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We asked, you told us: The Pixel 5 takes better pictures than the Galaxy S20 FE
June 28, 2025
TheGoogle Pixel 5andSamsung Galaxy S20 Fan Editionare two of the more reasonably priced high-end phones at the moment. Samsung’s phone offers better value for money on paper, thanks to that flagship processor, a higher refresh rate, and a triple rear camera setup.
Is a triple rear camera setup and a top-end processor enough to overcome the new Pixel’s dual rear camera and algorithmic photography smarts though? We pitted thePixel 5 against the Galaxy S20 FEin a camera shootout, and asked you to pick a winner.
Which phone takes better photos: Pixel 5 or Galaxy S20 FE?
A grand total of 8,191 votes were cast after weposted the pollon October 16, and 78.4% of respondents picked the Pixel 5 as the winner here. Meanwhile, 21.6% of you lot thought the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE delivered better results.
We thought the two phones were pretty evenly matched in daylight and middling lighting conditions, but felt that the Pixel 5 pulled ahead in low light. This seemed pretty apparent in the pictures showing our own David Imel, with Samsung’s phone churning out darker, noisier results.
Still, we thought the Samsung phone edged out the Pixel in a few scenarios, while the presence of a telephoto camera means it has better zoom capabilities than the Pixel 5 — even when taking night-time shots.
It’s also worth noting that the Pixel 5 is still using the IMX363 main camera sensor (1/2.55-inch size, 1.4 micron pixels) which first appeared on the Pixel 3 and is a negligible upgrade over the IMX362 sensor seen on the Pixel 2. The FE’s 12MP main camera sensor, on the other hand, is larger and has bigger pixels for better light-gathering capabilities in theory. So on the one hand, this is once again a testament to Google’s software prowess after all this time.
On the other hand, it really makes you wonder what Google could do if it used the S20 FE’s main sensor and tuned the software accordingly. In fact, we think Google’s phones are overdue for acamera hardware upgrade.
Your comments
That’s it for our Pixel 5 versus Galaxy S20 FE poll! Thanks so much for voting and submitting comments. What do you make of the results and comparison? Let us know in the comments below.
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