**Comparing the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and iPhone 16 Pro Max: A Comprehensive Camera Review**

The age-old debate between smartphone camera enthusiasts has finally come to an end, as we pitted the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL against the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max in a comprehensive camera review. The question on everyone's mind was, which phone would reign supreme when it comes to capturing life's precious moments? Let's dive into our findings and see which device takes the crown.

**Cinematic Video**

When it comes to cinematic video, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the clear winner. Its ability to shoot at 4K with cinematic mode, complete with background blur, leaves the Pixel 9 Pro XL in its dust. The pixel's 1080p capabilities simply can't compete with the sharpness and clarity of the iPhone's output. But that's not all - the iPhone also allows for post-processing adjustments, such as adjusting the blur, which is a feature the Pixel lacks.

One notable aspect of the iPhone's cinematic mode is its front-facing camera, which offers an even wider field of view than the Pixel 9 Pro XL's. This makes it perfect for capturing stunning selfies and group shots. The iPhone also has the advantage when it comes to stabilization from the front-facing camera, with the Pixel struggling to keep up.

**Selfie Camera**

While the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL boasts a wider field of view in its selfie camera, the iPhone 16 Pro Max takes the lead in terms of sharpness and detail. The Pixel's softness is noticeable, even at close range. However, when it comes to stabilization from the front-facing camera, the Pixel does have an edge.

**Audio**

The world of audio is where things get interesting. Both phones boast AI-powered features, but the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL takes a different approach with its "Speech Enhancement" feature. This technology attempts to enhance speech during recording, which can be a useful tool for podcasters and content creators.

However, when it comes to noise cancellation and overall audio quality, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is hard to beat. Its "Audio Mix" feature allows users to customize their audio post-processing, giving them more control over the final product. This is particularly useful for creators who want to create a specific atmosphere or mood in their videos.

**The Verdict**

So, which phone reigns supreme? It's difficult to say, as both devices have their strengths and weaknesses. If you're looking for great images and video straight out of the box, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is your best bet. However, if you don't mind tinkering with post-processing, the Pixel 9 Pro XL offers a wealth of flexibility with AI-powered features like "Reimagine" and "Video Boost".

As our review comes to an end, we hope you've enjoyed this in-depth comparison between two of the most powerful smartphones on the market. Whether you're a seasoned camera enthusiast or just looking for a reliable device to capture life's precious moments, both the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and iPhone 16 Pro Max are worth considering.

**Follow us on Instagram**

If you want to see more Super Saf-style camera comparisons, as well as lots of other tech content, be sure to follow us on Instagram. We're at @SuperSaf, and we can't wait to share our next review with you!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys super saf here and welcome to the super saaf style camera comparison between the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Google pixel 9 Pro XEL I've had so so many requests for this one we're going to be looking at all aspects of the cameras there will be chapters down below let's get to it so let's kick off with some photos from the primary cameras now after taking hundreds of images from both devices both take excellent images with great detail and dynamic range one thing you'll notice is that Google has that pixel style it's quite high in contrast whereas the iPhone generally goes for more of a neutral look but we do have the next generation of photographic styles with the iPhone so you can actually dial in a look that you'd like and take photos with that look you can also go back in and change this yes you do have the ability to edit images from the pixel after the fact 2o but it's not at the same level now one advantage that the iPhone does get is that it shoots by default at 24 Maps in good light from the primary camera the pixel shoots at 12 so if we go in 100% to both of these images you'll see that you will be able to get a lot more detail on the iPhone in good light and you can read the text here whereas it is a bit of a struggle on the pixel now of course both of these can shoot at the full resolutions 50 megapixels for the pixel and 48 megapixels for the iPhone and when we do this both actually do really good going in 100% I would say that the iPhone is sharper now low light from the primary cameras both do well generally the iPhone in this image is a little bit brighter this image looks close at first glance but if we look towards the sky there is a lot more noise on the pixel image versus that of the iPhone and once again in this image you can see a lot more noise on the pixel versus the iPhone which is a lot cleaner now the pixel has maintained the night look of this picture whereas the iPhone has brightened things up it almost looks like it's Dawn although this was taken around 10:1 p.m. but I still prefer the cleaner image from the iPhone now in this image neither are doing great the pixel is pretty dark in the foreground the iPhone is brighter in the foreground but it's very very soft in that foreground area but if you focus on the