Category Archives: Astrophotography

The best lenses for astrophotography are ideal tools for producing vivid, striking images of the stars and the night sky. It’s easy for photographers to be intimidated away from astrophotography, but the truth is that it’s easier than it looks, as long as you have the right gear. That means a sturdy tripod, a camera with a decent-sized sensor, and critically, a sharp, wide-angle lens with a wide maximum aperture.

We’ve dealt with the other two necessities in our guides to the best tripods and the best cameras for astrophotography – here, we’re focusing on the lens. It needs to be a wide-angle, in order to capture as much of the sky as possible, and so you’re looking at 14-20mm on a full-frame camera, 1-14mm on APS-C, or 7-10mm on Micro Four Thirds.

What could be better than buying one of the best cameras in the world? When you can save hundreds of dollars with an Amazon Prime Day camera deal!

We’ve named the Sony A7R IV as the best camera overall in 2023 and its astronomy variant the best mirrorless camera for astrophotography and the Sony A7R IV is now over $200 off for Prime Day.

The Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens typically makes up one-third of the ‘holy trinity’ of lenses (usually a 16-35mm, a 24-70mm and a 70-200mm to cover a wide range of focal lengths), so we were stoked to see that Amazon is offering a big discount on this fantastic all-rounder lens that works for a number of different uses and shooting styles. 

It’s currently on sale on Amazon for $1598 (down from $2183.22), although at the time of writing, there are only 2 left in stock, so if you want to snap one up you’ll have to be quick. We’ve also found it on B&H Photo and Adorama for the same price, although their ‘before’ price is a lot lower, and we know how Amazon retailers love to inflate the prices just before the deals hit to make it look like a better discount than it actually is.

Sábado de julio, cielos despejados y ganas de salir al campo con los telescopios pero hay un problema. Es uno de esos días «raros» en los que no hay planetas a la vista hasta altas horas de la noche y en los que no sabes si compensa irte lejos porque la Luna sale a las 01:30 apenas 2 horas de iniciarse la noche astronómica, lo que te da apenas 2 horas de cielo realmente oscuro. Para colmo, había quedado con un amigo para salir y en el último momento tuvo un cambio de planes así que ¿Qué hacemos? Los lugares cercanos o tienen mal cielo o no me dan tranquilidad de ir solo. Los lugares lejanos no me compensan. Al final me resigno y nos vamos al centro comercial a hacer unas compras obligadas por una boda próxima y cenamos fuera. He cambiado las estrellas y los planetas por el ocio capitalista, me siento sucio.

Volvemos a casa a eso de las 23:30 y nos ponemos una peli en Netflix. Siento un vacío dentro de mí. Ojeo las redes sociales en el móvil y abro la App de SkySafari para torturarme y saber lo que me estoy perdiendo. Veo que Saturno está ya sobre el horizonte y me asomo a la ventana con poca esperanza de poder verlo porque sale demasiado hacia el sur, con mala visibilidad desde casa pero para mi sorpresa está al alcance de la vista. Es más, una hermosa Luna menguante está también apareciendo por el horizonte, más hacia el este… ¿Y si me traigo el telescopio al salón y hago unas fotos a Saturno? Noto que la ilusión me da un subidón de energía así que no me lo pienso más.

El telescopio no tengo ni que montarlo, es moverlo de la habitación donde he estado haciendo solar esta tarde hasta el salón. Ni lo quito de la montura, el Mak127 y la Az-GTi son ligerísimos. En 5 minutos ya lo tengo plantado en el salón y estoy alineado. Pongo la cámara enciendo el portátil y enfoco a Saturno. Ahí están sus anillos, mucho más estilizados que el año pasado ya que van reduciendo su inclinación con respecto a nosotros. Capturo unos cuantos vídeos y me quedo satisfecho. ¡Primer Saturno de la temporada conseguido!

A continuación apunto a la Luna y voy sacando algunos vídeos más, de zonas conocidas como Plato y Vallis Alpes, Sinus Iridum, el majestuosos Copernicus o Clavius, zonas de la Luna que habitualmente no suelo observar ya que siempre es más favorable observar la fase creciente que la menguante. De repente recuerdo que tengo un ocular Zoom de Svbony que me llegó el otro día y del que tengo que hacer una review así que desmonto la cámara y me pongo a hacer un poco de visual con él. Es un ocular zoom de grandes aumentos 3-8mm y por el seeing y altura de la Luna no le saco provecho a menos de 6mm. Aun así disfruto de un terminador espectacular con un montón de detalles y una Rima Ariadaeus como nunca he disfrutado. Mare Vaporum me llamó mucho la atención por su oscuridad y contraste.

