Google Pixel 5a Camera Review and Comparison: Is the Google Pixel a Better Camera than iPhone?
I have been playing with the Google Pixel
5a camera for about a week now and I’M OBSESSED.
So, this is your complete Pixel 5a camera
review and comparison.
Is the Google Pixel a better camera than iPhone?
Trust me, you don’t want to miss this.
Hey friends!
I’m Tasia Custode and welcome back to my
YouTube Channel where I share tech tips, app
reviews, and a ton of Google Tips.
It’s a real kind of love, me and Google.
And I am so thrilled to tell you that I was
gifted a Google Pixel 5a to play around with
and have fun with and review for you.
Now I know what you’re thinking and no!
This is not a sponsored video, they didn’t
even ask me to make a video or post or anything.
I’m just going to give you the low down,
the ins and outs, the good and bad, when it
comes to the Pixel 5a camera.
And on top of doing a complete Google Pixel
5a camera review, I’m also giving you a
camera comparison between that and my iPhone
11 Pro.
It’s the battle of the cameras, the Google
Pixel 5a vs iPhone 11 Pro and only one can
But seriously, there’s a lot to cover here,
so let’s go.
First and foremost, we’re going to tackle
the camera review and comparison.
I’m highlighting the camera specs and we’re
diving into portrait mode, night sight, wide
angle, zoom, video and more!
And we’re going to dive into some extra
modes and features and cool things you can
do with the Google Pixel 5a.
And then you know what’s coming.
My final verdict.
Who has the better camera?
Pixel 5a or my iPhone 11 Pro.
So there are a ton of camera specs you can
compare, but I would rather just give you
a quick overview and then show you the differences.
The Pixel 5a features a 12.2MP dual-pixel
rear camera, 16mp ultra wide lens, and 8 MP
front camera.
I told you, this was going to be a quick overview,
but those are important specs when we start
seeing the differences between the Pixel 5a
and my iPhone 11 Pro.
And I’ve linked to the camera spec page
from the Google store below so you can review
all the specs in detail there.
But now that we have a quick overview of the
camera specs, let’s dive into Portrait Mode,
because there is a lot to cover.
And just so you know, every single image and
video you’ll see today has not had any editing
to it or touch ups or any settings changed
prior to snapping the shots.
I want you to get the feel of the quality
of the camera on the 5a if you were to just
take her right out of the box and start snapping
pics.
So I took a few different portrait mode pics
with the Pixel 5a as well as my iPhone 11
Pro.
If you aren’t familiar with portrait mode,
it’s the smartphone camera’s ability to
make an image look like dslr quality by creating
greater depth of field.
So, your subject will be nice and crisp in
the foreground and the background is blurred
or out of focus, as an example.
I loved the Pixel’s portrait mode.
I’m really happy with the quality of the
photos and you’d be hard pressed to tell
too much of a difference between my iPhone
11 Pro.
But there are a few differences.
First, every single thing I shot with the
Pixel 5a has a much cooler tone than anything
I shot with my 11 Pro.
You will notice that as we go through all
the examples in this video.
Second, if we get really nitpicky, we can
see a slight variation in the difference in
the effect and how it has framed my fingers
here.
So, see how it kind of blurred a bit of my
finger?
Honestly, I’m really picking at this portrait
mode.
I could have re-shot this photo and that wouldn’t
be the case.
As proof, here was another take of that shot,
just with me closer to the camera and look,
it’s perfection.
I said it before and I’ll say it again,
I love the portrait mode.
Now while we’re on portrait mode, let’s
talk about some of the great effects you can
do with Portrait Mode.
We’ll start with portrait blur.
Just like you can with iPhone portrait mode,
you can adjust the blur amount of your portrait,
which is nice if maybe you don’t want it so
dramatic.
But you can also adjust your depth too and
you can tap anywhere on the portrait to adjust
focus too.
But wait there’s more!
The Pixel 5a features something called Portrait
Light that allows you to adjust the position
of the light so that the portrait looks more
professional.
Check it out.
I’ll pick this portrait photo here and see
how the light is naturally kissing my one
cheek like this?
Well, maybe I want to adjust the light and
add some light to the other side of my face.
I’ll go back into the edit option and back
to adjust and this time I’ll pick portrait
light.
See this circle appear here?
If you use your finger to move the circle
around, check out how the light changes.
OH MY GOSH, can you believe???
And you can even adjust the strength of the
light.
Look at how the other side of my face is lit
now.
How cool is this?
I am living for this.
It’s almost too good.
But I will gather myself because there are
other really cool effects and features found
in the 5a’s camera edit settings, but I’ll
save the rest for later on.
Because for now, we have to get back to our
main feature list.
