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Google's Pixel 3 is one of the best camera phones you can buy, but the competition is tough. The iPhone XS can take pictures of equal quality, sometimes even better, than the Pixel 3, while the Note 9 excels often in low light.
Can you really tell the difference? See for yourself. We're comparing a handful of photos from the Pixel 3 XL, the iPhone XS Max, the Galaxy Note 9 and the Pixel 2 XL (for those who think of the upgrade). If you have an iPhone XS or a Pixel 3 or a smaller Pixel 2, expect the same picture quality because the cameras are exactly the same between the smaller and larger phones.
Some remarks: These smartphones all take excellent photographs and we will look for the best. We used automatic settings for each shot, because that's how most people take pictures in real life. You may also disagree with some of our winners here, and that's fine. There are technical reasons to love one photo over another, but it is also a very subjective choice. It's also not the most scientific tests, but we tried to do our best. Anyway, if you have one of these phones, you will not be disappointed with the camera.
Day
You can expect that almost all smartphones, even the most economical phones, take pictures that kill in broad daylight. All of these phones are great on this picture of the skyline of downtown New York, but there are differences. It's incredibly difficult to choose a winner, but our least favorite is the iPhone XS Max and Photo Note 9. The photo of the iPhone is a bit too blue, making the sky a bit artificial and buildings a little faded. The photo in Note 9 shows buildings in warmer tones, but the whole is slightly overexposed. Look at the clouds and you will see a lack of definition compared to other photos. That being said, the picture of the iPhone XS has the best detail. Take a look at the Venmo display panel in the lower left corner. You can read the Venmo logo on the map more easily on the iPhone XS.
But the Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 3 XL photos have a good contrast, which is why we love them the most. We love the blue sky of Pixel 3 and its most beautiful clouds. We also like the Pixel 2 photo buildings, which are slightly brighter. If we had to choose an image to share, we would use the Pixel 3 XL photo. Once again, this is a very tight test, and judging them alone, we will share them all.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
It's a little easier for us to choose a winner here, and it's still the Pixel 3 XL. The photos in Note 9 and the iPhone XS Max have too much of a yellow hue, extracted from the walls, that extends to all parts of the photo. Even the complexion of the girl is not natural and the clothes have a yellowish tint. Zoom in on the face and observe visible noise.
The Pixel 2 XL is lost because the picture is globally blurred. We do not know if this was due to the camera shake or something else, but the optical stabilization of the image in the phone should have offset the slight movements. This brings us to the Pixel 3 XL. The subject clearly stands out from the background, thanks to the more natural colors of the photo. There are excellent details, from the denim jacket to the subject's face. Although noise is still visible, it is not as visible as the Note 9 or iPhone XS photo.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
In this portrait photo – which was not taken in Portrait mode – we see how each of these phones handles several components, from complexion to depth, including details and color. The most detailed photos come from the Pixel 2 XL and the note 9 – zoom in and the proofs are clear. The most natural colors are on the Pixel 3 XL photo; the complexion of the subject is too red on the Pixel 2, iPhone and Note 9 photos. The photos with the best natural depth come from the Pixel 2 and the iPhone XS Max, but the picture of the Pixel 2 XL has too much of 39, a red tone.
Overall, we love the iPhone XS Max photo the most. The colors are not as natural as the Pixel 3 XL photo, but the result is better than the rest. There are enough details, but the natural blur and the background are the best of all photos.
Winner: iPhone XS Max
In the interior
This is a difficult question. Once again, we love the Pixel 3 XL photo more. It's incredibly detailed with excellent white balance, very little noise and the lights are well exposed. The Pixel 2 XL photo is not as sharp and the photo Note 9 is flat because it lacks bright colors and the lights are overexposed. This brings us to the iPhone XS Max photo. This is the most representative of what the store ceiling looked like, but it goes too far in making everything a bit too orange. The glasses on the lower right shelf, for example, were actually whiter.
Look at the Pixel 3 XL picture now, and it looks a bit too cold. It's not as festive and fun as the picture of the iPhone. Our favorite would be somewhere in between, but as we have to pick a winner, we would go with the Pixel 3 XL photo and modify it to warm it up a bit before sharing it on social networks. We would rather do that rather than soften the picture of the iPhone because the picture of the Pixel 3 XL is really more detailed – zoom in on the big light at the center left of the photo. Look at the steel bar. There are more details and less grain on the Pixel 3 photo. It's the best to edit.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
These photos were captured at the New York City Coffee Festival, where the space is packed to people holding cups of coffee. It's a good way to know if these phones can quickly capture photos in strange angles and not produce a blurry picture, because you often have poorer quality lighting and a lot of people moving around you and who could make you tremble. We tried to minimize our movement as much as possible.
