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Comment by askdufuga | Hacker News Reader

The Pixel photos are the best of the lot. I don't understand why the author thinks the iPhone 8+ is better, except that it's newer and from Apple.

Pixel: https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Pixels-IM...

iPhone 8: https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ip8Plus-I...

That's not even close. Wider angle. Better range of contrast. Better sharpness of details. Hard to say which is truer to the colors without being there, but the colors look better on the Pixel.

---------- Edit: By their own ratings, the Pixel phone beats the iPhone on every metric scored:

Pixel v. iPhone 8+

90 - 89 :Exposure & Contrast

85 - 78 :Color

93 - 74 :Autofocus

93 - 64 :Texture

89 - 68 :Noise

84 - 73 :Artifacts

88 - 84 :Flash

--------

89 - 96 :Final Score

How does the iPhone receive an overall rating substantially higher than its highest individual rating?

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They re-reviewed the Pixel with a new test protocol, and the iPhone 8 is being compared to the results from that new test, whereas you're quoting the old values: https://www.dxomark.com/google-pixel-camera-review-retested-...

They did that about a week before issuing the iPhone 8+ review... I wonder why.

Edit: Also one day before the iPhone event on September 12. The purpose was clearly to create a situation under which they could have the iPhone win.

Because the Pixel was the previous best device.

If it is true they do stuff to please sponsors it's equally suspicious they never reviewed the iPhone 7 Plus camera when Google used their numbers while presenting the Pixel phone.

The iPhone captures the intricacies of the folds and flow of the white shirt, imo.

Otherwise the two photos just look very differently processed / post-processed. It wouldn't be hard to Photoshop the iPhone shot to look more like the Pixel shot. The reverse would be maybe harder, but the Pixel probably has some setting that would crank down the contrast.

Yea i agree here. A lot of this is up to taste, but the way it captures the fabric, especially the translucency, is a HUGE leap from anything i've seen out of a phone. The way the light plays off of and through it is something i've only seen from my mirrorless setup.

Don't get me wrong, the pixel is good, but i would say that's definitely an extra 10% leap at least even if i do think it's a bit warm color temp wise(and that's adjustable!)

Bokeh effect of the pixel looks terrible and artificial to me. It stands out like a sore thumb and I can always tell that it taken by a pixel before checking.

Wide angle is not something that is better or worse.

Don’t you see that the face colors on the pixel are not realistic, she looks dead white. Also try zoom into her face, you will see how much worse the quality is as well

First, we're comparing a 2048 x 1536 photo to a 4032x3024... so of course the iPhone will have better detail when zoomed in.

As for color, that is somewhat up for debate. I would say that the color of her lipstick in the iPhone looks unrealistic and she's probably not nearly as tan as the iPhone makes her look.

Well it’s a better second camera in iPhone that allows optical zoom, I don’t see why we should disregard that fact in comparison?

I think that particular photo could go either way. Personally, I went from an iPhone 6 to a Pixel and then to the 7 plus, and I find the camera lacking in comparison to the pixel now. The front camera is fine, but the back camera on the Pixel was faster, sharper, and produced more vivid colors. Can't speak to the 8, but I personally found the test images not representative of the Pixel's quality in comparison to the other models listed.

"Vivid" often doesn't mean it's color accurate.

I think both the Pixel and iPhone Plus take some of the best mobile camera photos out there. The Pixel is much, much better at low light. However, the iPhone reproduces colors in a more realistic way. Most Pixel photos usually seem to have a harsher color tone, brighter/whiter, very cool like LEDs. The iPhone seems to favor a more warm color temperature, which I think generally produces worse low light photos, but more accurate color reproduction.

OP might have a monitor which shows the colors in a different way or just a different aesthetic for pictures.

That fake bokeh looks really awful IMHO.

Indeed. On the other hand, it only uses one lens.

I'm only experienced in analog photography but I really prefer the Pixel's shot to the iPhone's. The background blur is a lot nicer, and the contrast range is really great. I've preferred the Pixel in other blind tests as well - it's a really great camera.

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