Does Apple’s short-range digicam zoom beat the Pixel 10 Professional?

I’m not fairly prepared to attract my conclusions on the iPhone 17 Professional simply but — primarily, whether or not it may well lastly pull me away from Android — however I do know one factor: Apple is taking its nonetheless pictures extra severely than ever. It’s added new Photographic Kinds to the combo, reworked the digicam app to present it a extra easy interface, and eventually upgraded its digicam {hardware} with a considerably improved 4x telephoto sensor.

Unsurprisingly, it has me reaching for the iPhone digicam greater than ever earlier than, and it’s making me wonder if the Pixel 10 Professional actually has my favourite digicam system. So, to settle issues as soon as and for all, I made a decision to place the 2 giants to the check. I got down to seize a collection of snaps throughout a few of the most typical focal lengths to see if I actually nonetheless favored Google’s processing the very best. Right here’s what I discovered.

Similar to any showdown between two heavyweights, it’s solely proper that I begin with slightly little bit of an introduction. So, within the Android nook, representing all issues open-source and versatile, we now have the Pixel 10 Professional XL. {Hardware}-wise, it’s the identical as its predecessor, which implies it packs a sturdy trio of high-resolution cameras. It counts on a 50MP main sensor to do the majority of the heavy lifting, backed by 48MP 5x telephoto and 123-degree ultrawide sensors.

Beneath the hood, although, the Pixel 10 Professional XL packs a imply new trick: Google’s Tensor G5 chipset. It provides a collection of latest methods to the Pixel 10 collection, together with the Digicam Coach that will help you line up a greater shot, Assist Me Edit to reimagine your images, and, after all, 100x Professional Res Zoom. This yr, Google is touting its upgraded zoom, highlighting that it makes use of a collection of Gemini-powered algorithms to course of and clear up what must be in your photos — simply don’t attempt to apply it to folks.

In the end, although, there’s solely a lot that software program can do to maintain up with brand-new {hardware}, so it’s time to introduce Google’s age-old rival. Within the iOS nook, representing, nicely, Apple, we now have the iPhone 17 Professional. It’s about as shut to an entire iPhone redesign as Apple has ever come, swapping the normal glass sandwich for a unibody aluminum construct and spreading the sq. digicam bump right into a full-blown plateau — one which resembles a barely worse model of Google’s digicam bar, should you ask me.

The change isn’t purely aesthetic, both — the iPhone 17 Professional lastly jumped from the 12MP telephoto sensor we’d seen the previous couple of years to a pointy (and considerably bigger) new 48MP sensor, buying and selling 5x optical zoom for 4x alongside the best way. This swap allows the most recent Professional-grade iPhone to seize central crops out of its beefy lens, successfully supplying you with as much as 8x lossless zoom earlier than digital enhancements should take over. Combine within the Photographic Kinds I discussed, add a barely extra refined Clear Up, and the iPhone is now ready for nonetheless images than ever.

So, let’s have a look at some pictures.

First, I’ll discover two distinct use circumstances for these respective 48MP ultrawide sensors. On the high, we now have a tall ship that sailed into Baltimore’s harbor, and I managed to suit it within the body of each of my flagship cameras. Nonetheless, that’s about the place the similarities cease. Every thing about Apple’s shade recreation is a bit darker and moodier than Google’s, and I discover a slight blue-green solid to the ship and the brick promenade main as much as it.

Surprisingly, I feel the iPhone affords a greater have a look at the precise lighting situations of the grey, gloomy morning, whereas the Pixel 10 Professional XL is way extra color-accurate. Shifting all the way down to the opposite pair of photos — the pumpkins — we now have the other scenario. This time, I wished to make the peerlessly regular fall decorations look extra bulbous, and Apple responded with a lot brighter hues, particularly on the orange pumpkin within the center. Google gave the bricks of the entrance steps and the stone home within the background a a lot hotter remedy, which is agreeable to the attention however maybe not fully correct.

Moreover, it seems that there’s some blur in Google’s illustration of the white pumpkin on the backside of the stack, which isn’t seen within the picture from my iPhone 17 Professional. This isn’t a daily concern, however one to watch out of should you’re crouched at odd angles for a photograph.