Abandono el terminador y regreso a la zona iluminada para detenerme en Aristarco y su espectacular albedo. Junto a él la famosa «cabeza de cobra» en Vallis Schröteri.

Con el adaptador de digiscoping grabé algunos vídeos con el móvil y después monté un 38mm de Baader para sacar una panorámica general de la Luna para finalmente seguir en visual con el Zoom de Baader entre 8 y 24mm, una focal mucho más agradecida para la ocasión y que disfruté como un niño. Tanto es así que cuando me quise dar cuenta ya eran las 03:30 y Júpiter brillaba sobre el horizonte. Dentro de poco lo tendré un poco más a tiro pero no desperdicié la ocasión de echarle un primer vistazo aunque la extinción atmosférica era tan bestial que apenas se distinguían sus bandas.

Parecerá una tontería, pero una breve e improvisada sesión de observación urbana me animó muchísimo y me fui a dormir mucho más relajado, con la sensación de haber aprovechado el fin de semana para lo que realmente me gusta, que es la astronomía. Supongo que a muchos de vosotros os pasará.

Recientemente he tenido la oportunidad de probar los prismáticos SV206 de Svbony. Estos prismáticos 10×50 se ajustan muy bien a las necesidades de un observador astronómico por tener una pupila de salida de 5mm y ser ligeros, además tienen una calidad óptica adecuada para la observación de los astros en condiciones de baja luminosidad.

No necesitamos grandes aumentos para iniciarnos en la observación astronómica de cielo profundo. Con estos prismáticos de 10 aumentos ya podremos disfrutar de la observación de cúmulos, nebulosas e incluso galaxias desde cielos oscuros. Realmente un buen cielo es el factor más importante para disfrutar de la observación pero incluso te puedes llevar una sorpresa si coges estos prismáticos y miras el cielo desde un entorno con contaminación lumínica ¡Verás muchas más estrellas de las que se ven a simple vista!

Yo habitualmente practico astrofotografía pero me gusta siempre tener a mi lado unos prismáticos sencillos para disfrutar del cielo mientras capturo imágenes. Ahora te voy a hablar de cómo rinden estos prismáticos SV206 de Svbony.

Características de los prismáticos SV206

El diseño óptico de estos prismáticos de tipo porro se basa en lentes BAK4 de cristal de bario ligero que es más caro que el BAK-7 que encontramos en los prismáticos de gama baja. El BAK4 tiene un índice de refracción más alto, y por lo tanto ofrece imágenes muy luminosas. Además la pupila de salida de unos prismáticos con óptica BAK4 ofrece una pupila de salida perfectamente redonda, algo que no ocurre en los BAK-7.

Las ópticas tienen además tratamiento FMC (Fully Multi-Coated), un recubrimiento múltiple de las superficies de vidrio que da una transmisión entre el 90-95% para mejorar la nitidez y el contraste.

Estos prismáticos son cómodos de utilizar gracias a su distancia ocular ajustable entre 60-70 mm, lo que permite ajustar la distancia interpupilar para conseguir una observación relajada. En el ocular derecho encontramos un ajuste de compensación de dioptrías (+-4D). El tamaño del ocular es de 23mm lo que lo hace cómodo de observar.

Otra característica de los SV206 es que ofrecen protección IPX6 de resistencia al agua y la humedad, algo importante para esas noches de observación invernales cuando sube la humedad ambiental. Para evitar la formación de vaho estos prismáticos están purgados con nitrógeno.

En general estamos ante unos binoculares con estructura robusta y ligera, gracias a su carcasa de goma, con un peso total de 1Kg.

Si queremos más estabilidad o descansar los brazos, estos prismáticos cuentan además con rosca para ajustar un trípode mediante tornillo UNC 1/4-20. También incluyen una correa para colocar al cuello y un paño de limpieza.

Un factor importante cuando compramos unos prismáticos es si se pueden colimar fácilmente y en el caso de estos SV205 no veo gomas que se puedan quitar para acceder a los tornillos de colimación. Supongo que habrá que desmontar alguna carcasa para poder hacerlo pero no parece algo trivial.

Pruebas realizadas con los SV206

Para comparar estos prismáticos y evaluar su calidad he realizado dos pruebas, una diurna y otra nocturna. En ambas pruebas he comparado los prismáticos SV206 con dos equipos de similares características, los Olympus 10×50 que uso habitualmente y con los que estoy encantado y los Bresser 10×50 que fueron mis primeros prismáticos astronómicos y que compré cuando no tenía presupuesto para nada mejor que cumpliera los requisitos mínimos.

