Pixel 3A Camera: Better Than the iPhone XS? By Taylor Moore

(track scratches) My iPhone XS has been taking pretty darn great photos, but, if one of your main hopes is a great camera with your smartphone, there's less and less reason to shell out $1200 every single year. This is where the Pixel 3A really peaked my interest. I mean we're talking about a $400 smartphone with the same rear-facing camera as the flagship Pixel 3. (upbeat techno music) Now generally the camera is a point of cost-cutting when the budget version of a phone is released and yes, to some degree this is still true with the 3A which doesn't include that secondary Pixel Visual Core processor, it's lacking the second wide angle selfie camera, and Google's unlimited storage is only for high-quality photos instead of original quality as you'll find in their flagships, but, still it features one of the best cameras in the smartphone market right now. We're talking about the same f/1.8 12.2 megapixel, optically and electronically stabilized sensor as the Pixel 3 but all of it's photo processes are taking place on the main processor, instead of Google's Pixel Core, which was featured on the Pixel 3. Now that specialized processor on the 3 allows for compiling of HDR photos five times faster than an application processor like what we see on the 3A.

AKA, the 3 is gonna be a bit slower, and you're gonna see that as we jump in. Now picking up this phone for the first time, my question from day one, can I get an industry leading camera in a mid-tier smartphone? Spoilers, yeah, but it's pretty interesting to see how it stacks up. (upbeat music) The screen's a bit oversaturated, so out of the box, I switched the screen from Adaptive color to Natural, lowering that saturation and portraying a more realistic representation of any photo taken. I also turned on Raw and JPEG capture, it's gonna get me that extra data which I think is really valuable especially when it comes to the editing process. (upbeat techno music) Now right off the bat, if we're looking at everyday normal photos with plenty of light, looking at color accuracy, sharpness, the amount of detail, the ability to shoot in macro and get that natural depth of field, this camera will easily compete with the best of the best smartphones on the market right now.

Coming from iOS, my frame of reference has always been the iPhone, so with that as my benchmark, pitting the Pixel 3A against the iPhone XS, the main rear camera on the 3A isn't nearly as wide as the XS. You can see here the small amount more you're getting in frame with the iPhone. The slightly more telephoto lens on the 3A seems appropriate though, as this main lens is what's being used for portrait mode as well, where the iPhone is using the secondary telephoto lens. If you're like me though and you want more options, I'm using Moment's case for both protection and the ability to throw the wide-angle and telephoto lenses on it. The images I'm pulling using these lens are seriously beautiful, they've very little distortion and vignetting, and only the slightest softening on the wide-angle.

Honestly, I bring these lenses with me everywhere, they just stay in my camera bag at all times. (upbeat techno music) The interface on the whole is clean, simple, easy to use, although it doesn't provide any advanced photography features other than some pegged white balance controls, and an exposure control. You can double-tap the home button to access the camera at any time, and then double shake it to switch between the main camera and the selfie camera. Now while I do like access to the Panorama, Portrait mode, Main Camera and Video, I do wish this was customizable and Night Sight can be made a front and center feature which we will talk about soon. I think it's one of the best features that comes with the 3A, and the 3A doesn't recall the last mode you were in, so, if you're shooting at night, if you're using Night Sight over and over again, you might get slightly annoyed having to continually navigate back to it.

(upbeat techno music) Enabling HDR+ makes a pretty big difference. It's combining multiple photos at various exposures, to improve the photo's dynamic range, meaning more data in the shadows, and in the highlights. This is pretty common though, I mean, we see this feature with most all major smartphone cameras these days. Look at even this simple photo inside my home with and without HDR turned on. The highlights are holding much more detail.

Comparing this to the iPhone's HDR, the Pixel 3A is producing what I would call a more contrast-y, immediately usable photo than Apple, which on the XS, generally creates a flatter image with a lift particularly in the shadows. The 3A produces an image that feels closer to what your eyes see in real life from a contrast perspective. That said, I almost always edit my photos in Lightroom before posting them, and so the flatter iPhone image is a plus for me most of the time. If we wanna get technical, the iPhone is actually producing a much better HDR photo. It's storing much more data in the shadows and in the highlights than what we're getting out of the Pixel 3A.

If the average person saw this on Instagram, I think the 3A will be preferred. Actually, let's go ahead and test that. I went ahead and posted this as a survey on Instagram, and as we thought, the 3A ended up winning. (upbeat techno music) Portrait mode for me, honestly, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster. It's evident on the 3A that the depth mapping is all being created with a single camera.

It doesn't have that second camera to effectively triangulate the spatial positioning of objects like on the iPhone, which has a more realistic DSLR-like gradient of focus on an object. It's also cropped into a longer equivalent focal length than that of the telephoto lens on the XS. These are taken from the same exact distance, and you can see just how different they are. Interestingly, both have their own unique quirks though. The XS produces a weird halo around our dog's head, and his hair on the whole is much sharper and accurate on the 3A.

But, the 3A makes interesting depth mistakes sometimes, like here, the depth of field of the carpet on either side of him differs quite a bit, which again, I'm attributing to the lack of a second camera for accurate depth mapping. While I do love the way that this photo turns out on the 3A, I do think it is a bit over-sharpened. The image looks awesome, but I personally would rather add that sharpness myself. Now this sharpness is more of a decision on the part of the developers on how to process the photos, it's not necessarily an indicator of the abilities of the camera. Anyways, next, look at this human statue.

The XS is producing a bright, well isolated image, with really only small issues around depth by her chin, but the failures are soft and less detectable. I'd call this photo really pretty usable. The 3A, it's really not that far off though. It's still a strong image, but, the depth mapping isn't perfect, with the statute not really isolated properly, there's rigid breaks around the hair, and then the sleeves on both sides were missed. The verdict at the end of the day, neither of these really handle inanimate objects perfectly quite yet.

