Music, murals and museums: Photo comparison with two of the best smartphone cameras of 2025

Our two test devices are two high-end smartphones from Google and Oppo.

• The Google Pixel 9 Pro comes with a 50-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle and 48-megapixel periscope zoom lens. An optical zoom of up to 5x is possible. The Pixel smartphone is available for around €740 or an MSRP of $999 in the US.
   
• The Oppo Find X8 Pro is still more of an insider tip in most markets. However, the clean software and four 50-megapixel camera lenses make it well worth a look for photography fans. The two telephoto cameras with a focal length of 73 and 135 mm, both of which also have a periscope zoom, make the smartphone particularly interesting for taking pictures of distant objects or detailed shots. However, it is only available from a few retailers, where it costs less than €900 at the time of writing.

The camera system of the Oppo Find X8 Pro is of course more impressive at first glance, but the Google Pixel 9 Pro performed better in our photo comparison in London and proved that it can take very good photos. So it will be exciting to see how the two perform in Linz.

We arrive in the modern station district and make our way into the city center. As Linz is a compact city with around 200,000 people, it's easy to get around on foot. On the way, we keep noticing murals and large wall paintings on houses.

The mural in the picture shows Saint Jerome by Bartolomeo Schedoni. He was depicted on a painting that was to be transported from Modena to Dresden via Linz in the 18th century, but was lost along the way.

Even at first glance, the image from the Oppo Find X8 Pro appears somewhat clearer and sharper. The sharpness of detail is not perfect in either image, but Google's image appears much coarser and even has slight image errors along fine lines.

Looking down Landstraße, the main shopping street in the center of Linz, the Google Pixel 9 Pro impressed with sharper details.

The Danube, a major waterway and recreational area, still characterizes the city today. We walk from the city center down the Danube towards the harbor. A very special highlight for street art fans is said to be located there. But first we pass the Brucknerhaus, a concert hall named after the world-famous composer Anton Bruckner, who was born near Linz and also worked here for some time.

There are numerous statues and sculptures around the concert hall that relate to the theme of music. If you look at the first of the three figures playing a flute here, you might think that the Google Pixel 9 Pro would produce a much sharper image here. However, the fact is that the Oppo Find X8 Pro has simply chosen the second statue as the focus point.

Details in the background, such as the suspension of the awning at the top right or the bamboo sticks at the bottom of the image, also appear razor-sharp in the Oppo image, whereas they are somewhat blurred in Google's enlarged image.

Again the Pöstlingberg, this time reflected in the glass facade of the Bruckner House.

These reflections are shown well by both phones, so you can see nice effects here.

However, the "frame", so the metal parts of the facade and the steps, are much sharper on the Oppo phone.

After a short hike, we reach the winter harbor, which used to protect ships from ice. It is still used today, for example for excursion boats or rowing.

When we take a photo of the ships, the first thing we notice are the different colors. While Google focuses on the blue tones of the morning light, the Oppo image is less bluish. The traffic sign on the left in the Oppo picture is also much clearer to read.

With details such as the crane or the tangle of ship structures, the image from the Oppo camera appears more contrasty and clearer, while Google's image quickly becomes grainy.

The large Linz harbor area is also a huge commercial area with stores and offices on the land side. Not an incredibly exciting place for a walk, you might think, if there weren't murals everywhere.

For example, we discover one on a residential building showing two birds.

The picture from the Google Pixel 9 Pro appears somewhat more grainy in detail. Lines are less clean and colors are more uneven. At the same time, the roof surface of the house appears sharper and more detailed in the photo from the Google phone.

Now we are approaching the hotspot for street art fans in Linz, the Mural Harbor. Large parts of the harbor area are decorated with huge murals, but other objects in the harbor have also been artistically transformed. The harbor is still in use, which is why entry is only permitted with a guide.

As there were no guided tours on the day of our visit, we can only take photos of the area visible from the street. But that is impressive enough. Two silos have been redecorated as ketchup and mustard bottles.

Only the largest letters on the tomato bottle is clearly legible in the photos from both phones. The smaller lettering is distorted, you can see that Google's AI is trying to create legible characters here, but failed to do so.

The male holding the word "Naise" appears much sharper in the photo from the Google phone than in the Oppo.

In the evening, we walk through the alleyways of the old town and up to the old Linz Castle, which has been converted into a museum with a modern extension.

From up here you have a great view of the city with its baroque church towers and the steaming chimneys of the factories in the distance.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro brightens up a little bit more here, but overdoes the colors, for example in the red tree on the left. The photo from the Oppo camera is again sharper in detail, but the photos from both phones convey a beautiful night mood.

There is a statue in the castle park, which casts a huge shadow on the wall behind it thanks to the dramatic lighting.

In fact, the Google Pixel 9 Pro manages to bring out the different colors of the masonry better and make the photo look more mystical overall by using slightly warmer lighting. However, the leg of the statue is also much brighter than in the picture from the Oppo phone.

Linz's main square is still home to hotels that have been accommodating guests for centuries.

The picture of the neon sign shows a different approach of the two cameras. While the Google Pixel 9 Pro lets the neon lights shine through and thus shows a nice effect, the Oppo Find X8 Pro chooses a lower exposure for this area, making the lettering easier to read.

On our last day in Linz, we finally want to explore the Pöstlingberg, which dominates the other side of the Danube.

This is very easy with the Pöstlingbergbahn, you can simply get on at the main square and ride up. It is a technical masterpiece, namely one of the steepest adhesion railroads in the world. This means that it works without a cogwheel drive or cable pull. It was opened in 1898.

The carriages that run up the Pöstlingberg today are no longer original, but have a pretty retro-style interior with wooden benches and a beige-green exterior.

Both cell phones take a very sharp picture of the Pöstlingbergbahn, there are hardly any differences to be seen here. The stop sign in the background is shown a little more accurately on the Pixel 9 Pro.

Of course, you also have a wonderful view of Linz, the Danube and the Alps in the distance from the mountain. So we grab the two phones and take a video in 4K and at 60 fps.

The first impression is quite similar for both phones. Great image quality, while the Oppo Find X8 Pro suppresses wind noise a little better.

You can clearly see how the phones switch between the lenses when zooming. This only happens once on Google's Pixel 9 Pro and twice on the Oppo device, although the final quality at maximum zoom is of course significantly better on the Find X8 Pro. On the other hand, Google's zoom is smoother.