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Camera Comparison: iPhone 15 Pro Max vs. Pixel 8 Pro

I like the warmth of the iPhone pictures more. Will someone think the competitor looks better? Yes. Does it matter to my decision? No.

It reminds me of the Panasonic vs Leica discussions when Panasonic made the sensor and case, and Leica made lenses, and added Leica software to a rebranded Leica version. The Leica had more accurate colours that to some where too bland, the Panasonic had more vibrant, saturated colours. I preferred the Panasonic for everyday use, Leica for black and white.
 
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tomekwsrod said:
Pixel looks better, the pic is more "real".
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My opinion is that the iPhone photos generally look more "real". The lighting is more accurate in the iPhone photos (for most of them). Colors are generally more accurate. The photo with the sidewalk is a clear example of this. The iPhone photo renders the color of the concrete accurately. The Pixel photo changes it way too much. A couple of the iPhone photos are oversaturated but while many of the Pixel photos "pop" more (mostly exposure), they look more artificial.
 
iPhone crushes the clouds and gives them too much contrast. Pixel photos generally look better, especially telephoto but iPhone 5x portrait looks cool. iPhone prores video is sweet, but standard video pixel looks better. Either way, both just smartphones cameras relying essentially on 'sh**y HDR', not even close to a proper camera.
 
Picture 1: I'd pick the Pixel. It pulls out the shadows but still maintains a good level of detail where the iPhone is just too underexposed.

Picture 2: Depends on what you look at. The Pixel has more detail in the grated area, while the iPhone is sharper on the lines of the building/camera at the edge of the shot.

Picture 3 is pretty similar. A little more detail from the overexposed Pixel in the background, but not enough difference to pick a winner.

Picture 4 is iPhone all the way. Sharper, more detail, more contrast.

Picture 5 is iPhone all around. More detail on the building, more contrast on the side of the car, sharper and the text is easier to read where some of the phone number is blurred out on the Pixel.

Picture 6 is the easiest win for the iPhone. Better saturation, contrast, detail. The Pixel is washed out. Almost no detail at the top of the building.

Picture 7 depends on what you're looking for. The Pixel provides better detail and more sharpness on the building in the foreground, but the picture is way too cool (blue), where the iPhone seems to capture that better.

Picture 8 depends on what you're looking for as well. The Pixel looks more washed out, but also shows a little more detail due to the overexposure on the building, while the car is iPhone all the way. More saturation, more contrast (Look at the black around the "T"), while the Pixel looks washed out and almost desaturated.
 
Tbh these articles are pointless, most of the time it just comes down to personal preference
 
First of all, the Pixel 8 pro takes better photos IMHO. What Im noticed from the iP15 pro is that all photos have a kind of yellow tint. I noticed that from the beginning without having seen photos taken with the Pixel.

But next, the Pixel shows innovation and it becomes clear that Apple completely missed AI. What makes this worse is that we don‘t know, if Apple Silicon machine learning cores are fast enough to do all this tricks on the device.
 
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All the photos that are close up with cars and the buildings in the background definitely go to the Iphone. They look natural and they're not oversaturated.

The 5X Zoom all seem a bit more detailed with the Pixel, yet slightly more washed out but acceptable. However, on the 15 Pro it's a a bit too dim with some loss of shadow detail on the zoomed in photos...also some details are slightly blurred.
 
neuropsychguy said:
My opinion is that the iPhone photos generally look more "real". The lighting is more accurate in the iPhone photos (for most of them). Colors are generally more accurate. The photo with the sidewalk is a clear example of this. The iPhone photo renders the color of the concrete accurately. The Pixel photo changes it way too much. A couple of the iPhone photos are oversaturated but while many of the Pixel photos "pop" more (mostly exposure), they look more artificial.
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This has been easy to see in my day-to-day shots with the 15PM, mostly because I love taking photos of the skylines. For the longest time on smart phones, any photos of the dark sky are usually met with an overtly brighter skyline than what I actually saw. The 15PM out of the box seems to handle this a lot better, which means those thunderstorms rolling through Texas look a lot more terrifying than what I'd normally have captured otherwise without editing.

One other thing of note is that I enjoy how much data the 15PM is taking as well. This means if I want to make changes later, I have more room and data to do it as noted with portraits for example.

Overall, you wouldn't catch me converting back to Android over the camera and some AI tricks. They're both decent enough cameras. The ecosystem, performance, and support matter to me most. Google's only real plus is finally addressing support, but given their reputation, I wouldn't hold my breath in them supporting any product for 7 years. :rolleyes:
 
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I like the 15PM images better, the detail and contrast in the skies are telling. Only one of the Pixel images I liked better. But congratulations to both companies for their work on phone cameras, phone cameras really are astounding.

However, the top-of-the-line hardware is probably quite similar, and what we’re looking at is the difference in ‘processing sauce’.

Which means that the difference in the images amounts to a few seconds in post processing.

Would I give up my iPhone and iOS for the difference in these images, even if I believed that the Pixel‘s were marginally better (which I do not)? Not in a million years.

And you get blue message bubbles with iMessage, no nasty RCS! Sorry, couldn’t resist trolling the trolls.
 
Looking forward to testing myself alongside others here on the MacRumors Alternatives to iOS forum thread regarding the Pixel 8 and pro.