Zoom on the coffee beans, and the Pixel 2 XL – the only 2017 phone on this list – does the best job. It's the sharpest, and if you zoom out a bit more, it contains the most natural beans available. We would say that the Pixel 3 and the iPhone XS occupy respectively the second and third places. The Pixel 3 is sharper than the blurry iPhone XS, but it also increases the saturation, but a bit too high. Note 9 is lagging behind – the beans look relatively sharp, but the tablecloth seems to be disappearing for some reason.
Winner: Pixel 2 XL
First, do not take into account the sharpness of the wheel that turns on this photo. It was shot in some photos and may have stopped in others, so we do not consider it a major factor. We love the neon of the iPhone XS Max's photo the most, because it's the noise reduction that works best, but the contrast is lacking here, making the black wall not as dark as we would like it to be. The Pixel 3 XL and Note 9 have the best details – look closely at the globe and you can almost distinguish "Mediterranean Sea" in these two photos – but the first is a bit too saturated.
The Pixel 2 XL has the most natural colors, but you can zoom in on the neon sign and have noise reduction issues. Note 9 handles the neon sign, but there is still a lot of grain in the rest of the photo. If you look at the people in all these photos, Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 have the least grain and offer more details. We think that the victory goes to Pixel 2 for slightly more natural colors, because the Pixel 3 is a little more saturated. It's a tough picture to judge because they all do a solid job, but also because people are constantly moving to this place.
Winner: Pixel 2 XL
Low light
The iPhone XS Max stands out here. It lights up the scene well, it is not too granular and clean. The photos Pixel 3 XL and Note 9 are certainly less good mood, but the first is blurred and the second increases the saturation too high and does not illuminate at all the wall above the panel. The Pixel 2 XL photo is simply overexposed and grainy.
Winner: iPhone XS Max
Each of these photos has flaws, but there is only one that is simply beautiful: the Pixel 3 XL. Zoom into the building on the right and you will clearly see that it presents the best detail of the lot, with as little grain as possible. The colors are so beautiful. The only flaw here is that the sky on the left side is just a bit overexposed. Note 9 is very close, but it completely hides the buildings in the foreground. The iPhone XS Max has a beautiful sky that is not overexposed, but the whole picture is flooded with yellow reflections and looks cloudy. The Pixel 2 XL photo has a bluish hue and overexposed the sky on the left much more than the Pixel 3. You can have a favorite look here, but we can not stop looking at the Pixel 3 photo.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
Let's take out the Pixel 2 XL and the Note 9 of the race here. The photo of Pixel 2 is too blurry and the note 9, although clear in some areas, loses precision in others, and overall has an orange hue too strong. We think that the photo of the iPhone XS Max is more detailed here than on the Pixel 3 XL: observe the edges of the hair around the dog and you will find that you can identify the individual hair on the photo of the iPhone a little better . That being said, the picture of the iPhone XS is much darker.
With a little bit of enlightenment, the iPhone XS Max photo is the most powerful choice here. However, if you want to share a photo without any modification, Pixel 3 is the solution. We give victory to the iPhone XS here because it contains the best details.
Winner: iPhone XS Max
Food and portrait mode on food
This bowl of ramen was delicious and it was something we had to photograph. The Pixel 3 XL takes the cake for the best detail. Look at the bowl at the back and you will see that it is well balanced by the whites and the wall. The Pixel 2 XL picture comes in second place, and although the colors are a little more realistic than the Pixel 3, the details are not as strong. The bowl in the back is much darker, but we really appreciate how it diffuses the reflection of the neon light into the broth. The picture of the iPhone XS is not as sharp and has a lot of noise, and the photo of the note 9 is unfortunately a joke.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
If you are trying to take a picture in Food Portrait mode with poor lighting, you will have a lot of trouble with Note 9 and the iPhone XS. In fact, note 9 simply stated that she could not take a picture because of the lighting conditions, which is why she is missing here. The iPhone XS hardly managed the cut, but we managed to make it work after we moved away from the bowl of ramen. The end result is a decent photo, but it was not the original effect we were looking for. Pixels 2 and 3 had no problem. Both are sharp, the Pixel 3 having slightly more striking colors. We make a connection between the two here.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL and Pixel 2 XL
Fashion portrait and selfies
We have always found that Google Pixel phones have the best selfie cameras, and it sounds right here. The iPhone XS and the Note 9 turn off easily. The photo of the iPhone is too soft, although it has pretty colors and the best HDR work in the background. The note 9 is also too soft, but it is overexposed in the back and presents darker colors. It's hard to cap a winner between Pixel 2 and Pixel 3, but we love the more natural colors of the new phone. Both are also well detailed though.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
The Pixel 3 XL and the iPhone XS Max are very close, but we must approach the different portrait mode styles in between. Apple follows a different strategy with Portrait mode on Google. You get a radial blur, with a bokeh forming around the subject's face and getting stronger further. Google, on the other hand, tries to put the subject fully in focus. Apple's approach is more traditional, but we like Google as well, because the focus is more on your face, but also on what you wear.
