Camera comparison: One X vs Galaxy S II vs Nexus vs N8 vs iPhone 4S

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android_master

android_master

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Mar 11, 2010
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When HTC was announcing the One X, it made it sound as if the new ImageSense camera is the best camera on a phone you may get. Well, since we now have the One X in our hands and have been using it for a while, we decided to put his new camera to the test. Winning this comparison, though, won't be easy, as we've chosen some of the best camera phones out there to be its competition: the Samsung Galaxy S II, Galaxy Nexus, Nokia N8 and Apple iPhone 4S. Let the games begin! :D

Camera-comparison-One-X-vs-Galaxy-S-II-vs-Nexus-vs-N8-vs-iPhone-4S-2.jpg


Camera-comparison-One-X-vs-Galaxy-S-II-vs-Nexus-vs-N8-vs-iPhone-4S-1.jpg


Details:

The devil is in the details, and when it comes to taking photos, having great level of details is indeed one of the most important elements. Interestingly, the new ImageSense camera of the One X performed terribly in this area, presenting us to muddier-looking images compared to all of the other contestants here. Here's how all five handsets rank in this category:

1. Apple iPhone 4S
2. Nokia N8;)
3. Samsung Galaxy S II
4. Samsung Galaxy Nexus
5. HTC One X :eek:

Color reproduction:

This was a very close one, at least for the first 3 positions. The N8, Galaxy S II and Nexus manages to produce very natural colors, with the N8 excelling slightly overall. The iPhone 4S snatched the 4th position here since it's images are quite warm, but still closer to reality (and more appealing) compared to the pics from the One X, which were too cold.

1. Nokia N8;)
2. Samsung Galaxy S II
3. Samsung Galaxy Nexus
4. Apple iPhone 4S
5. HTC One X:eek:

Exposure:


We're once again seeing some pretty equal performance here, although there are still some anomalies observed. While most of the smartphones tend to deviate from the natural exposure by overexposing the image at times, the One X is the only one that underexposes it, and thus comes up with an overall dark photo. Interestingly, this also happens with normal daylight shots, which aren't taken in some more specific lighting situations that would make it difficult for the phone's camera to do its thing properly. Nope, the One X's camera simply underexposes the pictures, making them somewhat less pleasant to look at, compared to what we get from the other contenders here.

1. Nokia N8;)
2. Samsung Galaxy Nexus
3. Apple iPhone 4S
4. Samsung Galaxy S II
5. HTC One X:eek:

Indoor shots:

Ranking our five handsets in the Indoor shots category wasn't very easy, because they achieved different results when shooting in different light conditions. The ranking you see below represents their overall score. The Nokia N8 is our favorite here, since it manages to retain a pretty good detail and overall quality level throughout all lighting variations, whereas the shots from all the other handsets become much worse when the lights get weaker. We think the One X performs equally to the iPhone 4S and Galaxy Nexus in this respect, since all three are good in a different respect – the Nexus has the most natural colors, the iPhone 4S capture more detail than the Nexus, but its exposure is a bit off, while the One X has an OK exposure, good details and colors that are a bit off. The Galaxy S II is last here because its colors were too yellowish, save for those pics taken in very dark conditions.

1.Nokia N8;)
2.Apple iPhone 4S, HTC One X:D, Samsung Galaxy Nexus
3.Samsung Galaxy S II

Night shots:

Choosing the best handsets for taking night photos wasn't that hard. It's clear that the One X is a top performer in this category, along with the iPhone 4S, which produces similar results. They excelled in color reproduction and details, plus both of them offer easy exposure setting when doing touch-to-focus, which helps them in various situations. In the samples below, we've used touch-to-focus on the cathedral, which made the handsets set the exposure in such a way that would have the cathedral properly exposed. Both phones may produce varying results when using this function, so it's best to experiment in order to get to know your handset's behavior. The Nokia N8 couldn't top this category, since its photos are somewhat greenish and not as sharp.

1.HTC One X:D, Apple iPhone 4S
2.Samsung Galaxy S II, Nokia N8;)
3.Samsung Galaxy Nexus


Macro:

When it comes to macro, we managed to achieve best results with the N8 and Galaxy S II, where both devices captured some wonderfully-details shots, but the N8 had the upper hand thanks to its higher resolution. The One X wasn't too far behind, although its somewhat smoother images couldn't compete with the first two.

