We consciously focused on a realistic zoom range (3x, 5x, 10x) that can achieve good results in everyday use. In terms of optical zoom, the iPhone 14 Pro Max features a telephoto lense with 3x zoom while the Pixel 7 Pro uses 5x zoom. The Galaxy S22 Ultra has two telephoto lenses with 3x/10x optical zoom, and the Vivo X80 Pro provides 2x and 5x optical zoom.
None of the manufacturers can achieve decent image quality in the dark, and even in daylight and in a well-lit room, all smartphones achieve significantly lower quality at 3x zoom. Overall, the Pixel 7 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max achieve the best results in this scenario, although Apple once again has issues with color calibration.
The Vivo X80 Pro achieves decent sharpness in our photo with 5x zoom, but the iPhone 14 Pro Max also does well in ideal lighting. The Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S22 Ultra’s photos have an overly warm color temperature and are more blurry.
While the Google phone (like the iPhone 14 Pro Max) doesn’t do particularly well at 10x zoom, the Samsung flagship manages to produce a decent, albeit overly sharp image. The Vivo phone manages to capture the steeple quite nicely, which is somewhat surprising as it uses hybrid zoom, unlike the Samsung flagship.
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