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Google Pixel 3 XL vs. iPhone XS Max: Which Camera Reigns Supreme?

zakarhino said:
the XS indoors is atrocious, looks like something from 2010. That hyper smoothing/blurring is so apparent... to think people were trying to say "its not that bad! it actually makes your skin look better"
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LOL, have you actually looked at any photos taken from 2010?

The XS photos look good. The photos I take with my X look good as do the photos I used to take with my iPhone 6.
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nviz22 said:
For the $ both devices cost, you're getting a great camera. What should be the difference is software preference. I was contemplating a Pixel 3/3XL about 6 months ago, but I am glad I didn't wait for it.

I couldn't trust 4gb RAM w/ the 845 processor to be reliable for 2-3 years, especially with Google's quality control. At the $899 price point, the specs are disappointing.

4gb RAM w/ iOS and the A12 processor is different due to Apple's innovation. Just my personal take, but I absolutely love the iPhone XS Max. Cameras aren't everything.
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Google seems to really put a lot of money and effort into the camera because they probably know that's what reviewers are going to emphasize the most while neglecting the rest of the phone. Let's say the Pixel enjoys a slight advantage over the Note and XS in terms of the camera while seriously lagging behind both in terms of the rest of the hardware. It also offers less software support than the XS.
 
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Kabeyun said:
The one labeled Pixel 3 is crisper and more contrasty. Definitely finer detail in the hair.
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In part because at least in the version I'm looking at the Pixel photo is twice as large.
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Blaze4G said:
I personally thought this was misleading by that youtuber. In good lighting the iPhone front facinv camera does a great job and has minimal if any skin smoothing. In low light it's obvious. He did the sample pic in great lighting.
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Most of the comments about camera photos remind me of bad wine snobbery with people acting like they can discern these huge differences when there is generally little if any difference. The Youtube posting was just the phone version of tests in which people have mislead wine snobs by switching labels.
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zakarhino said:
I think the XS takes better pictures outdoors (what I mostly use mine for anyway). When it comes to portrait mode and indoor low-light, the XS falls short of the Pixel 3 (based on the Imgur album and other photos I've seen from the 3XL). From the Imgur album alone, most of the indoor shots from the XS look terrible and reminded me of old photos I was looking at last night from the iPhone 4 era; that's why I said it takes pics like a phone from 2010.

I'm not some Google shill trying to sell you on anything. I love my XS Max, I love most of the photos I take with it and I wouldn't use any other phone. I'm just telling you what I think from the photos posted here and the photos I've taken with the XS Max myself: indoor (mostly portrait) photos are grainy, mushy messes unless the lighting is perfect (which it hardly ever is).
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I have a X, and my indoor photos look really good (a lot better than my iPhone 5 photos which came out in 2012 BTW). I also have a friend who has an XS, and he's sent me some indoor photos that look as good or better than my photos.

If you're taking such bad indoor photos, maybe the problem is with you and not the camera.
 
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Guscat said:
LOL, have you actually looked at any photos taken from 2010?

The XS photos look good. The photos I take with my X look good as do the photos I used to take with my iPhone 6.
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Google seems to really put a lot of money and effort into the camera because they probably know that's what reviewers are going to emphasize the most while neglecting the rest of the phone. Let's say the Pixel enjoys a slight advantage over the Note and XS in terms of the camera while seriously lagging behind both in terms of the rest of the hardware. It also offers less software support than the XS.
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I don't think Google can be at Apple's level until they have complete vertical integration, including their own SoCs. If you're going to bill yourself as an Apple competitor, you need the specs to provide similar performance and support products. Apple may have hiccups with launches, but their QC is probably considered better.
 
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Guscat said:
LOL, have you actually looked at any photos taken from 2010?

The XS photos look good. The photos I take with my X look good as do the photos I used to take with my iPhone 6.
[doublepost=1539651032][/doublepost]
Google seems to really put a lot of money and effort into the camera because they probably know that's what reviewers are going to emphasize the most while neglecting the rest of the phone. Let's say the Pixel enjoys a slight advantage over the Note and XS in terms of the camera while seriously lagging behind both in terms of the rest of the hardware. It also offers less software support than the XS.
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Not all photos, just some (portrait photos under artificial light look terrible to me). You're right about Google's strategy. They could come out with a camera that is 10x better than a DSLR and takes photos as 3D models or something -- it wouldn't matter to me because it will always be running on Google's spyware OS and all the photos get uploaded to Google Cloud.
 
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zakarhino said:
I've already said multiple times in this thread that I think the XS takes better photos overall. At the end of the day I'm simply not impressed with the quality of photos from the portrait mode on iPhone based on the photos I've taken. You're right, that's all I can conclude because it's the only experience that I have personally that's not from a potentially biased review or picture set. I posted those two pictures from the Imgur album because someone was saying that there's practically no different in the quality of pictures. I disagree with that.



