Question Vivo x90 pro+ vs S23U

[Haskren]

Most thorough and score settling camera comparison is out

 

[tomasphoto]

Hi. Here a couple of photos from the Vivo X90 Pro Plus and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

https://tomasbohdal.cz/photo-duel-samsung-galaxy-s23-ultra-vs-vivo-x90-pro-plus-part-i/

It only makes sense to look at the photos on a computer (larger monitor).

 

[Dayuser]

Hi. Here a couple of photos from the Vivo X90 Pro Plus and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

https://tomasbohdal.cz/photo-duel-samsung-galaxy-s23-ultra-vs-vivo-x90-pro-plus-part-i/

It only makes sense to look at the photos on a computer (larger monitor).

Oh yeah.. Night shots next when you got time to do it

 

[luontokoodaus]

Hi. Here a couple of photos from the Vivo X90 Pro Plus and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

https://tomasbohdal.cz/photo-duel-samsung-galaxy-s23-ultra-vs-vivo-x90-pro-plus-part-i/

It only makes sense to look at the photos on a computer (larger monitor).

Thanks, but I feel like blocking out your eyes is kind of a moot point when you're uploading photos to a domain with your full real name...

P.S. If you want to do a proper comparison of the selfie. Make sure to not flip/mirror the photo on one of the devices.

 

[tomasphoto]

"I took these photos on auto mode, the resulting photos are without any editing"... "just JPG as it comes out of the mobile"

 

[luontokoodaus]

Did you use Zeiss natural color?

 

[extremecarver]

Take some full body Portrait pics against sunset or at least against sunshine. That is where the x90 pro+ HDR badly fails. It can already be seen in one of your shots, but the lower the sun the worse (yeah in general that's not a way to shoot great pictures, but with flash some Smartphones can get decent results, and DSLR with a big indirect flash setup can get great results). I shoot pictures mainly in the mountains, and usually you there simply cannot influence the light direction except by chosing the time of day that's my biggest gripe photo wise with x90 pro+. Iphone 14 pro has much better fill flash. S23U better HDR against sun direction (vivo has better HDR for small strong light sources like windows or lights at night)

Actually the main point that speaks against smartphones. Except the Sony 989 chip phone I think no smartphone can integrate with professional external flash solutions, so you can only use a mirror foil/umbrella mirror for lighting against sun. But it you already carry such gear then the reliability and usability (much more buttons for important functions!) are simply the reason to go real camera and not smartphone. While smartphones in some cases can actually take better photos due to AI, there are simply not a replacement in usability and Integration with all other photographic equipment, and that equipment is just as important as the camera itself, or more important e.g. when shooting a sunset portrait. For video this is even more important. Smartphones are a great replacement for action cams if the weight/size doesn't matter (fast paced sports with smartphone as action cam mounted on your helmet simply won't work) but for anything film related the usability/external equipment/white balance just fails.

 

[tomasphoto]

Did you use Zeiss natural color?

No, the photos are not in Zeiss mode. I thought they were - because of the "signature" on the photo, but I checked now and it's not true. I have added to the text on the site.
I'll look into this for another shoot in the future.

 

[luontokoodaus]

Either way it looks great. I use Zeiss natural color mode on all my photos because I don't like the extra saturation. Maybe time to sell your Sony camera then ?

 

[mbfamily]

Take some full body Portrait pics against sunset or at least against sunshine. That is where the x90 pro+ HDR badly fails. It can already be seen in one of your shots, but the lower the sun the worse (yeah in general that's not a way to shoot great pictures, but with flash some Smartphones can get decent results, and DSLR with a big indirect flash setup can get great results). I shoot pictures mainly in the mountains, and usually you there simply cannot influence the light direction except by chosing the time of day that's my biggest gripe photo wise with x90 pro+. Iphone 14 pro has much better fill flash. S23U better HDR against sun direction (vivo has better HDR for small strong light sources like windows or lights at night)

Actually the main point that speaks against smartphones. Except the Sony 989 chip phone I think no smartphone can integrate with professional external flash solutions, so you can only use a mirror foil/umbrella mirror for lighting against sun. But it you already carry such gear then the reliability and usability (much more buttons for important functions!) are simply the reason to go real camera and not smartphone. While smartphones in some cases can actually take better photos due to AI, there are simply not a replacement in usability and Integration with all other photographic equipment, and that equipment is just as important as the camera itself, or more important e.g. when shooting a sunset portrait. For video this is even more important. Smartphones are a great replacement for action cams if the weight/size doesn't matter (fast paced sports with smartphone as action cam mounted on your helmet simply won't work) but for anything film related the usability/external equipment/white balance just fails.

I cannot confirm that. Took many portrait pics and selfies against evening sun and the Vivo was amazing. Much better than any phone I have ever tried, including iPhone 14 Pro and even competing well with a Sony mirrorless.
HDR processing on the Vivo is the best in any phone by far.

 

[vendetta17]

I think this ends any debate . The guy its a professional photographer , the amount of tech arguments and facts he speaks are outstanding .

 

[mbfamily]

Yes, it's amazingly good up to about 10x. Of course it's just an approximation, but you can do some maths: The 3.9x 64MP sensor's 0.7um pixels are equivalent to 16MP 1.4um pixels, or, for comparison with the S23U, 10MP 2.24um pixels (1.4*16/10).
Now, if go from 3.9x to 7.8x, you need to divide the pixel size by 2, i.e. you're left with an equivalent of 10MP 1.12um pixels.
Now look at the S23U spec sheet: The 10x 10MP lens is 1/3.52" with 1.12um sized pixels.

