After almost a year of rumours about the top-tier phones from Google and Apple, the companies respectively unveiled what they believe are the best handsets they’ve ever released. We pinned the iPhone 15 against the Pixel 8, so now let’s put the Pro versions to the test.
You’ll find our review of the iPhone 15 Pro Max here, and the Google Pixel 8 Pro here, but while we’ve still got both review units, we thought we’d take a look at everything from battery life, to software, to camera, and anything in between.
Which is better iPhone 15 Pro or Google Pixel 8 Pro?
Both phones are the best each company has ever made; both phones definitely ship with features you’ll absolutely never use. If you’re yet to check out our reviews of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and/or the Pixel 8 Pro, the below will serve as a little TL;DR.
iPhone 15 Pro vs Pixel 8 Pro: Price
The Google Pixel 8 Pro comes in three different storage configs: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, while the iPhone 15 Pro range comes in those, but also a 1TB option. But, as you know, the iPhone 15 Pro comes in the smaller ‘Pro’ and the larger ‘Pro Max’ models, whereas there’s just one size for the Pixel 8 Pro. Obviously, the bigger handset is going to cost a little more. The below is pricing as per Apple’s website and the Google Store.
- Pixel 8 Pro 128GB: $1,699
- Pixel 8 Pro 256GB: $1,799
- Pixel 8 Pro 512GB $1,999
- iPhone 15 Pro 128GB: $1,849
- iPhone 15 Pro 256GB: $2,049
- iPhone 15 Pro 512GB: $2,399
- iPhone 15 Pro 1TB: $2,749
- iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB: $2,199
- iPhone 15 Pro Max 512GB: $2,549
- iPhone 15 Pro Max 1TB $2,899.
So, a $900 difference between the most expensive iPhone 15 and the most expensive Pixel 8. But, the 1TB is double the storage that you’d get from the Pixel, so is that really fair? The 512GB iPhone Pro is $400 more expensive than the 512GB Pixel 8 Pro, which is a little bit more fair to each device, and the 128GB is only $150 difference.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro vs Google Pixel 8 Pro: If we’re purely measuring by cost, the Pixel 8 Pro is the cheapest.
iPhone 15 Pro vs Pixel 8 Pro: Look & feel
As I said in the entry-level phone comparisons, both phones are distinctly products of their respective maker. This year, Google (thankfully) ditched the waterfall screen and it’s a flatter, more user-friendly phone now. But, colour choices aren’t synonymous with “luxury” (the blue, Google, what is that?). The Pro Max, meanwhile, is titanium with a textured matt glass back. It just feels a lot more premium – like I could drop it on concrete and we’d be fine (I will not be testing this, though). The colour range for the 15 Pro series chuck the word ‘titanium’ into the colour names, to reiterate the phone has balls, I assume. You get black, white, blue, and ‘natural’ which is a brown shade. The colours look less ‘fun’ and more ‘serious’ and that’s exactly what you get.
The 15 Pro measures 146.6 mm x 70.6 mm x 8.25 mm and weighs 187 grams, the Pro Max measures 159.9 mm x 76.7 mm x 8.25 mm and weighs 221 grams. The Google Pixel 8 Pro measures 162.6 mm x 76.5 mm x 8.8 mm and weighs 213 grams. Same-same, really.
I love big phones, so I take no issue with how large these handsets are – but if you do, the iPhone at least has the smaller option.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro vs Google Pixel 8 Pro: The Pixel 8 Pro gets huge points for the flat screen and tidy camera panel, but the iPhone 15 Pro just oozes luxury and looks so sick.
iPhone 15 Pro vs Pixel 8 Pro: The guts
The Google Tensor G3 powering the Pixel 8 Pro is touted as being “built to push the boundaries of on-device machine learning”. For G3, every major subsystem has been upgraded, which includes the latest generation of ARM CPUs and a more performant GPU. Put it this way – Google said that compared to the largest machine learning model it ran last year on the Pixel 7, some of these new models require up to 150 times more computation power. The Pixel 8 Pro is a powerhouse.
The A17 Pro chip inside the iPhone 15 Pro/Max is, of course, the successor to the A16 Bionic chip featured in the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, with the standard and iPhone 15 Plus models now featuring the A16 – so naturally, the more powerful devices get the better chip. The A17 chip is reportedly the industry’s first 3nm chip. It boasts 19 billion transistors, 6-core CPU, 6-core GPU, and 10 per cent faster performance cores. Neural engine is now up to twice as fast (16-core), allowing up to 35 trillion operations per second.
