Camera functions are one of the big drivers of upgrading to a new phone these days, so I wondered: Of the high-end phones, which takes the best pictures? So for the past few weeks, I've been walking around with the top phones from three big US sellers—the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, Google Pixel 8 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra—and using them to take pictures in a wide variety of situations.
Each had its pros and cons, with each doing better than the others in certain situations. What interested me was that different people I showed the pictures to had different reactions. I can only include a small sample of the photos below—but they should be enough to give a feel for the differences.
First, let's go over the specs of the cameras.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 48MP main camera with ƒ/1.78 aperture that also allows for 12MP 2x zoom using the quad-pixel sensor; a 12MP ultrawide camera with ƒ/2.2 aperture; and a 12MP 5x optical telephoto with ƒ/2.8 aperture.
The Pixel 8 Pro has a 50 MP wide camera with ƒ/1.68 aperture; a 48 MP ultrawide camera with ƒ/1.95 aperture and a 125.5° field of view13; and a 48 MP 5X optical telephoto camera with ƒ/2.8 aperture. Google claims you can get up to 30X digital zoom.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra has what Samsung says is a 200 MP main camera with an aperture of f/1.7 (although it usually captures 12 MP images, which is how I had it set); a 12 MP ultrawide camera with ƒ/2.2 aperture; a 3X optical 10 MP camera with an aperture of f/2.4; and a 10x optical with an aperture of f/4.9). Samsung claims up to 100X digital "Space Zoom."
All talk about features like optical image stabilization and autofocus, and these have generally gotten better over the years. As usual, I take the "digital zoom" claims with a grain of salt. By cropping you can get closer, but I rarely find it works well at the maximum zoom.
So let's see how they worked in the real world. Note all the photos are as taken; I'm not trying out any of the fancy photo editing features that some of the vendors provide. Use the arrows below each set to cycle through for comparison.
This is a wide shot of the Empire State Building. I thought all the phones did a fine job capturing the street. The Galaxy seemed the brightest and the Pixel the least bright, but they all were good.
Here's a shot of the top of the Empire State Building. Here there's no question—the Galaxy won by a large margin. While some people have been skeptical of the periscope zoom lens, the 10X lens simply lets you get closer than the 5X zoom lens on the iPhone or the Pixel, and for similar levels of zoom, the Galaxy certainly looks better.
The same thing is true in this shot, of the clock in the center of Grand Central Terminal. The Galaxy is clearly the best shot, and I thought the Pixel came in second.
Here's a shot of the terminal at night. Low-light photography has been one of the areas where all the phone manufacturers claim to have made improvements. Here different people had different opinions. The Galaxy was sharpest, but some preferred the colors in the Pixel or the iPhone.
While we're on the subject of low-light photos, here's a selfie I took at Disney's Hollywood Studios during the recent Gartner Symposium conference. The Galaxy was the clearest, with the Pixel shot looking good and the iPhone a bit grainy.
While I was at the conference, I took a number of photos that I used in my posts on different sessions. All did a decent job, but you could really see the difference in some photos, such as this shot of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, legendary NBA star and entrepreneur. Here, the Pixel shined, taking the sharpest picture with the best skin tones. Here the Galaxy had the hardest time focusing, something I would see in several other shots as well.
Perhaps the widest variety of shots I got was taking a macro shot of some flowers, where I got large variations in the saturation of the picture. The Pixel's photo is the most realistic, with the Galaxy coming close, but a little more saturated (which some people liked better). The iPhone captures the image sharply, but the colors appear much more purple than they do in the real world.
Again the colors are a bit different in these views of a sunrise over a train station. Here I might give the edge to the Pixel, although it's somewhat a matter of personal preference. The Galaxy is as usual, the most saturated in colors, and to me, the iPhone looks a bit softer than the others.
I also took a number of photos at concerts (which I'm not reproducing here) where the Samsung either was wonderful with the best, tightest shots because of the larger zoom or not good, with photos that were clearly out of focus. Of the other two, generally, the Pixel did better at wide shots, while the iPhone did better at tighter ones. All did a decent job of capturing video at a concert, though I thought the audio still has room for improvement.
So what's the verdict?
The iPhone 15 Pro Max was good, but the weakest overall. Some of the photos appeared a bit grainy or soft, but the colors were generally pretty good (except on a macro photo). Generally, I found it lacks the artificial pop of the Galaxy or the AI features of the Pixel, but some people may prefer a more natural photo. The 5x optical zoom is an improvement over previous generations and my guess is most iPhone users will be happy with their results.
The Pixel 8 Pro was best in several situations, offering very good focus and the best skin tones. It's a solid all-around camera, even if it can't match the zoom in the Galaxy. Google also offers more AI features, such as "Magic Eraser" and "Best Take" though some will argue with that level of photo manipulation. But it's clearly a step up from previous versions.
The Galaxy Ultra S23 is the most variable. When it's good, it's very good—offering notably better zoom, allowing you to take some photos you just couldn't with the others. Samsung photos are a bit more saturated than the others, which some people like and others don't. (In some cases, it seemed to add color in places where it wasn't.) Low-light photography was pretty good as well. But the autofocus seems the weakest of the three, so sometimes the photos weren't as sharp as the other two.
Which camera is the best remains a subjective call. If I was planning on taking pictures at a concert or capturing details as a tourist, I'd probably pick the Galaxy; but if I was mostly taking family photos or selfies, I'd probably go with the Pixel.
For more, read The Best Camera Phones for 2023.
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