- What's up, guys? Saf here on SuperSaf TV.
And welcome to another SuperSaf Style camera comparison.
This time it's between the iPhone SE
and the Google Pixel 4a,
and I'm sorry, it's windy, but I live in the UK,
and it's always windy, so I can't help that.
Anyway, so we're going to be testing out all aspects
of the cameras, front-facing, rear-facing,
images, video, low light, all of the good stuff,
and also look out for the audio icon
in the corner of the screen.
We're currently using the front-facing cameras
on both devices.
See what the dynamic range is like,
how much of the background you can actually see.
Anyway, we're going to go ahead and test out stabilization.
So walking.
Now, let's run.
(wind blowing)
We've switched on to video now.
See what the dynamic range is like here.
And we're going to test out stabilization at 4K.
So usual walk, and let's run.
Now, we're going to test out 1080p stabilization.
So usual walk, and now run.
(lighter sparking)
Just testing out the autofocus on the Pixel 4a.
Seems to be absolutely fine, very fast.
Same test on the iPhone SE.
Once again, very fast. No problems I can see.
So that was the video.
Now, before we move on to images,
if you like what you're seeing so far,
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Now, let's have a look at what we're working with.
So we have two cameras on each smartphone,
one in the front and one in the back,
and it's been a long time since we've had this.
Right now, we kind of have five, six, seven cameras
on each smartphone and having to test each
of those separately takes a long time.
So this video is going to be much shorter
than the usual camera comparisons.
But anyway, on the rear facing cameras,
both have around 12 megapixels.
The Pixel does have a slightly wider aperture.
For the front-facing cameras,
the Pixel once again has a slightly wider aperture
as well as a slightly higher resolution.
Now, looking at the images in good light,
honestly speaking, both do very, very well.
You can see these examples side by side.
Now, the iPhone does tend to have
slightly more vibrant colors compared to the Pixel,
which are a bit more neutral.
I think this is going to come down to personal preference.
And if you've used the Google Pixel device before,
you'll be familiar with the Pixel look, shall we say.
This is a very specific type of look
that you get from Pixel devices.
It can sometimes look a little bit over-sharpened,
but you've got a lot of contrast, and the images really pop.
This is something that a lot of people do like.
Some people don't like it,
think it's a bit too over-processed,
but, nevertheless, I think you can't really go wrong
with either of these, and you get some excellent results
outdoors with great dynamic range.
I'm very impressed with the dynamic range
that you're getting on these smartphones
coming in at this price point.
Now, although you don't have any form of optical zoom
on both these devices, you do have digital zoom.
And Google have what they call Super Res Zoom,
which essentially uses software
to give you better zoom results.
The iPhone can go up to a max of 5x,
whereas the Pixel can go up to a max of 7x.
Now, if we do compare 5x side by side,
you'll see that the Pixel is giving you
an overall cleaner image with less noise,
and it's also a tad sharper.
And if we do go to the max zoom of the Pixel,
you can see that you can get in closer.
I want to emphasize that this is digital zoom.
It is not optical zoom.
But if you are interested in zooming on these smartphones,
then yes, the Pixel will give you better results overall.
Now, let's move on to low light.
So, initially, just taking images on automatic,
just tapping the shutter button,
the iPhone is actually doing a better job overall.
You can see that those blinds in that window
are still visible, whereas those have been blown out
on the Pixel, but the Pixel does have night sight.
And this is a dedicated night mode,
which takes multiple exposures
and gives you much brighter low light images,
like you can see from this example here.
We can now see much more of the roof.
You can see more of the clouds in the background,
and you can also make out somewhat of the path
in the middle of my garden,
which you simply cannot make out on the iPhone SE.
And this is something that I really wish
that the iPhone SE did have a dedicated night mode,
which would have really helped in low light situations.
Unfortunately, it is not there.
Checking out another example.
This is on automatic, the Pixel straightaway doing better.
It is a brighter image, but as soon as you use night sight,
it becomes much more of a usable image.
It's much brighter. It's much sharper as well.
So when it does come to low light,
the Pixel definitely gets the edge
thanks to the night sight feature.
Now, let's look at some of the portraits.
So this is very interesting
because the Pixel actually punches in to take portraits.
And this is something that I really like
because it gives you a much more flattering angle.
Rather than the wide angle,
which kind of looks like everything is stretched out,
it looks like I've been on a very significant diet
on the iPhone, but that's just the way things work.