IMG_0045.jpeg

My 15 pro is not a Max, so will not test zoom, but everything else is fair game!
 
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podycust said:
Tbh these articles are pointless, most of the time it just comes down to personal preference
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That the whole point of the article is to looks and see what your personal preference is and use that as a guide to help choose a phone. The very opposite of pointless.
 
I prefer if the pictures were taken from the exact same spot, at the same time. It cant be that hard to get a tripod.
 
Pixels have better cameras than iPhones for photos. It is also catching up in videos.
 
I can see why many commenters are saying the Pixel camera looks better most of the time, but from a photographer's eye, they are (mostly) wrong. The problem here is that the iPhone is trying to capture a more colour-accurate picture, while the Pixel algorithm is clearly aimed at over-brightening and over-saturating the brighter colours. Divorced of context, the brighter and more colour-saturated pictures are going to look "better" to most people in the same sense that cartoons look better than real life.

Google's approach works fine if you're just taking tourist shots, I guess, but they "lie" about the weather, the sky, and the true colour of things, the way Samsung "lies" about that full moon shot you think you took.

To put this another way, if I'm shooting a dead body for the newspaper, neither they -- nor I -- want the corpse to look like he's just "asleep" in the photo. :)
 
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Meaningless to me, I’ve never ever kept a picture pre post, every single one has been shot in RAW and edited, detail detail detail
 
chas_m said:
I can see why many commenters are saying the Pixel camera looks better most of the time, but from a photographer's eye, they are (mostly) wrong. The problem here is that the iPhone is trying to capture a more colour-accurate picture, while the Pixel algorithm is clearly aimed at over-brightening and over-saturating the brighter colours. Divorced of context, the brighter and more colour-saturated pictures are going to look "better" to most people in the same sense that cartoons look better than real life.

Google's approach works fine if you're just taking tourist shots, I guess, but they "lie" about the weather, the sky, and the true colour of things, the way Samsung "lies" about that full moon shot you think you took.

To put this another way, if I'm shooting a dead body for the newspaper, neither they -- nor I -- want the corpse to look like he's just "asleep" in the photo. :)
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Exactly!
 
CarAnalogy said:
The fact that it’s basically a draw is not encouraging for Apple. Combined with the fact that Samsung zoom is just way better, I don’t know what Apple is doing with its cameras. It keeps wanting to make them a headline feature, but they just are not anything special.
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That's mostly a matter of taste. Either way, they are a headline feature for iPhones. I don't want to use an Android phone regardless of camera, so I don't really care how they compare to them. With that said, I mostly prefer iPhone shots.
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
I wish MacRumors would stamp images with A & B or 1 & 2 and poll the crowd on which images look better... then "update" or post a followup article after 48-72 hours revealing which was Apple's vs. which is <others>. By putting the favorite company's name on images in articles like this, fans/anti-fans find things to favor/fault in those shots.

A poll as described would have people judging solely on quality of photos head-to-head and the delayed big reveal or followup article would give us an overall objective group opinion.
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It'd be nice if they also add a DSLR-like picture, which is more true-to-life, so we can have more insight of what was closer to real life.
 
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These comparisons should include far more shots of people, not landscapes, which is what I presume the iPhone processing is optimized for.
 
jwdsail said:
On my non-calibrated screen I'm reading the story on?

The first 3 - Pixel looks a bit better to my eyes.

2nd 3 - iPhone

The rest? Tie?

I guess I'd need to see more photos that would include subjects/areas I'd actually use my camera and or iPhone camera for to have a strong take?

Looking at these on a better and calibrated screen could sway me one way or another as well?
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Agree 100% - had the same conclusion.

Would call is a draw - but I'd probably give it to Google because their AI photo features are like witchcraft and sorcery in an app. If Apple ever tried to offer those features, they're never going to be as good as long as they keep the on-device processing stance (save that time they almost did cloud processing for kiddie porn).
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
I wish MacRumors would stamp images with A & B or 1 & 2 and poll the crowd on which images look better... then "update" or post a followup article after 48-72 hours revealing which was Apple's vs. which is <others>. By putting the favorite company's name on images in articles like this, fans/anti-fans find things to favor/fault in those shots.

A poll as described would have people judging solely on quality of photos head-to-head and the delayed big reveal or followup article would give us an overall objective group opinion.
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This would be great with lots of things.

Years ago, when GM redesigned the Pontiac G6 to appeal to younger buyers, they showed it off in focus groups without any badging or branding - people didn't even know it was a GM car at all - it scored a favorability score of around 90%.

They repeated this, but the second time had the Pontiac branding on it - the score was just below 40%. It is amazing how biased we can be to a brand. Too bad they didn't do this same test with Buick and get rid of that brand too :)
 
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MacAddict1978 said:
Agree 100% - had the same conclusion.

Would call is a draw - but I'd probably give it to Google because their AI photo features are like witchcraft and sorcery in an app. If Apple ever tried to offer those features, they're never going to be as good as long as they keep the on-device processing stance (save that time they almost did cloud processing for kiddie porn).
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While, on the other hand, I want more of the raw, unadulterated image? Let me edit/decide if I want the image doctored afterwards.. I'm still using my now ancient Canon DSLR if I'm taking photos that I really are about that level of control though.

I'd still be shooting B/W film if I had a space for a darkroom where I live right now...
 
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