So let’s talk about night sight.
I was blown away, truly.
Take a look at this.
So, check out these pictures of, what else,
my dog Poppie.
The colorization is really nice considering
these were all taken at night.
The living room ones, it was dark in my house
with only one light on behind me and the glow
of the tv, and this outdoor one here was right
after the sunset.
Check out this comparison to my 11 Pro.
Holy guacamole.
The clarity, the brightness, the colors, it’s
just too good.
Your subjects will be rich, and Night Sight
lightens and brightens the shot without making
it look washed out or losing quality or the
essence of the time of day.
To me, the 5a blows the 11 Pro night mode
out of the water, no contest.
But the 5a has something else up it’s sleeve
when it comes to Night Sight.
It’s their Night Sight + Astrophotography
setting.
Ya.
So this is yet another feature that will happen
automatically, and to use it is pretty easy.
You just place your 5a on a tripod or stand
so that it’s a still shot and there is no
movement and you point to the sky.
The moon symbol on the shutter button for
night sight will change to stars, then you
just tap the shutter and voila, The Google
Pixel 5a will start to take an epic night
sight shot of the stars in the night sky.
So I will fast forward this a little bit.
It was a couple of minutes that it took to
do this shot.
There is literally no comparison to the 11
Pro on this one, as, well, you saw the quality
of the night mode on iPhone and there is no
additional feature for astrophotography.
You have to keep in mind I quickly shot this
in my backyard at night, so you can imagine
how great it would look somewhere like Sedona
with a light ordinance or if you were shooting
the aurora borealis or something, it’s just
beyond.
I can’t believe how it lit up the sky like
that and kept everything so clear.
I was also in a 2x zoom when I took this one
shot.
That’s pretty amazing to me.
I’m once again blown away.
So let’s move on to the wide angle lens
on the Pixel 5a.
This, surprise surprise, is another one of
my favorites.
The ultra wide angle on the 5a automatically
corrects lens distortion for you.
It produces very crisp images, the colorization
is nice and clear, there’s nothing fuzzy
or funky happening.
It’s a beaut.
And of course, just for comparison, let’s
show you these same photos from the iPhone
11 Pro.
Yikes, oh lawd.
You can instantly see the downgraded quality
of the image.
It’s almost blurry, nothing is crisp.
It’s just not a clear photo, period.
And you may remember from my quick review
of the camera specs at the top – that’s
because the Google Pixel 5a has a slick ultra
wide angle 16mp lens, whereas the iPhone 11
Pro has a 12mp wide angle lens.
The proof is in the pudding, as they say.
And the Google Pixel 5a ultra wide angle is
some pretty great pudding.
Now I want to touch on the Zoom functionality
a little bit too.
The Google Pixel 5a maxes out at 7x zoom so
I’ve done some test comparisons going to
the max and then halfway to the max so we
could see the difference.
So, it’s best to run some comparisons again
so you can really see the difference.
The Pixel calls this their Super Res Zoom
and it maxes out at 7x, whereas the zoom on
the 11 Pro maxes out at 10x.
So you can see the Pixel 5a almost looks fake,
like kind of almost like a drawing right?
But it is so clear though.
So I did the test at 3.5x zoom too with my
kitty Dora and again at 7x zoom with her.
You can see some definite differences between
these cameras here, but I have to say, I gotta
give the edge to the Pixel 5a again.
The agave picture I was easily 30 feet away,
for reference and the pictures of Dora I was
about 10 feet away.
It really is sharp considering how far I’ve
zoomed in.
Ok, the last of the main cameras I want to
touch on is the front-facing camera.
If you remember from those quick specs earlier,
the Pixel 5a has an 8mp front-facing camera,
compared to my iPhone 11 Pro’s 12mg one.
So, what did I do?
I compared them for ya.
So the quick comparison here, you can clearly
see the iPhone’s front facing camera takes
more detailed snaps, given the difference
in the camera specs.
You’ll notice more imperfections on my face
here because of the clarity, as opposed to
the 5a, it’s almost softened a little.
But it’s not like I’m majorly disappointed
in the front-facing camera on the 5a.
In fact, I’m not disappointed at all to
be honest.
I mean, in this case I’m not disappointed
at all, sure soften my skin for me.
It still snaps great front-facing pics.
OK I lied about the front facing camera being
the last thing we talk about because I do
want to touch on the video quality of the
camera too.
Stunalina.
Doing a quick comparison again – I shot both
of these in 4k at 30fps, now obviously this
video you’re watching is only 1080p HD, but
just so you get the idea of the quality here.
You’ll notice both are amazing quality.
I love them both.
Like the things we can do with our phones
now – I mean, come on!
