The search for the ultimate smartphone camera
The search for the ultimate smartphone camera
For years, if you wanted the best smartphone camera, the decision was easy: iPhone all the way. Android smartphones — the best ones, at least — finally caught up this year, and in some ways, have left the iPhone in their dust.
Apple, Samsung, Google, LG, Motorola and Sony all put out "flagship" smartphones this year with cameras that promise to knock your socks off and maybe get you to finally ditch that point-and-shoot once and for all.
And just like camera makers, though, they're throwing out tons of tech jargon to convince you into thinking the cameras in their phones are better than everyone else's. More megapixels! Phase detection! Laser autofocus! Larger micron pixels! This one has an f/1.8 lens and that one has a f/1.9!
These specs, while important to some degree and to a certain niche group of camera geeks, don't mean much to the general smartphone user.
It's great that the iPhone has healthy competition in the camera department, but is there a new king of smartphone cameras? Is there one smartphone camera that can capture everything: the energetic outdoor shot, gorgeous selfie, killer low-light pic in the bar, delectable food porn, and intense sunset?
The Plan
I knew right from the start I didn't want to go about testing the iPhone 6S, Samsung Galaxy S6, Google Nexus 5X, LG G4, Motorola Moto X Pure Edition and the Sony Xperia Z5 in a controlled lab with controlled lighting and tripods. That's not how people use their smartphone cameras.
As the camera that's always with you, it was important to me to see how the cameras would perform in the real world, where the lighting is unpredictable and often proves to be a realistic challenge in getting that perfect picture.
Living in New York City, the greatest city in the world, I figured why not take the greatest smartphones of the year around the concrete jungle where dreams are made of (to steal an Alicia Keys line from Jay Z's rousing "Empire State of Mind"), and find out what their cameras are made of.
For destinations I considered going wherever I felt like, but my Internet-connected (read: smarter) half got the better of me and before I knew it, I had the New York City Subway Map pulled up and a route all mapped out.
My plan was to hit the ground running and start the morning in uptown Manhattan and work my way downtown to the tip of the island to catch the sunset in all of its flaming orange glory by the evening.
The setup
Before heading out to shoot, a few preparations needed to be made on the smartphone cameras. Each of the six smartphones were factory reset to their original settings to ensure the freshest shooting experience.
During each of the nine tests, the smartphone's default camera was the only app open, and it was closed after each test and opened again before a new test.
By default, most of the Android smartphones were set to 16:9 aspect ratio at a lower resolution than their advertised megapixels (that's shady!). To ensure as much consistency as possible, all the cameras were set to 4:3 aspect ratio, shooting at their highest possible resolution. The Galaxy S6 was the only camera set to 16:9 since it's incapable of shooting at its highest resolution at 4:3.
For the selfie and groufie tests, all of the front-facing cameras were set to 4:3 aspect ratio at their highest possible resolution, too. Any beauty or skin-smoothening software was left on its default setting; most people never bother to turn it off or adjust it.
After each shoot, we examined the photos on their respective smartphone screens and jotted down first impressions. We then re-examined and scrutinized them at full resolution and compared them side-by-side on a color-calibrated ultra-wide computer display before we chose the winner.
Here we go...
Top of the Rock (Outdoor test)
It's true: New York City is a frenetic melting pot the world converges on. Though the morning rush hour slows down by 9:00 a.m., the city's streets never really calm down. The hustle and bustle is nonstop.
From the 67th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown, also known as Top of the Rock, the atmosphere is different. The sounds of honking cars and clacking heels pounding the pavement are nonexistent; the only noise I hear is the wind whipping around me. I feel invincible up here.
On one side of the observation deck, looking north uptown, is Central Park and its warm yellow and orange leafy autumn expanse, new skinny supertalls for the 1% rising around it.
