Lab – the telephoto lens of the Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphone under a magnifying glass – Les Numériques

Google’s Pixel 6 Pro is equipped with a photo module offering a 4x zoom effect, while its competitors rarely exceed 3x. Does it offer results of sufficient quality to increase the versatility of the smartphone? The answer after it has passed through our laboratories.

Google had tried telephoto lenses with its Pixel 4, before focusing on ultra-wide-angle on the Pixel 5. The Pixel 6 Pro, meanwhile, intends to bring together the best of both worlds by offering a triple photo module including a wide-angle accompanying a 50 Mpx sensor, an ultra wide-angle (12 Mpx sensor) and finally a telephoto lens with OIS. This optical stabilization is particularly useful for preventing camera shake.

It is on this last module that we stopped, and for good reason: with the promise of a 4x magnification, if we compare it to the main module of the smartphone (equivalent to 26 mm in 24 x 36), it ranks among the top performers in the current market. But Google’s algorithms still need to allow it to stand out from its competitors. And there are many: the Sony Xperia 1 III, which offers identical magnification, but also Samsung flagships (the Galaxy S21 Ultra, 3x and 10x magnifications) and Apple (iPhone 13 Pro Max, 3x magnification).

Google relies here on a 48 Mpx sensor (1/2 ”sensor) and an equivalent 104 mm lens, with an aperture of f / 3.5 and an optical stabilization system. Thanks to its processing – which also makes its reputation – Google does not offer full definition pictures. These are therefore 12.5 Mpx photos that we find at the end of the race. For the record, the photos of the iPhone 13 Pro Max and Sony Xperia 1 III are delivered in 12 Mpx, and those of Samsung, in 10 Mpx. You will understand, difficult to find an exact equivalent to which to compare the smartphone …

Facing the Sony Xperia 1 III

Sony’s Xperia 1 III is based on a 12 Mpx sensor, therefore without pixel-binning, and offers a double variable focal length. The second, equivalent to 105 mm (4.4x magnification), benefits from an aperture at f / 2.8. By day, the finding is clear: the Pixel 6 offers more details in the central areas of the image, but also and especially in the periphery, as evidenced by the map at the bottom left of the image. Let us concede all the same that the black and white wheel, located at the top left of our test scene, is less noisy on the Sony photo.

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By night, the ditch widens. The smoothing is certainly present on the photo of the Pixel 6, but the treatment applied by Google makes it possible to easily distinguish the characters on the book and the fabric textures. The Sony photo sees the colors turn orange and blurs the characters.

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Facing the market leaders

Since only the Pixel 6 Pro and the Xperia 1 III (and the Xperia 5 III) offer a 4x zoom, we chose to compare the Google smartphone to the very high-end models of the moment, whose magnification effect is limited to 3x. The iPhone 13 Pro Max, recently tested in our Lab, is one of them, as is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. The latter, you will see below, has the particularity of having in addition a periscope module allowing it to offer 10x magnification.

Facing the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

Let’s start with the Galaxy S21 Ultra, equipped here with a 10 Mpx sensor, an optics equivalent to 72 mm (3x) with f / 2.4 aperture and stabilized. By day, it plays in the same court as the Pixel 6 Pro, at least in the center of the frames. The exposure is less homogeneous, but it compensates with a higher level of detail, for example on the lock of hair.

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The ball is in the center during the day, but at night, it is clear that there is no longer a “photo”. The result speaks for itself, in all parts of the photo of our test scene… It should be remembered that here, Samsung offers a crop of shots obtained using its main 108 Mpx sensor (with its opening wide-angle at f / 1.8).

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Facing the iPhone 13 Pro Max

The iPhone 13 Pro Max, with its 12 Mpx sensor and f / 2.8 optics equivalent to 77 mm (with OIS), does not deserve either. The results are a tad smoother than in the Pixel 6 shots, again with less consistent exposure – which you can see on the sensor at the top left.

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At night, advantage to the Pixel 6 Pro, capable of delivering more details. Let us concede all the same that the iPhone 13 Pro Max has the merit of offering a more accurate rendering of the black and white test pattern located at the top left of our test scene, which is not an easy task.

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What if we zoom in even more?

Based on these results, we tried to push the cursor a little further, by placing our Pixel 6 Pro in front of the periscopic lens of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which allows it to obtain 10x optical magnification. Google’s smartphone offers a hybrid zoom effect. And by day, it is no match for the Samsung model, which is capable of delivering accurate information in all parts of the image.

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At night, however, the trend is reversed. The Galaxy S21 Ultra chooses to crop a shot taken using its module sensor with 72 mm optics (i.e. its 3x zoom), which has an aperture of f / 2.4 and not f / 4.9 . A logical choice after all, but one that does not forgive: neither he nor the Pixel 6 Pro are able to deliver images that can be used in these conditions, but the processing applied by the Google model makes it possible to find certain information (weft of the tissues , black and white test pattern) almost completely erased by the Samsung device.

More empirically, we found in our tests that it was essential to use a tripod to exploit the 10x zoom of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, while its counterpart on the Pixel 6 Pro allows more handheld captures.

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Conclusion

Perilous exercise than that of optical magnification promised by Google. The difficulty is not the least of day, when it is necessary to deliver detailed and colorful pictures both in the center and in the periphery. The Pixel 6 Pro gets by without major difficulty, and pays itself the luxury of outperforming products promising equivalent or less magnification. It is especially at night that the choices of Google, which keeps the results of its dedicated sensor and its f / 3.5 optics, hit the mark: the treatments applied to the images allow it to stand out from all of its competitors. … Even when it comes to switching to 10x digital zoom. Overall, therefore, its telephoto lens is not a gimmick and allows the smartphone to offer appreciable versatility to photography enthusiasts.