Apologies, I didn't know I needed credibility to express an opinion about my smartphone camera. I've owned and used an iPhone 4, I own and use an XS Max, some of the indoor pictures I've seen or taken from the XS remind me of the 4 (quality wise). I didn't think that was a controversial opinion that requires a portfolio of camera experience to express. Maybe I just didn't elaborate enough, I was writing about the indoor photos, not necessarily the overall quality of the camera.

I'd love for someone to post some great indoor portrait shots from their XS, please show/tell me what I'm doing wrong. I've seen a few good ones but most of them are relying on natural light from the outdoors.
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All fair.

I'd encourage you to watch this video from one of the better camera reviewers on YouTube and if I may say, usually slightly android biased.

 
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In low light the Pixel 3 is really, really impressive.

I read some other reviews and tend to prefer the Pixel 3 in most situations, but low light performance is just fantastic.

If I was interested in Android, this is the phone I would buy, for sure.
 
I just love the crap about contrast and "detail", especially when contrast means lost info and you lose a lot to get this "sharpness".
That's the difference between shooting flat, and working from raw and eating the processed crap someone puts on your plate and calling it a feast.
Maybe Apple should simply bury some settings so people could output the "contrast" and saturation they want and call it a day hey.

For me, smartphone cameras are at the limits of their sensors and everything that will come out next comes from processing and with processing you get a lot of variance making comparison pretty hard.
 
Okay, I just don’t get the point. You get the camera that comes with the phone you want, so what does a little difference between the two matter at all? I mean, I can see if there's a difference in the camera between two versions of iPhone, but not iPhone vs Android, because I want an iPhone. The pixel could have a damned space telescope on it, for all I care. Won’t make we want to own one.
 
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I've always justified Apple huge arrogance and top of the class price tags because he makes the best products. Now, for the same reason, Apple deserves to be strongly criticized, they failed, period. And last but not least, having a single, very elegant, simple and very efficient camera in the back of the Phone sounds more close to Apple philosophy, they didn't do it like Google did because they are not able to do it yet. Having this "chrestomathy" of cameras on the back is more affine to cheaper Chinese companies. Sorry Apple, your phone is good but no cigar!
 
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zakarhino said:
I don't think anybody could seriously tell me that there isn't a huge quality difference in these two photos below.

XS Max:
PNMJbd7.jpg

Pixel 3:
gAHT6Ei.jpg


EDIT: Not my pictures FYI, I took them from the Imgur album linked in the original article.
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Whats interesting is that they trade blows in different pictures. For example in the pirate looking round the tree picture the Xs has significantly better detail especially noticeable in the wood of the tree. Also in the picture of the dark street the Xs has a sharper image and more natural colour especially noticeable in the sign. Then the Pixel3 hits back with this hair shot and the shot of the beer bottles. Although I would say for the daytime outdoor shots the Xs takes it for me. Even managing to out dynamic range the Pixel3 in the sunset shot of the beach.
 
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yoyo kayak said:
Next time for this kind of an article, just show us the photos side by side without labelling which is which (and change the sides every now and then), and let us vote which is better. Then at the end show which ones were taken with which camera, along with the results of the vote.
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You'll only get to know esthetic preferences, and not if a camera is better that way, after all, a lot of people love contrasty, saturated TV settings, doesn't mean it reflects reality at all (and for a long time, a lot of smartphone screens were garish too and people loved that too).

Only thing you really want, is the most real details possible and accurate colors as seen in raw form.
Then this raw form can be converted into any form you want.
As I said, there is a reason why digital video cameras shoot flat, which then gets graded to any esthetic form people prefer (even the "accurate" one).
 
Looking forward to testing pixel 2 & 3 alongside my Xs Max this coming weekend.

Been comparing the pixel 2 and the XS Max for a bit now, have come to conclusions as to which camera I like better for some situations as well. Curious to see if the new pixel 3 changes the balance for my kinds of shooting.
 
jonnyb098 said:
This is a thread discussing the camera differences ....... don’t care? Then move along, simple.
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We are trying to have an intelligent discussion so that 1 picture taken at different times isn’t the basis for indoor lighting conditions.
 
This (and these kinds of posts) should be a poll so that we can easily see which one is winning!
 
How does the Pixel 3 XL compare to iPhone XR? Double lens vs. a single might be an unfair competition, but price-wise the devices do compete
 
Overall, I think the iPhone XS Max wins. Admittedly, I have the latter, but I'm no longer an Apple fanboy by any means.
I'm also a photographer and so I only use the camera phone for receipts or non-essential photos; but rather convenient.
 
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zakarhino said:
I don't think anybody could seriously tell me that there isn't a huge quality difference in these two photos below.

XS Max:
PNMJbd7.jpg

Pixel 3:
gAHT6Ei.jpg


EDIT: Not my pictures FYI, I took them from the Imgur album linked in the original article.
Click to expand...

I could have both phones, and I could use many tricks to make one photo appear worse than the other (or better than the other) I personally don't trust photos of identical objects taken with 2 different cameras where one appears much worse than the other. I have tried few photos taken with Max at Apple store and no way it gave my hair a creamy look like that on a portrait mode.
 
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