bricks the iPhone has maintained those better compared to the pixel and an indoor low light image this is in a very very dark situation the iPhone doing much better here compared to the pixel so for the primary camera I did find myself leaning more towards the iPhone than the pixel overall now one thing that a lot of people keep asking me about in these camera comparisons is to use the Astro photography mode I generally don't use this because I am in the UK where it's usually always cloudy we don't have clear skies but we did have somewhat of a clear sky so I thought okay I'm going to have to go and test this otherwise people are just going to be in my case and these are the results now with the pixel it took around 4 minutes to get this shot on the iPhone you can do a maximum of 30 seconds both of these were on a tripod and yes you can probably see a few more stars on the pixels image but that took around 8 times longer to achieve so for me this is just not very practical if you are somebody that's very much into astrophotography and you can do a better job than me then you might prefer the pixel for this particular instance quick reminder if you're enjoying this video so far and you want to see more Super saf style camera comparisons then do consider subscribing and hit that Bell icon I've been doing camera comparisons for around 10 years now and God willing inshallah I'll carry on doing them so you don't want to miss them now for the ultrawide cameras both do really well generally speaking you've got lots of detail and dynamic range however I did find that the pixel is wider quite a bit wider compared to the iPhone which you might like in this image I do prefer the iPhone I think it's got more detail in the shadow areas but in this image look how much more detail the pixel has in the shadow areas compared to the iPhone now sure when you are taking the image you can tweak the exposure on both of these if you wanted to get a silhouette but as standard I do prefer what comes out of the pixel here both ultrawide cameras have autofocus which means you can take macro images and I think both take excellent macro images that higher contrast look of the pixel does work well in situations like this but in this example the iPhone has better maintained the blacks in this promc compared to what we've got on the pixel the pixel has kind of introduced a bit of a blue and I noticed this quite a bit with the pixel when it comes to Colors it tries to give you a bit more of a balance tone rather than what's actually there here you can clearly see that the sun is shining on this figure and the iPhone has maintained the yellow from the sunlight whereas the pixel has gone for something that's white balanced and is in the middle and has a bit of blue to it now for the ultrawide cameras in low light I would say it was very close both do have a lot of noise in this image and in this image although the pixel is sharper it's got more noise compared to the iPhone so for the ultra wide camera I would say that you're getting better Dynamic r R and A Wider angle of view from the pixel but the iPhone you are getting more accurate colors now let's look at the zoom so both of these do have a five times optical zoom camera however both can digitally zoom in between as well this is at 2x I would say both are very similar now when we go to 5x this is where the optical zoom cameras kick in and at this resolution things are quite close so I thought let's extend it to around 10 times one thing you will notice is that there is a slight difference in focal length even though both are 10 times and again things look close but when we go to 25 times then I would say that the pixel is a tad sharper compared to the iPhone I'm particularly looking at the text and how readable it is on the pixel versus the iPhone now the pixel can go up to 30 times and it also has something called Zoom enhance which is going to use AI to sharpen up the image now when we have this yes it can look a little bit artificial but it does make the text clearer in this example once again you can see that the pixel is sharper but when we add Zoom inhance it just adds details which may not have even been there now whether you like this or not and how often you're going to use it is going to come down to you but I have to say that in good light extended Zoom is better on the pixel in my opinion this is however not the case when it comes to low light so here I am doing my traditional low light Zoom test and at five times Zoom you can see that the iPhone is doing so much better here if we go to 10 times once again there is that difference in focal length but look how much cleaner the text is on the iPhone compared to the pixel and going to 25 times once again the iPhone is better than the pixel here the pixel is really trying to postprocess but it's not doing as good as the iPhone so zoom camera in low light better on the iPhone now for portraits so it's a little bit confusing on the pixel because when you go into portrait mode you start at 1.5 and the next step is two you can scroll and go all the way to three but there is no option to use the five times telephoto camera for portraits but we'll get to that so in this example we're using the first stop 1X on the iPhone and we're using 1.5x on the pixel now sure you may not be taking 1X portraits all the time I like to have the option there and in this example I have to say that the iPhone is doing much better if you look at the pixel it's trying to do that gradual blur but then it's kind of missed out the bit in between my legs which is weird the next step for both is 2X and here I think things are pretty close but I'm personally really interested in 5x portraits now although you don't have the option to take portraits at 5x on the pixel you can just take a normal 5x picture and then add portrait blur after the fact so