I tested the zoom cameras on the Pixel 10 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro, and Google should be worried

I’m not quite ready to draw my conclusions on the iPhone 17 Pro just yet — essentially, whether it can finally pull me away from Android — but I do know one thing: Apple is taking its still photography more seriously than ever. It’s added new Photographic Styles to the mix, reworked the camera app to give it a more straightforward interface, and finally upgraded its camera hardware with a significantly improved 4x telephoto sensor.

Unsurprisingly, it has me reaching for the iPhone camera more than ever before, and it’s making me wonder whether the Pixel 10 Pro really has my favorite camera system. So, to settle things once and for all, I decided to put the two giants to the test. I set out to grab a series of snaps across some of the most common focal lengths to see if I really still liked Google’s processing the best. Here’s what I found.

Just like any showdown between two heavyweights, it’s only right that I start with a little bit of an introduction. So, in the Android corner, representing all things open-source and flexible, we have the Pixel 10 Pro XL. Hardware-wise, it’s the same as its predecessor, which means it packs a robust trio of high-resolution cameras. It counts on a 50MP primary sensor to do the bulk of the heavy lifting, backed by 48MP 5x telephoto and 123-degree ultrawide sensors.

Under the hood, though, the Pixel 10 Pro XL packs a mean new trick: Google’s Tensor G5 chipset. It adds a suite of new tricks to the Pixel 10 series, including the Camera Coach to help you line up a better shot, Help Me Edit to reimagine your photos, and, of course, 100x Pro Res Zoom. This year, Google is touting its upgraded zoom, highlighting that it utilizes a series of Gemini-powered algorithms to process and clean up what should be in your images — just don’t try to use it on people.

Ultimately, though, there’s only so much that software can do to keep up with brand-new hardware, so it’s time to introduce Google’s age-old rival. In the iOS corner, representing, well, Apple, we have the iPhone 17 Pro. It’s about as close to a complete iPhone redesign as Apple has ever come, swapping the traditional glass sandwich for a unibody aluminum build and spreading the square camera bump into a full-blown plateau — one that resembles a slightly worse version of Google’s camera bar, if you ask me.

The change isn’t purely aesthetic, either — the iPhone 17 Pro finally jumped from the 12MP telephoto sensor we’d seen the last few years to a sharp (and significantly larger) new 48MP sensor, trading 5x optical zoom for 4x along the way. This swap enables the latest Pro-grade iPhone to capture central crops out of its beefy lens, effectively giving you up to 8x lossless zoom before digital enhancements have to take over. Mix in the Photographic Styles I mentioned, add a slightly more refined Clean Up, and the iPhone is now prepared for still photos than ever.

So, let’s look at some shots.

First, I’ll explore two distinct use cases for these respective 48MP ultrawide sensors. At the top, we have a tall ship that sailed into Baltimore’s harbor, and I managed to fit it in the frame of both of my flagship cameras. However, that’s about where the similarities stop. Everything about Apple’s color recreation is a bit darker and moodier than Google’s, and I notice a slight blue-green cast to the ship and the brick promenade leading up to it.

Surprisingly, I think the iPhone offers a better look at the actual lighting conditions of the gray, gloomy morning, while the Pixel 10 Pro XL is far more color-accurate. Moving down to the other pair of images — the pumpkins — we have the opposite situation. This time, I wanted to make the perfectly normal fall decorations look more bulbous, and Apple responded with much brighter hues, especially on the orange pumpkin in the middle. Google gave the bricks of the front steps and the stone house in the background a much warmer treatment, which is pleasing to the eye but perhaps not entirely accurate.

Additionally, it appears that there’s some blur in Google’s representation of the white pumpkin at the bottom of the stack, which isn’t visible in the image from my iPhone 17 Pro. This isn’t a regular issue, but one to be careful of if you’re crouched at odd angles for a photo.