That's just how angles in photography work.
So I definitely prefer the angle of view on the Pixel,
but I also prefer the edge detection on the Pixel
where you can see that the iPhone
has really, really struggled on my hair,
and kind of blended my partially gray hair
into the gray rooftop in the background.
Now, neither of these are doing an excellent job.
You can still see that the area between my arms
has been completely ignored by both of these.
And this is something that I was kind of expecting
with these smartphones at this price point.
But if I was to pick one, it would definitely be the Pixel.
Another shot, and I think the sort of distortion
is more emphasized here on the iPhone SE.
You know, my head is looking a little bit alien-like,
and that is because you have to move in a little bit closer
to be able to get that proper portrait shot,
and the Pixel, much, much better angle of view.
Neither are doing amazing in terms of edge detection.
You can see that the iPhone has kind of gone
around my hands and everything,
and try to blur everything else in the background,
whereas the Pixel has tried to do more
of a gradual fall off, as you would see on a pro camera.
Once again, I would say I prefer the Pixel here
compared to the iPhone.
Now, let's move on to some selfies.
And the first thing you'll notice straight away
is that the Pixel does have a much wider angle of view.
So you'll be able to get in a lot more of your background.
If you want to take group selfies,
then this is where the Pixel
is really going to have an advantage.
In terms of overall dynamic range and detail,
I think both are doing a really, really good job.
The Pixel, once again, that very crisp over-sharpened look,
which some people do like, some people don't.
And in this sort of instance,
when you're taking selfies, then it does kind of amplify
those imperfections in your face.
Once again, this is something that you may or may not like.
The iPhone giving you more sort of softer skin,
and I do like that the iPhone has prioritized exposure
on my face.
You can see that the Pixel is a little bit dark,
so it's trying to have more of a balanced exposure.
And this is something that I do like about the iPhone.
It does find your face and it tries to brighten up
that area, so it doesn't look too dark.
I mean, you could easily tweak the image on the Pixel,
but the iPhone is giving you the brighter shot
straight off the bat.
Now, here is another shot.
Once again, you'll notice all of the same things.
You'll see that the Pixel is a little bit darker overall,
whereas the iPhone has brightened the image up a little bit.
This is going to come down to personal preference.
The Pixel wider again, which I do like,
but look at dynamic range,
we've got light coming in from the background,
but both have done a really good job.
Very different skin tones.
So the iPhone kind of going for something
which I would call a bit more of a pleasing look,
whereas the Pixel is probably going
for a bit more of a natural look.
And, again, if you look at the skin,
you can see that the iPhone is a little bit smoother,
whereas the Pixel is very, very sharp.
A little over-sharpened, some may say.
Now, for this next shot,
I wanted to test out dynamic range,
so the Sun is beaming right in the background,
and you can see that both are still doing
a very, very good job.
So, very happy with the dynamic range on both here.
Very big differences in color.
The iPhone, again, more vibrant,
which I do think is a bit more pleasing,
whereas the Pixel is a bit more muted.
Now, in this shot, again, we've got all of the things
that we've talked about before,
but I do prefer the Pixel shot here overall.
The shadow areas in my face are a little bit brighter,
which does give it an overall better exposure, I think.
And then, if we move on to the portrait mode
from the front-facing camera,
the first thing you'll notice is that the Pixel
does punch in slightly,
so you do kind of lose that wide angle of view
when you are shooting portraits.
Here, again, the Pixel kind of looks like
it's sharpened things even more, which does look very crisp,
but this is something that you may or may not prefer.
In terms of edge detection,
I think overall both are doing a very, very good job.
Now, the Pixel does try to cut out a very hard edge,
which can sometimes look really good,
but it can fail at other times.
The iPhone you can see, especially around my hair,
it's kind of got more of a softer edge,
which is a little bit more forgiving.
So that is something to bear in mind,
and it's something that you will notice more going forward,
such as in this shot here.
I definitely prefer the iPhone more.
The Pixel, in trying to get that hard edge,
has also got the legs of the space man in the background.
So it thinks it's part of my face,
which completely ruins that portrait shot.
Whereas, the iPhone has done a much better job,
and although it might have not got every strand of my hair,
and it's kind of applied more of a blur,
it does give you a much more pleasing shot
compared to the Pixel.
Another example here.