in this example what we can do is we can go in and add the portrait blur to this 5x image and clearly the iPhone is doing way better if you look at the part between my arms that has been completely missed by the pixel whereas the iPhone has done an amazing job and whatever depth information they're using is really good because even on the iPhone you can add depth after the fact to a normal image the iPhone has also picked up the wids of my hair to make things look a lot more realistic but if you look at the colors I would say that the pixel has more pleasing colors the iPhone does look pretty flat and this this is something that I found consistently when you're using the standard photographic Style on the iPhone for portraits but as we know we can go in either before we take the picture or even after we've taken the picture and add a photographic style I generally prefer Amber which I think works with my skin tones best and when we put this on you can see the blacks are a lot more accurate now so is my skin tone now yes this is an extra step that you have to take because I have found that you can't just set a particular photographic style for everything thing it just doesn't match every single situation so you do need to kind of go in and tweak things after the fact but I really do like the impact that it can have on portraits here is another portrait at 5x now this is a bit more of a simple portrait so the pixel was actually doing pretty well here but once again look at just how good the iPhone is those individual strands of hair that are poking up have all be maintained on the iPhone and it just looks like much more of a realistic portrait compared to the pixel so yeah for portraits it's an easy pick for me it's the iPhone now let's look at selfies so the pixel has what I call the pixel look some people love it some people don't I absolutely love it it makes everything pop and I think it gives you some really nice and sharp looking selfies you can see in this example here as well that it's giving you a much wider field of view which I like the iPhone isn't doing bad it's got really good dynamic range but it looks a lot flatter compared to the pixel you can add photographics styles on selfies as well if you'd like but I still do prefer the pixel now in this example I would say that the iPhone is doing better in terms of dynamic range the pixel has blown out my window whereas the iPhone has maintained that detail in the background but in this example once again I prefer the pixel the sharper result with the wider angle of view now portraits from the selfie cameras I think actually both do really well with the iPhone it kind of punches in when you're doing portraits for some reason now you can just take a normal selfie and because of that depth information turn it into a portrait later on and in this example I have added a photographic style to the iPhone's image just to show you an example another portrait selfie I once again prefer the pixel here it's done a better job in terms of the edge detection there's a slight error on the iPhone again generally speaking I think both take good selfies it might come down to personal preference I generally did find myself leaning towards the pixel when it came to selfies lowl light selfies this is using that night mode I generally don't tend to do this because it gives you very soft results here at first glance the iPhone looks like it's doing better but it is more noisier compared to the pixel but the pixel has kind of made me a little bit yellow in this example the iPhone really struggled to capture me I think the pixel has done a better job using the front facing Flash in low light for selfies the pixel can be a little bit overpowering like you can see in this example but in this example because it was super dark it actually worked out it's giving a cleaner image compared to the iPhone now before we move on to video we have to talk about some of the AI features with the iPhone we've got Apple intelligence but technically we don't have it because it's coming soon we've seen some previews of what you'll be able to do there's cleanup which will take people out of the background there's image playground and things like that but when it comes to photo editing specifically we've had lots of AI features on the Google pixel already and we've had them for a few years so we've got magic editor which not only lets you remove people from the background you can move people around you can then use reimagine to completely reimagine your picture you can change the background the scenery just with a few text prompts we've still got best take from last year so if you take a few pictures you can then actually change the faces of people so you can pick the best pose for each person and then we've got my new favorite feature on the pixel and that is add me if you are somebody who's generally the family photographer you'll not the pain of just being out of pretty much all of the family pictures well that is no longer a problem if you have the pixel all you can do is just take the image and then pass the phone on to somebody else jump in and then the pixel's going to use AI to merge those images together and it generally does a pretty good job I don't have any friends so I just had to use ad me with myself and you can do that pretty easily have two versions of yourself in the same image with ad me now let's look at video both of these take excellent quality video at 4K with lots of detail and dynamic range now generally this is an easy win for the iPhone but the pixel has video boost what is video boost well it is Google doing their postprocessing magic you take a video with video boost on and then it has to upload to the cloud into Google servers they apply lots of magic to your video and then give it back to you now this process does take a few hours but the results are