iPhone 17e vs Pixel 10a 2026 Budget Camera Shootout

Google and Apple announced their 2026 budget phones last month, with the Pixel 10a launching March 5th, just ahead of the iPhone 17e on March 11.

Priced at $849, the Pixel 10a offers a small hardware refresh over last year’s model, while the iPhone 17e doubles the base storage but starts at $999. 

Hardware wise, the iPhone 17e packs a single 48MP Fusion camera system, while the Pixel 10a offers a dual rear camera system which includes a 48 MP wide sensor and a 13 MP.

As far as the tests being conducted. I left all the settings on full auto, and simply tapped the display to get the focus on the object in frame, letting the camera app do the rest once it finished focusing.

So, with that subjective difference out of the way, let’s have a quick look at how good these two can be.

Daylight

We’re basically at a point where daylight photography from a phone sensor is pretty good. A combination of larger, cheaper and more efficient sensors have brought us to the point where you point and shoot and pick up a great shot.

On this shot here, the colouring was more accurate on the Pixel 10a – however the iPhone 17e still captured all the great detail of the wall and grass as well.

For this shot of the AED, the light was fading as the sun was just about to drop below the horizon. The iPhone 18e nailed the colour in the sun, but tended to mute the shadow area – whereas the Pixel did the opposite, giving a more even tone to the lit and shadowed areas. iPhone nailed it on this one though, including getting some crisper details in the background.

No real notes on this one, the iPhone 17e got a much crisper shot and captured more on the texture of the foam, as well as keeping the reflections on the cup and spoon more in focus.

Wide/UltraWide and Zoom

The lack of ultrawide on the iPhone 17e, and the lack of an optical zoom on either the Pixel 10a or iPhone 17e certainly limits some aspects of photography. The iPhone 17e has been prepped for this with the Fusion Camera system able to crop the shot to a 12MP shot without losing too many details.

iPhone 17e

Pixel 10a

At no stage are any of these shots bad, and with the quality of the 1x sensor you get details through the water on both sensors with the background crisp and in focus. The only details I note was the colouring which the Pixel seems to have nailed more naturally on this one with a more vibrant result – and ultrawide is always appreciated.

Macro

Taking a close, macro shot isn’t something we all need to do, but it is nice to have when you want it. Google has included a macro mode on its Pixel 10a, automatically utilising the ultra-wide lens to initiate macro focus when you get within a few cm of your target. Apple does normally include a macro mode, however with the single 48MP Fusion camera sensor, it’s not possible.

This shot is highly subjective with a very busy bee moving on the flower as the subject, but Google did actually nail all the individual fronds of the flower as well as the grains of pollen on the bristles of the bee.

Even without a dedicated Macro mode, the iPhone still did quite well here with even lighting and good colour reproduction, with Pixel 10a giving a good result

Night Shots

If there’s a choice for night shots, both the iPhone 17e and Pixel 10a have excellent algorithms to capture as much light as possible. This shot of the Ouroborous at the Australian National Gallery has great tests for the sensor with reflections from the pool of water as well as ambient light.

The iPhone 17e has great depth and also tends to not blow out the light in the image as much as the Pixel 10a in this shot. The Pixel 10a has captured more light, including the background a little better – but for the final shot, the iPhone 17e is the better shot here as the focus is the sculpture and the iPhone shot highlights it more.

This shot of a painted utility box captured well on both, shows a little more clarity around the edges from the Pixel 10a, while the iPhone 17e has gone for a more darker tone to the capture for some of the plants and covers. The iPhone 17e has also gone for a darker tone which didn’t quite capture the light as accurately as I recall – so the Pixel 10a gets this one.

Taking night photos, I’ve captured the Carillion a couple of hundred times at night and it’s a wonderful shot – but frankly the iPhone nailed it here. While the Pixel is busy showing off the night sky with the city lights, the iPhone focused on the Carillion and captured the access bridge lit up in crisp detail with the reflections not lost in a mush like in the Pixel shot.

Time for the Pixel 10a to show off the wide-angle and it’s quite a mushy image overall. Even the main image was a little blown out with the light with the iPhone 17e capturing the lighting and tone more accurately

Astrophotography

Both the Pixel 10a and iPhone 17e will take long exposure shots suitable for astrophotography. The Pixel 10a does have a slight advantage with an actual ‘astrophotography’ mode as part of its Night Sight algorithm. If you put the phone on a tripod and hit the shutter, it will automatically start a 4 minute exposure, stacking images to create a final shot. The iPhone 17e simply has longer exposures based on the amount of light hitting the sensor. The best I could get was a 30-second exposure, however even that was impressive.

As far as a winner goes. They’re both excellent shots, and while the iPhone 17e looks good for a 30-second exposure it’s still not as crisp and the stacked final shot from the Pixel is, for my money, the better shot here.

Selfie

Making the selfie camera look good is my jam and frankly the iPhone got more detail on their selfie-camera than the Pixel, but the colouring was better on the Pixel 10a so it gets my pic for this one – and yes, I cleaned my glasses once I looked at the pics.

Final Thoughts

The winner here is us. Both the Pixel 10a and iPhone 17e have an excellent camera on-board. The Pixel 10a offers a little more freedom with the 0.5x UltraWide option on-board, but the iPhone 17e offers a decent field of view at 1x to capture a fair amount.

In terms of camera quality, both the Pixel 10a and iPhone 17e include computational photography algorithms running on top of these top notch camera sensors on both phones – giving them distinct ‘iPhone’ and ‘Pixel’ look which is very much a personal preference – though as I found with these tests, sometimes that subjective preference can change on a case by case basis.

At this stage, a convincing budget camera isn’t likely to change your ecosystem, but if you are looking at what great budget cameras in the Google or Apple ecosystem, then these are two great examples.