**Camera Comparison: iPhone 12 Pro Max, Samsung Note 20 Ultra, and Google Pixel 5**

In this article, we'll delve into a comprehensive camera comparison between three top-of-the-line smartphones: the iPhone 12 Pro Max, Samsung Note 20 Ultra, and Google Pixel 5. Our analysis will cover still photography, night mode shots, portrait mode, and video recording capabilities.

**Still Photography: White Balance and Color Temperature**

One of the most noticeable differences in camera performance is the white balance and color temperature. When shooting indoors, especially with a subject that's predominantly white or light-colored, such as a gazebo, we can see that the iPhone 12 Pro Max produces images with a yellowish tone, which might be pleasing to some users but not ideal for those seeking accurate representation. In contrast, the Google Pixel 5 maintains an even color temperature, providing more accurate and natural-looking results.

**Still Photography: Comparison and Preference**

When comparing still photographs taken by each camera, we notice that the Samsung Note 20 Ultra often outperforms the other two in terms of white balance and shadow details. However, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is close, and sometimes even surpasses the Note 20's performance, especially when it comes to capturing more detail in bright subjects. On the other hand, the Google Pixel 5 tends to lean towards cooler tones, which might not appeal to everyone but is certainly an attractive feature for those who prefer a specific aesthetic.

**Still Photography: Night Mode Performance**

When shooting in low-light conditions, night mode becomes increasingly important. Unfortunately, each camera has its strengths and weaknesses in this area. The Google Pixel 5 struggles with blown-out highlights and over-saturation, which might be detrimental to the overall image quality. In contrast, the Samsung Note 20 Ultra does a better job of maintaining shadow details but might not excel in capturing more vibrant colors.

**Still Photography: Portrait Mode Performance**

Portrait mode is another area where each camera shines (or struggles). The iPhone 12 Pro Max has issues with over-correcting exposure, which can result in blown-out highlights and loss of detail in the background. On the other hand, the Samsung Note 20 Ultra crushes blacks but sometimes at the expense of accuracy in capturing the subject's details.

**Still Photography: Special Case - Christmas Tree Scene**

One specific scene that stands out is a Christmas tree photo. When comparing the three cameras, we see that the Google Pixel 5 produces an exceptional image with great detail and accurate color representation. The Samsung Note 20 Ultra does a good job of capturing the overall scene but loses some details in the background.

**Video Recording: Comparison**

Finally, let's take a look at video recording capabilities, particularly in terms of 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. Unfortunately, none of the three smartphones entirely excel in this area, with each having its strengths and weaknesses. While they all perform reasonably well during the day, nighttime footage is where they truly struggle.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, while each camera has its unique strengths and weaknesses, our analysis suggests that the Samsung Note 20 Ultra might have a slight edge in terms of overall performance. However, this comes at the cost of being less appealing to some users due to its color tone preferences. The iPhone 12 Pro Max is still an excellent choice, especially for those who value accurate white balance and color representation.

**Sponsor's Feature - Sophos Home**

As a token of appreciation for your continued support, we'd like to introduce you to Sophos Home, our exclusive sponsor for today's video. Sophos Home provides comprehensive security and privacy protection for families or businesses with up to 10 computers located anywhere in the world. With award-winning features that safeguard against malware, ransomware, hacking exploits, and more, Sophos Home ensures a secure online experience. For more information, please visit the link provided in the description box below.