The Big Apple's icon, the Empire State Building, pierces the cerulean sky on the opposite side. Times Square hangs to the right, One World Trade Center and its anti-prism glass facade in the far distance, and the Verrazano Bridge way out yonder.
iPhone 6S (click for full resolution)
Nexus 5X (click for full resolution)
LG G4 (click for full resolution)
Xperia Z5 (click for full resolution)
Moto X (click for full resolution)
Galaxy S6 (click for full resolution)
I took out the six smartphones and cycled through them, snapping the most postcard-worthy shots, before my fingers became too numb from the cold.
The photos all looked fantastic, or so I thought. On the phones' screens, the shots looked rich and full of detail, especially on the screens with QuadHD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution. Closer inspection of the photos later on a computer monitor revealed the clear losers.
For an outdoor shot in direct sunlight, the two most important things I look for are color accuracy and dynamic range, especially for busy landscapes.
The iPhone 6S nailed the colors, and while the photo isn't the sharpest, it has excellent dynamic range. These two factors alone made the photo look authentic to being on location.
The Xperia Z5 overdoes it with the saturation and cranks up the blueness in the sky, which makes it look too artificially boosted and almost cartoony. The Galaxy S6's colors are muted, as if there's a haze or filter applied on top, but I like how there are more details in the shadows. The LG G4's color is the warmest and the shadows are muddied, wiping out much of the details. The Nexus 5X has the opposite problem of the G4 with the color temperature being too cool (blue).
The Moto X is a strong runner-up to the iPhone 6S; the photo is sharper because the camera has almost twice as many megapixels (21 versus 12), but the color is a tint bluer, though not as offensive as the Nexus 5X.
Winner: iPhone 6S
For outdoor shots
Central Park (Outdoor action test)
Having just gotten a spectacular bird's-eye view of Central Park, I had to make my way over and stomp around in all of the pretty-colored leaves.
The leaf stomping was short lived. As I walked through the southeast side of the park looking for fast-moving subjects to capture — the horse-drawn carriages were too slow and yellow cabs felt too clichéd — Wollman Rink came into view. Yes, some real seasonal action!
Admission tickets and skate rental prices were decent. (Although charging $5 for a spectator fee for mom and dad who want to cheer from the sidelines and take photos is ludicrous.) But this is New York City and practically everything has an admission fee attached to it.
iPhone 6S (click for full resolution)
Nexus 5X (click for full resolution)
LG G4 (click for full resolution)
Xperia Z5 (click for full resolution)
Moto X (click for full resolution)
Galaxy S6 (click for full resolution)
As the skaters made their laps around the rink, I got to work testing out the phone cameras' autofocus and shutter speed. The goal of this test was to see which camera would lock on and freeze a moving subject the best without leaving a trail of blur.
Any noticeable camera autofocus and shutter lag was minimal. The slowest cameras were the Xperia Z5 and Nexus 5X, but only by a hair. Regardless, all six smartphone cameras froze the skaters with aplomb.
Scrutinizing the 100% cropped images (all at their highest resolution), the iPhone 6S actually has the least amount of detail despite sharing the same 12 megapixels of resolution as the Nexus 5X. The ice in the Xperia Z5 photo is way overexposed and you can see how gross the noise reduction is (it's so grainy) at full resolution. The Galaxy S6's image quality is a bit too soft. Both the Moto X and LG G4 have white balance issues and the G4 is a too contrasty in my opinion.
The Nexus 5X is the crispiest and the camera's wide field of view means you can crop and still retain a fair amount of detail for a final photo.
If color and sharpness weren't factors to consider, all of the cameras would have tied for speediness, though.
Winner: Nexus 5X
For outdoor action shots
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Indoor test)
There's no shortage of museums to visit in New York City. If you only have time to check out one, make it The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Located on the Upper East Side, just east of Central Park, the museum is the largest art museum in America and is visited by over 6.2 million people annually.
It's impossible to appreciate all of the art inside of its three sprawling floors. I've tried dividing and conquering in the past, and I've yet to see it all (and that's not even because the exhibits constantly rotate).
