DxO Mark Ranks Pixel 3 a 101, Tied With iPhone XR

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… and 4 points below the iPhone XS Max.

It seems as though Google may have pushed the single camera setup to its limit. This year’s Google Pixel 3 scored a 101, tying it with Apple’s single camera setup in DxO Mark’s rankings. It places it 4 points below the iPhone XS Max and only 3 points above the Pixel 2. Google’s Pixel 3 has improved only a small amount over its last iteration, far less than its competitors have improved.

Pixel 3 vs iPhone Photo Comparison

When it comes to photos, the iPhone XS bested the Pixel 3 in nearly every way with the exception of flash. The iPhone XR is a more interesting comparison. Their overall and their photo scores are tied. However, the iPhone XR beats the Pixel 3 in autofocus, texture, noise, and artifacts. That results in taking photos that aren’t grainy and have a more realistic appearance. However, the Pixel 3 beats Apple’s “low cost” (it’s still expensive) iPhone in exposure, color, flash, zoom, and bokeh. The iPhone XR, if you’ll remember, can only add bokeh effects to people, not objects or animals.

This is why DxO Marks aren’t the end-all-be-all rankings. There’s more subjectivity here. Do you like zoom, bokeh, realistic colors and more details in dark areas of your photos? Then the Google Pixel 3 would be your choice. Do you prefer photos to be free of strange artifacts, noise, and a grainy texture? Then the iPhone XR is your best bet.

However, no matter how you look at it, the Google Pixel 3 was thoroughly beaten by Apple’s best, the iPhone XS. Curiously, except when it came to video.

Pixel 3 vs iPhone Video Comparison

In video, the iPhone XS and iPhone XR tied with an overall score of 96. However, the Google Pixel 3 got a score of 98. Interestingly, this was due to its improved texture and noise reduction in video, while the iPhone appears more grainy, an inverse of their photo scores. The iPhone won here in exposure and autofocus. Though they tied in stabilization, this is peculiar. DxO Mark pointed out that the Pixel 3 had, “Noticeable jello and frame shift in walking scenes.” This implies that Google’s software based stabilization and optical image stabilization are a little out of sync. It creates a strange artifact that makes video scenes appear as though they’re being shot through jello, wobbling with each step. Clearly this isn’t something you’d want from your video.

Once more, we’re left up to interpretation. Do you prefer good exposure and better looking stabilization? The iPhone XR or iPhone XS would be better for you. Do you often take video that requires zoom? The optical zoom on the iPhone XS would be preferable. However, if you don’t mind jello stabilization, dull colors, and slower autofocus, the Pixel produces better textured video.

The Best Pixel Ever

DxO Mark gave the title of their review, “Google Pixel 3 camera review: The best Pixel yet.” Of course it’s the best Pixel! If it wasn’t, why would Google have released it? They wouldn’t release a new phone that’s “The second best Pixel yet.”

DxO Mark might have been kind to them with the title, but there was one aspect where it wasn’t as kind. DxO Mark tests a phone’s default settings and those alone. Can you buy an iPhone, install Camera+ 2, and do long exposure photography at a low ISO to create beautiful, smooth photos and amazing, noise-free night shots? Of course! But that’s not a default setting in the camera app, and they’re only testing what the manufacturers released with their smartphones, not how they’ve been improved with third party apps or through beta releases. That’s why they didn’t test the Pixel 3’s Night Sight.

“With the Pixel 3, Google has also introduced a special mode called Night Sight that can achieve excellent image results in very low light, using a multi-frame stacking approach, as long as there is no (or only very little) motion in the scene. It is important to note that we test all smartphones using only their default settings, so we did not consider the image results from the Pixel 3’s Night Sight mode in our DxOMark scores.”

Was this fair? Yes, objectively so. This is not a default feature in the camera app, and therefore DxO Mark couldn’t include it in their scores. Would it have changed the rating? Likely. Night Sight would improve their scores on texture and noise, as well as exposure. It could have been enough to put it in league with the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, maybe even the iPhone XS. Perhaps if it’s default on the Pixel 4, DxO Mark will review it then. Although, considering Google’s extreme lack of substantial improvement over the Pixel 2, perhaps it’s time Google releases a smartphone with two lenses. They may have pushed single lens smartphones to their limits. In fact, this year, the main camera improvement Google made was adding a dedicated image processor, not improving the sensor or lens dramatically. That software boost wasn’t enough.

If you’re an Android fan, you likely won’t switch to the iPhone XS over a camera, especially since the Pixel 3 still produces wonderful photos. However, if you’re a Google Pixel 2 owner, you might want to hold off another year before upgrading, or consider switching to a different manufacturer. Google’s Pixel 3 is not enough of an improvement over the Pixel 2 to warrant an upgrade. It’s the “best Pixel yet”, but not by much. Maybe the fourth time’s the charm?