1.Nokia N8;)
2.Samsung Galaxy S II
3.HTC One X:D
4.Samsung Galaxy Nexus
5.Apple iPhone 4S

Video:

Of all five smartphones, the iPhone 4S has the best video-recording capabilities. Its 1080p video simply looks great and is very smooth. The second place is shared by the Galaxy S II and N8. Although the N8 is limited to producing 720p video, its clips are incredibly smooth, and of very high quality overall, whereas the Galaxy S II is competitive, but a bit choppier and inconsistent. The third place is shared by the One X and Galaxy Nexus, which produce pretty much the same results – mediocre.

1.Apple iPhone 4S
2.Samsung Galaxy S II, Nokia N8;)
3.HTC One X:eek:, Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Ease of use and speed:

In terms of ease of use, speed, and overall greatness of the camera UIs, our favorite one is the HTC One X, as it is very comfortable and features some cool additional stuff like filters and various settings. Then comes the iPhone 4S with its ultra-fast and ultra-simple design. We'd place the Nokia N8 third here, because of its dedicated camera shutter, which makes the process of taking photos feel a bit more natural and straightforward.

1.HTC One X:D
2.Apple iPhone 4S
3.Nokia N8;)
4.Samsung Galaxy S II
5.Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Conclusion:

This was it, shutterbugs. Apparently we don't have an ultimate camera phone here, but even if we had one, it wouldn't have been the new HTC One X. The handset did arrive with a very fast ImageSense camera, which made photo-taking very intuitive and fast, but it's not up to snuff when it comes to the quality of the actual photos and video. You'll be able to achieve much better results with the iPhone 4S:mad: and even with the oldie-but-goodie Galaxy S II;). The real shock actually came when we saw the Galaxy Nexus beat the One X in many of the categories:eek:, which wasn't really expected. If you are taking a lot of photos and video with your cell phone and hoped that the One X's ImageSense camera will raise the bar in this respect, better look elsewhere.:(

Phonearena
 
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android_master

android_master

Senior Member
Mar 11, 2010
1,097
258
Pune
Quality of Nokia N8 images still can't be beaten by the others in this test.

But i am really surprised by these results,what the hell is wrong,is the camera that bad on htc one x:eek: or phonearena is doing bull**** :mad:
 
V

Vcolassi

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2012
426
29
Whitehall
Wow interesting. I was looking to perhaps sell my Galaxy Nexus for a One X. I was hoping for a better camera and originally thought the one X was superior in that section. This was my excuse and buttering up to the GF letting me lay down the extra cash lol. As she's uses my camera phone a lot when we are out and about and snap pictures of the dog. Damn :(

I know our cell phones aren't appose to replace point and shoots but they say the best camera is the one that always with you. And most of the photos I take are spur of the moment when I'm out and about.
 
gordongartrell

gordongartrell

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2010
83
7
The pictures that I saw in the "Post your best picture" thread were very good imo. I wonder if the reviewer knew what he was doing.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2
 
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android_master

android_master

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Mar 11, 2010
1,097
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Vcolassi said:
Wow interesting. I was looking to perhaps sell my Galaxy Nexus for a One X. I was hoping for a better camera and originally thought the one X was superior in that section. This was my excuse and buttering up to the GF letting me lay down the extra cash lol. As she's uses my camera phone a lot when we are out and about and snap pictures of the dog. Damn :(

I know our cell phones aren't appose to replace point and shoots but they say the best camera is the one that always with you. And most of the photos I take are spur of the moment when I'm out and about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse


really its a pain to see it performing like this
 
W

WhiteHartMart

Senior Member
Jun 7, 2008
749
137
Cornwall, UK
Phonearena have had a massive negative attitude about this phone from day one - wouldn't trust a word they say.

The camera in my experience is fantastic and considerably better than the Galaxy Nexus that I had!

Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
 
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Vcolassi

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2012
426
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Whitehall
WhiteHartMart said:
Phonearena have had a massive negative attitude about this phone from day one - wouldn't trust a word they say.

The camera in my experience is fantastic and considerably better than the Galaxy Nexus that I had!

Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse


Guess its based on user opinion. You said you had a Nexus and the One X performs better. As long as it looks good and the colors are good works for me. In reality I'm not going to be zooming in and having 4 phones next to me to compare lol.
 
finduz

finduz

Member
Mar 30, 2012
39
3
Norway
Damn, and I sold my N8 for this. Haven't had time to test the camera so much, but it's sad that a phone 1.5 years old still isn't beaten.
Wanted all the popular apps which Android offers and a decent camera, but I'm already bored of the apps. Guess I'll go for the next Nokia with Windows and a good camera.
 