The sculptures in the Greek and Roman gallery are always fascinating to look at, and the Temple of Dendur room is a lovely one for marveling at a piece of Egyptian architecture and snapping an Instagram, but I was in the mood for modern art.
iPhone 6S (click for full resolution)
Nexus 5X (click for full resolution)
LG G4 (click for full resolution)
Xperia Z5 (click for full resolution)
Moto X (click for full resolution)
Galaxy S6 (click for full resolution)
Within The Blanche and A.L. Levine court (a.k.a. Gallery 915) in the Modern and Contemporary Art section, there's an eclectic mix of colorful paintings by a variety of American and European artists and a red cast aluminum sculpture by Joel Shapiro that momentarily makes you forget you're in a museum with more serious works of art.
The unavoidable frustrations of of people walking into the shot aside, the room was a great location to see how well the cameras would perform indoors, where there's a number of different light sources.
As per the two previous tests, the photos were impressive on their screens, but evidently imperfect when reviewed on a proper computer screen.
The iPhone 6S and LG G4 photos are the smoothest, both with the cleanest noise reduction processing. The Moto X took the worst photo, followed by the Nexus 5X; the details were completely vaporized with splotches and blockiness. The Xperia Z5, again, is disgustingly saturated (a recurrent camera issue it seems) and the Galaxy S6 photo is washed out and faded.
I was torn between the iPhone 6S and LG G4, but the LG G4 won me over in the end because it captured more colors and finer detail. Need proof? Take a look at the 100% close-up crop above and compare the colors on the shirt of the person sitting on the chair with the blue pants. In the LG G4 photo, you can see green, white and red, which the painting definitely has, but on the iPhone 6S, all you see is a blur of light pink. Maybe that color spectrum sensor on the back of the LG G4 isn't complete nonsense after all.
Winner: LG G4
For indoor shots
Lunch in SoHo (Close-up test)
I spent all morning uptown and now it was time to start making my way downtown. My burning thighs and calves, and the slight ache in my stomach reminded me it was lunch time.
I found the perfect little spot in SoHo at Back Forty West. While not completely away from the city grind, the restaurant's exposed brick walls and rustic wooden furniture provided a cozy ambiance to calm my amped-up nerves.
There's an art to taking food pics. Like a good selfie, the right angle matters. Realistic colors may look great for skin tones and buildings, but they're not necessarily what you want from photos of your meal. I don't know about you, but I want my smoked trout sandwich, french fries, pretzels and cocktail to look appetizing and mouth-watering — so damn delicious I want to stick my tongue out and lick the screen.
iPhone 6S (click for full resolution)
Nexus 5X (click for full resolution)
LG G4 (click for full resolution)
Xperia Z5 (click for full resolution)
Moto X (click for full resolution)
Galaxy S6 (click for full resolution)
Of all the photos of my scrumptious meal, the Galaxy S6's looks the tastiest. The vibrant color and brighter exposure makes the toasted bread pop with texture, the fries appear more golden and crispier, and the cooked red onions on the edge of the platter board don't look so depressing. There's also more definition in the knife in the background.
The LG G4's photo isn't too shabby either. It's not as bright compared to the Galaxy S6, though it's definitely better than the others.
The rest of the smartphones held up alright, with good sharpness across the board. The iPhone 6S once again has the most accurate colors and the Nexus 5X is sharp, but you see the harsher image noise reduction rearing its ugly self when you zoom in.
The last thing you want your food to look is dull and cold, and, unfortunately, that's how the other shots from the Moto X and Xperia Z5 make me feel.
Winner: Galaxy S6
For close-up shots
Strolling on the High Line (Selfie test)
My belly full and my energy levels back up, I headed west towards the High Line, an elevated urban park that stretches 1.45-miles end-to-end. The public space is built on top of old elevated railroad tracks once operated by the New York Central Railroad.
The views from the High Line aren't as splendid as those from Top of the Rock, but they're still quite unique and worth visiting to see at least once.