very impressive generally the iPhone is king of dynamic range especially when we're using Dolby Vision with HDR but when we're using video boost on the pixel it really does take out the detail in the shadows as you can see from this example here you also have a night sight video with the pixel which improves low light images so when we take a nighttime video without any fancy settings on both devices is then I would say that the iPhone gives you a cleaner video although we do have those lens flare light buls on both of these however when we use night sight video once again this is going to record the video put it into the cloud a few hours later it's going to give you the result the pixel gives you some a very impressive low light video too and the pixel also has an option for 8K but it's technically not 8K it's 4K video which once again goes into the cloud for a few hours it's upscaled by Google and then bought back down to your device now looking at this side by side at 100% yes it is sharper compared to the iPhone but it's not true AK you can really tell that because when you look towards the text if it was real 8K then you'd be able to read that completely fine but you can see that it has been upscaled from 4K nevertheless this option is here now having said that these video boost features only work with the primary camera they don't work with the selfie camera they don't work with the ultra wide camera so when we do take Ultra wide video especially in low lights I did prefer the iPhone which was much cleaner now the question is of course going to be do you have the patience to go through this whole process of a few hours each time you take one of these videos in the world of instant gratification where people want to post things straight away a lot of people pretty much use their social media apps to record and push things out straight away if you're of those people then you're not going to have the patience for the video boost features that you've got on the pixel however if you're somebody who wants the best possible quality and doesn't mind that's processed then the pixel does give you some very impressive results now the iPhone does allow you to record in pror with log so you can record a flat picture profile and then grade it later on if you're somebody who's a pro videographer this is something that you're going to find super useful and the iPhone also shoots 4K at 1 120 frames a second with HDR so when we compare slow motion in my traditional slow motion test on a trampoline with my bad knees then you can see that the iPhone is giving you a much sharper and cleaner result even if we go to 240 frames a second at 1080p although both are quite similar I would still give the edge to the iPhone for stabilization I would say both are pretty stable although in this example the pixel decided to focus on the background rather than on me and when we do use the respective stabilization modes on both devices on the iPhone you can do it at 2.7k whereas on the pixel it's at 1080P and the quality is really not good look how noisy it is so for stabilization once again I would pick the iPhone now when it comes to cinematic video you saw the example at the start of this video and the iPhone can shoot at 4K with cinematic mode with that background blur the pixel can only do 1080p and the iPhone just gives you much sharper and cleaner results on the iPhone you can also do cinematic mode from the front-facing camera you can't do this from the front-facing camera on the pixel and the iPhone also lets you adjust the blur after you've taken the video you can't do this on the pixel so when it comes to cinematic video easy win for the iPhone now for the selfie camera the pixel is quite a bit wider but the iPhone is sharper and gives you more detail I found the pixel is quite soft and in terms of stabilization from the front face camera I did find that the pixel was more stable overall now for audio this is very interesting so the pixel does have something called Speech enhancement so when you're recording straight off it is going to try to enhance your speech let's look at an example of both without any fancy modes right this is an audio test with the iPhone 16 Pro Max versus the Google pixel 9 Pro XL got a bit of wind in the background as well and and uh let's see what the audio sounds like and let's hear what the audio sounds like let me know if you prefer the iPhone 16 Pro Max or the Google pixel 9 Pro XL right now of course it's the era of AI and we have some AI features on both of these the pixel has something called audio Magic Eraser so here is an example with the tap running in the background all right now audio test with the tap on on the Google pixel 99 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max all right now audio test with the tab on on the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max now with the iPhone we have something called audio mix so once you've recorded a video with spatial audio you can then go in and choose four different styles you can have standard you can have inframe studio and cinematic and here are examples of all of these all right now audio test with a tap on on the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the I iPhone 16 Pro Max all right now audio test with the tap on on the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max all right now audio test with the tap on on the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max all right now audio test with the tap on on the Google pixel 99 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max now I am no audio expert but I think both did sound pretty good with the iPhone although I think it does a better job of cancelling out that background noise it can sound a little artificial in my opinion but once again I am not on AUD file have a listen to both of these as many times as you