As a result, you can expect roughly the same image quality from the Vivo at 7.8x zoom compared to the S23U at 10x zoom.
Of course, that means the S23U delivers better images above 10x.

But here's the catch: At 9x zoom, the Samsung can't use its 10x lens! It has to fall back to the 3x lens. Anything between 3.9x and 9.9x => The Vivo wins easily!

So, the S23U is good for bragging rights with moon shots and bird photography and maybe if you plan to spy on people

But it does not offer a "gradual" zoom that you need for everyday photography, that emulates what you would normally be able to do with a DSLR zoom lens - only the Vivo can do that, because of the large high resolution periscope camera.

And what about 1-3.9x? You can do the same maths. The Vivo main sensor for example is 50MP with 1.6um pixels. If you zoom in up to 2x using the main sensor, you're left with 12.5MP 1.6um pixels, and between 2x and 3x the Vivo can use the 2x portrait lens with 12.5MP 1.4um pixels (binned) at 2x and an equivalent of approximately 0.8um pixels at 3x. Compare that to the S23U main sensor's 12.5MP 1.4um (binned) at 2x and approximately 0.6um equivalent at 3x, before the 3x lens kicks in.

It's only between 3x and 3.9x that the S23U has an advantage, where it can use the dedicated 3x lens.



See above

Of course it's not that simple, there are a lot of other factors, like lens quality, aperture size and of course the software!

But doing the maths on pixel sizes still usually gives you a good idea about the image quality you can expect from a phone.

Here's a test from Dxomark that perfectly summarizes my lengthy maths into a nice chart. You can clearly see how extremely fast the Samsung loses detail between 70mm and 200mm focal length, until the 10x lens kicks in and detail preservation jumps up again.
In comparison, the Honor Magic5 Pro captures a very constant amount of detail all the way from 13mm to 200mm.
The X90 Pro+ is very similar to the Honor Magic5 Pro and both are much more "DSLR-like" in the sense that you get a continuous zoom with constant amount of detail at any focal length in between.

 

[Haskren]

Yeah, can't complain
Few snaps today

 

[maxel77]

Very interesting video:

 

[mbfamily]

Yeah, can't complain
Few snaps today

View attachment 5853075

View attachment 5853077

View attachment 5853079

Absolutely amazing!

 

[luontokoodaus]

Phenomenal photos Haskren

 

[extremecarver]

There is another huge advantage for s23U, and that is simply gcam. On x90pro+ gcam spits out horrible colors on the zoom lenses, and in general colors are very different from stock.

Now gcam s23U is way better imho than x90 pro plus stock camera. X90PP gcam is great, but it's a damn lottery if pics turn out well or not regarding color. Yeah and that applies or any gcam mod I tried.

Video anyhow is better on Samsung. With gcam on Samsung also being way better (as it gets default colors) the s23U is for me simply the way better photo camera too. With decent configs that exist for s23U any deeper comparison should be s23 gcam.vs x90 pro plus stock camera (as long as gcam is a lottery on colors). And then s23U is simply much much better..... Also preview on x90pro plus gcam is bad, because colors are very different from what you will get jn the picture.

And yeah for me it's jpg that's counts. Cannot be bothered to shoot raw.


The above comparison is stupid, that person doesn't know what he is doing it is doing it wrong on purpose! Because no one in a sane mind uses 200MP mode indoors then complains it isn't better. 200MP mode is for very good outdoors only light. 50MP needs good light. But then 50MP mode vs gcam usually still loses, so why bother?

That's actually one point why for quite many Xiaomi 10 ultra is still the best camera phone. It's the only phone really putting everything it has into camera2 not a crippled version like vivo or a little bit better like Samsung. Xiaomi 11-13 isn't as good anymore, but still offers better camera2 support vs both vivo and Samsung. Yeah Huawei/honor so far also disappoints with camera2.

I think I will wait for pixel 8. It's pretty sure it will be based on Samsung 3nm which would mean great battery life too. And that's the only real thing which makes pixel7pro impossible for me.

 

[extremecarver]

So today S23u is already receiving the March security patches from Android, while the wannabe flagship x90pp is stuck on quarterly security updates right from the start, besides long time glaring software bugs on notifications/dark mode and plenty other software shortcomings...

Heck even all Huawei flagships of the last 4 years back to mate 20 pro are already on February security update, all Xiaomi flagships are on newer security patches, just Vivo or BBK shows that they do take their race extending their lead at absolutely worst software support seriously

 

[extremecarver]

Well even the worst phones I know receive monthly security updates during the first two years. Just like a month old.
And it's hard to believe it's difficult at all to play them in, Samsung manages this within hours of publication by google. Huawei which is cut off from google manages this way faster and more reliable.

And yes I do care, there are loads of things I do with my phone, online banking, trading stocks, whatever and so I really want the phone to be relatively up to date. Not over 3 months behind.


Likely BBK has problems that security updates break their spyware? That's why they are so slow in updating them? Software on this phone is utterly horrible. Great hardware bricked by rotten oranges OS.

 

[Badger50]

Moderator Announcement

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Vivo x90 pro+ vs S23U ​

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