On 25th street and 10th Avenue is a massive mural by Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra. The kaleidoscopic mural was inspired by Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous 1945 "V-J Day in Times Square" photo of a sailor kissing a nurse. The mural's in need of a repainting and restoration, but it's still mesmerizing, especially from up on the High Line. Needless to say, I had to join the throngs of tourists and take a selfie for posterity.
iPhone 6S (click for full resolution)
Nexus 5X (click for full resolution)
LG G4 (click for full resolution)
Xperia Z5 (click for full resolution)
Moto X (click for full resolution)
Galaxy S6 (click for full resolution)
It's great to see smartphone makers give the front-facing cameras more love this year. Everyone's idea of the perfect selfie is different. Some people want the smoothest skin. Some people care about having accurate skin tones. Some people care about having a wide angle that lets them squeeze in a background.
I want it all. I want my selfies to look as crisp as possible, maintain detail, and — obviously — I want my skin to glow (but not too much that it looks airbrushed).
The selfie from the Nexus 5X looked like the winner at first, despite the cooler tone, but I decided the sharpening was too aggressive for my liking. The same goes for the default skin-smoothening on the LG G4; it's too fake-looking. The Xperia Z5 is red again. The Moto X's selfie is sharp, but you lose a lot of the dynamic range in the hair and in the coat. The iPhone 6S proves its camera is the color king, but the image is on the soft side and didn't capture the mural's details.
That leaves the Galaxy S6 as the last cam standing and the only camera that checks off all of my requirements for the ideal selfie. The selfie could have been better had I put more control into the settings like the area of autofocus and turned on High Dynamic Range (HDR), but I'm satisfied with the automatic settings more than I am with the iPhone 6S's.
Winner: Galaxy S6
For selfies
Snacking in Greenwich Village (Groufie test)
Continuing south, I took a quick detour through Greenwich Village to meet up a few friends and gorge on some tasty pastries from Pasticceria Rocco, a renowned Italian-owned bakery that's been around since 1974. You know it's the good stuff when you can smell the pastries standing outside of the shop.
After about 10 minutes waiting on line (the place is a tourist trap!), we finally ordered up a couple of fruit tarts, chocolate-covered cannolis with freshly-injected creme, and a pigs in a blanket pastry that I'm told was bomb.
The bill came out to a little over 20 bucks for five large pastries. Right before we stuffed ourselves with sweet sugary heaven, we, of course, had to take a groufie. That's normal, right?
iPhone 6S (click for full resolution)
Nexus 5X (click for full resolution)
LG G4 (click for full resolution)
Xperia Z5 (click for full resolution)
Moto X (click for full resolution)
Galaxy S6 (click for full resolution)
Things didn't start off well. My buddy Mark groused about how difficult it was to grip some of the larger phones without dropping them. He found the Moto X to be the most difficult one to shoot a groufie with because the camera UI makes it so you have to tap the screen (as opposed to a camera shutter button on the screen) to take a photo.
For groufies, I looked for the same things I looked for in the selfie test, with one extra point of importance: field of view. A groufie is a dud if it can't fit everyone into the photo and the Galaxy S6 did that with aplomb with lots of breathing room to spare. It applied a minimal amount of skin-smoothening to the faces, the colors are acceptable and there's a good amount of clarity.
The iPhone 6S's front camera has the smallest field of view, cutting off Mark's face almost entirely. The Nexus 5X overcompensates with the extreme sharpening as before. LG G4's airbrushing is too intense. The Xperia Z5's color is way off base, reddening skin tones once again. The Moto X groufie came out blurry every single time because Mark's thumb couldn't tap the screen properly.
On another note, the pastries were molto eccellente — 10/10. Will come back again, for sure.
Winner: Galaxy S6
For groufies
Sunset in Battery Park (Low-light test)
Time was of the essence after the extremely satisfying and filling snack break. I knew if I wanted to catch the fierce sunset down at Battery Park with the Statue of Liberty in the backdrop I would have to gun it.