want and then let me know down in the comments which one you think sounds better so that is the super saf style camera comparison between the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max so many people were asking me about this people were like why haven't you done a pixel video and that's because I was waiting for the iPhone to compare it to I couldn't compare it to the iPhone 15 Pro Max because that video would be out of date very quickly now in terms of my opinions I think both have excellent overall cameras as I always say I think it has come to a point where Flagship cameras you really can't go wrong of course each have their advantages and disadvantages so you can go back and see each section and I have picked my winner in each section too but if I was to kind of summarize in one sentence I would say that out of the box if if you are looking for great images and video then the iPhone is going to be your pig but if you don't mind fixing it in post quoting Marquez from one of his previous pixel reviews then the pixel is going to give you lots of flexibility with AI things like reimagine add me and in particular video boost which does have a massive impact on the quality of your videos that's what I think Anya what do you guys think drop me a comment below let me know your thoughts if you want to see lots of different images from lots of different devices then do give me a follow on Instagram I am at Super saaf and if you want to see more Super saf style camera comparisons like this as well as lots of other Tech content then do consider subscribing and hit that Bell icon I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful if you did then do smash that like button for me thanks for watching this is saf on super saf TV and I'll see you next timewhat's up guys super saf here and welcome to the super saaf style camera comparison between the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Google pixel 9 Pro XEL I've had so so many requests for this one we're going to be looking at all aspects of the cameras there will be chapters down below let's get to it so let's kick off with some photos from the primary cameras now after taking hundreds of images from both devices both take excellent images with great detail and dynamic range one thing you'll notice is that Google has that pixel style it's quite high in contrast whereas the iPhone generally goes for more of a neutral look but we do have the next generation of photographic styles with the iPhone so you can actually dial in a look that you'd like and take photos with that look you can also go back in and change this yes you do have the ability to edit images from the pixel after the fact 2o but it's not at the same level now one advantage that the iPhone does get is that it shoots by default at 24 Maps in good light from the primary camera the pixel shoots at 12 so if we go in 100% to both of these images you'll see that you will be able to get a lot more detail on the iPhone in good light and you can read the text here whereas it is a bit of a struggle on the pixel now of course both of these can shoot at the full resolutions 50 megapixels for the pixel and 48 megapixels for the iPhone and when we do this both actually do really good going in 100% I would say that the iPhone is sharper now low light from the primary cameras both do well generally the iPhone in this image is a little bit brighter this image looks close at first glance but if we look towards the sky there is a lot more noise on the pixel image versus that of the iPhone and once again in this image you can see a lot more noise on the pixel versus the iPhone which is a lot cleaner now the pixel has maintained the night look of this picture whereas the iPhone has brightened things up it almost looks like it's Dawn although this was taken around 10:1 p.m. but I still prefer the cleaner image from the iPhone now in this image neither are doing great the pixel is pretty dark in the foreground the iPhone is brighter in the foreground but it's very very soft in that foreground area but if you focus on the bricks the iPhone has maintained those better compared to the pixel and an indoor low light image this is in a very very dark situation the iPhone doing much better here compared to the pixel so for the primary camera I did find myself leaning more towards the iPhone than the pixel overall now one thing that a lot of people keep asking me about in these camera comparisons is to use the Astro photography mode I generally don't use this because I am in the UK where it's usually always cloudy we don't have clear skies but we did have somewhat of a clear sky so I thought okay I'm going to have to go and test this otherwise people are just going to be in my case and these are the results now with the pixel it took around 4 minutes to get this shot on the iPhone you can do a maximum of 30 seconds both of these were on a tripod and yes you can probably see a few more stars on the pixels image but that took around 8 times longer to achieve so for me this is just not very practical if you are somebody that's very much into astrophotography and you can do a better job than me then you might prefer the pixel for this particular instance quick reminder if you're enjoying this video so far and you want to see more Super saf style camera comparisons then do consider subscribing and hit that Bell icon I've been doing camera comparisons for around 10 years now and God willing inshallah I'll carry on doing them so you don't want to miss them now for the ultrawide cameras both do really well generally speaking you've got lots of detail and dynamic range however I did find that the pixel is wider quite a bit wider compared to the iPhone which you might like in this image I do prefer the iPhone I think it's got more detail in the shadow areas but in this image look how much more