En la prueba diurna se evaluó el peso, el tacto y el manejo de los prismáticos. A nivel óptico se evaluó la reproducción de color y las aberraciones cromáticas, la nitidez y defectos de viñeteo o diferencias de campo aparente.

En la prueba nocturna se evaluó el peso y la comodidad de uso. A nivel óptico se evaluaron las aberraciones cromáticas, la nitidez y la luminosidad.

La prueba nocturna fue desarrollada una noche con Luna en fase creciente en un entorno semi-rural con bastante contaminación lumínica, no fueron las mejores condiciones.

Opinión de los SV206

Tras las pruebas realizadas lo primero que salta a la vista es que los SV206 son los más pesados de los 3 prismáticos comparados. Los Bresser pesan 784g, los Olympus 855g y los Svbony 1023g algo que los hace un poco más incómodos de sostener a pulso durante largos periodos de tiempo. En cuanto a dimensiones también los SV206 son los más grandes de los 3.

Podríamos decir que esta diferencia de peso podría deberse a la diferencia de lentes. De los 3 prismáticos comparados solo los SV206 afirman llevar las lentes BAK4. No obstante sigue habiendo 150g de diferencia entre los Svbony y los Olympus.

Tenemos que ser realistas, no estamos ante unos cristales BAK4 de pura cepa (los Schott Bak4 con designación oficial 569561). Lo que aquí posiblemente tenemos es el denominado «BAK4 chino» o designación 552634 que se equipararía en características al Schott PSK3 (552635), un cristal mucho más económico. El precio de estos prismáticos es la principal prueba de ello. No obstante estamos ante lentes perfectamente aprovechables y con muy buen rendimiento, sin ser excepcionales.

Si eres de esos observadores puntillosos y meticulosos está claro que tienes que ir a otra gama de prismáticos.

En cuanto a luminosidad los SV206 han resultado claramente vencedores de la prueba presentando mayor transmisión de luz de manera notable con respecto a los Bresser y sutil con respecto a los Olympus.

En nitidez de imagen hay empate entre los Olympus y los Svbony. Ambos presentan imágenes muy bien definidas con estrellas puntuales en ambos casos. Hay algo que si me llamó mucho la atención y es que los bordes de los Svbony parecen «cortados» como si se hubiera querido reducir su campo de manera forzada para ocultar aberraciones en los bordes. Esto se aprecia claramente al comparar los campos de ambos prismáticos, siendo el del SV206 algo menor y produciendo un efecto de blackout periférico cuando intentamos observar hacia los bordes de la imagen.

Este tipo de apagón periférico es común entre los observadores que usan gafas pero en este caso yo no las estaba usando. En los Olympus el ocular es más pequeño que en los Svbony, donde gozamos de 23mm, me pregunto si tendrá algo que ver en este efecto observado y al tener un ocular tan grande terminamos viendo el «límite» del objetivo de 50mm.

Como digo, el SV206 carece de aberraciones en los bordes del campo de visión mientras que en los Olympus este efecto es bastante notorio.

En cuanto a reproducción de colores el SV206 me ha gustado mucho, quizá incluso más que los Olympus y si bien es perceptible una ligera aberración cromática cuando observamos objetos muy luminosos como la Luna hay que ser muy purista y casi ir a buscar el defecto para darse cuenta.

En general son unos buenos prismáticos para observación astronómica, con algunos puntos mejorables como el tamaño y el peso pero que rinden de manera aceptable y harán las delicias de cualquier observador astronómico bajo un cielo oscuro de calidad por un precio muy ajustado (80€ aprox frente a los 120€ de los Olympus). Si estás interesado en ellos aquí tienes el enlace a la tienda de Aliexpress.

The largest astrophotography competition in the world is wrapping up its 15th year. The contest’s officiating organization, the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, has released nineteen photographs officially in the running, one of which will be announced as the overall winner during a September 14 award ceremony.

In addition to the overall winner, the competition awards top photographers from nine different categories, and two “special prizes.” The categories include Skyscapes, Aurorae, People and Space, Our Sun, Our Moon, Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae, Planets, Comets and Asteroids, and also an award for Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year. The special prize awards include the Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer, and the Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation.

Each year, the Royal Observatory of Greenwich assembles a panel of art and astronomy experts as judges for the competition. This year, they received over 4,000 entires from 64 different countries. The nineteen photographs below are the official shortlist of final contenders.

