If you look at Apple's marketing, they will probably tell you that the iPhone 17 Pro is
about the cameras. If you look at Google's marketing, they'll tell you the Pixel 10 Pro is about AI
And I think for once, they're not lying, which means if you buy the wrong one, I think it's
more on you because these phones aren't competing so much anymore. They're not both trying to be the
best phone. They're kind of trying to be the best, I think, at different things. And depending on what
you actually use a pro phone for, one of them is going to feel like a waste of money. Also, like
quick note, this whole video was shot on the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Pixel 10 Pro, and I'll
label which is which. You actually see what these cameras can do. So I've been iPhone for years. I
switch back and forth, but primarily an iPhone has been my phone. I'm in the ecosystem, but I
ditched my Apple Watch a while back. It wasn't helping my anxiety. I went back to a mechanical
watch and that move, I think, cracked the Apple ecosystem for me. Without the watch, staying on
the iPhone started to feel less like mandatory and more like a choice. So I started paying much
closer attention, especially to the Pixel, a phone that I always really wanted to switch to
really used it tested against the iphone and by the end i knew exactly which one i needed
and it wasn't the one i expected when i went in so start with price pixel about a thousand dollars
versus eleven hundred bucks uh for the iphone 17 pro and the storage different story too 128 gigs
starting on the pixel 256 gigs on the iphone so you get double the storage for extra hundred bucks
The Pixel tops out at one terabyte. The iPhone goes up to two
Both are aluminum and glass. Apple ditched titanium. The Pixel's shiny edges add a really nice grip
The iPhone curves, I think, would feel better long-term. Comfort to Apple, style to Google
Apple also has two extra buttons. It's got the action button and the camera control
I do not use camera control. I forget about camera control. I use it once when I started testing the phone and that was it
action button I use every day. Nice shortcut. Still, I cannot understand why I can't make it
do a double press and have it do more things, but that's a video for another day. With my watch gone
the ecosystem that kept me tied to the iPhone didn't feel as strong. iMessage, still important
but less important. Airdrop, nice, but not essential. I was kind of getting ready to sort
of make the switch. The Pixel felt right to me immediately. Big change for this generation Pixel
Pixel snap, but it's essentially MagSafe. And all the MagSafe stuff on the iPhone now works on the
Pixel. So your Apple wallets or MagSafe wallets just clicks on. That is a giant deal, a huge
convenience deal. I am admittedly a screen snob and hear me out no matter how good a phone is
If the screen sucks, doesn't matter what the phone can do. It doesn't matter what the cameras can do
It doesn't matter how fast the processor is. I think screens almost matter to me more than any
other spec. The Pixel screen gets really bright indoors, around 2200 nits versus 1000 on the
iPhone. Both can hit 3000 outside, so pretty equal in sunlight. That was my experience in direct
sunlight. They look pretty even. Dynamic Island, I think, is really useful. I was at the airport
this past weekend. I was flying to San Francisco, and having sort of flightly updates pop up there
was genuinely helpful. Pixel's punch hole, I think, looks cleaner though, but especially if you're watching movies
So that's kind of, I guess, a toss-up. Screens are basically a draw here But what not a draw happens when you listen to these phones and that speakers The iPhone wins in a blowout Fuller sound the Pixel audio is fine
it's just like hollow. If you spend a lot of time listening to music on your phone, you'll notice immediately how much better the iPhone is. And I want to talk about battery
This is probably not fair, but the iPhone Pro Max, surprise, it wins. It's bigger
it's got a bigger battery. It's a true all-day phone, almost a day and a half hour. Heavy use
25-30% by the end of the day. Again, it's a Mac, so bigger battery than the regular Pro
What was surprising was how good the Pixel actually was. It was really close and not even
the biggest one with the biggest battery. It did need to charge a little bit earlier
but that was unsurprising. When it did need to be charged, the iPhone did charge faster
40 watt wired 25 wireless versus 30 and 15 on the pixel not a big deal i charge my phone at night
but if you're looking to charge up as fast as possible there you go let me just take a quick
break uh tell you about this guy who's been sitting on my desk for like two ish weeks and i got some
thoughts on him this is the framer crater micro 2 and thank you them for sponsoring this video
it's actually a collaboration between framer and work louder essentially it's a compact macro pad
with 13 mechanical switches, a touch sensor, a rotary encoder, and a joystick
