Gear

Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL vs. iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Samples

  • Person with dark hair glasses and longsleeve shirt sitting outdoors in a city plaza bathed in the glow of red light
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    01
    Pixel 9 Pro XL, main camera. One of the improvements in Google's Real Tone technology is that it can do a better job with correcting skin tone, especially in these kinds of harsh color lighting scenarios, and it does the job excellently. Compare this with the following iPhone photo.
  • Person with dark hair glasses and longsleeve shirt sitting outdoors in a city plaza bathed in the glow of red light
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    02
    iPhone 15 Pro Max, main camera. My skin is over-exposed with red hues, so much so that some of the details are crushed in the red.
  • Narrow city street at nighttime with illuminated bridge in the distance
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    03
    Pixel 9 Pro XL, main camera with Night Sight. The Pixel doesn't over-expose this photo—it looked pretty close to this in real life, maybe a tad darker. The details are sharp, and it's *the* photo you want to capture when you come to this iconic spot.
  • Narrow city street at nighttime with illuminated bridge in the distance
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    04
    iPhone 15 Pro Max, main camera with Night mode. The scene was darker than the Pixel photo but not *this* dark. The details are still great here, but this image could stand to be brighter.
  • Selfie of person with dark hair and facial hair wearing clear classes and a green jacket with the nighttime city skyline...
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    05
    Pixel 9 Pro XL, selfie camera with Portrait mode. The Pixel 9 Pro's upgraded selfie camera offers better 3D depth for faces and is sharper.
  • Selfie of person with dark hair and facial hair wearing clear classes and a green jacket with the nighttime city skyline...
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    06
    iPhone 15 Pro Max, selfie camera with Portrait mode. There's noticeable grain in this image, and the iPhone hacks off more of my glasses than the Pixel image. My skin tone is slightly more dull here.
  • White and brown dog curled up on a cushioned chair sleeping
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    07
    Google Pixel 9, main camera. It's well-exposed, sharp, and the subject is cute. What's not to love?
  • Large repeating archway in city plaza with people walking through at night
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    08
    Pixel 9, main camera with Night Sight. The color hues from the lights are pretty accurate in this scene, and the Pixel brings out more of the red hues of the bricks. There's more detail in the shadows.
  • Large repeating archway in city plaza with people walking through at night
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    09
    iPhone 15 Pro Max, main camera with Night mode. There's an overly blue hue to the street light that wasn't the case in real life, but there's also less detail in the shadows here.
  • Zoomed in view of an illuminated bridge over water at night with a city skyline in the distance
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    10
    Pixel 9 Pro XL, 5X optical zoom with Night Sight. Google's image here is brighter and the color tones are much closer to real life than the following iPhone image. However, the arches of the bridges are slightly over-exposed.
  • Zoomed in view of an illuminated bridge over water at night with a city skyline in the distance
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    11
    iPhone 15 Pro Max, 5X optical zoom with Night mode. The iPhone exposes the bridge really well, but the color temperature is incorrect; it's not this yellow. In fact, the whole image has warm tones that weren't present IRL. You can also see the bottom half of the image is completely dark, though you might like that.
  • People crossing the street at a city intersection with a restaurant in the background
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    12
    Google Pixel 9 Pro, 5X optical zoom. The telephoto camera doesn't perform as strongly at night but during the day you can get sharp results that preserve colors well.
  • Nighttime view of a carousel inside a large building with glass walls and people sitting on the steps that surround it
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    13
    Pixel 9 Pro XL, ultrawide camera with Night Sight. This is much closer to how the scene looked in real life compared to the following iPhone photo. The merry-go-round was emanating this warm light all over the dock, basking everyone in glowing, yellow hues.
  • Nighttime view of a carousel inside a large building with glass walls and people sitting on the steps that surround it
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    14
    iPhone 15 Pro Max, ultrawide camera with Night mode. This photo works in its own right but is not representative of the IRL scene. I could make out what people looked like much more easily unlike what this photo suggests. But it's still a vibe.
  • Nighttime view of city plaza with buildings and archway on the right and water and a rock wall to the left
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    15
    Pixel 9 Pro XL, main camera with Night Sight. The color temperature once again is fairly accurate here, the image is sharp, and it's well exposed.
  • Nighttime view of city plaza with buildings and archway on the right and water and a rock wall to the left
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    16
    iPhone 15 Pro Max, main camera with Night mode. This image is a bit too dark, and it adds this yellow hue throughout the photo that wasn't present in the real scene.
  • Person with dark hair glasses and longsleeve shirt leaning on a wooden table with other tables and trees in the background
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    17
    Pixel 9 Pro XL, main camera with Night Sight. The light source to my right was a completely blue color tone, which the Pixel rightly picked up on. It also makes my skin tone look normal.
  • Person with dark hair glasses and longsleeve shirt leaning on a wooden table with other tables and trees in the background
    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
    18
    iPhone 15 Pro Max, main camera with Night mode. Once again, the iPhone decided to change the color temperature of the light source to a yellow hue, which makes my skin tone much more yellow than it was IRL. It's still a super-sharp shot though.
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