detail the pixel has in the shadow areas compared to the iPhone now sure when you are taking the image you can tweak the exposure on both of these if you wanted to get a silhouette but as standard I do prefer what comes out of the pixel here both ultrawide cameras have autofocus which means you can take macro images and I think both take excellent macro images that higher contrast look of the pixel does work well in situations like this but in this example the iPhone has better maintained the blacks in this promc compared to what we've got on the pixel the pixel has kind of introduced a bit of a blue and I noticed this quite a bit with the pixel when it comes to Colors it tries to give you a bit more of a balance tone rather than what's actually there here you can clearly see that the sun is shining on this figure and the iPhone has maintained the yellow from the sunlight whereas the pixel has gone for something that's white balanced and is in the middle and has a bit of blue to it now for the ultrawide cameras in low light I would say it was very close both do have a lot of noise in this image and in this image although the pixel is sharper it's got more noise compared to the iPhone so for the ultra wide camera I would say that you're getting better Dynamic r R and A Wider angle of view from the pixel but the iPhone you are getting more accurate colors now let's look at the zoom so both of these do have a five times optical zoom camera however both can digitally zoom in between as well this is at 2x I would say both are very similar now when we go to 5x this is where the optical zoom cameras kick in and at this resolution things are quite close so I thought let's extend it to around 10 times one thing you will notice is that there is a slight difference in focal length even though both are 10 times and again things look close but when we go to 25 times then I would say that the pixel is a tad sharper compared to the iPhone I'm particularly looking at the text and how readable it is on the pixel versus the iPhone now the pixel can go up to 30 times and it also has something called Zoom enhance which is going to use AI to sharpen up the image now when we have this yes it can look a little bit artificial but it does make the text clearer in this example once again you can see that the pixel is sharper but when we add Zoom inhance it just adds details which may not have even been there now whether you like this or not and how often you're going to use it is going to come down to you but I have to say that in good light extended Zoom is better on the pixel in my opinion this is however not the case when it comes to low light so here I am doing my traditional low light Zoom test and at five times Zoom you can see that the iPhone is doing so much better here if we go to 10 times once again there is that difference in focal length but look how much cleaner the text is on the iPhone compared to the pixel and going to 25 times once again the iPhone is better than the pixel here the pixel is really trying to postprocess but it's not doing as good as the iPhone so zoom camera in low light better on the iPhone now for portraits so it's a little bit confusing on the pixel because when you go into portrait mode you start at 1.5 and the next step is two you can scroll and go all the way to three but there is no option to use the five times telephoto camera for portraits but we'll get to that so in this example we're using the first stop 1X on the iPhone and we're using 1.5x on the pixel now sure you may not be taking 1X portraits all the time I like to have the option there and in this example I have to say that the iPhone is doing much better if you look at the pixel it's trying to do that gradual blur but then it's kind of missed out the bit in between my legs which is weird the next step for both is 2X and here I think things are pretty close but I'm personally really interested in 5x portraits now although you don't have the option to take portraits at 5x on the pixel you can just take a normal 5x picture and then add portrait blur after the fact so in this example what we can do is we can go in and add the portrait blur to this 5x image and clearly the iPhone is doing way better if you look at the part between my arms that has been completely missed by the pixel whereas the iPhone has done an amazing job and whatever depth information they're using is really good because even on the iPhone you can add depth after the fact to a normal image the iPhone has also picked up the wids of my hair to make things look a lot more realistic but if you look at the colors I would say that the pixel has more pleasing colors the iPhone does look pretty flat and this this is something that I found consistently when you're using the standard photographic Style on the iPhone for portraits but as we know we can go in either before we take the picture or even after we've taken the picture and add a photographic style I generally prefer Amber which I think works with my skin tones best and when we put this on you can see the blacks are a lot more accurate now so is my skin tone now yes this is an extra step that you have to take because I have found that you can't just set a particular photographic style for everything thing it just doesn't match every single situation so you do need to kind of go in and tweak things after the fact but I really do like the impact that it can have on portraits here is another portrait at 5x now this is a bit more of a simple portrait so the pixel was actually doing pretty well here but once again look at just how good the iPhone is those individual strands of hair that are poking up have all be maintained on the iPhone and it just looks like much more of a realistic portrait compared to the pixel so yeah for portraits it's an easy pick for me it's the iPhone now let's look at selfies so the