iPhone 16 Pro Cameras vs. Pixel 9 Pro XL: Top Flagships Tested

Apple’s iPhones have always packed some of the best cameras you can get in a phone. So how does the new iPhone 16 Pro stack up against Google’s best Pixel 9 Pro XL? 

I took them both out around the beautiful city of Edinburgh for a faceoff to find out. 

The Pixel has already impressed me in its duel with the iPhone 15 Pro, offering bolder colors and often better quality at high zoom levels. And while the iPhone 16 Pro hasn’t had a major overhaul since last year’s phone, it’s had enough tweaks to warrant a retest. 

All images were taken in JPEG or HEIC unless otherwise stated, and all were taken using the default modes in the regular camera app. 

I immediately found this shot of some lovely fallen leaves displaying their beautiful golden colors. Straight away I can see that those colors are warmer and more vibrant on the Pixel, with the iPhone’s shot looking a little drab and cold in comparison.

The Pixel has warmer tones in this shot that uses the 5x optical zoom on both phones.

And it’s especially noticeable in this image overlooking these allotments. While the Pixel’s image is fairly neutral in tone, the iPhone’s shot leans quite hard into the blue end of the white balance spectrum, which doesn’t look great.

And the same remains true at 5x zoom, with the Pixel delivering bolder, warmer tones. In the bottom example however I used the iPhone 16’s new Photographic Styles to add some warmth back into the scene, While I think the photo looks much better with Photographic Styles applied, I still prefer the richness of color in the Pixel’s shot.

But things are different in this example taken in Edinburgh’s beautiful Dean Village. The iPhone has captured a brighter scene overall, which is especially noticeable on the yellow building on the right and the grass in the foreground. I certainly prefer the iPhone’s version here.

Diving into the beautiful architecture of the National Museum of Scotland, the iPhone has again produced a much brighter, more vibrant image here. I love the warmer ones in the orange floor in particular, while the Pixel’s shot looks pretty dull overall.

It’s the same story when I switched to the ultrawide lens, with the iPhone’s image looking bright and colorful and the Pixel’s looking just pretty flat overall.

A different ultrawide shot, but the same results.

I switched up to the panorama modes on both phones to try and capture an even wider view from the top floor of the museum. The Pixel has an updated panorama function, but I generally found it disappointing. It’s not just that it’s produced a flatter image than the iPhone here, it’s also that its method of stitching still images together made it harder for me to center the view. The iPhone’s “sweeping” method of capturing the panorama allowed me start and stop the image capture process at exactly the points I needed to get an even view. 

This indoor shot of a delicious flat white is far brighter and more vibrant on the iPhone. 

There’s slightly less to separate these two shots taken inside one of Edinburgh’s many old pubs. The Pixel has a more even exposure, with less of a highlight on the barrel. However, the tones and contrast look better on the iPhone, especially in the flagstone flooring, which really pops in the iPhone’s image.

A delicious pint. Photographed well by both phones, with a slight magenta shift on the Pixel. There’s more background blur — or bokeh as it’s known to photographers — in the iPhone’s shot, which makes it the more pleasing image to my eye. 

A different pub this time (because why wouldn’t I do a pub crawl to test phones), full of patrons enjoying an afternoon of live folk music. The iPhone’s shot has better colors overall, but the Pixel just has the edge when it comes to sharpness. 

Zooming in on this beer tap in the dimly-lit pub, the iPhone’s image is noticeable brighter and sharper than the Pixel’s.

The Pixel’s image overall is slightly brighter than the iPhone’s shot, but that’s not the whole story here…

Zooming in, we can also see that the Pixel has totally blown out this neon sign, reducing it to just a blank, white square. The iPhone has done a much better job of balancing its highlights, keeping the sign perfectly under control. But then, the person’s hair in the foreground looks a little brighter and sharper on the Pixel.

Yet zooming in to a different part of the same scene, it’s clear that the iPhone has made this person’s shirt and hair much sharper than the Pixel was able to do. Overall, it feels like a victory to the iPhone here, but it’s a close call.

This one wasn’t a close call for me though. The Pixel’s night mode has artificially brightened the shadows so much in this street scene that it makes the whole image look quite unnatural. The iPhone, meanwhile, has maintained much more realistic shadows, along with more subtle tones in the sky, making its shot the clear winner for me. 

The iPhone takes an easy win here too. The Pixel has pulled back the highlights to a ridiculous extent in its image, making the supposedly bright and vibrant ESF sign — and the lights in the windows on the left — look really weird. The iPhone has captured this scene much more evenly. I don’t love the lens flare on the iPhone’s shot, but that looks like it might be more to do with a slight smear on the lens. 

Switching to the utlrawide lens indoors, the Pixel’s shot has the better colors…

But it’s also downright blurry compared to the iPhone’s photo. A disappointing performance from the Pixel here. 

But Google’s phone did redeem itself here to an extent. I prefer the warmer glow the Pixel has captured on the window lights, although the iPhone’s shot is marginally sharper on the chalkboard sign on the right. Overall, I prefer the Pixel’s image. 

But I definitely prefer the iPhone’s image here. It’s kept the bright “Pera” sign under control, allowing it to appear as a rich yellow, rather than the washed-out near white of the Pixel’s image. 

The Pixel’s shot is sharper though, with finer visible details and more contrast overall.

Which phone takes better photos?

Both the iPhone 16 Pro and the Pixel 9 Pro XL are high-end flagship phones, both at the top of their photography game. So really, it’s no surprise that it’s an incredibly close match. Some images — especially inside the museum with the wide lens and panorama mode — the iPhone was the clear winner. Other times, the Pixel’s warmer, more vibrant colors made its shots look better.

Overall I’d have to say I prefer the iPhone’s images, which tend to look more natural and therefore give me a better base for my own editing. There is, of course, the matter of the iPhone’s Photographic Styles, which provide a lot of room for tweaking your shots before you take them. I’ve really enjoyed using them — especially the high contrast black-and-white mode — and find this sort of aesthetic customization to be a key area that’s lacking in the Pixel. 

Watch this: Review: Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Is an Impressive Upgrade

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