**Final Thoughts**

We hope you enjoyed this comprehensive camera comparison between three top-of-the-line smartphones. We'd love to hear your thoughts on our analysis and recommendations in the comments section below. Until next time, when we'll be discussing more smartphone-related topics, thank you for watching!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video is sponsored by sophos home the iphone 12 pro max is apple's biggest and best smartphone in nearly all aspects especially with the triple lens camera system on the back so in this video i decided to compare the iphone 12 pro max to some of the other major flagships out there like the google pixel 5 and the samsung galaxy note 20 ultra now i do want to preface this entire video by saying that all of this is kind of nitpicking at its finest all of these phones take really good pictures and it's really all pure preference but there are some interesting things and differences that are worth pointing out that might make you lean one way or another and so i'll give you my thoughts on what i like and what i don't like okay let's jump right into some of the photos and these are all just take your camera out snap a picture no editing right out of the camera this is what they look like and the first thing i really noticed is that the iphone is just kind of doing its own thing here with the sky and with the ground or in this case the water and it's adding this weird blue tint or effect to everything and you probably wouldn't notice this if you just looked at it when you took a picture and then went to the photos app and reviewed the picture but when you put these side by side there is a jarring and drastic difference i'm not exactly sure what's going on and why it's doing this but you can see very clearly that the pixel 5 and the note 20 ultra both have a much more natural looking skyline and the water is a little bit of the right color compared to the blue that it's making it seem or even green in this case but again for some strange reason everything is just a cooler color tone on the iphone 12 pro max i mean if you really like what's going on with this guy here on the iphone 12 pro max compared to the other two more natural looking color profiles then i suppose it's fine and again you probably really wouldn't notice the difference until you put these photos side by side and really take a look at them now in some instances it does look as if the note 20 ultra is also trying to do the same thing that the iphone is doing but at a much smaller level either way they're all good photos by definition especially when you're looking at them separately but when you start to put them side by side again this is where your preferences might start to develop and for me personally i would probably go towards the more natural looking pixel 5 or the note 20 at least for this specific style of picture now portrait mode during the day you can see here that we almost have the complete opposite going on with the iphone and that now it looks as if it's blowing out the highlights a bit more raising the brightness and the color temperature seems to be shifting more towards a warmer side compared to the other two phones maintaining a little bit more of a bluer color tone or cooler color tone i don't think either phone is going to an extreme this time which is nice but if we also take a look at the center of the image the orange here they're all just just three different shades of orange going on with the iphone being more of a brighter you know burnt orange the note 20 being a bit washed out and not nearly as bright and then the pixel 5 having a healthier blend of the two i also think the pixel 5 just produces a much sharper image in portrait mode and maybe even overall the problem with the pixel this year and something that usually was really good with the pixel in the software is that portrait mode has kind of bad edge detection at times it has a problem with holes like in the center here there's a circle and as you can see the water is in the background when it really should be separated and blurred out it's not or if you look at the left side of the image with the uh with the fence there's a hole in that little chain linked fence area and you can see water behind it and it's not blurred out as it should be both the iphone and the no 20 they don't suffer from this problem now one last example in the daytime here we have this rock and roll hall of fame sign and a couple of things to point out this was in portrait mode for the iphone and for the other two phones as well and again the speaker the speakers above the sign are blurred out on the pixel 5 probably should not have been the case like the other two phones uh but the iphone really struggled with this one i actually couldn't get it to be recognized that we were in portrait mode and that we were eight feet away i had to switch to ultra wide lens and then back to the regular lens and was able to get it briefly took me a couple of tries so it might not be a super fair comparison but i kind of got it to work again the main point of this picture here for me there are the letters in the sign and you can see here that the pixel 5 just has much sharper uh you know letters and overall just that area is much sharper compared to the other two images now overall during the day in good lighting conditions each camera system does a great job at producing fantastic photos but like i said there are differences that i just mentioned and all of them you know might create your own personal preference and for me i kind of leaned more towards the pixel 5 and the iphone at times now all of these phones have a telephoto ultra wide and wide angle lens except for the pixel 5. it only has a telephoto i'm sorry it only has a wide angle and ultra wide angle lens so we didn't focus on telephoto at all during this video really with ultra wide you saw they were sprinkled in throughout these uh pictures here and there wasn't a huge difference between any of the three camera systems they were all pretty good quality ultra wide lenses now moving on to low light or night mode photos i think here we have sort of the same stuff going on but the color temperature drastically flips at night so photos are much warmer on the iphone 12 pro max and the note 20 ultra but the pixel 5 maintains that even color temperature it might actually more lean towards more of the cooler tones as you can see here with the gazebo i think the white balance is perfect that gazebo is very white and not nearly as yellow looking as the frame here on the iphone 12 pro max picture now the note 20 might be the better picture at least in this one here because it maintained good white balance and the shadows are not boosted as much as the pixel 5. case in point if you look at the bushes in the pixel 5 and the sky it's being helped out a lot by software it's kind of blowing it out making it brighter so that you can see more at night now i personally like that look in pretty much all other photos it's not the best here but it does give more detail to each picture and