pixel has what I call the pixel look some people love it some people don't I absolutely love it it makes everything pop and I think it gives you some really nice and sharp looking selfies you can see in this example here as well that it's giving you a much wider field of view which I like the iPhone isn't doing bad it's got really good dynamic range but it looks a lot flatter compared to the pixel you can add photographics styles on selfies as well if you'd like but I still do prefer the pixel now in this example I would say that the iPhone is doing better in terms of dynamic range the pixel has blown out my window whereas the iPhone has maintained that detail in the background but in this example once again I prefer the pixel the sharper result with the wider angle of view now portraits from the selfie cameras I think actually both do really well with the iPhone it kind of punches in when you're doing portraits for some reason now you can just take a normal selfie and because of that depth information turn it into a portrait later on and in this example I have added a photographic style to the iPhone's image just to show you an example another portrait selfie I once again prefer the pixel here it's done a better job in terms of the edge detection there's a slight error on the iPhone again generally speaking I think both take good selfies it might come down to personal preference I generally did find myself leaning towards the pixel when it came to selfies lowl light selfies this is using that night mode I generally don't tend to do this because it gives you very soft results here at first glance the iPhone looks like it's doing better but it is more noisier compared to the pixel but the pixel has kind of made me a little bit yellow in this example the iPhone really struggled to capture me I think the pixel has done a better job using the front facing Flash in low light for selfies the pixel can be a little bit overpowering like you can see in this example but in this example because it was super dark it actually worked out it's giving a cleaner image compared to the iPhone now before we move on to video we have to talk about some of the AI features with the iPhone we've got Apple intelligence but technically we don't have it because it's coming soon we've seen some previews of what you'll be able to do there's cleanup which will take people out of the background there's image playground and things like that but when it comes to photo editing specifically we've had lots of AI features on the Google pixel already and we've had them for a few years so we've got magic editor which not only lets you remove people from the background you can move people around you can then use reimagine to completely reimagine your picture you can change the background the scenery just with a few text prompts we've still got best take from last year so if you take a few pictures you can then actually change the faces of people so you can pick the best pose for each person and then we've got my new favorite feature on the pixel and that is add me if you are somebody who's generally the family photographer you'll not the pain of just being out of pretty much all of the family pictures well that is no longer a problem if you have the pixel all you can do is just take the image and then pass the phone on to somebody else jump in and then the pixel's going to use AI to merge those images together and it generally does a pretty good job I don't have any friends so I just had to use ad me with myself and you can do that pretty easily have two versions of yourself in the same image with ad me now let's look at video both of these take excellent quality video at 4K with lots of detail and dynamic range now generally this is an easy win for the iPhone but the pixel has video boost what is video boost well it is Google doing their postprocessing magic you take a video with video boost on and then it has to upload to the cloud into Google servers they apply lots of magic to your video and then give it back to you now this process does take a few hours but the results are very impressive generally the iPhone is king of dynamic range especially when we're using Dolby Vision with HDR but when we're using video boost on the pixel it really does take out the detail in the shadows as you can see from this example here you also have a night sight video with the pixel which improves low light images so when we take a nighttime video without any fancy settings on both devices is then I would say that the iPhone gives you a cleaner video although we do have those lens flare light buls on both of these however when we use night sight video once again this is going to record the video put it into the cloud a few hours later it's going to give you the result the pixel gives you some a very impressive low light video too and the pixel also has an option for 8K but it's technically not 8K it's 4K video which once again goes into the cloud for a few hours it's upscaled by Google and then bought back down to your device now looking at this side by side at 100% yes it is sharper compared to the iPhone but it's not true AK you can really tell that because when you look towards the text if it was real 8K then you'd be able to read that completely fine but you can see that it has been upscaled from 4K nevertheless this option is here now having said that these video boost features only work with the primary camera they don't work with the selfie camera they don't work with the ultra wide camera so when we do take Ultra wide video especially in low lights I did prefer the iPhone which was much cleaner now the question is of course going to be do you have the patience to go through this whole process of a few hours each time you take one of these videos in the world of instant gratification where people want to post things straight away a lot of