Yes, I’m proud to announce that I have some interesting shots I made at the HTC stand to compare the quality of the HTC One – which was tied to the stand – the Sony Xperia Z – which I had with me – the Nokia Lumia 920 and (of course) the Nokia 808 PureView. I sent the files of the HTC One to another device so I could take them with me.
Of course I would have preferred to get some other shots from the HTC One as well – like outside shots for instance. But I don’t have the HTC One to play with (not many people have at the moment), so I chose to do it this way.
Didn’t pick any people walking around in the dark (the HTC stand is quite a bit too dark actually), since it’s impossible to get more or less the same shot with people running around. Instead, I shot some of the higher surroundings in Hall 7.
As another “bonus”, you’ll see two girls with flamboyant orange hair resting in the bright late afternoon sunlight. Since I left the HTC stand in Hall 7 already, I used the Samsung Galaxy Camera to still be abe to compare four shots.
In the other three different shots, I will present you the cameras in chronological order: first the HTC One, followed by the Sony Xperia Z, next the Nokia Lumia 920 and last the Nokia 808 PureView. Please remember all shots were made in automatic mode. Nothing fancy, just the “quick and dirty” method you use when you make a snapshot along the way.
HTC One
Sony Xperia Z
Nokia Lumia 920
Nokia 808 PureView
I’ll leave most of the conclusions to you, but once more you’ve seen – and you will see – that you will get less in your shot with the Sony Xperia sensor. It looks like it’s a bit zoomed in, compared to all other cameras. I don’t understand why that is in fact, if you do, feel free to react.
Next one is a hard shot for all camera’s it seems, I wonder what you would pick as the best shot.
HTC One
Sony Xperia Z
Nokia Lumia 920
Nokia 808 PureView
The last of the three shots I have from the HTC One, compared with the other smartphone cameras, showing a (small) part of the exhibitors in Hall 7.
HTC One
Sony Xperia Z
Nokia Lumia 920
Nokia 808 PureView
So those are the three shots I took with the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia 808 PureView. I have some thoughts of my own, but I’m really looking forward to which one you think has the best result in general – please feel free to react, I’m really looking forward to your opinion.
To conclude the “bonus shots” I promised.
I rarely publish pictures of girls – believe it or not, I’m often a bit too shy to ask (some readers even complain about it, so that’s why I already shared one Finnish lady from Nokia earlier today). In this case it felt okay to ask these two Spanish girls, since they are obviously part of the Congress. Also, they looked irresistably orange in the bright late afternoon sun – a challenge for the camera’s, I’d say!
Remember – I couldn’t take HTC One with me, instead I used the Samsung Galaxy Camera to be able to compare another four shots. So in this case you’ll see the Xperia Z first.
Sony Xperia Z
Samsung Galaxy Camera
Nokia Lumia 920
Nokia 808 PureView
So that’s it. I’ll fly back tomorrow afternoon and I’m not sure if I’ll walk another twenty miles at the Mobile World Congress tomorrow morning. I haven’t seen everything – it’s impossible to see everything – but it was very interesting to be here.
Although I still had a tiny little bit of hope (aka wishful thinking) for a next PureView Lumia device, I still think Nokia did a fantastic job in announcing some very interesting, more affordable smartphones, bringing Windows Phone 8 to a larger audience – and even getting a remarkably nice camera in the Nokia Lumia 720.
Like I wrote before, it appears the new flagship isn’t ready to be announced just yet. But i’m confident it will come this year. Don’t ask me why – I just feel so sure about it that I think I know. When asked about it, Stephen Elop also said “the year ain’t over yet”. There is more to come, no doubt in my mind.
As for now, I was glad to be able to make this small “camera shootout” and I really hope you liked it!
PS – I just put all original shots on Flickr :-)
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TOTALLY HTC ONE HAS THE BEST CAMERA
I can’t wait to test it against several other smartphone camera’s: especially the Nokia 808 PureView and Lumia 920.
Are all you people saying “Nokia 808 Wins” blind?
*looks at what website he is on*
Oh right, that’s why… Typical biased, fanboy comments.
I think the camera is good,
maybe the camera isn’t as good as the camera in the z but the one has a lot of features that are really useful and the endless amount of thing you can do with zoe and the camera isn’t bad, it’s good but it’s slightly lower than the z
One is overrated. it simply not good enough to compete.
