Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • - Hey, bud.

  • Welcome back.

  • Okay, so it's the end of tech season,

  • which means it is the Full-Frame

  • that I know you've been looking for.

  • Today, we are taking, arguably the best camera systems

  • you can get in a smartphone,

  • and we're putting them head to head.

  • I took 1,000 photos with the Pixel 6 Pro,

  • and another 1,000 photos with the iPhone 13 Pro,

  • to figure out which one of these cameras

  • is actually the best.

  • And with a little help from you,

  • I think we've gotten to the bottom of it.

  • This is Full-Frame, buds, let's get into it.

  • The Pixel 6 Pro's main camera is a 50-megapixel sensor

  • with an optically stabilized F1.85 lens,

  • that is hard-coated to produce 12.5-megapixel images.

  • Which means you can't actually capture

  • 50-megapixel images with this camera.

  • There's also a 12-megapixel ultra-wide at F2.2,

  • and a 48-megapixel telephoto at F3.5.

  • The iPhone 13 Pro rocks a 12-megapixel camera system

  • across the board, with an F2.8 telephoto,

  • an F1.5 main lens, and an F1.8 ultra-wide.

  • Enough of the numbers, let's get looking at photos.

  • And I want to start with the tele,

  • because there is almost no competition here.

  • Google's 48-megapixel tele provides 4X optical zoom,

  • and it is very sharp.

  • It flattens the image out

  • much like a larger telephoto lens would.

  • And its focused fall off is really sleek.

  • And when you put it side by side

  • with the iPhone's 12-megapixel 3X tele,

  • the iPhone photos begin to look muddled.

  • Especially when you punch in.

  • I was really surprised at just how much detail

  • the Pixel can capture.

  • And punching into this photo,

  • you can practically read the newspaper right here.

  • The next three photos were taken with night mode,

  • which on the Pixel, unfortunately,

  • can take up to five seconds.

  • On the iPhone, it maxes out at three seconds.

  • And some real bonus points go to the Pixel

  • for how it spreads these headlights.

  • This photo is digitally zoomed

  • as far as each camera would allow me.

  • On the Pixel that's 20X, and on iPhone that's 15X.

  • The clear winner of the telephoto competition is the Pixel.

  • I had such a good time taking photos

  • with this telephoto lens,

  • and I almost want to stop the entire review there.

  • But we have to talk about the ultra-wide on the Pixel.

  • At a 0.7 crop or 114 degree field of view,

  • the Pixel's ultra-wide is just barely wider

  • than the 82 degree main lens.

  • The iPhone's ultra-wide is a 0.5 crop

  • or 120 degree field of view.

  • And it's just a lot sharper.

  • Now, although the iPhone warps the image much more,

  • that effect makes for a much more dramatic image

  • that sells me on the grandiose nature of the buildings

  • or monument I was mostly shooting with it.

  • The ultra-wide is where you also see a little bit too much

  • of that HDR look that the Pixel loves.

  • Shadows are just completely brightened up,

  • and I much preferred the contrast that the iPhone provides.

  • Again, it adds to the epic nature of a wide-angle photo.

  • The iPhone wins the ultra-wide contest.

  • (gentle music)

  • On the front of the Pixel is an 11.1-megapixel camera.

  • And on the iPhone, there is a 12-megapixel TrueDepth camera.

  • Both are great in perfect lighting,

  • and capture a nice amount of detail.

  • Now, I'm gonna call this a tie,

  • because it was 50-50 on which images I liked more.

  • For example, I really like how I look

  • in this photo on the Pixel.

  • I like the color blue behind me,

  • and I like that my skin tone isn't as washed out.

  • Although in low-light, I found that the iPhone

  • held onto my skin tones just a bit better.

  • And when there was no light,

  • well, neither of these cameras performed well.

  • All right, so it looks like it comes down to the main lens.

  • And this is where things get a little tougher.

  • (chilled music)

  • I like the amount of contrast

  • that the iPhone has in this photo.

  • But then the focus fall off on objects

  • that are close to the camera, look much better on the Pixel.

  • Yeah, it gets a little funky in this back row of flowers,

  • but I prefer it over the iPhone,

  • keeping all of the flowers in focus.

  • And then there's photos like this,

  • where yes, you can barely see my hand,

  • but on the Pixel photo, it's just way too blue.

  • And I think that my hand looks much more the color

  • that it should be, on the iPhone.

  • The color of the sky in the iPhone here,

  • is much more realistic.

  • Pixel went way too magenta.

  • The street scene looks a lot better with a bit more magenta,

  • and those bluer tones in the Pixel,

  • than it does with the warm tones of the iPhone.

  • At night, the Pixel definitely takes longer to take photos.

  • And you can see that in the way that these people

  • are blurry, in the Pixel's photo.