Here, the iPhone it basically just gave up, didn't even try. And the 3A, it got it kind of, but there are depth issues pretty much all around the umbrella. Worth a try at least. That being said, do not be afraid to experiment with Portrait mode because every once in a while, even with inanimate objects, these phones both still kill it, I mean, here the Pixel 3A, it took the win on this car shot. Yes, there are still some small issues but on the whole, it is still a beautiful picture.

Now I can't overstate this enough, one of my favorite features using the Pixel 3A is being able to use external telephoto lenses and portrait mode simultaneously. The iPhone really struggles with this. I've never been able to really do it successfully, so to be able to do this on the Pixel, it makes the telephoto external lens so much more usable. Now when we go for more of just a standard shot, the contrast and skin tones of 3A to me look more pleasing, yet it is again a hair over-sharpened, and looks a bit less convincing to the trained eye of a DSLR shooter. It just doesn't really have that natural blur roll-off that a DSLR would have.

Something interesting though, look at my shirt on the iPhone XS when I zoom in. The XS is artificially softening my shirt, yet isn't recognizing it as mere depth of field, or we'd actually see it called out in this third party app called Focus, where we can actually bring it back into focus potentially. Here's the telephoto without portrait mode, and it's plenty sharp, so it's certainly not a symptom of the camera, it's all programming decisions. Good on Pixel though, for keeping it sharp. By DSLR standards, it usually should be.

Looking at Portrait mode dynamic range, the XS does jump ahead on this particular photo. The iPhone managed to hold a whole bunch more detail in this guy. (upbeat techno music) Now how do they both handle bokeh, especially from light sources in the background? Where Google simply softens the background, Apple is creating a more realistic enlarging of the bokeh, coming from light sources. The win here, definitely going to Apple. But, you can also tap and select the focus point on the editing screen on the 3A, after the photo has been taken which helps fix focus issues, without a third party app.

(upbeat techno music) While we're on the topic of editing, Google has simplified it down nicely to only three sliders, but you can also drill down to fine-tune each of them, a bit further if you want to expand each option. Both Apple and Google provide robust control over light and color, if you wanna make basic adjustments, but Google also allows you to add a vignette, and includes a clarity control called Pop that really brings out detail, and adds some contrast in the photo. Now while these are great and all, here's a link to my previous video for tips on how to edit your mobile photos more effectively, because there is a lot more that you can do outside of these stock apps. (upbeat techno music) Interestingly, the eight megapixel front-facing camera on the Pixel 3A produces a slightly wider field of view than the iPhone XS, which is great and all, it makes selfies easier to capture, but, I greatly prefer the representation of the shape of my head out of the iPhone. It's just not nearly as wide-angle squished looking.

Both phones allow for Portrait mode on the front-facing camera, and on the whole, they look really great with the skin tones out of the Pixel in this example looking more accurate and the contrast more natural than the XS. Keep in mind though, all this comparison to the iPhone XS, this is a $1200 phone. This is a $400 phone. Yeah, it changes things. (upbeat techno music) Now when taking those front-facing photos, Pixel's Beauty mode specifically in the Natural mode, I feel does look pretty good, and all together doesn't appear too overly affected to feel unconvincing, but Soft Mode? (helicopter wings spins) (woman screams) - Oh my god! - Why would you- - Yeah.

(upbeat techno music) So, Night mode, yeah, it's everything on this phone. I'm still a little bit perplexed at how incredibly well they've managed to do this. I'm just gonna show you the very first test picture I took on this phone the day that I got it. It was shot around 10 p. m.

after the sun had just set. It looks like it's daytime. Insane. Similar to HDR, the Pixel is using multiple photos at various exposures, mixed with witchcraft obviously to create pretty darn sharp usable photos, where light is almost nonexistent. Sure, there's certainly some noise in the darkest regions of some of the Night mode photos I've taken, and in the darkest conditions, de-noising becomes really evident, but, you're still capturing a usable photo in a scenario where otherwise you just wouldn't have been able to with a smartphone.

Throwing this side by side with Apple's current ability to capture under low light, the Pixel's just light-years ahead, making it a far more versatile tool all hours of the day. This is one beast of a low light camera. Imagine with a future processor when this whole Night Sight concept can apply to video. Mark my words, it's coming, if it's not, Google, get on that. (upbeat techno music) Getting into one of the smaller but still fun features, Photosphere, certainly cool, hard to truly nail without imperfections in the composite though, but a fun feature nonetheless.

That said, there is a hidden gem within it. Throw your phone in landscape, and select the three by three Matrix mode to create incredible wide-angle composite shots. (camera clicks) Personally, I find this to be a ton more usable than the full sphere mode. Also, try this with Moment's wide angle lens, it creates some really wild ultra-wide shots. It looks like it's not gonna work, and then magically, (bell rings) yeah, amazing.

At the end of the day, photography in top-tier smartphones has begun to commoditize, I mean, they all seem to be operating at a very similar level of excellence. But what continues to fascinate me is this ability to get a top-tier camera along with a beautiful display, an octa-core processor, beautiful aesthetics, outstanding stereo speakers, a headphone jack, and a blazing fast fingerprint reader, all for $400 dollars. This honestly, this is the sweet spot for Google. Mid-tier phones with outstanding cameras. Well that's it for today y'all, thank you so much for watching, if you found this video helpful, give it a big thumbs up, subscribe if you loved it, get out, get creative, do what makes you come alive, and I will see you in the next video.

(upbeat techno music).

Source : Taylor Moore