According to my photography experience, HTC One has a better details..
one is best after 808/..
in all of them , XPERIA Z is wonderful and htc one is slightly behind at night shot , pure view and lumia 920 is far behind , especially in the image of girls , 4 MP is better than 41 MP, both nokias remind me of my old N73 and N95 ,the oldies were still magnificent.
808 is clear winner.
808>one>920>z
i pick up ONE..it has more reallaty form in pic.
one is the best in overall.
I’m sorry I love nokia but the Xperia Z had the best overall pics especially the last pic with the girls in red.
to me from an average consumer eyes. I would rank them in this order HTC One > xperia Z > 808 > 920 as both Nokia seems to have problem producing vivid colors. not feeling the look of the Nokia’s picture at all.
1st pic: one > z > 808 > 920. close one between the one and z, but i give the win to the one as it seems slightly better.
2nd pic: one > one > 808 > z > 920. hands down the htc one in this one. sharpest and best color. 920 is almost as sharp but color is way off. z and 808 are not sharp enough.
3rd pic: z > 808 > htc one > 920. z has the best color and very sharp. 808 is as sharp but color is not very nice. htc one is ok. 920 very bad.
4th pic: galaxy > z > 808 > 920.
I don’t know but the shots from 808 pureview didn’t appeal me. It was like the device falls way behind these 2013 flagships. Also the shots were a bit washed out IMHO.
It is a good sign to visit your eye doctor.
I think the 808 with its large sensor has the tendency to capture more light than the rest of the bunch, hence I think that is why the “scaled down” photos appear to be more washed out. Ironically this is the advantage of the 808 which is clearly seen when looking at the original sized photos (posted at flickr).
Except for the 1st set (ceiling photos) where it can be seen that the 808′s rendition had motion blur, the rest clearly shows the 808 having almost non-existent noise (usually emphasized on the darker areas and background of the subject), and sharper and true to life details. 808 is Amazing!
Looking at the “scaled down” pic of the ladies we can immediately conclude that sony and the samsung had the better rendition, but if you look into the original sizes, 808 blows them away. The red strand of hairs of the ladies (specifically on the taller lady) appear more pronounced with the 808 to the point that I think we can count each strand thru their ends. Compared to the rest of the bunch, their rendition appear noisy and not pleasing to look at (IMHO).
Looking at faces of the ladies, we can see each pore on their faces, skin blemishes, skin lines and even the hairs of their eyebrows appear to be accurately rendered compare the the rest. Even the stitching and direction of fabric of their clothes are visible only on the 808. These are details achieved only on DLSRs. Samsung and Sony seem to have a smoothing post processing effect on the faces (more evident on the Sony) which may be built in on the software. The technology on the 808 is way ahead of the rest.
Again one can argue that the most of the pics will not be viewed in full resolution, which is what most manufacturers rely on. I think (again IMHO) this is where the concept of having more megapixels (despite the small sensors) on camera phones came from, as they rely that their user will not view it at 100%.
HTC on the other hand, realizes this very same concept hence they came out with only a 4 megapixel flagship, the HTC One using larger pixels calling it Ultrapixel technology making the details on their smaller sized pics more pronounced. Looking at the photos, I think they did a good job, much lesser noise than the sony at 100% (see the indoor shot of the booths). However for me it is still a world away from the 808 in terms of details and noise). See the roof lines on the shot of the booth! I don’t think we will see reviews of the pictures on the HTC One being compared to DSLRs.
The imaging tech on the 808 is still the best, even a year after it has been released. If you are an enthusiast or even an average Joe who values time spent with family and friends, and would like to save those memories on a photo worth looking at in years to come, the 808 is THE PHONE for you.
An excellent piece of technology.
Great job Nokia!
And great job Dale! Thank you very much for this analysis. I’m happy someone is taking the time to have a close look at the originals I post on Flickr as well.
whatever, I like the left lady. She has got a beautiful smile.
The HTC One cannot compete in any way.
But I have to say, in real life situations it is really hard to compare those phones.
Every phone shows a different picture, because of the different focal length.
Three pictures show the windows in the roof, the other doesn’t. So you get different results.
Then, the Sony doesn’t catch that reflecting poster at the top right side. The others do and have problems with the light.