The opposite good thing about each of those ultrawide sensors is that the iPhone 17 Professional and Pixel 10 Professional XL provide fairly sharp macro modes. Actually, although, I want extra telephones would use telephoto-based macro processing, a la Nothing. Anyway, this time round, I feel Google affords the sharper shot, holding a bigger portion of the leaf in focus, whereas the iPhone gives a barely nearer look, albeit on the expense of some sharpness. The colour profiles are nice throughout each photos, although I’m shocked that Google tried to make the leaf look a bit shinier than Apple.

And now, for the a part of this check that really obtained me , it’s time to speak about zoom. Final yr, this might have been a fairly shut head-to-head, with each telephones rocking 5x optical magnification. This yr, although, Apple’s telephoto sensor defaults to a standard 100mm equal (4x magnification) whereas the Pixel 10 Professional XL sits at 113mm (5x magnification). The results of this can be a barely wider crop from the iPhone 17 Professional, and I’ve shortly taken a shine to the outcomes.

Throughout the board, I admire that I can match slightly extra element within the body, with a bit extra of the brick wall and bench across the basket of books, and only a slight improve in cropping flexibility for the pink brick tower of Lancaster’s Central Market. Curiously, although, the Pixel 10 Professional XL prompts you to make use of both 2x zoom or 3x zoom for portrait mode, leading to a barely wider view across the sticker-coated signal within the high row. As soon as once more, although, I feel Apple’s 100mm focal size seems the extra pure of the 2.

Simply as above, Apple’s greens are barely greener, and its general shade profile is marginally brighter than Google’s. Nonetheless, you’ll be able to all the time manually alter your publicity for a moodier last picture. The outcomes are fairly shut general, however I can’t assist however just like the consistency of Apple’s 4x lens.

Single picture comparisons can solely let you know a lot, so this time, we’re evaluating each the Pixel 10 Professional XL and iPhone 17 Professional throughout their total zoom ranges, ranging from 1x and lengthening all the best way to their respective maximums. Sadly for Apple, that is the place its extra conservative method is on full show.

Sure, it stays neck and neck with Google proper as much as the purpose when digital zoom takes over, rendering fairly related pictures, particulars, and colours from 1x to 8x zoom (or in Google’s case, 10x zoom). Previous that time, although, the iPhone 17 Professional doesn’t provide any lock-in focal lengths — factors the place the digicam app will give haptic suggestions while you land on, say, 20x or 40x zoom. As a substitute, it’s important to hope and pray slightly bit and preserve your palms as regular as you presumably can to nail your shot.

Even then, the iPhone has nothing on Google’s AI-powered Professional Res Zoom at 30x or 50x magnification. Google’s algorithms give the Pixel 10 Professional XL a lot sharper strains and hotter golds within the cross atop the steeple across the nook from the place I reside. Even the little birds are considerably sharper, though they do seem a bit too artifact-heavy at 100x zoom. I might think about it’s a case of Google making an attempt its hardest to make sense of the main points, however the birds are just a bit bit too small for the consolation of the Tensor G5.

I’m as shocked as you might be, however the iPhone 17 Professional is pretty much as good a digicam for stills as any Android cellphone. No, perhaps it doesn’t provide the identical top-end zoom because the Pixel 10 Professional XL, however I can’t shake the sensation that I’m extra snug with the iPhone for my on a regular basis zoom wants. I do know that if I faucet any of the preset zoom lengths inside Apple’s so-called optical vary, I’ll get an excellent shot, and its pleasingly heat shade science is able to publish straight away.

With the Pixel 10 Professional XL, then again, I do know I can zoom in on nearly any element. I do know that scenes throughout Baltimore’s harbor are inside attain and that Gemini will do its greatest to attract out particulars as soon as I hit 30x zoom or longer, which is a neat trick. The issue, although, is that I don’t come wherever near 30x zoom in my day-to-day life. I’ll normally high out at 10x or perhaps 15x zoom, and that’s solely after I’m at a live performance.

And, after I’m not counting on the Pixel 10 Professional XL for long-range zoom, I’m probably not certain what else to seize it for. It now not has the large lead in picture processing that it as soon as did; its video options stay firmly behind these of the iPhone, and even Apple’s Clear Up is catching as much as Magic Editor — albeit slowly.

So, for the primary time in my Android Authority profession, I feel I’ll be holding an iPhone in my pocket, at the least for slightly bit longer after I end my evaluate.