iPhone SE 2020 vs Pixel 4a Camera Comparison By Grant Likes Tech

How's it run grant here and welcome to my camera comparison between the Google Pixel 4a and the iPhone SE 2020 edition. Now, both these phones debuted in 2020 at about the same price point, the Pixel 4a is about 350, while the iPhone SE starts at about 400, and that's us retail pricing, and so most phones at this price range have gotten very good as far as performance and day-to-day use, but they often lack in one area and that's the camera. So that's why I want to do this camera comparison, so I can show you the results that you could get and the performance you'll get from both of these cameras and to determine for yourself whether that's going to meet your needs or not, and so this will be a test in both good and low light conditions. Now, one thing to note is that, while the Pixel 4a does have Google's night sight capability to improve low light photos, the iPhone SE doesn't have apple's night mode and so to compensate for that I'll show. You photo in low light, taking it in full, auto mode without the assist of any kind of night mode. I'll also show you the same set with the Pixel 4a's night sight up against the iPhone SC and neural cam and neural cam is an app that's a paid app that helps bring night mode to the iPhone SC, so you'll be able to see kind of a night mode assist from the iPhone up against pixels night sight.

So again, I want to start off this video with some 4k rear facing video indoors, because I'm going to show you some outdoor video later- and I do have a LED light assist here. So it's actually helping to light up my face here. So this is an example of what you might expect with some assisted lighting. But if you're like most people, and you're, not really creating content, you don't have LED lights to help illuminate your video, and you just want to pull out your phone and shoot inside your house or indoors, maybe of just your family or pet or whatever, and all you have is basic lighting in your home. I'll turn off that LED light, and this is the kind of lighting that you might expect.

I've just got my bulb light above me in the ceiling and that's just the basic white bulb. So if you've got a softer light, you might get some warmer tones here, but this is generally what you would expect if you just have some basics home lighting, and you want to shoot some indoor video with both of these phones. So that being said, let's get on to the photos and videos, and let me know in the comments what you think about how each of these phones are performing everyone. So here we are testing out the video on the iPhone SE and Pixel 4a here in the park, and usually we've got some blue skies. But it's great today because that's actually smoke not haze coming from the California wildfires here, Napa county has some pretty big fires going on, and so we're getting some of that smoke, and so it's not as bad as it has been before.

But that's why it's not really blue, it's not the cameras or the video quality. That's the actual color of the sky right now, it's pretty great from all that smoke. So let's go ahead and test out the cameras pan over here to the right and do a little of a zoom test. So, let's see a little of a zoom there. Let's try two times zoom here on the pixel there we go shouldn't even match that with the iPhone and let's go max zoom on the iPhone there and max zoom here five times on the pixel.

So a lot more zoom range here on the Pixel 4a than on the iPhone SE, we'll back those all the way out, and we can test some focus here on both these phones. So let's go ahead and test the iPhone SE. So pretty quick focus and refocus there, one more time and one more time with the iPhone SE, so pretty quick to focus and refocus Pixel 4a same thing: pretty quick focus there and refocus so last time on the 4a. So good focusing speeds here on both the SC and the 4a will test some stabilization as we walk down the stairs which I'm assuming is gonna, be pretty good here on both phones, especially at 1080p, so pay attention to that. Let me know what you think about stabilization here between these phones and last quick panel on the park, see how it handles some of those changing light conditions and back up into that afternoon: sky and sun.

Okay. So let's do the same video test this time at 4k, 30 frames per second, so both of these phones can film at 1080p 60 frames per second. But since this video is going to be rendered out at 30 frames, I don't really think you're going to see that frames per second difference in the recording. But let's go ahead and pan over to the right here same thing: zoom test here on the SE and on the Pixel 4a max zoom there on the SC still max five times, digital on the 4a so backing both those out. We can do an autofocus test here again at 4k, so again, first with the SC still really nice and snappy on that autofocus and refocus away now on the 4a, pretty quick as well still even at 4k one last time all right.

So let's go ahead and test stabilization here at 4k as we walk down the stairs and through the windy path here. So hopefully, stabilization's still looking good here at 4k in both phones and again, one last panel on the park check exposure into that lighting, hey everyone. So here we are with some front facing video test on both the iPhone SE and the Pixel 4a, and so again these both can only do 1080p 30 frames per second from the front facing camera. So again, this is some outdoor footage, so you can see how it looks like outdoors I'll pan around, and you can see the sun back there. So you can see what that does to the exposure on both of these phones.

You pan back this way a little, but I am wearing a face mask. So I'm sorry if the audio was muffled, but there are people out here, and so I don't want to take a chance here, always be safe, and so I'll go ahead and walk around. So you kind of see the stabilization from the front, front-facing cameras and what that looks like here. So hopefully this gives a good idea of the front-facing camera performance here on the iPhone SE versus the Pixel 4a outdoors here in a little of afternoon, sun get it yep. So yes, hey everyone, so here is a bit of a low light test between the iPhone SE and the Pixel 4a being shot at 1080p 30 frames per second here.