  • But I do really enjoy the blue sky that the Pixel preserved,

  • whereas the iPhone made all of this just black.

  • And then of course, there are those light reflections

  • that the iPhone is famous for.

  • And yes, the Pixel has them too, but a lot less of them.

  • And again, this photo took a lot longer

  • to take on the Pixel, but I really appreciate

  • how much detail it kept in the buildings.

  • Whereas on the iPhone,

  • it just looks like a black and white mess back here.

  • This one drives the point home quite well.

  • The contrast that the Pixel

  • kept in the trees is really nice,

  • but I prefer the contrast that the iPhone kept

  • on the people and this ledge right in front.

  • Okay, I'm coming close

  • to who I think I'd pick as the winner,

  • but I wanted to give all of you a chance to choose as well.

  • So I made a poll, I posted on my Twitter.

  • And a whole lot of you took it,

  • and we'll get to those results in a bit.

  • But first, I want to talk about how it feels

  • to use these cameras,

  • because you can't talk about a camera system

  • without talking about its hardware and its UI.

  • Let's head outside for that.

  • (chilled music)

  • When people ask me if they should buy a Pixel 6 Pro,

  • I ask them what they think of big phones,

  • because this phone is absolutely massive.

  • The Pixel's incredibly slippery back,

  • also does it no favors.

  • It weighs 210 grams and has a 6.7-inch screen,

  • that makes the iPhone 13 Pro feel mini

  • at 204 grams with a 6.1-inch screen.

  • And to be clear, I used to think

  • that the 13 Pro was way too big.

  • But now that I've used the Pixel 6, this thing feels mini.

  • All right, but now let's talk about camera software,

  • because both of these phones are missing one large feature,

  • if you ask me.

  • Let's talk Apple first.

  • As Dieter noted in his iPhone 13 Pro review,

  • there is this horrible, small icon in the camera's UI.

  • - This is yet another button on Apple's camera app,

  • which is getting increasingly complicated

  • and has an almost fractally expanding set

  • of different kinds of shooting states.

  • - So what Dieter's referring to

  • is this little button right up here, the small arrow.

  • The arrow button brings a whole new set of controls

  • to the bottom panel, replacing existing controls.

  • And it actually took me a few days

  • to even realize this was a button at all.

  • Not to mention, you can bring up the same controls

  • by swiping on the screen.

  • On the Pixel, it also has a downward arrow up top,

  • but it has a little settings wheel right next to it.

  • So it brings up a box that covers the camera's screen.

  • And that's where most of your settings are housed.

  • Each of these phones also have some fun features built in.

  • So on the iPhone, you have a macro mode

  • that uses the ultra-wide lens, and is quite stunning.

  • Then there's a cinematic video mode

  • that is kind of hit-or-miss,

  • but it's really great when it hits.

  • And it provides a great deal of depth of field

  • and slower focus pulling, to emulate cinematic cameras.

  • Then there's also photographic styles

  • that allow you to tune your camera's color

  • and contrast settings to fit your style.

  • And then however you tune it,

  • it will stay on the main camera, and always shoot that way.

  • Now, Google's camera promises that no face will be blurry

  • with its Face Unblur feature, that uses machine learning

  • and multiple images so that no face is ever blurry,

  • no matter how quickly a photo is taken

  • or a subject is moving.

  • It works most of the time, although in low-light,

  • it kind of all goes out the window.

  • There's also a motion mode that can add motion to cars

  • or trains or fast moving objects,

  • for a more professional looking shot.

  • And a magic eraser tool that allows you

  • to erase unwanted distractions in the back of your photos.

  • I've used magic eraser as a bar trick

  • for the last two weeks, and it totally blows people away.

  • And when it works, it really works.

  • It's amazing that you can do this on a phone.

  • And as many reviewers have said, if an iPhone had this,

  • people would be going absolutely nuts.

  • Though I will say when it misses it, it does miss.

  • Now, what I think that both of these systems are missing

  • is a pro mode, where I can manually adjust aperture,

  • shutter speed, ISO,

  • without having to download another app to do so.

  • As someone who shoots film on my Galaxy S10,

  • I'm in pro mode often,

  • because I can preview the shot I'm about to take.

  • If you've got pro in the name,

  • it seems like you should have it in the camera system too.

  • Okay, but there is one more feature of the Pixel 6 camera

  • that I think is really important.

  • Google claims the Pixel 6 camera system

  • is better at exposing for diverse skin tones.

  • They call this feature Real Tone.

  • And Google did this by diversifying their image datasets,

  • and by working with a panel of photography experts

  • to better train its photo algorithms.

  • But to figure out if any of that is true,

  • I hit up someone here at The Verge

  • who takes a lot of photos.

  • This is Mariya Abdulkaf,

  • she's a senior video producer here at The Verge.

  • She's also our in-house paparazzi.

