
You can see more detail in the bricks,
whereas the iPhone is a little bit softer.
Although there is a lot of processing going on here
on the Pixel in the foreground.
Now, when I'm out shooting these camera comparisons,
it's obviously a lot of hard work,
especially when I have to run and I need a lot of energy,
and that's a great segue
to our sponsor for this video, Huel.
So I'm going to be honest with you guys,
like a lot of others,
I really let myself go over lockdown
and gotten to the unhealthy habit
of ordering lots of takeaways.
But I am trying to get better.
I've been going to the gym
and instead of wasting money on something unhealthy,
I've been having Huel shakes,
and this is before they worked with me.
Now Huel Black Edition, which you see here,
is a perfectly balanced plant-based meal
packed with 26 vitamins and minerals,
has around 40 grams of protein per serving,
which is great for them gains,
and is ready in less than 30 seconds.
Just add a couple of scoops of water
and shake, shake, shake.
There's lots of different flavors available,
so you're certain to find something you like.
My favorite right now is the cookies and cream.
Definitely let me know in the comments below
which is your favorite.
And if you want to pick up some Huel for yourself,
there's going to be a link down in the description below.
Back to the video.
Right, now let's look at the telephoto cameras.
So both of them do have optical zoom.
We've got three times on the iPhone,
and then we've got five times periscope zoom on the Pixel.
So when we do go at two times, for instance,
so that's where it's using some digital zoom,
both actually do pretty good.
We can scale these up to around 200%.
I do think that the iPhone is doing slightly better here.
Now when we zoom in three times,
then the iPhone does get the advantage here
because it is now using optical zoom
versus the digital zoom on the Pixel.
So if we expand these images to 200%,
you'll notice that the iPhone does have
a much cleaner and crisp image.
However, when we use the five times optical zoom
on the Pixel,
then that does get the advantage.
Although the focal length,
when you're doing five times on both
is a little bit different.
Now the iPhone is actually doing pretty good
because it's using the three times optical zoom,
and then adding to that.
But if you look towards the text detail,
then the Pixel is just slightly better.
Now if we expand the zoom even further,
so 10 times optical zoom,
again, you'll notice that difference in focal length
even though both say 10 times.
And here, because the Pixel
has that periscope zoom technology,
it is giving you an overall sharper image.
If we expand these to 200%, you'll notice,
especially in the text area,
it has become a bit of a blur on the iPhone
whereas it is cleaner on the Pixel.
Now the iPhone Max is out at 15 times zoom,
but the Pixel can go all the way up to 30 times.
And again, if you look at the text detail,
that is better maintained on the Pixel.
So when it comes to zoom,
I think anything up to three times zoom,
I would give it to the iPhone,
but anything above five times, I would give to the Pixel.
Now let's move on to portraits.
Now this was quite interesting
because on the Pixel, when you do go onto portraits,
even though it says one times,
it's actually cropping in quite heavily.
So you can see here,
both of these images were shut at one time,
so I was expecting them to have a similar focal length,
but the Pixel is almost like 1.6, 1.7 times,
but it still says one times, which it clearly is not.
But overall, both have done a pretty good job.
Now, on the iPhone, you can do portraits at one times,
two times, as well as three times.
On the Pixel, you can only do one times and two times.
Now, if we do it two times on the iPhone,
we're actually still getting a very clean nice image
and you can see that difference in focal length.
And if we do two times on the Pixel, it is much closer,
so it's closer to three times.
But one of the things you'll notice on the Pixel
is as soon as you go to two times,
it is using heavy digital zoom,
and it's using a lot of post-processing
to sharpen up that image
and you can see towards my face and things,
there is a lot of processing going on,
which I am not a fan of,
and it's also got lots of errors around my head and ears.
The iPhone, on the other hand,
I do think, is doing a much better job
in terms of edge detection
and, of course, you can use
that dedicated three times optical zoom camera as well,
which gives you more of a similar focal length
to the claimed two times that Google is saying.
And this is so much more of a better image.
