Galaxy S21 Ultra vs iPhone 12 Pro Max vs Pixel 5: Camera Comparison! By PhoneArena

Shout out to NordVPN the highest rated VPN in the world for sponsoring this video- and this is the brand-new galaxy s21 ultra, which has the biggest camera system in a mainstream flagship. But is it really the best camera phone money can buy in 2021 Vic here with phone arena, and we set out on a quest to find out with the iPhone 12 Pro max at hand, which has the biggest sensor ever used on an iPhone and also the king of low light photography. The compact and affordable Google Pixel 5. ? So, let's see which is the best camera phone of 2021. The first thing that you notice, when you start shooting with the s21 ultra, is that it captures more in the frame than the others. Indeed, that main 108 megapixel camera comes with a wider angle lens, and that can be both good and bad.

Now, first, the colors on the s21 ultra look vibrant and often the ultra would expose the photo brighter so images most of the time look cheerful and nice. The wider angle of the main camera usually comes in handy for landscape shots. It can capture a bit more of a scene and most of the photos from the galaxy look nice, but on the other hand, we also noticed how, if you look at the edges of the photos, detail often looks blurry and smudged and that's unique to the s21 ultra. It was a bit of a shock. You simply don't have such issues on the iPhone and the pixel we're hoping that's a processing issue that Samsung can fix in the future, but right now this is definitely a problem.

Here are a few more photos captured during the day. All three phones do a great job in such conditions, but the galaxy adds extra sharpness to its photos, and some people may like this look we'll hold the photos for a few seconds, and you take a guess which phone captured, which photo and let us know if you're surprised, by the results in the comments to this video, we also just had to test out the zooming capabilities of the s21 ultra. Take a look at this video of the seagulls by the shore captured with the 10x zoom camera. The iPhone and the pixel cannot even zoom 10 times the maximum video zoom on the iPhone is actually 7x, and it's just 5x on the pixel. I jokingly call the ultra the National Geographic phone.

This shot just looks so good on it and for a moment I felt like capturing a National Geographic documentary, and the same goes for zoomed in photos check out the lamps on this picture. Now the pixel is just bad. The photo that it captured just has no meaningful detail, but even the iPhone with it's improved and before 2.5 times, zoom camera is absolutely no match for the ultra, which looks crispy clean and the s21 ultra is also a huge improvement even over previous galaxies. With the new zoom lock feature previously, it was so hard to keep the camera on your subject at 30 times 50 times and even 100 times zoom, and now it's so much easier. Okay, you get the picture.

The s21 ultra is the zoom king, and there is no competition here check out a few other super cool shots. We captured on the galaxy that would be impossible to take on the other. Two phones, if you like capturing pictures of cats on the streets, the s2100 is your phone. Now, as for portrait shots, you have a three time: zoom camera on the ultra, but strangely Samsung is not using it. That's a bit sad! You only have 1x and 2x view for portraits, and while you can shoot a portrait with the main camera of any phone, that is usually a bit too wide and a zoom camera often works out much better.

It gives you more flattering. Facial features, that's why we're surprised that Samsung doesn't use the three time zoom camera for portraits. You only have the one x and 2x. Now the pixel lacks any kind of zoom lens also, so it also uses a digital crop. So in these party shots you see that it's the iPhone that has the most detail, since it is actually using that dedicated 2.5 times zoom camera, but not all the phones do a great job separating me from the subject, and you can still see quite a few artifacts, but let's also switch over to video. Shall we last year's s20 ultra has some issues with focusing, and we're happy to see that the new s21 ultra now has a laser auto, focusing system that works very quickly in both daylight and low light? In fact, all three phones do a very good job, with focusing with slight differences in speed, also notice the transition between the leaf and my face.

We like to see not just a fast reaction with the focusing, but also smooth transition between the focus points, also check out this video, where we move the cameras up a bit, and you can see that as soon as the sun just slightly enters into the frame just pause this here for a second take a look, we start seeing a lot of noise in the shadows, especially on the galaxy, but also on the pixel, while the iPhone footage remains crispy, clean, really impressive for the iPhone now granted. This is a bit of an extreme test, but nonetheless the iPhone definitely wins the fight when it comes to dynamic range. So next up, we have a mic quality test with the three phones, the galaxy s21 ultra, the iPhone 12 Pro max and the Google Pixel 5. So first right now, I'm talking to the galaxy s21 ultra. This is a quality test on the galaxy s21 ultra next up we have the iPhone 12 Pro max.

This is a mic quality test for the iPhone 12 Pro max and finally, right now, I'm talking to the Google Pixel 5. This is a mic quality test with the Google Pixel 5. As for video stabilization, let's test it out we're recording at 4k30 and if you're, just walking at a casual pace, all three phones smooth out the vibrations very well and give you that walking on their gimbals. Like feel- and I know it's a niche scenario- but let's also try this right now, I'm running, and you can barely tell the stabilization- is really great on all three devices. By the way the pixel has four different stabilization modes.