V

Vcolassi

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2012
426
29
Whitehall
finduz said:
Damn, and I sold my N8 for this. Haven't had time to test the camera so much, but it's sad that a phone 1.5 years old still isn't beaten.
Wanted all the popular apps which Android offers and a decent camera, but I'm already bored of the apps. Guess I'll go for the next Nokia with Windows and a good camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

If you want the best apps/ camera combo the iPhone is gonna be the way to go, even though I hate to say it. I use a Android phone daily but have a 4s laying around. And as far as games and app support it's clearly dominant.

Not saying the Play store doesn't have a lot of Apps. But you can literally sit around for days and download different iOS apps that the Play store does not have and there good ones too. The play store has the apps for my needs though.

I'd trade ya a new Samsung Galaxy Nexus for you One X hahaha.:p
 
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katamari201

Senior Member
Oct 18, 2011
449
160
Even if you think that PhoneArena comparisons are utter BS, I doubt they would doctor the photos themselves, and they are perfectly lined up for direct comparison. You can clearly see how dark and unnatural looking colorwise the One X photos are, and how bad it performs in low light. It's also hard to blame shaky hands and such when the shutter lag is so low. It's really sad when people in these forums will jump for joy when PhoneArena does a very positive review of the phone they love, and then quickly turn a 180 when they give a negative review. They don't change staff on a weekly basis. There many more negative reviews of the camera elsewhere on popular sites. It's not some anomaly. Just abrasive fanboys who can't take criticism of their baby. HTC is known for their bad cameras. Why would a 9mm phone suddenly change all that?

The Nokia N8 is a real camera-phone, meaning it doesn't care about your tight jeans. The bigger the sensor, the better the camera, no duh. That's why it's 13mm. No 8-9mm phone is gonna be able to compete. Physics. The PureView is also very chunky.

If you think the pictures from the picture thread are good enough, well good for you! But this is about comparing cameras on high-end phones, and making expensive buying decisions based on these comparisons, so the minutiae is what matters. For people who prioritize the camera, the One X is probably the worst choice among the bunch tested.
 
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Try4Ce

Try4Ce

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Jul 29, 2010
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The Cam on the One X is certainly not the best among the tested Devices.
I had the SGS2 before I switched to the One X, but to be honest, I am more pleased with the One X Camera than with the Galaxy S2 Camera.

The SGS2 Cam takes better photos in bright daylight. Its a "great weather" camera, because it needs some time to focus and shoot. Only in good light conditions it outperforms the One X Camera noticably and only if you got a few seconds to spare to take a shot.
With the One X on the other hand, its actually made for quick snapshots while you're on the go. It works quite well, and if you take some time, it even produces some great quality photos. You just need to adjust focus settings and quality settings. In bad day conditions or light conditions, it easily outperforms the SGS2 Camera, hands down. I was able to shoot some impressive indoor photos whereas the Galaxy S2 would've had a hard time.

The N8 still seems unbeaten, true. But its chunky. Thats the downside of a good camera phone, like katamari201 said, its all about physics here. I dont like the N8 in general, and if I was out to take some serious shots, I would grab my digital camera instead of my Smartphone.

Quality-Wise and even maybe Color-Wise, the One X Camera isnt the best of the best - But it still fits perfectly my needs for things "On the go". Its a good balance of being mobile and take some good shots. Macro shots with the One X Cam are still impressive, and detail sharpness even beat the photos I took with other Smartphone Cameras.

But to be honest here: I certainly, and honestly think, that the quality of photos and recorded videos will improve later on. As far as I understand, the photos are currently compressed pretty badly. You take a photo in RAW, then it's being sent to the PureView Chipset where its compressed and processed. HTC stated that with the next Update, Camera Quality and Performance is meant to improve.
With kernel sources I am pretty sure quality can be significantly improved as well, maybe even as far as getting RAW output files. Other phones already got patches from the community to dramatically improve photo and video recording quality, I think its also possible with the One X Camera, as the Hardware isnt bad at all.

I am completely okay with the One X Camera. I dont need a fancy pants cam in a smartphone to outperform my digital camera. A Smartphone is not meant for high quality photographs, its made for awesome mobility and performance.
 