At first glance it might seem that the Pixel is sharper,
but that is all artificial sharpening.
On the iPhone, you are actually getting
a very clean and clear image.
With amazing edge detection,
you can see that it has isolating me very, very well.
Now here's another example.
Once again, the Google claiming one times,
but it's actually much closer.
You can see this on the camera
as soon as you switch to Portrait mode.
Overall, I think both are doing pretty good,
but if we do use the two times on the Pixel,
then, look at that sharpening, it is really, really bad.
You can definitely notice this.
That is all artificial sharpening
and this is similar to what we had on the 6 Pro,
and it's something that I was complaining about
a lot as well.
The iPhone on the other hand,
yes, at first glance it might not seem as sharp,
but it's actually a much, much better image overall.
Now another thing that I noticed
when taking portraits on the Pixel,
which was very frustrating
and it was something similar to what we had on the 6 Pro,
is that, at certain times, you'll take a Portrait mode shot,
the Pixel won't tell you anything,
but then when you go into the gallery
you'll notice that the depth effect
has simply not been applied
and you can't edit the blur or anything like that.
You just get a simple flat image.
With the iPhone, if you are not close enough,
it will tell you to move forward or move backwards,
or something like that,
and that will ensure that you do get a portrait shot.
With the Pixel,
it did seem to be hit-and-miss many, many times
to the point where I got quite frustrated with it,
especially in low-light.
Here is what is supposed to be
a Portrait mode shot on both devices,
but it's not applied, the portrait effect.
The image says it's a portrait image but it's clearly not.
It's just a flat image.
And again, this was something
that was present on the 6 Pro
where you just pretty much potluck.
You take a portrait image, it might work, it might not
you just don't know.
And Google really needs to sort this out
with software updates.
So for those reasons, when it comes to portraits,
the clear win for me is the iPhone
with much sharper images,
as well as much better edge detection
at that three times, especially,
but you've also got the versatility of one times,
two times, as well as three times.
Right now, for selfies,
I actually think both take excellent selfies.
Lots of detail, great dynamic range, as you can see here.
Both of them also have a wider selfie mode.
The Pixel does have a wider field of view, which I like.
Now Google has done a lot of work for Real Tone
to get accurate skin colors with their photos
and, overall, it does do a good job,
but sometimes it can struggle
like you can see on this example here,
because I have a lot of light coming in from the background,
there's a lot of noise in my top,
and also I'm looking a little bit off-colored here,
whereas, I think, the iPhone is doing better
in terms of color.
So yes, Real Tone does work well in some situations,
but in others, it can struggle a little bit.
And when it comes to Portrait mode from the selfie cameras,
I think both do an excellent job.
I really do like the look of Pixel selfies.
I might be a little bit biased,
but I've always liked the look of Pixel selfies.
But overall, both are doing really, really well
especially in terms of the edges.
Now, with the Pixel, you can use the portrait effect
on the wider selfies as well.
On the iPhone, you can only use that portrait effect
on the cropped in selfies,
so that's another advantage that the Pixel gets,
which I do like.
Now when it comes to low-light selfies,
this is a real struggle because both of them
can use the night mode for the selfies,
but this actually doesn't work really well
because you have to keep your hand really, really still,
and when you are at that distance,
it can be a real struggle.
So I didn't like either of these, to be fair.
Now, both of them do have a front-facing flash.
And when we do have the front-facing flash,
I do prefer the iPhone.
Now ,the iPhone also has also autofocus
from the front-facing camera,
so if you do want to take some close up selfies
and things like that, you can do that on the iPhone.
With the Pixel, it is just fixed focus,
so if you do get too close, then it will be blurry.
Right now, let's move on to video.
Before we do, don't forget to subscribe
and hit that bell icon
if you are enjoying this video so far.
Now when it comes to video,
I actually thought the Pixel was doing really well
when I was looking at it on screen,
but when I brought it onto the computer
and compared them side by side,
it seems like there's a hell of a lot
of processing happening on the Pixel's outputs.