Here we remove note 9 because the subject's face is blurry and overexposed. While the Pixel 2 XL is doing a solid job, it's unraveling the hair on the left side of the face. It also adds a slightly less realistic color tone to the face. We love the iPhone XS and Pixel 3 photos. Both have many details and you can see the radial blur surrounding the subject's face on the picture of the iPhone while everything on the subject is sharp on the Pixel photo 3. So why does the iPhone XS get the win? The background is better balanced in white, while it is more yellow in the photo Pixel 3.
Winner: iPhone XS Max
This one is easy. This is a dimly lit photo taken with the selfie camera with Portrait mode. Suppose the Pixel 2 XL is out of focus. Note 9 is also missing because the details are not as powerful and the background is overexposed. The iPhone XS does a great job, but it's grainy and not as sharp or as brilliant as the Pixel 3 XL photo, which takes the cake.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
Three of these portrait photos are excellent. Can you guess the loser? Sorry, the photo of note 9 is just too overexposed and its hue is not natural. The other three phones offer precise details, with precise cutouts of the subject. Although the Pixel 2 XL does the best job of avoiding overexposing the light striking the subject's head, it comes in third position for the background, which has a reddish hue. It depends on the pictures of the iPhone XS and Pixel 3, and it will depend a lot on your personal preferences. We love the aerial and cinematographic look of the Pixel 3 photo. It brings out the character of the subject a bit more than the iPhone XS photo.
All these photos were taken in the same place. The iPhone XS and Note 9 cameras only zoom in closer for photos in Portrait mode. Either the Pixel 3 or the iPhone XS could win here, but we give Pixel 3 a head start.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
Here's another easy win for Google's Pixel 3 XL. The iPhone XS and Note 9 have asked us to step back for Portrait Mode to work, but the end results are pretty mediocre, especially the Note 9. The iPhone XS does a little better, but it is still dark with weak details and some blur is messed up. Pixel 2 does a great job, like Pixel 3, but it's a bit darker. Pixel 3 wins.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
Zoom in
Google's Pixel 3 has a clever new feature called Super Res Zoom. Instead of adding a second camera for optical zoom, Google uses artificial intelligence to improve digital zoom by reducing noise and increasing brightness. The results are often surprising. Most of the time, it's impossible to beat the 2x optical zoom of the Note 9 or the iPhone XS – especially in well-lit scenarios – but it zooms in and that's another story. The Pixel 2 XL will not get the Super Res zoom.
We do not usually recommend that you zoom in completely on your smartphone's camera because the results are not always optimal. Even with the Super Zoom zoom zoom of Pixel 3 XL, do not expect great pictures. That said, we are surprised at the performance of some phones compared to others. The worst in this group is the iPhone XS Max. It's too vague overall. The Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 photos are similar with strong contrast, but the trees in the Pixel 2 photo are too dark. We think the grade 9 does the best job here. It's not as saturated as the Pixel 3 photo, but it manages to capture the detail in the letters of the words. Samsung makes its first victory!
Winner: Galaxy Note 9
Here we test the digital zoom of the Pixel 3 XL and Pixel 2 XL compared to the optical zoom of Note 9 and iPhone XS. It's a moving subject. It is therefore more difficult for Pixel phones, especially since both XS and Note 9 cameras have optical image stabilization. We tried a similar 2x digital zoom on Pixel phones. We remove the note 9 from the race here because the photo is blurry. The iPhone XS does a good job, but Pixels 2 and 3 stand out with a little more detail on the left hand of the man. Pixel 3 becomes the brightest image and wins it.
Winner: Pixel 3 XL
Conclusion
The Pixel 3 is the best camera phone, at least according to this test. But keep in mind that on his 10 wins, margins were slim for many and that the iPhone XS was often lagging behind. The Apple phone comes in second with four wins, the Pixel 2 has three and the Samsung phone has one. All four cameras have taken breathtaking photos, and although they have many more photos to share, we're closing this comparison for now. We will make more comparisons in the next few months and you can find them here.
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