Luckily, I made it in time before it got too dark, and what a breathtaking sight it was. Seriously, if you can watch the sun set every day, you'll probably live a longer and happier life. Watching the ferries glide across the water was similarly as calming as being on Top of the Rock.
iPhone 6S (click for full resolution)
Nexus 5X (click for full resolution)
LG G4 (click for full resolution)
Xperia Z5 (click for full resolution)
Moto X (click for full resolution)
Galaxy S6 (click for full resolution)
Take a look on Instagram and you'll see that some of the most liked photos on there are of sunsets. Magnificent as sunset photos are, they're also incredibly difficult to take. That's because the camera is trying its best to expose for the sky and the sun at the same time.
If your phone camera supports it, turning on High Dynamic Range (HDR), can help to expose the areas that would otherwise be overexposed, but for the sake of this test, I left it off. I wanted to see how "smart" the camera and software were without any manual intervention.
This test was another really close call since the light, the water, the sky and the ships were all working against me. After examining the 100% crops, I narrowed the two top picks down to the iPhone 6S and LG G4.
The iPhone 6S's colors are more true to life, but like on the indoor test, the LG G4 shows more colors. In this case, these are colors that actually weren't real. The sky wasn't that blue yet. And although these were captured mere seconds after one another, the iPhone 6S has greater dynamic range in the water. But as I already noted, the scene wasn't very constant, so any number of factors could have pushed the advantage towards one camera.
The rest of the phones didn't fare so well. The Moto X is terribly blurry and the Xperia Z5 turned the sky a pinkish color. The Nexus 5X's cooler hue sucks the warmth out of the sunset and the Galaxy S6 blows out the sun more than it should have.
Personally, I like the iPhone 6S's photo more, but I wouldn't blame you if you feel like the LG G4 looks better.
Winner: iPhone 6S
For low-light shots
Drinks in Chinatown (Extreme low-light test)
I should have called it a night after the last embers of the sky faded into blackness, but I couldn't resist. I was shocked the LG G4 and Galaxy S6, the two smartphone cameras with the fastest lenses (aperture f/1.8 and f/1.9), respectively, didn't outright crush the iPhone 6S, which has a slower f/2.2 aperture.
If I've already lost you, just know this: the lower the f-stop number (aperture) is on a camera lens, the better it performs in low-light situations because the camera is effectively taking in more light. You want a camera with a lower aperture number.
To really test the low-light performance of these six flagship phones, I took them to Home Sweet Home, one of the darkest dive bars I've yet to come across in Chinatown.
iPhone 6S (click for full resolution)
Nexus 5X (click for full resolution)
LG G4 (click for full resolution)
Xperia Z5 (click for full resolution)
Moto X (click for full resolution)
Galaxy S6 (click for full resolution)
Home Sweet Home isn't exactly the kind of bar you'd linger around for too long. It's dingy and grungy — good for a couple of cheap beers that you'll want to guzzle fast.
I didn't expect the Nexus 5X, Xperia Z5 and Moto X to put up a fight and they didn't. I was mostly interested in seeing how the the iPhone 6S, LG G4 and Galaxy S6 handled a darker environment.
In low-light scenarios, optical image stabilization (OIS) is a must for a blur-free photo. Not surprisingly, all the phones without OIS, including the iPhone 6S, which was a contender in the sunset shootout, got knocked out right away, leaving the LG G4 and Galaxy S6, the two phones with OIS, to fight it out.
The 100% crops don't lie and the LG G4 is the undisputed winner, taking the best low-light photo. At full resolution, you can make out all of the words on the stickers. The color is slightly saturated as shown by the yellower chandelier and the redder skin tones on me and my friend Mark, but I'd rather deal with a quick color correction in post editing than be stuck with the Galaxy S6's grainier, noise-laden photo.
Winner: LG G4
For extreme low-light shots
Waterfront at the Brooklyn Bridge Park (Night test)
The LG G4's impressive performance in the bar was as conclusive as it got for low-light. Still, I wanted to do one last shoot-out before wrapping up the long day.
