Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra and Google’s Pixel 8 Pro stand out for their photography skills. Their additional 5x telephoto cameras are the biggest features that separate both phones from their lower-priced siblings: the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus and the Pixel 8. But with the Galaxy S24 Ultra starting at $1,300 and the Pixel 8 Pro regularly priced at around $1,000, I was curious to see how the two compare.
Both phones have solid cameras with their strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Samsung sometimes exaggerates or oversaturates colors, though there are times when that works in the photo’s favor. Google’s photos have a more natural look, but they sometimes look drab next to Samsung shots with their punchier hues. Samsung has more flexibility when it comes to zooming, since it can zoom up to 100x digitally, but Google sometimes captures brighter photos in low-light conditions.
Read more:Â Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra Could Be Doing So Much More With AI
Each company has had its fair share of criticism regarding the quality of its cameras. My CNET colleague Andrew Lanxon discovered numerous issues with the Pixel 8 Pro’s camera when reviewing the device in October, such as softening and muddiness in high contrast areas like shadows. Meanwhile, X user @smasithick experienced issues when switching between zoom levels on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. I haven’t experienced either problem on my Galaxy S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro review units.
Critiquing photography is subjective, and how the photos look largely depends on a variety of factors, including the device you’re viewing them on and the size of the shots. When I compared photos alongside each other, I viewed them on a 27-inch monitor and a 16-inch laptop screen in order to reduce any bias that viewing them on their respective phone screens brought.
I took more than a dozen photos on both phones to see…
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