Google's Pixel and Pixel XL go toe-to-toe with Apple's iPhone 7 Plus in speed and fingerprint scanner tests, bringing to light how the hottest smartphones this year are faring against each other.
Before kicking things off, the man behind the videos is the YouTube user SuperSaf TV, and he covered a lot of factors to determine which handset comes out on top.
Now that that's cleared up, here's what he uncovered:
Pixel vs. iPhone 7 Plus: Speed Test
The smartphones facing each other in this test involves the 5-inch Pixel and the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus, not the 5.5-inch Pixel XL despite sporting the same screen size as the Apple contender. According to the YouTuber, that's because the two have the same 1080p resolution.
Now, the iPhone 7 Plus equipped with an A10 processor and 3 GB of RAM beat the Pixel's Snapdragon 821 and 4 GB of RAM offering by a mile in Geekbench 3 results, clocking in at 3,488 in single-core and 5,590 in multi-core tests against 1,565 and 4,103 respectively.
Back then, early benchmarks of the Pixel and Pixel XL were outperformed by the iPhone 7, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE in Geekbench 4, so the results this time around shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
That said, winning on this front doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to run faster in day-to-day usage, but still, the scores provide a good representation of what the hardware components bring to the table.
Going over the specifics, the test mainly consists of loading up the default calculator apps; native browsers Chrome and Safari and opening a BBC article; starting Twitter, Instagram and YouTube; and firing the games Angry Birds 2, Temple Run 2, Subway Surfers and Dead Trigger 2.
The gist of it all is that the Pixel triumphs over the iPhone 7 Plus in many ways, but it does lose in some of them.
Pixel XL vs. iPhone 7 Plus: Fingerprint Scanner Speed Test
For the fingerprint scanner speed test, it's the Pixel XL against the iPhone 7 Plus.
To be fair, the YouTuber conducted it in separate videos, mashed them and made sure to sync them at the exact time he hits the sensors.
The test involved unlocking the devices via the fingerprint scanner from the standby and locked screens. A second set was carried out, and this time around, the animations were disabled or reduced as much as possible to guarantee they weren't affecting the results.
Based on the clip, the Pixel XL was the clear winner, but it's only slightly quicker. At any rate, a fast fingerprint scanner isn't really much to brag about. It's probably just something nice to have.
The Bottom Line
The Pixel, Pixel XL and iPhone 7 Plus are speed demons of their own, and they don't really go far from one another in terms of performance.
On that note, the tests shouldn't be much to go by in deciding which one of the smartphones tested is the better pick, and users are likely better off choosing based on their preferences.
What do you think of the speed and fingerprint scanner tests? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
Also, be sure to check out SuperSaf TV's channel for more videos like these.