So don't forget that if you're planning to run you can actually fine-tune the stabilization, unlike any other phone out there and actually get the best results. Now, where the iPhone and the pixel cannot catch up to the galaxy is the ability to zoom in video. We already showed you that with animals and that zoom you can find your inner National Geographic explorer, or you can also activate creepy mode. Just as easily take a look at this video, I shot from my apartment of a person working out far away. He never would have thought someone was recording and having this kind of capability can be cool, but also can be kind of creepy.

Don't you think now, speaking of working out, remember all the hype around slow motion? Yes, when every company was trying to go slower, well, apple, never really went to those lengths and actually neither did google. All three phones actually support a regular, slow motion mode, but check out this super slo-mo on the galaxy s21 ultra that just freezes time now. That's a cool gimmick, see the thing with the iPhone and apple. Is that it's really trying to limit the camera experience to the things that were great while Samsung is not afraid to introduce quite a few features that are not necessarily great, but can be a lot of fun? Take a look at single. Take, for instance, just have some fun friends or you yourself, come up with a creative idea, and all it takes is just pressing that single take button to end up with a bunch of different photos and videos that the phone will capture and process automatically gimmick yes, but is it a fun one? Oh, so? Yes, okay! Next up selfies, all three phones can capture both a regular selfie photo and a wide angle, selfie that you can use to see more of your surroundings or to fit a few of your friends in frame, and you can also use portrait mode for selfies, which is kind of cool.

So right now we're recording video with all three phones, the new galaxy s21 ultra, the iPhone 12 Pro max and the Google Pixel 5. And this is what selfie video looks like on these phones. The galaxy s20 altar can record 4k video with the front camera and the same on the iPhone a bit in the shadow and against the sun. So you can see the dynamic range here. It's a fascinating, and we're getting some flair too.

So, let's walk a bit faster and see. How is the video stabilization when using just the front cameras here? I bet you weren't surprised that all phones capture good-looking shots during the day, but what about at night? This is the ultimate test and the one area where the pixel is still king and when it comes to the photos, guess which one was captured with the pixel here and which one would you pick now, here's the reveal and here's one more shot. All phones use automatic settings. The galaxy uses its scene optimizer that here, for example, it didn't fire, while the others automatically capture a night mode, shot see how. In this case, the photo from the galaxy looks much darker and grainier in the next shot notice.

How the pixel still manages to maintain that nighttime. Look with the dark sky and crispy clear detail. It remains our favorite for low light photography and here once again, we noticed that if you look at the edges of the photos on the galaxy detail appears blurry and smudged, which is definitely an issue. Okay, let's switch to video, and you can now see me walking through the hallway. You have good lighting here, but the room that I am entering right now is very dark.

This is an extreme test. You would usually turn on the lights just to see inside, but it's nonetheless super impressive to see how the iPhone here with that new sensor, that it has captures so much light, while the other phones struggle, and it's especially difficult for the galaxy- it just, cannot capture enough light and appears too dark, and I personally would not use this video at all. The pixel is a bit better, but it's really the iPhone that stands out in such extreme conditions. I was also really curious to see whether the zoom cameras on the new galaxy would make any difference at night, usually in low light phones, just switch the main cameras, even when zooming just digitally cropping, but in this case it seems that the galaxy s21 ultra is using that three times zoom lens. You can see by the way the footage skips a bit, but does it use the 10x zoom periscope camera? Well, sometimes, yes, and sometimes no, you can notice that in the second footage it seems to switch to the periscope camera, which actually results in a much darker image.

So there is definitely far less use of those zoom cameras at night. Still, quality from the ultra is noticeably better than all the rest. When zooming there's just no contest and speaking of videos. Let me also tell you about one easy way to get the most out of any streaming service on your phone. Our sponsor NordVPN allows you to easily switch your location to one of 60 countries and bypass regional restrictions, plus it hides you rip address and websites.

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I would like to see a dedicated camera dedicated lens now, for example, I would take the iPhone for low light videos. It captures better low light video and the pixel for low light photos. That's where these two phones have an advantage, but at the end of the day I really enjoyed using the ultra and zooming in it's really a lot of fun. What do you think? How important do you find a good zoom camera? I'm looking forward to your comments and by the way we also have a detailed s21 ultra battery test. You will be surprised how it performs against iPhones.

If you enjoyed this video, a sub to the channel would be great. It really took ages to get all that nice footage for you and to edit it. So we hope you found it useful. My name is Vic, we're foundering, stay healthy and well, and I'll talk to you in the next one. You.

Source : PhoneArena