Related: Stunning image of Comet Leonard breakup wins top astronomy photography prize of 2022

Sperrgebiet by Vikas Chander

Vikas Chanser took this photograph at an old diamond mine in the Namibian desert. “Sperrgebiet” is German for “restricted area”. In Chander’s entry, he explains the German diamond-mining settlements in Namibia during the early 1900s. “When the Germans eventually left ghost towns remained, which are still preserved in their natural state although in an advanced state of neglect and rot,” Chander says. His photo features a decayed processing plant from that era.

Ball of Rock by Rich Addis

That’s no moon…it’s two moons! Rich Addis’s “Ball of Rock” photograph features two images of the moon blended together. One of the lunar shots is during one of the moon’s partial phases, and is only 78 percent illuminated. That image is blended with a shot of the full moon, creating a dynamic shadow effect that gives the moon a more spherical, 3D appearance. “There are many images similar to this out there, but upon closer inspection, they often have duplicated features and are not as well matched,” Addis says, adding, “the image is a 22-panel mosaic. Each panel is 400 frames stacked and manually stitched together.”

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The Great Solar Flare by Mehmet Ergün

Mehmet Ergün captured this stunning view of the sun using an H-alpha solar telescope. In it, a large solar flare streaks like a scar across the star’s left side, Solar flares are common, and occur as eruptions of magnetic energy shooting from the sun’s surface. According to Ergün, the large solar flare pictured here measures over 430,000 miles (700,000 kilometers). That more than fifty times larger than Earth.

RCW58: Wolf Rayet Bubble by Mark Hanson and Mike Selby

This ultra-crisp starburst from astrophotographers Mark Hanson and Mike Selby is what’s known as a Wolf Rayet (WR) Bubble. These rare phenomena form around WR stars, which are low in hydrogen and contain a heavy element presence on their surface higher than most stars. The star photographed here, WR 40, is seen in the center of its surrounding nebula, formed by its own ejecta. “This just looks like you can hear it sizzling,” the astrophotographers said.

C/2021 A1 (Leonard) In Sky of Israel by Alex Savenok

Alex Savenok’s photograph captures a comet in the skies above Israel’s Negev desert. The comet, C/2021 A1 (Leonard), made a close approach to Earth in 2021 and 2022, and captivated stargazers as it graced the night sky. Savenok’s shot of Comet Leonard shows it hanging above the rocky mountain terrain of the Negev, just as the sun sets. The faint glow of the stars in the background adds to the sense of awe and wonder, creating a truly breathtaking, peaceful, otherworldly scene,” Savenok said.

NGC 3521: Marquise in the Sky by Mark Hanson and Mike Selby

Another stunning photo from Hanson and Selby, the NGC 3521 spiral galaxy is shown shining from 35 million lightyears away. It is unique among its galaxy family for having less defined arms, typically observed with spiral galaxies. NGC 3521 can be found in the constellation Leo. In the photographers’ own words, ”surrounded by dust, the galaxy has numerous star-forming areas and a luminous centre. The dust bubbles are likely to be from encounters and mergers long ago with satellite galaxies. There are also rarely seen Hydrogen Alpha jets emanating from this galaxy.”

Green Snakes by Filip Hrebenda

“It doesn’t matter how many times I see the aurora, it fascinates me as if I were seeing it for the first time,” says FIlip Hrebenda. Hi photograph of the green-shaded aurora borealis is aptly named. The shade paints the sky with curvy serpents of light, reflected in the streams in the foreground. Hrebenda captured this picture at Vikten beach, Loften Islands, Norway. The image is a composite featuring six stacked foreground shots and the aurora photo.

Pandora’s Box by Derek Horlock

The mural in the foreground of Derek Horlock’s photo is by a Balinese artist ‘Wild Drawing,’ and features a painting of Pandora, of ancient Greek myth. Horlock’s juxtaposition of Pandora, seemingly peaking out at the Milky Way serves as a hat-tip to an upcoming satellite, also named Pandora. When it launches, Pandora’s mission is to search for signs of life in other solar systems. “The moral of Pandora’s Box suggests that curiosity could be dangerous, and some things are best left alone. However,” Horlock says,  “[NASA] are not going to be dissuaded by the myth.”