Tired and freezing from the cold, I cabbed it over to the Brooklyn Bridge Park and quickly snapped some photos of One World Trade Center (AKA the Freedom Tower) and the Brooklyn Bridge.
iPhone 6S (click for full resolution)
Nexus 5X (click for full resolution)
LG G4 (click for full resolution)
Xperia Z5 (click for full resolution)
Moto X (click for full resolution)
Galaxy S6 (click for full resolution)
Naturally, all six phone cameras did their best to compensate for the darkness. The samples aren't beautiful at full resolution, but they do reveal the real significance of OIS.
I like how deep the blackness of the sky is in the Moto X's nighttime shot, but the rest of the image is just a hot mess. The Xperia Z5 also does a decent job maintaining the sky's blackness, but struggles with isolating the outline of the buildings. The Nexus 5X oversharpens everything. The iPhone 6S gets the color right, but the resolution is the poorest and the image blurry.
Both the LG G4 and Galaxy S6 photos have skies that are brighter, which isn't pleasant since you can see the image noise so clearly, but the outlines of the buildings are also more defined, no doubt as a result of OIS.
Judging the overall image, however, I'd have to go with the LG G4's nighttime shot, which is the sharpest and preserves the highlights the best (most noticeable in the arches on the Brooklyn Bridge).
These subtle differences are virtually unnoticeable on a smartphone screen, but when blown up on a computer screen, are clear as day.
Winner: LG G4
For nighttime shots
The Final Scorecard
It would have been impressive if there was one smartphone camera that destroyed the rest, but the boring truth is each smartphone camera has its own strengths and weaknesses.
The iPhone 6S took two wins for the outdoor and low-light sunset test. Samsung's Galaxy S6 took three wins for the close-up, selfie and groufie tests. LG's G4 also collected three wins for the indoor, extremely low-light and nighttime tests. And the Nexus 5X took home one win for the outdoor action test.
If I really had to pick one well-rounded shooter, I'd go with the iPhone 6S.
The two biggest losers were Sony's Xperia Z5 and Motorola's third-gen Moto X. The Xperia Z5 consistently produced photos that were too oversaturated and high on image noise. The Moto X was too unpredictable; sometimes it could really excel like in the outdoor test, but other times it would fail miserably like in the low-light/sunset test.
But if I really had to pick one well-rounded shooter, I'd go with the iPhone 6S, and that's not because I'm an iPhone owner myself. To me, the iPhone 6S is the only camera tested that consistently produced photos with true-to-life colors. I can deal with it not having as many megapixels, or the lack of OIS for stabilized low-light photos (of course, for OIS, you could always go with the iPhone 6S Plus).
The LG G4 and Galaxy S6 give the iPhone 6S a real run for its money, but they need to do better with the image processing.
Wild cards
While I tried to be as consistent as possible in all of the camera tests, the phone cameras weren't tested in a vacuum. There were many factors that could have affected the outcome of each test.
Each smartphone also has cameras that are made by different manufacturers. For instance, the iPhone 6S and Nexus 5X both have back cameras with camera sensors made by Sony. Interestingly enough, those phones with Sony-made sensors, coupled with the right software, outperformed Sony's own Xperia Z5.
The two biggest losers were Sony's Xperia Z5 and Motorola's third-gen Moto X.
Similarly, each smartphone camera has a different-size image sensor with a different lens aperture. Some cameras also have more lens elements and some have fewer.
Looking at photos
I'm aware viewing habits have changed. The vast majority of people take photos on their phones and look at them solely on their phones and through apps like Instagram and Facebook where the resolution is significantly lower than their original full-size files.
A quick poll amongst my friends and colleagues suggests few people have ever transferred their phone photos to their computer. And of the ones who do, they only do so for archival purposes, not for looking at.
It may be a sad truth, but if you're never going to even view photos at full resolution, you're unlikely to see the imperfections and be bothered by image noise.
Megapixels and aspect ratio
Though I prefer my smartphone cameras to have better low-light performance as opposed to more megapixels, I understand that resolution may be something that's very important to you. The general rule of thumb is the more megapixels a camera has, the more detail the photos will have. But as you can see in the tests above, that's not always the case.