So obviously, I'm outdoors at night in a fairly decently lit situation up. You can see the moon up there, and I'll pan over to the right, with this really bright light to see how it handles that. How much lens flaring we see now this in the viewfinder, it looks pretty good on both some lens flaring, which is to be expected pretty much. Any phone cameras can do that with that intense of a light, and then I'll go ahead and pan over this way and start walking to test stabilization, but also to test it handles the lighting transition here from a pretty well lit scenario over to a much darker area here so also pay attention to the stabilization. Sometimes you see more jitters, the darker it gets in some of this footage here so see if you notice any of that, but around the corner.

Here it's pretty dark, and already I can see the iPhone SC viewfinder is much darker than the Pixel 4a. We've just got these sidewalk lights here, and I can pan up into the night sky. So you can see that it's pretty dark on the iPhone SE Pixel 4a, at least again in the viewfinder, much more well lit, but we'll see how the video actually looks, and some people may prefer to have the darker scene because they want to look more real to life. But when it gets this dark, maybe you're in an indoors dark restaurant bowling alley bar whatever it may be, and actually want to be able to see your subject more clearly versus capturing. How dark the scene really was.

You may be better off with the Pixel 4a, but let me know what you think about the video and audio here from the iPhone SE and the Pixel 4a in this low light test: hey everyone. So here we are with the same scene with the iPhone SCM, Pixel 4a this time at 4k, 30 frames per second, and so again. There's the moon and sometimes in 4k. The footage can look a little darker. So I want to shoot the same scene and compare it to the 1080p footage and again there is that bright light which, in the viewfinder they both seem to be handling it decently.

Well and again, we'll test stabilization here in 4k and as you move into this darker lighting area. So let me know what you think about the footage. How does this look compared to the 1080p footage that you just saw? And here we go it's getting darker as you move around this corner again, and sometimes stabilization may not be as good in 4k as well, so pay attention to that, and we'll pull up here, pan up into that dark night sky and one more time this way, where there's a little more light down this alleyway. But let me know what you think: how this 4k footage compares between the iPhone SE and the Pixel 4a, hey everyone. So here we go with some front facing footage from the iPhone SE and the Pixel 4a.

They both shoot in 1080p, 30 frames per second and that's its max resolution and frame rate. So it's a pretty well lit area, as you can see here, pan around a little left or right and left, and I'll start walking to test some stabilization and like we did in the camera test I'll start walking into a little darker area. So you can kind of see how that looks, also pay attention to some micro stutters, again and low light that tends to happen. But here we go a little darker area. Also, the fountain audio is competing with the sound of my voice.

So I can see how the audio is now doing in this situation, and you pan around here where it's a little darker, and so hopefully this gives a good idea of how the iPhone SE compares to the Pixel 4a front facing camera and a bit darker scene here at night. Sometimes you want to do some filming restaurants, bowling alleys or just when you're out- and this is the kind of footage you might expect from each phone. So let me know what you prefer in the comments below and this wraps up a quick test between the iPhone SE and Pixel 4a front cameras, hey everyone. So I just want to close out this video with some front facing cameras indoors and again. I've got the LED light to assist here to give an idea of what you might expect from video quality, with a little more lighting I'll go ahead and turn that off in a bit.

So you can see what it looks like without it. But first leave a comment down below and let me know which phone you thought did better, which one do you prefer and why? Now? As far as my own personal thoughts you're, pretty much going to hear this in every pixel versus iPhone video that I do because both apple and Google take completely different approaches to how they do their cameras. And so as far as google and the pixel, they tend to produce darker, more contrast images with cooler, color tones and apple on the iPhone tend to produce brighter images with warmer color tones and so depending on the characteristics that you like to see. That's going to determine which phone and camera you prefer, and so, if you want to hear more in-depth analysis, let me know that takes a little more time and I want to get these videos out to you faster, but give me that feedback, and I'll see what I can do going forward. But first let me go ahead and turn off this light.

So you can kind of see what it looks like with just again my overhead light and the pixel just like I did in my pixel 5 video was just kind of overexposing here. So I'm going to tap to focus that up so that helps I'm going to tap on the iPhone in fairness and that didn't really clear up the exposure on the pixel. So I'm going to actually dial that down a little. So that looks a bit more, even in the viewfinder. But again, just to give an idea what it looks like with just basic home lighting, because I think this is how most of you will be using the cameras, if you just want to take out point and shoot with just basic line that you have in your home.

This is probably what it's going to look like so again, leave me a comment down below with anything that you want to see more of in these comparisons. Anything that you can do without I'm always listening to feedback to try to improve these things, and, as always, thanks for watching.

Source : Grant Likes Tech