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WhiteHartMart

Senior Member
Jun 7, 2008
749
137
Cornwall, UK
Regardless we all have different eyes so what one sees the next won't - not defending the One X as I'm always changing phones anyway but still think PA coverage has been negative - some of the comments they make in their YouTube videos are laughable.

Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
 
Goku80

Goku80

Senior Member
Mar 18, 2012
10,010
6,782
Within the Matrix
Phone just got launched. If you want a camera that is going to take picture perfect shots then go for an actual camera and not take pictures on your phone. second. updates i am sure will come thick and fast. and once the development starts picking up and kernels start dropping i am pretty sure that will shall see a lot of improvements.

i still say the camera on my galaxy s2 outperforms the HTC one but there are more features to the phone than just the camera. But phonearena are known not to like HTC phones so i would not worry about what they say....90% of reviews out there are praising this phone as the king of android. until the next one that comes out that is..but anyway regarding pictures it is down to choice really. if this performs well for you then great. if not then maybe exchange it.

but most important phone just got launched so maybe in the future with future software updates maybe we shall see an improvement to the camera app..i still say it takes great pics and videos though
 
Try4Ce

Try4Ce

Senior Member
Jul 29, 2010
1,841
460
NRW
Shu. said:
Im coming from a Galaxy Nexus, and it literally has the WORST camera ever build on a phone ... My nokia 6303 takes better pictures
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Well, I personally think that there is a image processor running over the taken photos on the Galaxy Nexus to brighten things up.
I can do the same with Photoshop on my One X captures. Auto Brightness and Auto Contrasts already do alot of things.
IMO, the One X Photos do look more natural, even the ones I shot with my Galaxy S2 mainly looked a little oversaturated / overbright (but not too much, Quality still is great!) compared to what I saw when I shot the image (the real world motive).
 
N

Nos0x

Senior Member
Apr 25, 2006
292
26
Staffs
I have to say that the camera quality isn't as good as I thought it would be from the reviews and when compared with my iPhone 4 the images seem much more grainy/noisy. The One X lens is great though, very bright indoors, much brighter than the iPhone lens and the camera app is much better than the iPhone camera app.
 
Try4Ce

Try4Ce

Senior Member
Jul 29, 2010
1,841
460
NRW
Nos0x said:
I have to say that the camera quality isn't as good as I thought it would be from the reviews and when compared with my iPhone 4 the images seem much more grainy/noisy. The One X lens is great though, very bright indoors, much brighter than the iPhone lens and the camera app is much better than the iPhone camera app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

As already stated by multible users and even HTC themselves, PureView is compressing the RAW captures of the camera pretty bad, maybe because of filesize and speed of photo saving (NOT capturing since the cam already captures images in RAW format). That's the cause of the "grain" in our photographs, tho its not as bad as some ppl say it is.
nVidia / HTC stated also, that the next firmware upgrade is supposed to improve both image quality and camera performance.
I sure hope that HTC keeps their word and they really improve those 2 mentioned points. Remember: With a rooted phone and kernel sources almost every phone got increased photo/video recording quality due some devs always figured out how to increase bitrates and reduce compression levels.

Latest example for me was the Galaxy S2: Video Recording bitrate was awful with stock Gingerbread ROM and recorded sound in videos was @ 96kbit with Mono. A patched camera application increased video bitrate, as well as audio bitrate from 96kbit mono to 128kbit stereo. It was really noticeable.
 
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    hamdir
    hamdir
    look from what i've seen so far (im still not carrying a unit myself, only tried the ones i tested for my friends)

    the One X camera gives outstanding easy results, this is the biggest feature, just pull out and take a photo

    complaints from phone arena like pics are under exposed is silly since you can adjust it with the menu

    also complaints about details is a little non sense, since you can reduce processing by sharpness -2

    so yes if i have to complaint, i would say three issues, first that we can't completely disable the ImageSense processing even at sharpness -2 lots of stuff still going on, low light images are looking bad @ 1:1 crops and noise at out of focus areas

    otherwise the photos especially in daylight are outstanding and most important the risk of blurred photos is little thanks to the brisk shutter speed, motion blur is the biggest area people complained out about in my Desire HD camera guide

    1:1 quality is cleaner on my Desire HD since i can still turn off all the digtial processing, something we can't do on the One X

    so so 1080p video is also not acceptable...

