The pricey Pixel 6 Pro has a more advanced camera stack than the value-focused Pixel 6a, but is the difference worth an extra $450? Check out our test images to help you decide.
I love portable technology—if you can put it in a pocket or a bag, I’m probably into it. I’ve covered phones and tablets of all shapes and sizes, and reviewed everything from game consoles to laptops in my decade-plus career. Prior to joining PCMag, I wrote articles for Android Authority, How-To Geek, MUO, New Atlas, Tom’s Hardware, and plenty of other tech publications.
The midrange Google Pixel 6a ($449) earned our Editor's Choice award in no small part because of its imaging prowess. Simply put, it's one of the best midrange camera phones on the market.
At $899, the Pixel 6 Pro costs twice as much as the Pixel 6a, and fittingly includes higher-end camera components as part of the upgrade. But if image quality is your main concern, is the Pixel 6 Pro really worth double the price of the Pixel 6a?
To help you decide, we pit their cameras against each other in several common photography situations so you can see the difference and determine which model is the better buy for your needs.
Before you look at our real-world photo samples from the Pixel 6a and Pixel 6 Pro, here's a quick rundown of the camera specs and features you get with each phone.
To start, the high-end Pixel 6 Pro's main camera uses a 50MP Octa PD Quad Bayer sensor, whereas the Pixel 6a mainly relies on a 12.2MP dual-pixel sensor. The Pro offers four times the resolution of the 6a, but the image output sizes are pretty similar because the former oversamples images; both phones save photos at around 12MP (4,080-by-3,027-pixel) resolution. If you're interested in how oversampling works and why it makes a difference for detail capture, check out our article on CMOS, BSI CMOS, and Stacked CMOS sensors and pay attention to the section on Quad Bayer tech.
Outside of resolution, the Pixel 6 Pro's 26mm lens has an f/1.85 aperture. The Pixel 6a's lens offers an f/1.7 aperture and captures photos at a 27mm focal length. The difference between 26mm and 27mm isn't massive, but the 6 Pro's wider field of view lets in slightly more of a scene.
Both phones use the same wide-angle hardware: a 12 MP, f/2.2 camera with a 17mm focal length. Images from these lenses look almost identical, and the only difference stems from how the two devices process photos.
The Pixel 6 Pro has an extra lens that the Pixel 6a doesn't—a 48MP telephoto camera with a 104mm focal length (4x optical zoom ratio compared with the standard lens). If you want to capture tight frames without compromising quality, the Pixel 6 Pro is the clear winner on paper. We explore how the two handle zooming in on subjects in the tests below.
In terms of software, Google includes just about everything in the more expensive Pixel 6 and 6 Pro in the 6a. That means you get Real Tone, Magic Eraser, Night Shot, Top Shot, and all the other software-based goodies.
We took several pairs of photos in various lighting environments with each phone's primary camera. In theory, the Pixel 6 Pro's images should look sharper based on its higher-resolution sensor, but it's more important to examine real-world results than to just look at the numbers.
It's tough to spot the difference between the Google Pixel 6a and 6 Pro in environments with good sunlight. Even though the 6 Pro captures more detail at the onset, its final output doesn't look very different (especially on the web). The pricier Pixel Pro still has an edge in detail—it's just not as dramatic an advantage as the raw numbers indicate.
The Pixel 6a and Pixel 6 Pro both offer Google's fantastic Night Sight feature on the main lens, which works well in dim-light settings. In the above photos of my dog, the image from the Pixel 6a seems a bit brighter, but I prefer the slightly wider field of view on the 6 Pro. That makes for a tie.
I took the above photos inside my closet in almost total darkness. Here, the Pixel 6 Pro captures a bit more detail than the Pixel 6a, though neither photo is very usable. Still, it's a good way to stress-test the Night Sight feature. We're impressed that the shirts are even visible in these photos.
When you use Portrait Mode in sunlight, you should get similar results from both cameras. They even seem to apply roughly the same amount of bokeh to the background in the tests above. That said, the slightly wider view of the Pro gives it an edge.
It's difficult to distinguish the macro performance between the two phones; both show the same amount of detail just at slightly different angles of view. If you want to get close to your subject, you should be able to capture great photos with either camera.
Although both phones use the same wide lens, it's still important to see if there are any differences in how they process images.
It's not surprising that these photos look similar given the identical hardware. We can't pick a winner here.
We also tested the wide-angle lens in a low-light setting to see if the devices process images differently. Even here, the photos look essentially the same.
The Pixel 6 Pro has a dedicated zoom lens with 4x optical zoom. The Pixel 6a doesn't. We zoomed into images we took in sunlight to see if we can ascertain how much of a benefit that extra lens offers.
When you zoom in, you can see some extra detail in the Pixel 6 Pro's shot. Both images look great, though.
The telephoto lens on the Pixel 6 Pro shines at 4x zoom, whereas the Pixel 6a starts to struggle. You can clearly see an improvement in detail on the 6 Pro; the 6a's image looks comparatively washed out.
The Pixel 6 Pro comes with an 11.1MP front-facing camera with an f/2.2 aperture. The Pixel 6a features an 8MP lens with an f/2.0 aperture. Clearly, the former's hardware is better, but the practical difference isn't that substantial.
As mentioned, the Pixel 6 Pro's front-facing camera offers a slightly higher resolution. But, in practice, both cameras produce very similar images in this scenario. I prefer the image from the Pixel 6 Pro because the colors in the Pixel 6a's image look a little too bright. Still, the differences are pretty slight.
In a slightly dimmer indoor space, the images look even more similar. You really have to study them to see any differences.
I took the above selfies in almost complete darkness, with just a small amount of light coming through the curtain. Neither image looks great (despite Google Night Sight's best efforts), but neither is dramatically worse than the other either.
The Pixel 6 Pro's camera stack is better than the one in the Pixel 6a, but that isn't surprising given the difference in price between the two handsets. Most notably, the pricier Pixel 6 Pro shows more fine detail in complex scenes, along with more accurate colors. If you're simply looking for the best Pixel camera quality no matter the cost, the Pixel 6 Pro is the phone to get. These differences alone aren't enough to justify the Pixel 6 Pro's $450 premium, however. Of course, the Pixel 6 Pro also brings a host of other improvements over the Pixel 6a that justify its higher price, including a larger, sharper display and class-leading battery life.
But, in terms of camera performance, the Pixel 6a offers truly impressive performance for the price, nearly on par with the Pixel 6 Pro. That means the winner is you, the buyer, as both of these phones earned our Editors' Choice award. They represent some of the finest midrange and high-end phones currently available.
For more on mobile photography, check out our 10 easy tips and tricks for better smartphone photos.
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I love portable technology—if you can put it in a pocket or a bag, I’m probably into it. I’ve covered phones and tablets of all shapes and sizes, and reviewed everything from game consoles to laptops in my decade-plus career. Prior to joining PCMag, I wrote articles for Android Authority, How-To Geek, MUO, New Atlas, Tom’s Hardware, and plenty of other tech publications.
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