I put the new Pixel 11 Pro XL astrophotography mode to the test against this $3,000 proper astro camera setup — and the difference is surprising
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Ever since the Pixel 9 Pro XL, Google’s flagships have consistently impressed me with their astrophotography performance — and the latest Pixel 11 Pro XL is shaping up to be no exception. That’s largely down to its updated Night Sight engine, which directly dictates how effectively it navigates the nuances of night-sky imaging.
But that effortless automation is precisely one of the biggest strengths of shooting on the Pixel: all the heavy processing happens silently in the background. Google claims this updated Night Sight captures up to 4.5 times faster than prior generations, but I wanted to see how it holds up against dedicated hardware.
To find out, I pitted it against an OM SYSTEM OM-3 Astro setup — a $2,500 specialized mirrorless body meant to capture the night sky paired with a fast Olympus 12mm f/2 lens. On paper, it looks like an absurd mismatch, but the side-by-side results downright surprised me.
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Point and shoot ready
The greatest advantage of shooting astrophotography with the Pixel 11 Pro XL is that you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to capture scenes filled with brilliant, twinkling stars. With a dedicated setup like the OM SYSTEM OM-3 Astro, you can’t just lean on full auto and hope it takes care of the rest. Instead, you have to dial in manual exposures, balance your ISO, and make sure your focus is spot on.
The Pixel effortlessly turns any first-time astrophotography shooter into a seasoned pro. All you have to do is follow my usual advice: secure the phone to a tripod, point it toward the sky, and switch over to Night Sight. Once the phone detects that it’s completely stationary, the shutter icon transforms into the dedicated Astrophotography mode. One tap of the shutter button is all it takes, and Google’s computational engine handles the rest.
Pixel 11 Pro XL vs OM SYSTEM OM-3 Astro: the results
For this shootout, it’s worth noting that I’m comparing a single exposure captured on the OM SYSTEM OM-3 Astro rather than taking a full sequence and stacking them. Meanwhile, the Pixel 11 Pro XL relies on an automated computational exposure that can take several minutes to complete.
The differences between computational photography and specialized dedicated glass might be tough to spot at first glance, but they become apparent once I comb through the details. Across the board, photos from the Pixel 11 Pro XL showcase the triumphs of Google’s algorithms. The images are remarkably clean and bright, utilizing an exposure that lifts the night sky into a slightly overexposed gray tone.
This approach pulls in an incredible amount of ambient light, drawing out faint stars that my own eyes struggled to see even after adjusting to the dark. Crucially, foreground trees and passing clouds remain surprisingly sharp and well-defined. However, the photographer in me easily notices the flattened, high-dynamic-range aesthetic that often accompanies heavy computational processing.
In comparison, shots from the OM SYSTEM OM-3 Astro offer a dramatically more atmospheric look. The camera’s specialized optical filter produces a rich, deep-teal sky with punchy contrast that immediately catches the eye.
Stars are noticeably sharper, revealing a denser, more defined field of light that software trickery struggles to replicate. The only downside to the 15-second exposure I stuck to is that the foreground trees show slight softness and wind-induced motion blur — highlighting the computational edge the Pixel holds when it comes to stabilizing the surrounding landscape.
Time-lapse surprise
Beyond delivering a finished still image with excellent fidelity, the Pixel 11 Pro XL also creates a short time-lapse clip that I can easily share. Every time I trigger an astrophotography exposure, Google’s camera app quietly compiles a brief video capturing the night sky’s movement and drifting clouds over the duration of the shot. The beauty of this is that there’s nothing more I need to do — the clip simply appears alongside the final photo in the Google Photos app.
Pulling this off with the OM SYSTEM OM-3 Astro is a far more involved ordeal. It requires setting up an intervalometer, capturing hundreds of frames, and offloading massive batches of images into desktop software like Lightroom or Premiere to stitch and render the sequence manually. With the Pixel, that entire workflow is reduced to a single shutter press.
Bottom line
At the end of the night, the specialized camera still takes the crown in my opinion. That’s because the OM SYSTEM OM-3 Astro’s larger sensor and fast 12mm f/2 glass deliver the kind of depth, contrast, and pin-sharp star definition that serious astrophotographers crave.
Yet, comparing a $2,500 dedicated mirrorless body to a phone I can slide into my pocket highlights just how unbelievably capable modern mobile photography has become. The Pixel 11 Pro XL doesn’t require years of experience to master — you just need a sturdy tripod and a single tap of the shutter. And I certainly can’t find fault with that.
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