As you know, the iPhones now charge via USB-C, but Apple couldn’t just adopt USB-C, it had to go and make a spot on the chip that powers the new data-transfer port, claiming that for the camera on the Pro Max, the new USB controller will “enable USB 3 speeds on iPhone for the first time, now supporting much higher transfer speeds and video output up to 4K at 60 fps HDR”.
On every device we can (laptop, phone), we do the Avengers: Endgame test. That is, we stream the three-hour movie from Disney+ on the highest quality, brightness all the way up, and volume at max. We see how much this drains the battery. Unfortunately, the results here would be like comparing apples to oranges, as the 15 Pro we have is the Max and bigger phone equals bigger battery. But, just in case you were curious, starting from 100 per cent, one hour in, the Pixel 8 Pro dropped to 87 per cent, 74 per cent in the second hour, then 62 per cent in the third. After the first hour, the 15 Pro Max had 92 per cent, then 79, and at the end, 67.
Both have great battery life.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro vs Google Pixel 8 Pro: It’s a tie, you can’t split top-tier hardware.
iPhone 15 Pro vs Pixel 8 Pro: Software
There’s no denying iOS 17 has been pushed out to favour the iPhone 15 and its Pro cousins. Some features of the new software shipping with the iPhone 15 range include the ability to just say “Siri”, share contact info by making two phones kiss, and how iMessage handles the ability to reply and send stickers.
Meanwhile, between the introduction of Android 14 and Google’s Pixel-only smarts, including the creepy new ‘Best Take’ AI face editing feature, and favourites like Magic Eraser, photo unblur, and even non-camera stuff like live language translation, as well as a thermometer (total gimmick), Pixels are extremely feature packed.
Both are distinctly Apple and Google, respectively.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro vs Google Pixel 8 Pro: This is a c+p job from the other comparison article because the same is true here. Talking looks, the iPhone wins, but only because I find iOS nicer.
iPhone 15 Pro vs Pixel 8 Pro: The camera
The Pixel 8 Pro is equipped with four cameras: 50MP wide, 48MP ultrawide, 48MP telephoto, and 10.5MP selfie. Upon last year’s Pixel 7 Pro, the ultrawide lens has seen the most dramatic change, with a switch to a 12MP camera (the selfie lens also saw a 0.3MP drop, though this is hardly noticeable). With the Pro Max, meanwhile, Apple is marketing the camera system as essentially seven cameras, even though it’s just three physical cameras. 0.5x ultrawide (Macro), 0.5x ultrawide (13mm), 1x main (24mm), 1x main (28mm), 1x main (35mm), 2x telephoto (48mm), and 5x telephoto (120mm).
Here’s how the iPhone fares with standard, then two incremental zooms.
And the Pixel 8 Pro, doing the same.
The iPhone shots are quite dark, at least when compared to the Pixel. But, the Pixel was fabricating light that isn’t there. I’d argue the zoom is better on the iPhone.
The opposite end of the spectrum, macro photography. They’re both good – just remember I haven’t played around with any settings, this is straight out of the box, so if the colour of the shot is too dark for you, it can be fiddled with.
Snaps taken at the same position. Both handle colour in low light quite well.
And a snap of a laneway for no other reason than “because”. Composition is gorgeous on both.
Next, portrait mode. Zac is too far away to really test the face composition, but the Pixel blurred too much of the shot that quite frankly didn’t really need to be blurred.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro vs Google Pixel 8 Pro: It’s very clear both of these phones are for photographers. These shots were taken on our lunchbreak and super quickly – imagine what you could do with a little effort. No winner here, both are brilliant.
The verdict
You should know by now I can’t pick between my favourite kids, but honestly, save for a few tiny software additions and the ability to tell the temperature, and on the iPhone, the gorgeous finish and addition of USB-C, there isn’t a whole lot new over last year on either handset. Both are impressive, and both are certainly the best phones Apple and Google have ever made. Once again, the decision here will come down to if you use a lot of Google apps and you’ve previously used Android phones, or if you’re an iOS user. Whichever phone you pick, though, you won’t be disappointed.
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Image: Apple/Google/Gizmodo Australia