iPhone SE vs. Pixel 4A: battle of the budget camera By The Verge

- Two rare things are happening today. We're putting two cameras that cost less than $400 to the test and number two, we have a car in New York City? So, let's get to it. (upbeat music) (mug clanging) (door unlocking) Phillip! A bunch of people always ask me, they're like, Becca, I'm looking to get a new camera but I don't want to spend over $500 and, quite frankly, I don't know anything about photography, and I then ask them, well, what phone do you have? Because what I've learned is that most people don't actually want to buy a camera system, they just need a better camera on their phone which is a piece of technology they already know how to use, and in 2020 is getting hella good, especially for this price. So today we're putting, in my opinion, the best two cameras you can get for under $500 to the test and they happen to be on phones. It's the Pixel 4a versus the 2020 iPhone SE versus NYC. (upbeat music) All right, damn y'all, I've wanted to shoot in this location for so long.

(upbeat music) First stop is Keith Haring's "Crack is Wack" mural up in Harlem and I knew this would offer a ton of contrast, especially on a sunny day. Here we are testing the iPhone SE's 12 megapixel, single rear camera which is the same single camera found on the iPhone 8, and the Pixel 4a's 12.2 megapixel single rear camera which Google has used since the Pixel 2. We will get into processing power in a bit but right off the bat you can see that both of these cameras are extremely capable in perfect lighting conditions, and differentiating them feels a bit nit-picky. But, you can start to see one difference. Where the Pixel evens out the exposure, the iPhone is not afraid to hold onto the shadows and create more contrast.

You can see it in the black lines on the mural and the shadows on the trees on the pavement and you can even see it in the way the iPhone holds on to that deep orange and doesn't try to brighten it up. And, real quick, all of the photos in this video, I let the camera make the choice of what to focus on and what exposure to set. All right, Phil. Next stop, let's do it. - Let's do it.

(upbeat music) - Is that the new Pixel 4a? Damn. That was good. iPhone SE? You got both of those? (Becca laughs slightly) So, so silly. (upbeat music) We are in Central Park to test out the video capabilities of both these phones. The iPhone's rear camera can do up to 4k at 24, 30 and 60 frames per second, while the Pixel maxes out at 4k, 30 frames per second.

Both phones' front facing cameras record at 1080, 30 frames per second. Personally, this is where the lower cost of these cameras starts to show for me. For starters, the image stabilization in both cameras is just not (laughs) I found the footage to be jittery and lacking any smoothness and there's a real debate over the need for phone gimbals in the age of better cameras systems, but for both of these devices, if you want smooth footage external stabilization is gonna be necessary. And then you can really see both cameras trying to decide what to expose for and adjusting focus, like, super often. Overall the video is just fine from both of these devices.

More than passable for social platforms but really lacking for anything more. Oh, and real quick, buds, there's one other thing that kept happening at Central Park. It was a 90 degree day and we were in direct sunlight and I kept getting an error message on the Pixel 4a when I would start shooting video that said "Device is too hot. Video quality might be affected. " I'm really not sure what affects this had on the image quality, but the iPhone managed to stay cooler to the physical touch and didn't seem to have the same issues.

All right, next on our New York City tour we're headed to Queens, baby, Queens. Look at those clouds. (upbeat techno music) Welcome to Long Island City, and I've picked this location for a particular reason. There's a large sign behind me that looks incredible with a wide angle lens and there's a beautiful cityscape that looks so good on the telephoto. Neither of which these cameras have.

They just have a standard lens. The single reared lens on the iPhone SE can optically zoom up to five times while Pixel 4a's optical zoom is up to seven times. To be clear these are paintings, these are not photos. I honestly could not see myself actually posting these anywhere. Now, the lack of wide angle lens on both of these camera systems is the biggest bummer for me.

When I'm taking photos on my s10 I'm almost always on that wide angle. I just love the look of a fish eye, so for this video I brought along a Moment 14mm fisheye lens. Now, this is an $100 accessory and something extra that you have to carry around so the lack of more choice of lenses on these camera systems is definitely a downfall. Oh, and there is one feature on the Pixel that I did love when shooting the skyline. When you're framing up your shot a little level comes up on the Pixel to tell you if the camera is tilted at all, and it's just super helpful.

Now, back to comparing them, there is one thing that actually starts to separate these two camera systems. Bye, Phil. Thank you. (door unlocking) (camera clicking) So I've actually been shooting all over New York City for well over a week with both of these cameras and we have to talk about portrait mode versus shooting at night because it is the thing that might make you choose, besides Android and iOS, the iPhone or the Pixel. When you take a portrait mode photo on the Pixel the frame is cropped one and a half times in, while on the iPhone it doesn't crop at all.

Like, all of these portrait mode photos were taken from the same spot. The Pixel's portrait mode feels like I put on a longer lens, and usually I would put on a longer lens when taking a portrait with a camera that uses interchangeable lenses, but with the Pixel I found myself just having to back up and move a lot to get the right framing, and getting, like, a really good portrait mode photo still feels like a stroke of luck. And night mode. Shooting at night gives the Pixel the upper edge because the iPhone doesn't have a night mode at all. Although I do prefer the choice the iPhone made in not brightening the sky in this shot, overall the iPhone's photos at night just need to be brighter and the software can't really do that, especially when there's practically no light at all.

And while the Pixel definitely wins at shooting in the dark (sighing) the processing power of SE is unreal. Inside the SE is Apple's new A13 bionic chip and it is fast. Like, wicked fast. I often caught the Pixel's Snapdragon 730G processor taking it's time to process images, and when opening the camera app, taking a photo and then reviewing it, the iPhone just whips. Like, y'all, she whips.

(laughs lightly) Okay, so over a hundred and something-odd photos later, probably close to like 300 photos later, what do we think? (mellow music) For $350, the Pixel 4a. Your night mode is truly still mind-blowing and I totally love the level that pops up when framing. It may be a gimmick but actually helpful, but I did not like how you brought up the shadows to make a more even image and the processing time was disappointing. So, the $400 iPhone SE. For starters you're not Android and I'm kind of a big Android fan, and taking photos at night left me upping the brightness, but, I love how you aren't afraid of the shadows and hold on to the blacks.

Plus, that A13 chip for $400, (laughs slightly) that's kinda nuts. So, I think I gotta go iPhone SE, dudes, which is, like, crazy to me because the Pixel has been a camera powerhouse for quite a while now. And, side note, I was kind of shocked to see that the iPhone was leaning more blue than the Pixel for once, 'cause like, it was always like a cardinal sign of the Pixel, that it was, like, more blue. Any who, what do you think? Because it's getting to the point where a lot of this is just subjective. And y'all thanks for coming back for another episode of Full Frame.

We definitely tried something super different on this one. I went into this just wanting to give you guys as many photo samples as possible and really let you decide. Regardless, be kind to those around you but more importantly be kind to yourself and I hope you're well, bud. Well see you on the next one. Hold on, something crazy just happened.

The Verge passed 3 million subs on YouTube. What? (laughs) Huge thank you to all of you guys from the team and me. We appreciate y'all so much and we got tons more coming your way, so keep watching The Verge.

Source : The Verge