people pretty much use their social media apps to record and push things out straight away if you're of those people then you're not going to have the patience for the video boost features that you've got on the pixel however if you're somebody who wants the best possible quality and doesn't mind that's processed then the pixel does give you some very impressive results now the iPhone does allow you to record in pror with log so you can record a flat picture profile and then grade it later on if you're somebody who's a pro videographer this is something that you're going to find super useful and the iPhone also shoots 4K at 1 120 frames a second with HDR so when we compare slow motion in my traditional slow motion test on a trampoline with my bad knees then you can see that the iPhone is giving you a much sharper and cleaner result even if we go to 240 frames a second at 1080p although both are quite similar I would still give the edge to the iPhone for stabilization I would say both are pretty stable although in this example the pixel decided to focus on the background rather than on me and when we do use the respective stabilization modes on both devices on the iPhone you can do it at 2.7k whereas on the pixel it's at 1080P and the quality is really not good look how noisy it is so for stabilization once again I would pick the iPhone now when it comes to cinematic video you saw the example at the start of this video and the iPhone can shoot at 4K with cinematic mode with that background blur the pixel can only do 1080p and the iPhone just gives you much sharper and cleaner results on the iPhone you can also do cinematic mode from the front-facing camera you can't do this from the front-facing camera on the pixel and the iPhone also lets you adjust the blur after you've taken the video you can't do this on the pixel so when it comes to cinematic video easy win for the iPhone now for the selfie camera the pixel is quite a bit wider but the iPhone is sharper and gives you more detail I found the pixel is quite soft and in terms of stabilization from the front face camera I did find that the pixel was more stable overall now for audio this is very interesting so the pixel does have something called Speech enhancement so when you're recording straight off it is going to try to enhance your speech let's look at an example of both without any fancy modes right this is an audio test with the iPhone 16 Pro Max versus the Google pixel 9 Pro XL got a bit of wind in the background as well and and uh let's see what the audio sounds like and let's hear what the audio sounds like let me know if you prefer the iPhone 16 Pro Max or the Google pixel 9 Pro XL right now of course it's the era of AI and we have some AI features on both of these the pixel has something called audio Magic Eraser so here is an example with the tap running in the background all right now audio test with the tap on on the Google pixel 99 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max all right now audio test with the tab on on the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max now with the iPhone we have something called audio mix so once you've recorded a video with spatial audio you can then go in and choose four different styles you can have standard you can have inframe studio and cinematic and here are examples of all of these all right now audio test with a tap on on the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the I iPhone 16 Pro Max all right now audio test with the tap on on the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max all right now audio test with the tap on on the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max all right now audio test with the tap on on the Google pixel 99 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max now I am no audio expert but I think both did sound pretty good with the iPhone although I think it does a better job of cancelling out that background noise it can sound a little artificial in my opinion but once again I am not on AUD file have a listen to both of these as many times as you want and then let me know down in the comments which one you think sounds better so that is the super saf style camera comparison between the Google pixel 9 Pro XL and the iPhone 16 Pro Max so many people were asking me about this people were like why haven't you done a pixel video and that's because I was waiting for the iPhone to compare it to I couldn't compare it to the iPhone 15 Pro Max because that video would be out of date very quickly now in terms of my opinions I think both have excellent overall cameras as I always say I think it has come to a point where Flagship cameras you really can't go wrong of course each have their advantages and disadvantages so you can go back and see each section and I have picked my winner in each section too but if I was to kind of summarize in one sentence I would say that out of the box if if you are looking for great images and video then the iPhone is going to be your pig but if you don't mind fixing it in post quoting Marquez from one of his previous pixel reviews then the pixel is going to give you lots of flexibility with AI things like reimagine add me and in particular video boost which does have a massive impact on the quality of your videos that's what I think Anya what do you guys think drop me a comment below let me know your thoughts if you want to see lots of different images from lots of different devices then do give me a follow on Instagram I am at Super saaf and if you want to see more Super saf style camera comparisons like this as well as lots of other Tech content then do consider subscribing and hit that Bell icon I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful if you did then do smash that like button for me thanks for watching this is saf on super saf TV and I'll see you next time\n"