That again with the pictures of the ladies. The Sony is very close with a dark backgroungd. The others show much of the then not so dark background.
A real life comparison, but hard to judge any ‘winner’ from that.
So I take back my statement, saying the HTC One cannot compete.
in all the photos, it seems that xperia z has a better image quality than htc one. btw , 808 is king here as always .
Photo one: The 808 has motion blur.
Photo 2: The 808 clearly is the better one. The Xperia Z isn’t so bad appart from the usual overshaprening. The 920 is surprisingly bad here. I thought it would exel in these low-light shots.
Photo 3: That Xperia Z looks surprisingly bad. Wrong colours, oversharpening. the same fro the Lum ia 920. just look at the white txt on that black panel. That HTC is not so bad really. No match for the 808 though.
Photo 4: The 808 again show it’s colours. Though the Xperia Z isn’t too bad. The 808 is better than the Galaxy camera. I would have expected the galaxy camera to be better especially at 100%.
It’s amazing to see that the 808′s photos have that real photo-look. While the others have that typical cell-phone photoquality. Weird edge-sharpening, weird colours (Lumia).
I said it before. More players should buy the good parts from their “competition”. In this case IMHO more manufacturers should buy a licence to get 808 Pureview-technology on their phones.
good analysis pipo, just regards to photo4 and how you would expect the galaxy camera to beat the 808. It already has been tested and found the 808 out classes the Galaxy camera substantially, and even with pureview zoom, the 808 holds its own. For starters, the galaxy camera, and so many other point and shoot digicams all have sensors that are alot smaller than the 808. The 808 I find beats alot of DSLRs, and mirrorless cameras too in terms of ultimate useful resolution at bas ISO sensitivity, and when full res modes on the 808 is selected. The pureview pixel mode substantially reduces noise at higher ISO, and rivals 10 year old DSLRs with ease.
The 808 is the best one.
Nokia rules the world with 808:-)
Nokia 808 pureview gives the most perfect colour out there…
As we all could see htc one also gives it best performance.
I dont know why nokia lumia 920 gave so bright and burned images in the last girls photoshoot.
After all no one could beat nokia 808 pureview…
it is a sad comparison for the poor 920. These images definitely do not enhance the 920′s position in the camera ranking, which is a bit sad, as it really giving bad reputation to the pureview name!
The 808 simply destroys every single “flaghip” out there.. love it
Sony. It’s colour is more natural than Nokia’s. May be I’m wrong?
hmm, just looked at the Xperia z just to compare against the likes of the galaxy camera, nokia 920 and the nokia 808 for the two girl portrait shot. And in this case, based on the white balance and saturation, the Sony does have a more natural look to the skin tones. The worst colour goes definitely goes both the nokia 920 and the Galaxy camera. 808 is not far off though, but Sony is the star here when it comes to colour reproduction. I guess maybe some of the cybershot heritage is coming to play here.
Sorry to change the subject slightly, but just look at the Nokia 808 vs the Galaxy camera. The resolution of the Galaxy camera is like 4608 x 2592 vs nokia 808 3840 x 2160. The difference is mind blowing. The 808 contains substantially more detail, that is extremely clear and sharp. The galaxy camera, using a much smaller sensor, has clearly had alot more noise reduction processing which looks seems ok, as it is not too water coloured, but then, the per pixel sharpness is clearly lacking. It is just a pity that the 808 and the 920 chose to over expose the image. For that reason I always set my 808 to -0.7 EV.
NOKIA RULES…¡¡¡¡
oh marc, it masy be beneficial when using the nokia 808 with auto ISO in medium to low light, to use the onscreen shutter button as opposed to using the physical shutter button. This itself can help reduce camera shake considerbly
for me, the first shot of the underside roof shot upwards, the HTC one surprisingly has the best image. I personally would have expected as per the first sample pics, a typical water color noise reduced image, but in this case, not only has the image shown no evidence of camera shake, but also the image details and pixels does seem to render a much smoother image than the 920. The 808 could not even get close to compete here as it clearly did not have enough shutter speed to keep the image sharp.
The best mode to compare the 808 and the HTC one here is in pureview 5mp mode, as it benefits most from pixel interpolation. Did not compare the Xperia Z, as I ran out of time and we all know both the optic and the sensor is not all that great.
