Pixel 5 vs Pixel 4a 5G vs Pixel 4a vs Pixel 4 XL Camera Comparison!

The ultimate camera comparison of this year's Pixel devices, alongside last year's Pixel 4 XL to see whether there is any difference between the lot.

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Time-stamps:
00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - Hardware Differences
01:19 - Portrait Photos
04:08 - Bright Outdoor Photos
08:55 - Zoom Comparisons
10:22 - Macro Photos
11:18 - Indoor Photos
11:50 - Selfie Portraits
13:17 - Night Sight Photos
15:50 - Rear Video Comparisons
21:50 - Selfie Video Comparisons
25:32 - 2x Zoom Video Comparisons
28:03 - Image Processing Times
28:53 - Final Thoughts

[PeterArnold]

I don't think everybody else has said this yet, but, it must have taken you ages to put this video together. Thanks for all the hard work, Sam. This is probably the one of the most thorough camera comparisons I have seen yet.

[dwarkeshjangid]

The only channel's content that fills up my 21:9 screen phone

[mxyznk]

I actually couldn't make out the differences in most cases until you zoomed in

[MrMomma]

I have a Moto X4 but I'm considering upgrading because it's nice to have something new to play with. The camera quality on my phone has definitely gone down quite a bit over time. And as someone that loves photography and doesn't always want to bring a real camera, I really liked how everything looked on the Pixel 4 and am not sure if the 5 is a real upgrade.

[hazirfn]

this should be the standard of in depth camera review. thank you for your great content sam!

[miket]

I don't know who needs to hear this but.... NO ONE CARES IF YOU'RE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD etc...

[chudson]

I honestly wish google made a more premium phone. Don't get me wrong The Pixel 5 is an awesome looking device, but moving from a 4XL to a 5 is honestly / truly a downgrade. The only thing I want from the 5 the bezel less screen.

[Quoutub]

21:08 I really can not understand why reviewers try to spread misleading information. 4k video needs a resolution of 8.3 megapixels. A 16:9 crop of the 12.2 megapixel sensor has 9.1 megapixels. Google uses video stabilization, which crops the sensor. Already a 1.06x crop leads to a lower resolution than 4k (9.1/1.06² < 8.3) and as far as I know Google crops a lot for the video stabilization. I even don't know whether the Pixel 5 still allows to turn off video stabilization, otherwise you can not record in 4k. The result would be just upscaled to 4k

[camshand]

Good to see the differences between the phones so clearly. My pixel 5 arrived today and I instantly noticed the audio sounded fairly processed and boosted in high end.

Also, this may be me having not had a pixel before, but do Google just flat out not support PAL framerates? I can't for the life of me set 25fps in native app. I can in filmic pro, but would be nice to have native app default to 25.

Finally, the video comparisons probably would be more useful at a standard 16:9, given majority of users wont be using an anamorphic crop on the footage. Just a suggestion, to show full FOV of the lenses

[sabalpradhan]

Idk why i like the pixel 4xl better than the 5

[darwishduja]

I personally think out of all the pixel phones the 4XL and 4a/4a 5G is the best, but when looking at the 3rd set of photos and taking photos with harsh light generally I have to give it to the newer models . Overall great lineup from Google this year

[rscle]

Hey, Love the comparisons! Any chance you could compare the Pixel 5 to older Pixels? Would be amazing to even just see a few shots showing 1, 2, 3, 4 vs 5. That way people with older devices can see if the camera is worth upgrading? Great job!

[ashwinjose]

Pixel 4XL is the best one, so am holding my 4XL till another upgrade comes😍.

[likesyngates]

21:08 you've said pixel 5 is only device capable recording 60 fps compared to the other three devices. BUT I saw in other reviews that 4a 5g supports 4k 60 fps as well.

[ptwoods]

All the pixel phones are amazing inclunding my pixel 4 XL 😀

[----icpw]

Very interesting. In some other comparisons between Pixel 5 and pixel 4A, I got the impression the 5 takes softer or less in focus photos. Did you ever notice that?
Maybe the photos are not all that consistent, or maybe the software version used has been different. Anyway, good to see that Pixel 5 was performing better than the 4A in these tests, as I just ordered one ;)

[Quoutub]

14:09 I definitely don't agree. Sadly, many reviewers don't test cameras accurately (actually not even that surprising as you can only test something well when you use it for many weeks/months). On a Pixel 3a Google's Night Sight takes up to 7 seconds in extreme low-light conditions and leads to slightly blurry photos, unless you stop breathing for 7 seconds. Sometimes even the astro mode turns on although I don't use a tripod. The YouTube Pixel 5 review of Engadget shows that the Pixel 5 Night Sight mode can take 6.5 seconds. Google had a much better mode than Night Sight: It is the HDR+ enhanced mode of the Pixel 3a, which is nothing else than a fast Night Sight mode. It only takes up to 2.5 seconds (or up to 4s if you zoom), it gives you sharper photos than Night Sight due to a shorter exposure time and can give you as bright results as Night Sight in most light conditions, if you use exposure compensation. Colors and noise are also about the same. Sadly, it seems that neither the Pixel 4 nor the Pixel 5 have HDR+ enhanced. Note that Apple's night mode takes 1-3s as far as I know.

[BethanyNash]

I am currently in phone limbo, as I've had a Pixel 3XL since May of last year and was ready to upgrade. I am a big phone person so the Pixel 4a and 5 were out of the question for me unfortunately. My main point of interest is cameras, so I finally landed on the iPhone 12 Pro Max (having owned one iPhone in the past.) I couldn't believe my eyes, the quality was somehow SO POOR compared to my almost 2 year old pixel! So I returned it. Next, the Galaxy Note20 Ultra. Surely two $1400 phones wouldn't live up to the hype, right? WRONG. The autofocus is almost completely unmanageable and not even Pro Mode can completely save the issues. I have taken side by side comparisons between my pixel 3xl and this brand new galaxy note20 ultra and it's comical how poor the focus is on the samsung. However, I like everything else about the phone. So I have been considering just buying a Pixel from google and switching back and forth between phones depending on what I'm doing that day, week or month. It's horribly convoluted to consider, but I just need a big phone as my daily driver. All that said, this video has helped me make my decision! And I so appreciate the time and effort you put into making this. Thank you!!

[Quoutub]

2:40 The amount of blur is even different, when you compare the same phone. I tried multiple Pixel 3a with the same Android version and same Google camera version and they blur the background differently (different accuracy as well as very different amount of blur). The reason might be that every(!) phone has a slightly different lens and Google used machine learning for the blur. This leads to inconsistent results. In this example you probably see the same behaviour, all four phones have the same 4.38mm f/1.73 specification. By the way, there are other things that can be different when you compare the same phone. When I compared multiple Pixel 3a, the sharpness of the selfie camera varied a lot, the severity of dead pixels varied (but all Pixel 3a suffer a lot from dead pixels) and the calibration of the autofocus varied a lot (for example the far setting in Night Sight didn't work with one Pixel 3a)

[jonbonker]

Thank you for the video, these are my biggest questions too. Is there any way to know or find out if the 4 and 4a will get the software that produces the richer shots more saturation) of the 5?? Thanks again.