Now that Pixel Studio can generate people, is it better than Apple or Samsung?

When Google announced its Pixel-exclusive take on an image generator, Pixel Studio, as part of the Pixel 9 series, I went in with high hopes, even listing it as one of the first things to do with a new Pixel 9. I wanted to find out just how strict Google’s content limitations were and how quickly I could find the limits of the Imagen 3 model’s creativity. It didn’t take long to get around many of those protections regarding intellectual property, but there was one Pixel Studio limit I couldn’t skirt — the ability to generate images of people. At least, not until now.

As part of the March Pixel Drop, all Pixel 9 devices with Pixel Studio can finally generate images of people — well, some people. But now that it seems like Google’s image generator might be back on equal footing with Apple’s Image Playground and Samsung’s Drawing Assist, it’s time to put them head-to-head-to-head… again.

Google can finally generate people, but is anything else new?

So, it’s exciting that Pixel Studio can finally include people in its images, but it’s not all good news. As hinted above, there are still limits to who you can feature in your pictures, which means no famous people and, unfortunately, no people you know. Unlike both Apple and Samsung, Google still has no interest in letting you load up a familiar face from your camera roll to put them into an exciting situation like riding a dinosaur or piloting a spaceship to the moon — or having them swim in a pool filled with ramen noodles. It’s a bummer compared to the Image Playground and Drawing Assist, but we still haven’t touched on image quality.

Before we get to that, though, there are a few other new Pixel Studio wrinkles to cover — most notably that Google has more than doubled its art styles. At launch, Google’s image generator only covered seven options, including Freestyle, Cinematic, Video Game, and several others. Now, it packs 17 different art styles, adding Claymation, Watercolor, Ukiyo-e, Stained Glass, and several more. The new styles give Pixel Studio far more flexibility in terms of style than its closest competitors, but let’s see if it handles human subjects better, too.

Oh, and another piece of good news is that Google’s AI features are now live in Germany and Japan, allowing more users to explore Pixel Studio.

How good are Google’s generated people compared to Apple and Samsung?

At first, I thought that adding people to Pixel Studio would suddenly make comparing it head-to-head against Image Playground and Drawing Assist much easier. After all, there are only so many ways you can create people. However, as I quickly learned, there are just as many ways to limit the people you can create. So, I decided to give each platform the same three challenges to see what they would come up with. Here’s how it went:

Challenge 1: A man swimming in a pool filled with ramen noodles

Up first, we have perhaps the weirdest thing I’ve ever asked for from an AI image generator — or at least the weirdest set of results. I have to give Google some leeway here, as I set the Pixel Studio up in the Stained Glass style, and I have to say I like the result. Is it a normal human swimming in a pool of ramen noodles? No, but it feels like a work of religious art that’s unmistakably stained glass.

I’d have to say that Apple comes in second this time around, as it got closest to what I asked for but swapped a woman for a man. I’m also not sure that its creation counts as a pool full of noodles, so much as a pool with a couple of noodles in it. Either way, it’s better than Samsung’s effort, which skips the human element altogether in favor of a pool of noodles — albeit very good-looking ones.

Challenge 2: Myself cheering at a soccer game

This time around, I don’t think I can call Google’s creation the runaway winner. Although I like its Children’s Book art style, the challenge was to recreate me as the image’s focal point, and the Pixel Studio definitely didn’t do that. In fact, there’s no way it could have since I can’t use images of myself or anyone I know as inspiration. The resulting image at least gave the main subject big hair, which is kind of correct, but it’s not me.

Samsung handled my request at least a bit better, putting me in front of a stadium full of people and ensuring the finished subject looked like me. I’m also glad Samsung has eliminated its simple, solid backgrounds in the Portrait Studio section of Drawing Assist, as it makes my clothing and the lighting of the image much more interesting.

And then, there’s Apple’s Image Playground. Although I can easily tell that I’m the subject and I am in a soccer stadium, there’s something about the lifeless, unbalanced eyes and continuous teeth that feels freaky to me. I do like that Apple gave me more control over my clothing, allowing me to put on a baseball hat, but I don’t think it makes up for the not-very-human look in my eyes.

Challenge 3: A group of people climbing on a rock wall

Last but certainly not least, we have an attempt to make more than one person. And, of the bunch, only Google came close to filling the original brief. It’s the only one to have included more than one person like I asked for, and I’m once again willing to be a little bit flexible since I set it to the Construction Paper art style. In my head, I expected a result closer to what Apple came up with, featuring a wall covered in colorful holds, but I can’t deny that Google technically did as it was asked.

Also, Apple’s Image Playground once again hands in the most lifeless faces, with a blank look in the subject’s eyes and something weird about her teeth that I just can’t put a finger on. As for Samsung, well, there’s a reason I included two images. The first one is what Drawing Assist gave me when I typed out the prompt as above. Unfortunately, it’s missing the people I asked for — any people, for that matter. Samsung’s second image is what it gave back when I used myself as a subject, which is almost fine except for the weird, misshapen blob that I think is my hand. Once again, though, it’s only an image of myself rather than multiple people.

Pixel Studio vs Image Playground vs Drawing Assist: Almost equal footing

Although adding the ability to generate people is a big step forward for Google’s Pixel Studio, picking a winner between these three image generators remains as tricky as ever. I’m thoroughly impressed by what Google can do in terms of creating different people in different styles and using several different types of materials, yet I’m equally disappointed that it won’t let me use familiar faces from my years and years of Google Photos backlog. I don’t mind that Pixel Studio won’t generate celebrities — I tried all sorts of presidential-sounding descriptions with no luck — I’d just like to put myself into some of my creations.

At this point, I’d give Samsung the silver medal in terms of overall quality when it comes to generating people, too. It might not be as flexible as Apple in costumes or backgrounds, but its creations are far more realistic in picking out my face and holding onto details like my hair and beard. I can’t completely rule out Apple’s Image Playground just yet, as it’s only been around for a few months. Right now, it’s the least polished of the three, at least as far as artifacts and weird faces go, but it does offer plenty of promise for dressing up your subject and combining image prompts with text.

So, with Pixel Studio feeling like my go-to for everything but generating familiar faces, I guess my Pixel 9 Pro has earned yet another few months in my pocket — but we’ll see what the next round of updates brings.