At this point, Tim Cook’s claim that Apple’s made the best iPhone ever is almost a tradition. It’s a pretty dumb statement, if you think about it. Any smartphone maker wouldn’t make a worse phone than their previous one, would they? Each year, Apple adds some cool features on its own, then rebrands a few Android features and ships them as revolutionary ones.
With the new iPhone 15 phones, Apple is matching a lot of photography features we’ve seen on Android phones for a while now. Things like pixel binning, lossless zoom, and periscope zoom lenses are now on the iPhone too. But there is still one area where the iPhone stays ahead: video!
iPhone photos have always been really good. But top Android phones often take even better photos, especially in low light. It’s taken Apple a long time to add higher-resolution sensors like 48 megapixels that Android phones have had for years.
This year though, iPhone photos are much improved. Dynamic range and sharpness are better. While the upgrades aren’t groundbreaking, photos are now on par with Android.
Video has always been iPhone’s strongest point. Right out of the box, iPhone videos look fantastic with lovely colors and smooth stabilization. It has stayed well ahead of Android for video quality.
This year, iPhone video is even better with improvements to stabilization, low-light performance, and action shots. Videos taken on the iPhone look much sharper and smoother compared to a top Android device like the Pixel phone. It’s great for things like sports, hiking, and biking videos where you get shaky footage otherwise.
The iPhone also has useful features for video creators, like a dedicated shutter button and support for high-quality formats like ProRes. You can even use external mics and storage with the new USB-C port. These features make the iPhone a great choice for casual and serious video content creators.
While Android phones can also shoot high-quality video, it’s often limited to very expensive phones. The iPhone makes pro-level video accessible to more people.
In summary, iPhone photos have finally caught up to Android. But for video, the iPhone remains the smartphone to beat, especially for casual and enthusiast users.