Again, the Pixel, in trying to get that edge,
has completely failed on my hair,
so my hair is now all a bit of a blur.
Whereas, the iPhone, although it's not perfect,
has done a much better job.
And I do prefer the iPhone here overall compared
to the Pixel, even though the iPhone has kind of overexposed
a bit of my t-shirt, it is more of a pleasing shot.
Now, some low light selfies.
And here, the Pixel doing much better straight off the bat.
The iPhone does have a lot of noise.
Now, on the Pixel, you can also use night sight
from the front-facing camera, which is really interesting.
It doesn't give you the sharpest result
because it is taking multiple exposures,
but it does give you a much, much brighter
and more usable result.
Now, in these cases,
it is best to use the front-facing flash
where it does illuminate the screen.
And here, once again, I do prefer the Pixel.
It's just giving you a brighter overall image.
You can see a bit more of the background as well.
Whereas, the iPhone, although it's doing much better
than it was previously, is still a little bit noisy,
and it's not as bright as the Pixel.
And those were all of the samples,
and I have to say both are very impressive.
Considering the price point
that these smartphones are coming in at,
you are getting some excellent cameras.
I think a lot of that is thanks to the software.
Apple and Google, really good with software processing.
Now, there were some situations where the Pixel was better,
and others where the iPhone was better.
One area where the Pixel was definitely better
was in low light.
Thanks to night sight, you can get much brighter
and much more detailed low light images.
This is an area where the iPhone SE generally struggles
because it doesn't have that dedicated night mode.
I really wish Apple can have a software update
to include it.
The Pixel also has an astrophotography mode.
This is where you'll be able to get very long exposures
on a tripod, of the stars.
It's something that I have tested on the Pixel 4 last year.
I couldn't do this for the Pixel 4a
because it requires you to go in the middle of nowhere
where you have no light pollution.
You need a tripod, and you need to sit there
for a good few minutes.
Now, the option is there, so I do want to mention it,
but unfortunately I didn't get a chance
to go out and do that.
This is something that you can't do on the iPhone SE.
I also did prefer portraits
from the rear-facing camera on the Pixel.
That punch in gives you a much better angle of view,
and it did have better overall edge detection.
Now, when it comes to video, things were quite interesting.
From the rear-facing camera,
I did prefer video overall on the iPhone SE.
I think you had more detail
and stabilization was also better.
The Pixel does try to over-stabilize, shall we say?
And then, it can be a little bit jittery,
especially when you have lots of motion.
The iPhone can also film at up to 4K, 60 frames a second
from the rear-facing camera.
This is an option that you do not have on the Pixel 4a.
From the front-facing camera, video,
the Pixel had much better dynamic range,
and it also had much better stabilization.
However, the iPhone was definitely much sharper.
If you look back, you can clearly see
that the iPhone is producing much sharper results.
It looks like the Pixel, to be able to provide
all of that dynamic range and stabilization,
is doing a lot of software processing.
It also does punch in
to be able to give you that stabilization,
so you don't get that same wide angle of view
like you do for images.
And speaking of images from the front-facing camera,
I think a lot of it is going to come down
to personal preference.
The Pixel is wider.
It's also sharper,
but some may feel that it is over-sharpened.
As mentioned, those imperfections in your face
will be highlighted more on the Pixel
compared to that on the iPhone.
But the iPhone did have better portraits.
Overall, edge detection was just better
on the iPhone compared to the Pixel,
which does try to give you a very clear-cut portrait,
but in the process of doing that,
it can pick up a lot of the background and miss those edges.
For slow motion, I do think that the iPhone gets the edge.
You do have 1080p slow motion.
And although the Pixel does try to sharpen the footage,
it definitely looks like software sharpening.
So, at first glance it might seem like the Pixel
does have sharper slow motion,
but when you do look at it closely,
you can see that it is over-sharpened.
For audio, I'll let you go back and have a listen.
For me, it was a bit of a draw.
I do think that the iPhone had better noise cancellation
from all of that wind in the background,
but I'll let you guys decide on that.
That's what I think anyway. What do you guys think?
Definitely drop me a comment below
and let me know your thoughts.
If you want to see lots of images posted
from lots of different devices,
then do give me a follow on Instagram.
I am at SuperSaf.
I really hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful.
These camera comparisons,
even if there are just two cameras,
take a lot of time to put together,
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Thanks for watching. This is Saf on SuperSaf TV.
I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)