Jellyfish Nebula by Peter Larkin

This photograph of the Jellyfish Nebula from Peter Larkin was created using a stack of images taken with different filters to capture the nebula using a variety of spectral perspectives. The technique highlights details otherwise invisible to the human eye. Larkin told the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, “I had a stretch of clear skies and started with H-alpha, then OIII (Oxygen III narrowband filter) and finally SII (sulfur II emission filter) from my garden close to Geneva, Switzerland. Once I had enough data, I went through each sub individually and removed any which weren’t visually perfect.”

Radio Polaris by João Yordanov Serralheiro

A deactivated radio telescope antenna sits in a field in front of a swirl of stars at Millard Radio Astronomy Observatory, in Cambridge, photographed using a remote shutter in 30-second intervals, and stacked by João Yordanov Serralheiro. This was Serralheiro’s first successful attempt at creating a star-trail image.

Dune by Burak Esenbey

Burak Esenbey shot this photo in Egypt’s White Desert. The edge of the sandy dune stretches to the center of the image and ends just below the photo’s brightest point: Venus. The arch of the Milky Way hangs above. “Dunes are the reason I love to shoot in the desert. Leading lines and structures are what you need, as well as an excellent sky quality,” Esenbey says.

A Rocky Rise by Carl Evans

Carl Evans shot this full moon photo from Broadhaven, Pembrokeshire. The outcropping in the middle is known as Church Rock. The image consists of two photos stacked to show the moo through the clouds and the birds in flight around Church Rock. “I stood on the beach at Broadhaven for a couple of hours waiting for the Moon to rise. The clouds initially hid the Moon and as I was walking away it appeared among the clouds, adding a nice effect over it,” Evans said of the photoshoot.

Solar Flare X1 from AR2994 in ‘Motion’ by Miguel Claro

A good photography app comes in handy, and Miguel Claro cites a notification he received from SpaceWeatherLive for alerting him to the solar flare he was able to capture. X-class solar flares are the largest, and as its name suggests, Solar Flare X1 from AR2994 was a whopper. Claro shot this image from the Dark Sky Alqueva region, Évora district, Portugal while testing out a new camera. “I had to immediately change my initial plans and pointed the telescope as quickly as possible to the limb where the flare departed from sunspot AR2994, already hidden behind the edge of the sun,” Claro said. His quick framing paying off, Claro was able to shoot a 27-minute time-lapse of the event.

Celestial Equator Above First World War Trench Memorial

To capture this image, Louis Leroux-Gere slept overnight in the recessed trenches of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, in France. The memorial remember World War I service members from Canada. Leroux-Gere says, “I slept in those trenches while my camera captured the rotation of the sky and was absolutely amazed by the stars.”

Crescent Moon in a Magical Sunset by Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau

For his submission, Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau describes the sunset on the day he shot his photograph. “The sky gave us an impressive spectacle: the clouds seemed to turn into flames with a very intense red colour. This magical moment was enhanced by the presence of the crescent Moon with 16% of its surface illuminated.” The image was created from the separate exposures, and stacked in photoshop to increase the photo’s dynamic range.

Starless Pillars by Jason Guenzel

The Eagle Nebula, home to the famous ‘Pillars of Creation’, from the Hubble Space Telescope, is nearly 7,000 lightyears away, and measures 70 light years across. This image of the giant stellar nursery was captured by Jason Gunnel, who used narrowband filters to accentuate layers of ionized gasses within the nebula. Noticeably absent from this stellar nursery image are the stars themselves. Guenzel removed the stars during photo post-processing in order to “let the eye wander unimpeded through the layers of nebulosity.” He calls the finished piece “abstract art of the Cosmos.”

The Milky Way by Kush Chandaria

A brilliantly vivid image of our galaxy, the Milky Way, shot by Kush Chandaria from the Okavango Delta, in Botswana. In his submission, Chandaria talks about being able to see the Milky Way with his own eyes for the first time, and the tragedy of increasing light pollution. There are many locations throughout the world untouched by light pollution, called Dark Sky zones. Unfortunately, the lights of growing cities make these areas fewer and fewer. “I can only hope that in capturing this image I can share the same feeling of amazement that I felt when I looked up at the sky that night,” Chandaria said.

Cassinified Pluto by Sergio Díaz Ruiz

Sergio Diaz Ruiz took inspiration for his submission from “Carte de la Lune,” a depiction of the moon from Jean-Dominique Cassini, the seventeenth century Italian astronomer for whom the Cassini probe is named after. With his image, Díaz Ruiz says he tried to answer the question, “what if Cassini could see this remote new world with his own eyes?” Díaz Ruiz used images of Pluto provided by the New Horizons probe, and rendered it in the likeness of Cassini’s Carte de la Lune, and enhanced to emulate engraving textures. Díaz Ruiz went so far as to apply the exact color pallet from Cassini’s work to his image, which was provided by the Library of the Utrecht University.