But, you may notice that the Pixel 5a clip
is a little bit of a better automatic colorization
like I mentioned off the top with everything.
And you may also pick up that it produces
a slightly smoother handheld video that’s
not as shaky.
That’s because of the built-in stabilization.
And this leads us right into some other great
extra features you get built into the Google
Pixel 5a camera.
And, you guessed it, we’ll start with the
video stabilization features.
There are actually a few to choose from.
The standard mode is what you just saw with
the clip of Dora.
But you can lock it off for still shots, or
switch to active for more movement like if
you’re running around or something, or you
can switch to cinematic pan for cool sweeping
panning shots.
And the 5a does a really great job of showing
you the examples of what these modes look
like on and off, which I love.
This way, users can get an idea of which mode
to use when.
So the Cinematic pan slows down the phones
panning movement for a more cinematic, smooth
shot.
So you can see the difference of a pan without
that toggled on, compared to the same shot
with it toggled on.
Both were handheld and clearly the cinematic
pan has really slowed and smoothed my movements
without losing quality.
Frickin amazing!
Yes, more please!
So, as promised, onto some more cool additional
camera features found in the Pixel 5a.
Something else I really love is the dual exposure
controls.
So, every time you snap a photo, you can actually
adjust both the brightness and shadows separately,
which can be so handy for difficult lighting
situations.
But of course, there are even cooler built-in
features that I love: say hello to color pop
and color focus.
With just a tap, you can instantly change
the vibe of your photos to enable these cool
effects.
So for color pop, on your beautiful portraits
or other photos you shoot, just tap on color
pop in your editing settings and would ya
look at that.
Instantly, it picks your subject out and pops
that in color while adjusting the background
to black and white.
Gosh, I love this soooo much!
Think of all the fun you could have with this.
Now, color focus on the other hand, allows
you to adjust the colorization using a slider
and adjust where the color is focused.
But we’re not done with the coolness yet,
oh no.
You can use Google Lens to search for products
right from your photos or anything you point
your camera towards.
So to do this from a photo, simply tap on
‘lens’ and look, Google in all it’s
Godliness instantly provides me with matches
for the shirt I’m wearing in this photo.
Wowza.
But, as promised, you can do this just right
from your camera app too by heading to modes,
selecting lens and then tapping the shutter
button to pull up similar products.
A gift from the Google Gods, indeed.
Another feature I love is called Camera Coaching.
And to best explain it, I’ll show you that
too.
When you go to take a photo, you’ll be given
tips to help you improve your photography.
So, it’ll automatically tell you to try
a different camera mode depending on your
subjects, or it’ll tell you to hold your
camera at a different angle, and it’ll even
tell you if your lens is smudged!
Hello people!
This is not a drill!
Something else I love is the display.
This display is so bright and crisp and I
love the cool tone of it.
Plus, it features a high brightness mode that
keeps the display super bright and visible
even in direct sunlight.
So, now, after the world’s longest video on
the Pixel 5a camera, it is finally time for
the verdict.
What do I think of the camera?
And, do I think it’s better than my iPhone
11 Pro?
Well, the short answer?
Yes.
The longer answer?
Yes and yes and yes.
But seriously, nearly every test I put this
camera through, it not only held its own,
but outshone my 11 Pro in a lot of areas.
I was actually really surprised.
Really, the only aspect where it didn’t
knock my socks off was with the front facing
camera, just in being that it isn’t as high
resolution.
To me, that one small thing is a non-issue
and here’s why.
Because the Google Pixel 5a produces stunning
crisp ultra wide angle photos and stellar
night sight shots, that right there would
be enough to put it over the edge for me.
But, what really blows my socks off is the
additional features found in things like the
portrait mode where I can adjust the portrait
lighting and the color pop and color focus
features – my socks?
Consider them knocked right off my feet.
Because the 5a was otherworldly in so many
areas, this is now my go-to camera.
I know.
I’m just so impressed.
And if you guys remember from the beginning
of this video – all the examples you saw were
not edited at all.
I didn’t change any settings prior to shooting
anything and I didn’t touch anything after.
It’s just too good.
So just imagine what these photos could look
like with a little editing?
Oh baby, it’s too much!
Now because this video is so long already,
there are actually a lot of other features
I didn’t even touch on like panoramic mode,
photo sphere, slow motion video, Live HDR
and so much more.
So, remember to head to the google store link
below to get all the specs and check out more
of the Pixel 5a in action.
So, what did you think of the Google Pixel
5a camera?
Are you as obsessed as I am?
Would you make the switch?
Let everyone know in the comments below.
As always, thank you so much for watching,
if you liked this video, I want to know so
give it a like, a share, or leave that comment
below.
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