The other benefit of both of these ultrawide sensors is that the iPhone 17 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL offer pretty sharp macro modes. Honestly, though, I wish more phones would use telephoto-based macro processing, a la Nothing. Anyway, this time around, I think Google offers the sharper shot, keeping a larger portion of the leaf in focus, while the iPhone provides a slightly closer look, albeit at the expense of some sharpness. The color profiles are great across both images, though I’m surprised that Google tried to make the leaf look a bit shinier than Apple.

And now, for the part of this test that actually got me interested, it’s time to talk about zoom. Last year, this would have been a pretty close head-to-head, with both phones rocking 5x optical magnification. This year, though, Apple’s telephoto sensor defaults to a common 100mm equivalent (4x magnification) while the Pixel 10 Pro XL sits at 113mm (5x magnification). The result of this is a slightly wider crop from the iPhone 17 Pro, and I’ve quickly taken a shine to the results.

Across the board, I appreciate that I can fit a little more detail in the frame, with a bit more of the brick wall and bench around the basket of books, and just a slight increase in cropping flexibility for the red brick tower of Lancaster’s Central Market. Interestingly, though, the Pixel 10 Pro XL prompts you to use either 2x zoom or 3x zoom for portrait mode, resulting in a slightly wider view around the sticker-coated sign in the top row. Once again, though, I think Apple’s 100mm focal length looks the more natural of the two.

Just as above, Apple’s greens are slightly greener, and its overall color profile is marginally brighter than Google’s. However, you can always manually adjust your exposure for a moodier final image. The results are pretty close overall, but I can’t help but like the consistency of Apple’s 4x lens.

Single image comparisons can only tell you so much, so this time, we’re comparing both the Pixel 10 Pro XL and iPhone 17 Pro across their entire zoom ranges, starting from 1x and extending all the way to their respective maximums. Unfortunately for Apple, this is where its more conservative approach is on full display.

Yes, it stays neck and neck with Google right up to the point when digital zoom takes over, rendering pretty similar shots, details, and colors from 1x to 8x zoom (or in Google’s case, 10x zoom). Past that point, though, the iPhone 17 Pro doesn’t offer any lock-in focal lengths — points where the camera app will give haptic feedback when you land on, say, 20x or 40x zoom. Instead, you have to hope and pray a little bit and keep your hands as steady as you possibly can to nail your shot.

Even then, the iPhone has nothing on Google’s AI-powered Pro Res Zoom at 30x or 50x magnification. Google’s algorithms give the Pixel 10 Pro XL much sharper lines and warmer golds in the cross atop the steeple around the corner from where I live. Even the little birds are significantly sharper, although they do appear a bit too artifact-heavy at 100x zoom. I would imagine it’s a case of Google trying its hardest to make sense of the details, but the birds are just a little bit too small for the comfort of the Tensor G5.

I’m as surprised as you are, but the iPhone 17 Pro is as good a camera for stills as any Android phone. No, maybe it doesn’t offer the same top-end zoom as the Pixel 10 Pro XL, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m more comfortable with the iPhone for my everyday zoom needs. I know that if I tap any of the preset zoom lengths within Apple’s so-called optical range, I’ll get a good shot, and its pleasingly warm color science is ready to post right away.

With the Pixel 10 Pro XL, on the other hand, I know I can zoom in on almost any detail. I know that scenes across Baltimore’s harbor are within reach and that Gemini will do its best to draw out details once I hit 30x zoom or longer, which is a neat trick. The problem, though, is that I don’t come anywhere close to 30x zoom in my day-to-day life. I’ll usually top out at 10x or maybe 15x zoom, and that’s only when I’m at a concert.

And, when I’m not relying on the Pixel 10 Pro XL for long-range zoom, I’m not really sure what else to grab it for. It no longer has the massive lead in image processing that it once did; its video features remain firmly behind those of the iPhone, and even Apple’s Clean Up is catching up to Magic Editor — albeit slowly.

So, for the first time in my Android Authority career, I think I’ll be keeping an iPhone in my pocket, at least for a little bit longer after I finish my review.