  • - Those are some facts.

  • So today, we took the iPhone 13 Pro and the Pixel 6 Pro

  • around the office and outside,

  • and tested them in different lighting situations

  • to see how well they would take a photo of me.

  • I just really do have a preference towards the Pixel,

  • because it is actually getting more detail in my face.

  • Yeah, the True Tone isn't like the true tone of my face.

  • However, it is more accurate than the iPhone overall.

  • (camera shutter clicking)

  • - This last shot of Mariya, oh my gosh.

  • But let's talk video.

  • Both of these devices can shoot at 4K 60 frames per second.

  • The iPhone holds on to that same video we have come to love,

  • with decent stabilization and balanced colors,

  • and the added bonus of being able to shoot in ProRes.

  • It's not afraid to blow out the highlights

  • or keep the shadows dark,

  • but there are still loads of reflections at night,

  • that cause those all-too-famous dancing dots.

  • Dots, dots, dots.

  • The Pixel has four stabilization modes,

  • but with each jump and stabilization,

  • comes more jitter to the image, especially at night.

  • The color is incredibly punchy.

  • This camera absolutely loves the color blue,

  • which looks great when viewing on a small phone screen.

  • But some may find this to be a bit too much HDR.

  • I also fundamentally hate that you can't shoot

  • at 4K 24 frames per second on the Pixel.

  • And lastly, when zooming in or out,

  • there are jarring jumps between lenses

  • instead of smooth transitions.

  • Even with a bit more distracting light reflections at night,

  • the iPhone wins the videos, because it performs

  • more consistently across different lighting conditions.

  • But the good news is, the field is definitely narrowing.

  • I also recorded on both of these phones

  • at 4K 30 frames per second,

  • with both phones at full brightness,

  • from a full charge to a dead battery.

  • And although there has been some debate

  • about battery life on these devices,

  • both of these cameras died at just about the same time.

  • Which was right around that 3-hour and 50-minute marker.

  • Okay, okay, Becca cut to the chase, who won?

  • Who has the best camera?

  • We're getting there, we're getting there.

  • So 1,208 of you responded to my poll.

  • Thank you very much if you are one of them,

  • I appreciate you, bud.

  • And well, the results are almost perfectly split.

  • You really dug the contrast at night,

  • from the Pixel in this photo.

  • But the colors in this photo of some koi fish,

  • had your heart swimming with the iPhone.

  • You sided with the cooler tones the Pixel chose

  • on the Brooklyn Bridge at night.

  • And then you again chose the cooler tones,

  • but the ones from the iPhone,

  • when capturing this photo of my plants.

  • You, much like me, pick the iPhone 50% of the time,

  • and the Pixel the other 50% of the time,

  • when looking at photos from the main sensor.

  • Looking at the other lenses, if you love a telephoto,

  • the Pixel wins, hands down.

  • If you're a sucker for an ultra-wide,

  • the iPhone will make your heart sing

  • with a slightly larger field of view.

  • For ProRes and less contrast,

  • iPhone's video takes the prize.

  • But if high contrast and punchy colors are your jam,

  • well, the Pixel will turn the volume up

  • to 100 on that, every time.

  • These are both impressive camera systems.

  • This competition ultimately comes down to the size of phone

  • that you can tolerate, and well, iOS versus Android.

  • We need to stop pretending that a camera

  • could possibly pull an iPhone user over to an Android phone.

  • Whoop whoop.

  • Let's get to biz.

  • We are at 400 photos.

  • We're at like 550 photos.

  • We're almost at 600.

  • We're at 700 photos.

  • 850 photos, I feel like I've been at this my entire life.

  • Breaking news, buds.

  • We hit 1,000.

  • And 1,000 photos later, the Pixel 6 Pro

  • is one of the best cameras you can get on Android.

  • But the iPhone 13 Pro has a camera that is equally as good.

  • And we'll keep this competition tied

  • when it comes to photos from that main sensor.

  • And one last thing that my poll proved

  • was that every single one of you wildly disagrees

  • on how warm a photo should be,

  • how saturated it should be, how bright it should be.

  • So down in the description, there's a link

  • to an iPhone 13 Pro gallery and a Pixel 6 Pro gallery.

  • And it has 100 photos.

  • 100 of my favorite matching photos,

  • for you to decide who's the real winner of this competition.

  • I want all the nitty-gritty pixel peeping details you got,

  • down in the comments.

  • I'm excited to see you down there.

  • Be well, buds.

  • Every time I told someone

  • I was doing this 1,000 photo project,

  • they'd be like, "Oh, that's so easy."

  • But I live alone, I have no pets, I have no babies.

  • I really only have plants,

  • they don't really move or change much every day.

  • This was hard.

  • This was hard.

  • I don't know if I'll ever do this again.

- Hey, bud.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it