Emerald Roots by Lorenzo Ranieri Tenti

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— Astrophoto of the month: New supernova SN 2023ixf in the Pinwheel Galaxy

Iceland’s famous Vestrahorn Mountain rises from the wavy black sands of a Stokksnes peninsula beach, in Iceland, glowing in greens and pale yellows beneath the blazing aurora arched in the sky beyond the mountain. Lorenzo Ranieri Tenti has captured the rising moon, to the right of Vestrahorn, in his vertical panoramic photo, which he stacked to draw focus to the mountain and foreground. “I love how the ‘Green Lady’ lights up the frost with green while the rising moon makes ripples in the sand shine like gold,” he said.

The Pixel vs iPhone debate has been rumbling for years, but Google just lobbed a new grenade into the mix with a series of YouTube shorts that subtly savage the iPhone’s shortcomings.

The ‘Best Phones Forever’ series, which you can find on the Made by Google channel on YouTube, are five, light-hearted comedy shorts that show friendly chats between a sympathetic Pixel and an iPhone that appears to be having an existential crisis.

But underneath the jokes and high-quality production are a series of laser-targeted digs at the iPhone’s main shortcomings, from missing astrophotography modes and built-in VPNs to the lack of a foldable form factor. Naturally, the Google Pixel Fold makes an appearance in the final episode, ‘Opening Up’.

For example, in ‘Plateau’ the iPhone laments to the Pixel that “when I was your age people were still showing me off to their friends”. The forlorn iPhone adds that these days “it’s not the same, the way their friends compliment your photos – so sharp”. In an unsubtle nod to Google’s Photo Unblur feature, the Pixel adds: “I can unblur your photos for you, we don’t have to tell anyone”.

Towards the end of Plateau, Google really goes for the jugular, with the exasperated iPhone telling the chirpy Pixel: “Just stop! Astrophotography mode, call assist, 30x zoom – you can do so many things I may never be able to”.

Naturally, Google also goes after iMessage, the Apple messaging service that it unsubtly criticized during Google IO 2023 when talking about RCS (Rich Communication Services). In Plateau, the iPhone exclaims when referring to iMessage: “The bubbles! The bubbles! Is all I have to show for all my years on earth the color of a bubble? I mean, millions of people have waited in line for me”.

The rest of Google’s ad series similarly picks on iPhone pain points. In ‘Seeing stars’, the iPhone laments when looking at the Lagoon Nebula that “it must be nice to see them the way you do”. ‘Sketchy Wi-Fi’ naturally highlights the built-in VPN that comes with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, with the iPhone resorting to paid options.

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And in ‘Opening Up, the Google Pixel Fold naturally makes an appearance, impressing a dazed iPhone with its gaming-friendly form factor. This final video sums up the overall theme of the series – the iPhone has lost its innovative edge, and Pixels have all of the features it needs to adopt.

Of course, Google would say that – ‘Best Phones Forever’ is an ad campaign and a very good one at that. It also apes the format of the famous ‘I’m a Mac, I’m a PC’ adverts from 17 years ago. But there are good reasons why Google is running the series now.

The bigger picture

With the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Max expected to arrive in September, it’s a good point in the traditional phone release cycle for Google to crow about the innovations on the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.

Apple is also generating a lot of iPhone hype with its drip feed of new iOS 17 features, which Google is no doubt hoping to puncture with a reminder about Pixel features like Call Assist (which helps you screen calls) and the safety check feature that landed in the June 2023 Pixel Feature Drop.

But there’s also a broader picture that Google’s ‘Best Phones Forever’ campaign is attempting to change. Recently, we learned that Android fans are switching to iPhones in record numbers.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Apple’s worldwide market share is starting to reflect the dominance it’s long had in the US – and a big part of the reason is Gen Z’s increasing preference towards iPhones.

As TechRadar’s US Mobile Editor Philips Berne recently argued, the main thing that Google needs to fix most about Android is its reputation. And that starts with things like lengthy software support and less pre-loaded bloatware.

These are no doubt things that Apple would highlight if it responded with its own series of ‘iPhone vs Pixel’ shorts. But Google’s campaign makes some good points, particularly about the frustrating tactics of iMessage – and it’ll be hoping the shorts will at least check the upward trajectory of iPhones, particularly among Gen Z.