So Framer, if you don't know, they're a web design platform, and this thing ships with all sort of custom keycaps for their software
But the thing that caught my attention is that you can remap every single button
to work with whatever app you want. No code, no complicated setup, just literally drag and drop in their configurator
So we do a lot of editing in Final Cut. So I mapped this to give me things like the blade tool to one key, JKL for scrubbing through timelines, dedicated button for grouping clips, stuff that we do hundreds of times per video
And obviously I've memorized these keyboard shortcuts, but there's something about having physical buttons with actual mechanical feedback that just feels different
It's the reason people use mechanical keyboards on their PCs. So if you build that muscle memory faster, when your fingers always land in the same spot
The build quality here is insane. CNC aluminum, real mechanical switches, and also even a joystick if you want
that pulls up sort of a radial menu with sort of seven more shortcuts
which sounds gimmicky, but it's actually pretty useful too. So is this essential
Nope. But if you're someone who does repetitive actions all day, whether you're editing video
like we are designing in Photoshop, or building websites in Framer, having a dedicated control surface
just make the work seem much smoother and also i think a little bit cooler too wireless version
179 bucks wires 149 if you want to check one of these out want to give as a gift to somebody you're
doing something repetitive all the time you're earning for that mechanical feel links will be
down below battery is like the most subjective part of any review because like my third-party
app will be different than your third-party apps but i can say no matter what battery draining
TikTok apps you use on your phone, you will be able to get through a full day with either of
these phones. And I think the big story to pick, like talking about at the start, is AI. It's
Gemini. This is like a Gemini machine that can also browse the internet and take photos. And
Gemini works really well. I could ask it questions to find an email about my kid's baseball schedule
Does it? Pull up directions. Done. That's what Apple Intelligence should do, but doesn't
Siri's handoff to ChatGPT feels clunky. It's most easier just to open up ChatGPT
and ask those questions. I even mapped one of my shortcuts to Gemini on the iPhone
but it not the same And for the first few days of using these phones the Pixel felt smarter and it felt like the right call And the more I used it the more Gemini started to slip a little bit The
luster came off. So I've, like probably every person, I've gotten multiple Google accounts
I've got a personal one. I got one for work here. And Gemini got a little confused. I didn't know
this and I probably should have, but each account is siloed. So I can't see everything. If you live
in one account, Gemini was awesome. Absolutely kick-ass. If not, it became kind of a mess. You
have to actually switch your Gemini to the Google account that you want to reference and ask to. Now
if you're not asking it to search your calendar or search your mail, then it's great. It doesn't
really matter what you're in, but if you're doing those really intensive tasks, that was a bit
annoying. Then I started taking photos. I think this is where things got a bit more interesting. The Pixel's camera, and Pixel's been known for camera since it was a Pixel 1 and had one single
sensor is incredible. It is the phone's defining feature. Anybody who's watching the video knows
that Pixel is going to take good photos. It's the reason so many people love the Pixel in the first
place. It can turn an average shot into something I think really special. But how it gets there
is different. The Pixel does a lot of heavy lifting after you press the shutter or the
capture button. There's that moment of processing where it takes kind of multiple frames, merges them
and pulling out all the detail and balance that you didn't see on the screen. And the results, I think, are oftentimes really amazing
And sometimes, like, I can't believe a phone took this, but it does mean the process can feel a bit slower at times
and also sometimes unpredictable. And people are split on this. Personally, I like what it's doing most of the time
The final image is usually sharper and cleaner and more balanced than sort of what I framed out
But I do get the other side and why people prefer the iPhones, what you see is what you get approach
The iPhone actually shows you what you're capturing for better or worse
The Pixel kind of aims to make the best possible version of what you captured
So whichever one you prefer, I still like seeing what the photo is going to look like on the Pixel
I do wish it was a little bit faster, but I know there's a lot of processing happening on device
So for photo samples, my oldest, my 12-year-old Nate, just played a championship baseball game at night
Actually, last night from filming this. It's a perfect time to test these cameras. You can see what the photos look like here and the different lengths