    things do improve with software updates, lots of stuff were improved on the Desire HD camera, like fixing stuttering 720p and much better low light performance

    they also adjusted the sharpness processing algorithm and color correction, which i honestly didn't like, i preferred the original 1:1 quality with the original froyo software

    speaking of updates both the Desire HD and Sensation almost doubled in performance and speed since their launch firmware, both my Sensation and Desire HD are running @ brisk locked 60fps now :D further improved with some root efforts like supercharger ;)

    The Desire HD in particular have gone through a complete transformation throughout its life time, starting with froyo+sense 2.1 > a complete overhaul with a much improved version of Sense 3.0+GB which was a lot better than the original Sense 3.0 on Sensation and finally an upcoming Sense 3.6+ICS

    OTA is the keyword here, one thing for Sure HTC never let leave their fleet forgotten
    View
    2
    K
    katamari201
    Even if you think that PhoneArena comparisons are utter BS, I doubt they would doctor the photos themselves, and they are perfectly lined up for direct comparison. You can clearly see how dark and unnatural looking colorwise the One X photos are, and how bad it performs in low light. It's also hard to blame shaky hands and such when the shutter lag is so low. It's really sad when people in these forums will jump for joy when PhoneArena does a very positive review of the phone they love, and then quickly turn a 180 when they give a negative review. They don't change staff on a weekly basis. There many more negative reviews of the camera elsewhere on popular sites. It's not some anomaly. Just abrasive fanboys who can't take criticism of their baby. HTC is known for their bad cameras. Why would a 9mm phone suddenly change all that?

    The Nokia N8 is a real camera-phone, meaning it doesn't care about your tight jeans. The bigger the sensor, the better the camera, no duh. That's why it's 13mm. No 8-9mm phone is gonna be able to compete. Physics. The PureView is also very chunky.

    If you think the pictures from the picture thread are good enough, well good for you! But this is about comparing cameras on high-end phones, and making expensive buying decisions based on these comparisons, so the minutiae is what matters. For people who prioritize the camera, the One X is probably the worst choice among the bunch tested.
    View
    1
    gordongartrell
    gordongartrell
    The pictures that I saw in the "Post your best picture" thread were very good imo. I wonder if the reviewer knew what he was doing.

    Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2
    View
    1
    W
    WhiteHartMart
    Phonearena have had a massive negative attitude about this phone from day one - wouldn't trust a word they say.

    The camera in my experience is fantastic and considerably better than the Galaxy Nexus that I had!

    Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
    View
    1
    Try4Ce
    Try4Ce
    The Cam on the One X is certainly not the best among the tested Devices.
    I had the SGS2 before I switched to the One X, but to be honest, I am more pleased with the One X Camera than with the Galaxy S2 Camera.

    The SGS2 Cam takes better photos in bright daylight. Its a "great weather" camera, because it needs some time to focus and shoot. Only in good light conditions it outperforms the One X Camera noticably and only if you got a few seconds to spare to take a shot.
    With the One X on the other hand, its actually made for quick snapshots while you're on the go. It works quite well, and if you take some time, it even produces some great quality photos. You just need to adjust focus settings and quality settings. In bad day conditions or light conditions, it easily outperforms the SGS2 Camera, hands down. I was able to shoot some impressive indoor photos whereas the Galaxy S2 would've had a hard time.

    The N8 still seems unbeaten, true. But its chunky. Thats the downside of a good camera phone, like katamari201 said, its all about physics here. I dont like the N8 in general, and if I was out to take some serious shots, I would grab my digital camera instead of my Smartphone.

    Quality-Wise and even maybe Color-Wise, the One X Camera isnt the best of the best - But it still fits perfectly my needs for things "On the go". Its a good balance of being mobile and take some good shots. Macro shots with the One X Cam are still impressive, and detail sharpness even beat the photos I took with other Smartphone Cameras.

    But to be honest here: I certainly, and honestly think, that the quality of photos and recorded videos will improve later on. As far as I understand, the photos are currently compressed pretty badly. You take a photo in RAW, then it's being sent to the PureView Chipset where its compressed and processed. HTC stated that with the next Update, Camera Quality and Performance is meant to improve.
    With kernel sources I am pretty sure quality can be significantly improved as well, maybe even as far as getting RAW output files. Other phones already got patches from the community to dramatically improve photo and video recording quality, I think its also possible with the One X Camera, as the Hardware isnt bad at all.

    I am completely okay with the One X Camera. I dont need a fancy pants cam in a smartphone to outperform my digital camera. A Smartphone is not meant for high quality photographs, its made for awesome mobility and performance.
    View

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