Check out this example, look towards the grassy areas.
There is so much noise,
I'm, like, pretty shocked at how much noise there is.
This might not be noticeable
when you're seeing it on a small device,
but when you do put it on a big screen,
it's very, very noticeable.
The iPhone still king of video,
giving you excellent dynamic range,
and great sharp quality video.
Now for low-light video as well, it's a similar situation.
The Pixel did seem to be sharper,
but then when you do look towards the darker areas
there's a lot of noise.
And the iPhone does tend to give you
better overall low-light shots.
Especially, in this example,
I was testing out the autofocus.
Autofocus on both devices is great,
both in good light as well as low-light.
But you can really see all of that noise on the Pixel,
which is coming from the processing, I'm assuming.
The iPhone just giving you an overall cleaner image.
Now, for stabilization,
so both of them do have a stabilization mode.
We've got Action mode in the iPhone
and we've got Active mode on the Pixel.
Now, both of them actually did a really good job.
As you can see from this example here,
we have great stability on both devices.
However, the iPhone can do this at 2.8K,
whereas the Pixel goes down to just 1080p.
It doesn't tell you it's going down to 1080p,
but it goes down to 1080p.
So for that reason, I would give the stabilization edge
to the iPhone.
Slow-motion, both are good overall,
but, I've said this before,
slow-motion hasn't really improved for the past few years.
Both do have 1080p up to 240 frames a second
and I think both do a decent enough job.
Now, for video from the front-facing camera,
an easy, easy win for the iPhone.
You've got much sharper results.
On the Pixel, there almost seems like there's a filter.
The colors do seem to look good overall,
however, everything is just so, so soft,
and, again, I think this is down
to overprocessing the image,
whereas the iPhone is just giving you
a much, much cleaner result.
Now for audio, I'll let you guys have a listen.
Now, this is a quick audio test
on the iPhone 14 Pro Max
and also on the Pixel 7 Pro.
Let me know what you guys think, how it sounds.
Which one do you prefer?
Do you prefer the Pixel
or do you prefer the iPhone?
Let me know what you guys think.
I did listen back to them a few times on headphones
and I did prefer the Pixel
because you've got better noise cancellation.
There's also speech enhancement
when using the front-facing camera at 4K.
- Now it's Cinematic mode.
As you can see, the iPhone is just much sharper.
The Pixel kind of looks like it's got a filter on again,
so everything is very soft.
Edges are also better with the iPhone.
You can get 4K in Cinematic mode on the iPhone,
whereas on the Pixel, it is just up to 1080p.
And on the iPhone, you can adjust the amount of blur
and select the point of focus after the fact.
The iPhone also has Cinematic mode
from the front-facing camera,
which you don't have on the Pixel.
So for Cinematic mode, again, a clear win for the iPhone.
- So, to conclude,
I think both of these have excellent overall cameras.
Of course, the iPhone is still king for video.
The Pixel, it does do really well in some situations.
I do like the overall dynamic range,
which it did seem to have better than the iPhone.
But you've also got the better extended zoom
from five times and plus.
However, there is definitely lots of room for improvement.
The portraits don't seem to have been improved much
over the past few years.
You've seen how far Samsung has come with the portraits
and how far Apple has come with the portraits.
With the Pixel, it is always hit-and-miss.
I really hope they're going to do something about it.
And also, all of the purple flaring
that you get on low-light shots
when there is a light source.
That's what I think. Anyway, what do you guys think?
Which one of these would you pick?
Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts.
If you want to see lots of images
from lots of different devices,
then do give me a follow on Instagram, I'm @SuperSaf.
I'm also on VERO, @SuperSaf, too,
if any of you guys are on there.
If you enjoyed this camera comparison,
want to see more like it,
then don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell icon
so you don't miss it.
I'll leave some related camera comparisons here
on the cards as well.
I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful.
If you did, don't forget to smash that like button.
Thanks watching this Saf on SuperSaf TV
and I'll see you next time.