I thought they all looked pretty good. The iPhone, it was weird light
Like I said, it was dark and I had overhead lights. It was bad conditions. Neither of these, I don't think, are printout and frame worthy
But I was surprised at how similar the photos actually look. Zoom is where I spend most of my time
The Pixel's 100x AI Zoom is a fun party trick. It's impressive to show off, but it is mostly guessing at what should be there
It's cool for like skylines, but not something I would actually ever really use
But the 5X to 10X range, that's where I live. And in that range, both phones are good
The Pixel's reliability, I think, gave it an edge. It just locks on every time
And at those distances across a baseball field, first base to third base
the extra reach to 10X on the Pixel versus the iPhone's 8X
I love that. By the way, proud dad moment. Nate did get a ring
HDR is like the big divide here. Look at the train photos
The Pixel is perfectly balanced and I don't know how to describe it. Maybe kind of lifeless
Same thing with the shot of the Vision Pro and Nikon. The Pixel keeps every bright detail
The iPhone loses some, but then gives the subject depth and color. The Pixel, I think is technically right, but boring
And that's a choice. The Pixel keeps information. The iPhone kind of makes it more arty
Neither is wrong at all I think people would probably prefer one or the other On the video side you guys can see this whole thing getting a shot with a video from these phones I film a lot And it all family stuff It baseball games out with my kids with my wife
Standard video, both look good. This is maybe going to ruffle some feathers here
iPhone's better. More consistent colors, smoother stabilization. The Pixel does have fewer
micro jitters when walking. iPhone's ProRes and log modes just work. And if you care about video
that's obviously the one. Durability is not great either. The Pixel screen scratches easily. I set
it down once and got a mark on it. The iPhone Ceramic Shield 2, one single time, just once
before I put my iPhone 17 Pro Max in a case, dropped it on concrete. And this is what happened
Just scratched up absolutely everywhere. It was my fault. Not so durable. The aluminum
frames scuffs too easily if you're gonna get one of these phones get a case get a screen protector
don't trust the marketing so performance is an interesting one with these the geekbench scores
are pretty drastic here we'll put them up on screen not even close uh when it comes to geekbench but
in real use we're kind of kind of what matters here actually using these phones both phones are
buttery smooth scrolling switching apps opening camera everything uh is going to be fast here
Gaming, though, I think the iPhone pulled ahead, better sustained frames, less throttling, and the new vapor chamber, I think the cooling really helped
Where that Geekbench gap, I think, will matter, I think the A19 Pro is going to give you more future headroom, more runway, future iOS updates, more demanding apps three years from now
I think that's where you're going to feel it. I know that Google will support the Pixel for years
It'll get software updates, but the apps that are going to be made for the Pixel 12 or Pixel 13
I imagine it'll start to feel a little slow on today's kind of hardware
And kind of that was when it hit me. I kind of went in thinking that I was going to want a smarter phone
Being an iPhone user, I haven't really had an AI-focused phone. I haven't had a phone where the assistant could do that much
I thought AI would matter to me more. but what really makes a pro phone for me is what I do most with my phones and that is camera and
it's not what I expected. The iPhone system just fits the way I shoot. It's consistent
it's predictable and it nails video every time. The Pixel's camera is still phenomenal and in
some situations definitely looks better but as a complete package so looking at photo, video
reliability, the iPhone kind of edges it out for how I use it. So here's my decision. I'm going to
be honest, I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I'm staying with my iPhone for now. My ecosystem's
already cracked. Like I said, no watch, but the camera kept me here. And if Google fixes some
camera lag and gets serious about video next year, I'd very easily switch. The gap is closing and
it's closing so very much. But right now, for what I need, the iPhone Pro Max is the answer
But for the first time in a really long time, you could close your eyes and pick a phone and you're
to get a great version of the best version of these ecosystems. I think what Google's done
is incredible. The AI assistant is second to none when it comes to mobile. What Apple's doing with
photos and video is really, really impressive. And both phones do a good job of the other stuff too
But again, for me, it's just easier. There's less resistance and friction to stay with my iPhone
Again, I don't know if you make the same choice or not. Let me know in the comments. Again, all those pictures will be linked down below