iPhone 8 Plus vs
Pixel 2: Which phone
records better
video?
The Google Pixel 2 and iPhone 8 Plus
both take really good still photos .
So let's see how well they shoot
video. The iPhone 8 Plus's camera is
an improvement over the 7 Plus, but
whether or not it's worth the extra
cost will depend on your needs.
I found the biggest differences
between these Pixel 2 and 8
Plus came down to stabilization, and
how they perform in low light.We took them to Pier 39 in San
Francisco to test the cameras in a
range of situations. Phones were
mounted on a handheld rig so the
camera lenses could sit close
together and helped make the field
of view as similar as possible. All
footage was filmed in the default
camera apps on automatic exposures
at 1080/30p, except for the 4K and
slow-motion tests.
As with any comparison, it's
important to remember that a lot of
these findings are subjective and
come down to what you like.
Exposure, color and
autofocus
Both phones do a great job of
accurately exposing the video
image, especially in daylight. Colors
on the Pixel 2 can look slightly more
saturated than the iPhone .
In the screengrab from the video
below, colors look more true to life
on the iPhone. But in some
situations like the boat clip from
the video included in this article,
the exposure and color rendition is
so similar between the two phones
it's actually hard to tell the images
apart.The Pixel 2 adjusts exposure quickly
on the fly when lighting conditions
change -- like moving from indoors
to outdoors. The iPhone takes longer
to shift.
Moving a subject in and out of the
frame to test autofocus is also a
win for the Pixel 2's "dual-pixel"
phase detection AF system. The
focus shifts incredibly quickly from
one subject to another, but because
it's so quick, it can look quite
dramatic and causes a "wobbling"
effect in the frame as the camera
seeks focus.
The iPhone's "focus pixels" phase
detection AF is not immune to this
effect either, but because the
focus shifts more slowly and
smoothly, the overall effect is more
cinematic.
Stabilization
The iPhone has optical stabilization
in the wide lens and a separate
system called cinematic video
stabilization that's designed to
make shots look smooth, as if they
were filmed on a rig. The Pixel 2
uses a combination of optical and
electronic stabilization on its single
lens camera. Google calls this fused
stabilization ( read more about how
exactly this system works in this
article ).
Digital or electronic stabilization
can often produce a "Jell-O" effect
on parts of the image. The Pixel 2
shows some of this effect, but
overall, the stabilization system
compensates well for walking motion
and shots are smooth. It can,
however, look a little robotic and
hyper-real.
But if you record a lot of footage
while walking or moving around, the
Pixel 2's video is more watchable
than the iPhone's, which can look
jerky.
Front-facing video
Selfie lovers, this one goes to the
Pixel 2. Video from the front-
facing camera has a more even
exposure and it retains more detail
in the highlight areas than the
same shot on the iPhone.
Audio
Neither phone does terribly well
when it comes to recording audio.
The Pixel 2's playback sounds more
flat than the same track recorded
on the iPhone. Whether that's voice
or music, the Pixel 2's audio sounds
more "tinny." The iPhone's audio
sounds more clear with more depth.
In our earlier video comparison
between the iPhone and the Galaxy
Note 8 , it was the Note 8 that
recorded better-sounding audio.
Music and voices recorded on the
Note 8 sound more like a true stereo
recording when listening to playback
in headphones.
Slow motion
Like the Note 8, the Pixel 2 can only
record in its slowest frame rate
(240fps) at a reduced resolution of
720p. The iPhone records at 1080p.
The Pixel 2's slow-motion image
looks much more washed out than
the iPhone's, and it dramatically
overexposed when I filmed Frisco
Fred doing his fire juggling.
Testing again in less challenging
lighting conditions in the shade, the
iPhone image appears to retain more
detail in each frame during the slo-
mo effect compared to the Pixel 2.
4K recording
Both phones can film in 4K
resolution, but the Pixel 2 tops out
at 30fps (the same as the Note 8).
The iPhone can reach 60fps. 4K
video from both phones looks
impressive and doesn't have any
different characteristics to video
filmed in other resolutions. (Apart
from Apple 's cinematic video
stabilization that's only active at
1080p and 720p resolutions, rather
than 4K.)
The iPhone also uses Apple's new
image and video compression format
HEVC (H.265) that theoretically
should make larger files like 4K
video use less storage. The Pixel 2
encodes in H.264. Read more about
HEVC in this article .
Low light
This is where the phones show the
biggest differences. Walking
through the low-light Mirror Maze
on Pier 39, the video image on the
Pixel 2 appears far more noisy (or
grainy) than on the iPhone. Details
start to look smudgy when
comparing the two images side by
side.