you can see more and it really carries on the more you look at some of these night mode photos the more i tend to prefer the look of you know the pixel 5. however the details in the lights on the christmas tree with the iphone is pretty fantastic when you compare it to the other two cameras in fact it was the only phone that was able to capture a good tree in the background there the other two seem to be kind of blurry and lost a lot of detail overall this picture was just really tricky in general because each phone did something better than the other it all did one thing better than each camera system and that's really kind of the theme of the whole video the note 20 has a really good camera system probably it's best by far but it's my least favorite in pretty much all of these photo comparisons i think i leaned heavily towards the pixel 5 and the iphone 12 pro max simply because of the white balance and a bit more detail at least definitely with the pixel 5. i'm not a fan of the way the iphone is handling these portrait mode pictures either especially at night and this one here we're again blowing out the highlights of the background and cranking up not only the brightness but it's now shifting towards that warmer color tone it's really boosting that and while some of you might like that it's brightening up the image i don't think it's the correct look of what was going on i think the other two did a better job of replicating the actual lighting going on that night also there's three different shades of red again going on here with the mask and the face area in general is just much softer in comparison to the pixel 5. the note 20 seems to be crushing the blacks again this picture in general was not very good for the note 20 in my opinion the coat is very dark it's not nearly as pink in the other pictures and the iphone is over correcting and doing the opposite and it's just brightening everything up but of course i would love to know your thoughts i've been giving you my thoughts on what i think you know they're all just my opinions but i would love to know your opinions in the comments down below which cameras did you like for these still photos more on one quick side note i did test out the cameras for video uh specifically 4k 60 frames per second i didn't really do too much testing on it right now but overall i really don't think either one of these phones kind of compare in quality and stability to the iphone 12 pro max at least during the day at night they all looked kind of bad especially the note 20. the iphone and the pixel were surprisingly close but i'd probably still lean iphone here overall with video but again would love to know your thoughts on all of these cameras both in still and video in the comments down below now before we end today's video i do want to give you more information about today's sponsor sophos home sofos home is security and privacy built for an entire family regardless if their mac or pc users it utilizes the same award-winning security features that keep fortune 500 companies safe stopping malware ransomware hacking exploits and much more sophos home also protects what you do online keeping web-based banking and shopping safe and secure protecting webcams microphones and even what you type sophos home secures your privacy and to make all this protection simple sophos home allows you to manage security on up to 10 computers located anywhere in the world via the cloud it's the best way to digitally protect your family or even your neighbors and if you want more information about sofo's home visit the link in the description down below this has been dan with mac rumors thanks so much for watching and i hope to see you around in the next videothis video is sponsored by sophos home the iphone 12 pro max is apple's biggest and best smartphone in nearly all aspects especially with the triple lens camera system on the back so in this video i decided to compare the iphone 12 pro max to some of the other major flagships out there like the google pixel 5 and the samsung galaxy note 20 ultra now i do want to preface this entire video by saying that all of this is kind of nitpicking at its finest all of these phones take really good pictures and it's really all pure preference but there are some interesting things and differences that are worth pointing out that might make you lean one way or another and so i'll give you my thoughts on what i like and what i don't like okay let's jump right into some of the photos and these are all just take your camera out snap a picture no editing right out of the camera this is what they look like and the first thing i really noticed is that the iphone is just kind of doing its own thing here with the sky and with the ground or in this case the water and it's adding this weird blue tint or effect to everything and you probably wouldn't notice this if you just looked at it when you took a picture and then went to the photos app and reviewed the picture but when you put these side by side there is a jarring and drastic difference i'm not exactly sure what's going on and why it's doing this but you can see very clearly that the pixel 5 and the note 20 ultra both have a much more natural looking skyline and the water is a little bit of the right color compared to the blue that it's making it seem or even green in this case but again for some strange reason everything is just a cooler color tone on the iphone 12 pro max i mean if you really like what's going on with this guy here on the iphone 12 pro max compared to the other two more natural looking color profiles then i suppose it's fine and again you probably really wouldn't notice the difference until you put these photos side by side and really take a look at them now in some instances it does look as if the note 20 ultra is also trying to do the same thing that the iphone is doing but at a much smaller level either way they're all good photos by definition especially when you're looking at them separately but when you start to put them side by side again this is where your preferences might start to develop and for me personally i would probably go towards the more natural looking pixel 5 or the note 20 at least for this specific style of picture now portrait mode during the day you can see here that we almost have the complete opposite going on with the iphone and that now it looks as if it's blowing out the highlights a bit more raising the brightness and the color temperature seems to be shifting more towards a warmer side compared to the other two phones maintaining a little bit more of a bluer color tone or cooler color tone i don't think either phone is going to an extreme this time which is nice but if we also take a look at the center of the image the orange here they're all just just three different shades of orange going on with the iphone being more of a brighter you know burnt orange the note 20 being a bit washed out and not nearly as bright and then the pixel 5 having a healthier blend of the two i also think the pixel 5 just produces a much sharper image in portrait