The camera on the LG G4.
Raymond Wong
The Sony Xperia Z5 has 23 megapixels and the Moto X has 21 megapixels and, yet, they were the worst smartphone cameras out of the six tested. The Galaxy S6 (16 megapixels), LG G4 (16 megapixels), Nexus 5X (12.3 megapixels) and iPhone 6S (12 megapixels) all have fewer megapixels and produced better images in almost all of the tests.
There's also the matter of aspect ratio. The iPhone 6S and Nexus 5X cameras are set to 4:3 aspect ratio by default at the highest megapixel resolution. Many of the Android phones are set to 16:9 (widescreen) by default and take photos at a lower resolution than their fully advertised megapixel count.
To maintain framing consistency, I set all the cameras to 4:3 at their full megapixel resolution. The Galaxy S6 was the only phone set to 16:9 because it was the only phone that couldn't shoot at the highest resolution while in 4:3 mode.
Manual controls
For most people, capturing a photo shouldn't be more difficult than pressing a button. Professionals and creatives who need more control over each camera setting such as the exposure, white balance, ISO and shutter speed, should consider phones with manual modes.
With manual mode and RAW shooting, you can do slow exposure pics like this one. Pic in upper left is the RAW file, and this is the final pic after image processing in Photoshop.
The LG G4 offers the most versatility in manual mode, allowing shutter speed control and even the ability to shoot in RAW. The Galaxy S6 comes in a close second, but without shutter speed control. The Xperia Z5 only lets you control white balance. The Moto X, Nexus 5X and iPhone 6S don't have any manual controls at all; you can find a third-party app that gives you access to some of these camera settings, but the results will vary.
Quick launching
Another thing to consider is how fast you can launch the camera on your smartphone. Sometimes, all you have is a second to get the shot before it's gone. Taking your phone out of your pocket, unlocking the screen and then swiping on the camera shortcut or going to the homescreen to launch the camera app takes forever.
Speedy shooters will love the Galaxy S6's double-tap home button to launch camera, which works from anywhere in the OS on any screen. The Moto X's twist gesture and the Xperia Z5's press and hold camera shutter button are also faster ways to launch the camera.
Camera UI
The camera app on the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Like all the other parts of a smartphone camera, the camera user interfaces are all different. The Nexus 5X uses the Google Camera app and the Moto X uses its own minimalist UI that requires you to tap on the screen instead of a shutter button icon. LG, Samsung, Sony all use their own camera UIs, some with quicker access to settings, and others hidden away in menus.
You'll also find many of the camera interfaces have "scene" modes for portraits, selfies, landscapes, nighttime, etc., similar to on a regular camera.
Optical Image Stabilization
Shaky hands can't be helped, which is why optical image stabilization (OIS) is so great as it can mean all the difference between a crisp and blurry photo.
But not all smartphone cameras have OIS, and the ones that have them aren't equal. Both the LG G4 and the Galaxy S6 have OIS. The LG G4 stabilizes motion on three axes (X, Y and Z) as opposed to the Galaxy S6's 2-axis stabilization along the X and Y axes.
In layman's terms: OIS is great and the more axis stabilization a phone has, the sharper photos will be.
High Dynamic Range (HDR)
High Dynamic Range (HDR), as I mentioned in the low-light test section, can bring out details normally lost in overexposed areas of a photo.
Google actually recommends using HDR when taking low-light and nighttime shots with the Nexus 5X as it enhances the brightness of photos and brings out the colors.
I didn't feel it was fair to have HDR on in any of the tests since it's entirely software-based and each phone processes it differently, so i turned it off so I could see the actual colors the cameras captured.
Product Analyst:
Raymond Wong
Tech Editor:
Pete Pachal
Photos:
Jhila Farzaneh
Video Producer:
Mark Boyer
Assistants:
Cailey Rizzo, Alicia Marie Tan
Source: The search for the ultimate smartphone camera
No comments:
Post a Comment