iPhone 16 Pro vs. Pixel 9 Pro Camera Showdown: A Clear Winner

We’re at the tail end of the year, which means that pretty much all the flagship smartphones have now been released. This includes Google’s Pixel 9 Pro and Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro. Both of these Pro flagships have beautiful designs, powerful processors, and great triple-lens camera systems. But which one takes better photos? Let’s find out.

iPhone 16 Pro vs. Google Pixel 9 Pro: Camera Specs

Although both phones have triple-lens setups, the Google Pixel 9 has some key advantages — at least on paper. It offers slightly more megapixels for its primary camera, a wider field of view for the ultrawide camera, and higher megapixel counts for the telephoto and selfie cameras. Does this translate to better photos? Let’s take a look.

Primary Camera

1. Pixar Pier Sign
   The Pixel 9 Pro’s image appears more vibrant, with brighter signage and sky, whereas the iPhone 16 Pro leans darker with more shadows but retains finer texture details, such as imperfections on a star. However, the Pixel 9 Pro produced a more pleasing and vibrant image overall.

2. Port of San Fransokyo
   The iPhone struggles with heavy shadows, making background details hard to see. Meanwhile, the Pixel captures better visibility and brightness, though the iPhone handled texture and water reflections more realistically.

3. Cactus Plants in Cars Land
   The iPhone excels here, producing deeper purple hues and sharper textures in both the cactus and surrounding soil. The Pixel image looks a bit dull in comparison.

4. Carnitas Burrito
   The iPhone maintains better focus throughout the plate, while the Pixel seems to blur the chips in the background. Colors in the iPhone version are also more lifelike.

5. Coco Display
   Both phones perform well, with subtle differences: the iPhone leans warmer, and the Pixel slightly cooler. The Pixel keeps some flag details more vivid, but both images are quite close overall.

6. Car Show
   The iPhone better captures the vibrancy of red and white car paint, while the Pixel’s colors appear oversaturated. The iPhone also captures crisper background details like palm tree leaves.

Winner: iPhone 16 Pro

Ultrawide Camera

1. Mater’s Jamboree Ride
   The Pixel image offers brighter colors, but the iPhone delivers better texture and contrast in the background wall, making the scene appear richer.

2. Car at the Show
   The iPhone captures better detail, including reflections and tire textures, while the Pixel struggles with softness and lacks sharpness.

3. Macro Photo: Flower Pistil
   The iPhone shot is brighter and clearer, with better focus on the stigmas. The Pixel image is darker and suffers from distortion.

4. Water Drops on Grass
   While the iPhone produces a more washed-out color for the grass, its image is sharper with better water drop clarity. The Pixel has a more realistic grass color but struggles with blurry water drops.

Winner: iPhone 16 Pro

Telephoto Camera

1. Landmark Rock Formation
   Despite having fewer megapixels, the iPhone captures finer details and textures in the rock compared to the softer Pixel image.

2. Palm Tree
   The Pixel image is brighter, but the iPhone offers more realistic colors and sharper details in the leaves. The iPhone’s better contrast makes it the winner here.

Winner: iPhone 16 Pro

Lowlight Scenes

1. Oogie Boogie Decoration
   The iPhone image is sharper with less noise, better contrast, and minimal grain, while the Pixel suffers from blown-out lights and noise.

2. Disneyland Castle
   The iPhone offers a warmer tone, true to the night setting, while the Pixel produces an artificially bright, daytime-like effect.

3. Halloween Yard Lights
   The iPhone captures better sharpness and warmth, although the Pixel handles white colors more accurately.

Winner: iPhone 16 Pro

Portraits and Selfies

1. Portrait of Husband and Cat
   The iPhone captures more accurate skin tones and textures, while the Pixel image introduces some edge detection errors and redness.

2. Portrait of Author
   The Pixel softens the skin unnaturally, while the iPhone keeps it more realistic with better edge detection.

3. Selfie
   The Pixel wins this round due to its wider field of view and more accurate color handling.

Winner: iPhone 16 Pro

Verdict

The iPhone 16 Pro beats the Pixel 9 Pro across most categories, solidifying its position as the superior camera phone. Despite the Pixel’s stronger camera specs, the iPhone consistently delivers better images in terms of detail, color accuracy, and sharpness. Though the Pixel 9 Pro offers good performance, the iPhone 16 Pro emerges as the clear winner in this comparison.