mode and maybe even overall the problem with the pixel this year and something that usually was really good with the pixel in the software is that portrait mode has kind of bad edge detection at times it has a problem with holes like in the center here there's a circle and as you can see the water is in the background when it really should be separated and blurred out it's not or if you look at the left side of the image with the uh with the fence there's a hole in that little chain linked fence area and you can see water behind it and it's not blurred out as it should be both the iphone and the no 20 they don't suffer from this problem now one last example in the daytime here we have this rock and roll hall of fame sign and a couple of things to point out this was in portrait mode for the iphone and for the other two phones as well and again the speaker the speakers above the sign are blurred out on the pixel 5 probably should not have been the case like the other two phones uh but the iphone really struggled with this one i actually couldn't get it to be recognized that we were in portrait mode and that we were eight feet away i had to switch to ultra wide lens and then back to the regular lens and was able to get it briefly took me a couple of tries so it might not be a super fair comparison but i kind of got it to work again the main point of this picture here for me there are the letters in the sign and you can see here that the pixel 5 just has much sharper uh you know letters and overall just that area is much sharper compared to the other two images now overall during the day in good lighting conditions each camera system does a great job at producing fantastic photos but like i said there are differences that i just mentioned and all of them you know might create your own personal preference and for me i kind of leaned more towards the pixel 5 and the iphone at times now all of these phones have a telephoto ultra wide and wide angle lens except for the pixel 5. it only has a telephoto i'm sorry it only has a wide angle and ultra wide angle lens so we didn't focus on telephoto at all during this video really with ultra wide you saw they were sprinkled in throughout these uh pictures here and there wasn't a huge difference between any of the three camera systems they were all pretty good quality ultra wide lenses now moving on to low light or night mode photos i think here we have sort of the same stuff going on but the color temperature drastically flips at night so photos are much warmer on the iphone 12 pro max and the note 20 ultra but the pixel 5 maintains that even color temperature it might actually more lean towards more of the cooler tones as you can see here with the gazebo i think the white balance is perfect that gazebo is very white and not nearly as yellow looking as the frame here on the iphone 12 pro max picture now the note 20 might be the better picture at least in this one here because it maintained good white balance and the shadows are not boosted as much as the pixel 5. case in point if you look at the bushes in the pixel 5 and the sky it's being helped out a lot by software it's kind of blowing it out making it brighter so that you can see more at night now i personally like that look in pretty much all other photos it's not the best here but it does give more detail to each picture and you can see more and it really carries on the more you look at some of these night mode photos the more i tend to prefer the look of you know the pixel 5. however the details in the lights on the christmas tree with the iphone is pretty fantastic when you compare it to the other two cameras in fact it was the only phone that was able to capture a good tree in the background there the other two seem to be kind of blurry and lost a lot of detail overall this picture was just really tricky in general because each phone did something better than the other it all did one thing better than each camera system and that's really kind of the theme of the whole video the note 20 has a really good camera system probably it's best by far but it's my least favorite in pretty much all of these photo comparisons i think i leaned heavily towards the pixel 5 and the iphone 12 pro max simply because of the white balance and a bit more detail at least definitely with the pixel 5. i'm not a fan of the way the iphone is handling these portrait mode pictures either especially at night and this one here we're again blowing out the highlights of the background and cranking up not only the brightness but it's now shifting towards that warmer color tone it's really boosting that and while some of you might like that it's brightening up the image i don't think it's the correct look of what was going on i think the other two did a better job of replicating the actual lighting going on that night also there's three different shades of red again going on here with the mask and the face area in general is just much softer in comparison to the pixel 5. the note 20 seems to be crushing the blacks again this picture in general was not very good for the note 20 in my opinion the coat is very dark it's not nearly as pink in the other pictures and the iphone is over correcting and doing the opposite and it's just brightening everything up but of course i would love to know your thoughts i've been giving you my thoughts on what i think you know they're all just my opinions but i would love to know your opinions in the comments down below which cameras did you like for these still photos more on one quick side note i did test out the cameras for video uh specifically 4k 60 frames per second i didn't really do too much testing on it right now but overall i really don't think either one of these phones kind of compare in quality and stability to the iphone 12 pro max at least during the day at night they all looked kind of bad especially the note 20. the iphone and the pixel were surprisingly close but i'd probably still lean iphone here overall with video but again would love to know your thoughts on all of these cameras both in still and video in the comments down below now before we end today's video i do want to give you more information about today's sponsor sophos home sofos home is security and privacy built for an entire family regardless if their mac or pc users it utilizes the same award-winning security features that keep fortune 500 companies safe stopping malware ransomware hacking exploits and much more sophos home also protects what you do online keeping web-based banking and shopping safe and secure protecting webcams microphones and even what you type sophos home secures your privacy and to make all this protection simple sophos home allows you to manage security on up to 10 computers located anywhere in the world via the cloud it's the best way to digitally protect your family or even your neighbors and if you want more information about sofo's home visit the link in the description down below this has been dan with mac rumors thanks so much for watching and i hope to see you around in the next video\n"