The portrait pic, is a much better pic to compare against, as now the 808 is back in the game. The 808 is the smoothest and is the closest to what a dedicated mirrorless or DSLR would achieve. Go Nokia. Only issue with the 808 image is the slight blow out in the highlight region of the image. Compared to the 920 and the HTC one, it blows away the competition. The HTC one here does remarkably well again, and handles noise relatively well for a small sensor. It feels like the ultrapixels are really working hard here to achieve better color gradients, while retaining detail. The 920 in comparison looks rather digital, and grainy, I am not even sure if that noise can be reduced using post process methods on a computer. Alot it seems the orange tones changes are abrupt, and detail in the hair is somewhat lost.
From these images, it is clear HTC one, may have a winner for optical stabilization and ultra pixel for the class of phone camera it is meant to be. It clearly has outclassed the 920 in these images posted, and may have proven that less pixels is actually more, in terms of usable image detail. The optical stabilization clearly is needed in these types of low light circumstances, and even the nokia 808 cannot compete in this region, without alot of tweaking, and retaking the image many times experimenting with the ISO each time. I would say from those two images, the HTC one is the most all round camera, whist the 808 is the expert camera that requires tweaking to get the best shot which in all cases when sucessful will beat the HTC one every time. The 920 sits quietly in the middle, probably wishing about now, that it too had less megapixels, and larger pixels.
bigs
Yeah its gyro OIS is not that good for extremely low light situations like 920 but it’s a lot easier to install, lighter and I guess cheaper…it would be great if Nokia could install it on 808 and call it 808is or something…would do wonders.
agree, would be nice to have OIS on the 808, but for the reason why they did not put the 41Mp sensor in the 920 is due to the size of the camera, while already very large, would be even larger with the addition of OIS. The larger the sensor and lens, the larger the optical stabilization system has to be.
Annoying as it seems, setting a high ISO on the 808 manually is not all that hard, the only annoyance, is that one has to take multiple shots to determine which is the optimal ISO for descent shutter speed without sacrificing quality. What we need just like when you pres the exposure compensation button, you get a histogram, we need shutter speeds when we click on the ISO button
Just take one shot in auto, then look what settings where chosen (we can that since the update). then you see how high you have to set the ISO. (higher than auto chose)
Sure that’s why I have advised on HTC system as it’s a lot lighter. Full mechanical OIS on 920 is overkill for a cellphone IMO. It’s not the same when you add 30g on some 500g DSLR and when you add it on a 150g phone.
“..get less in your shot with the Sony Xperia sensor. It looks like it’s a bit zoomed in, compared to all other cameras. I don’t understand why that is in fact, if you do, feel free to react.”
the angel of view depends on the 35mm equivalent focal length, which depends on the actual focal length of the lens and the sensor size (crop factor). Like you said, it’s like zoomed in (or the others are zoomed out) Higher focal length –> zoomed in ; bigger sensor –> zoomed out ; both play together. A camera with optical zoom changes the focal length, whereas in mobiles it’s fixed. So on the xperia it’s fixed on a higher 35mm equivalent focal length. why they did that, i don’t know. By using only a smaller part of the sensor you can achieve higher 35mm equivalent focal length. But then you lose pixels, or you have lossless zoom if you still have real 8MP/5MP with higher 35mm equivalent focal length. This also explains why the 808 has a camera bump. With bigger sensor for the same 35mm equivalent focal length, you need a higher actual focal length, which means the lens needs to be further away from the sensor. The 808 has 8mm actual focal length, the 920 less than 4mm, but both have about the same 35mm equivalent focal length. it’s all on wikipedia…
Good job Marc! This is the kind of posts I was waiting for! I think my judgement is blurred by my beloved 808, but I’d pick most of the pictures taken with it. Except may be the one of the exhibitors of Hall 7, where I liked the Lumia results (PureView again!). The orange haired girls look very good on the Xperia shot too! Thanks for your job Marc!
+1
Nokia 808 clearly wins!
I love Nokia. I always had a Nokia Phone… but i can say… They all did a good job accept the Nokia 808… it is by far the best Cam-Phone out there and nothing comes close to it.
To me the 920 + Xperia Z did the best Job besides the 808.
The Htc One was good at the first picture.
…and the winner is Nokia 808 pureview !AGAIN