Hi guys, it’s KJ the MiTechGuy here, and today I have another interesting camera comparison
for you guys.
I will be comparing the cameras found on the OnePlus 6T and the iPhone XS Max.
This is actually a pretty interesting camera comparison because the XS Max literally costs
twice as much as the 6T does.
In this video, I’ll be comparing the cameras in various lighting conditions, both indoors
and outdoors, and I will also take a look at the video and audio qualities of both phones.
Make sure to stick around to the end of the video to see how the OnePlus 6T’s night
mode performs.
Huge shoutout to Xcentz for sponsoring this video.
Let’s get right into it.
The OnePlus 6T houses a main 16 Megapixel sensor that has an aperture of f/1.7.
Its second camera is 20 Megapixels, but has the same aperture and focal length as its
main sensor.
OnePlus says the 2nd camera helps out with portrait mode shots.
The iPhone XS Max has a dual 12-Megapixel camera setup with a main camera with slightly
smaller aperture at f/1.8.
It can capture portrait mode shots with the help of its 2x optical zoom telephoto camera
that has an aperture of f/2.4.
Both phones are capable of shooting 4K video at 30 and 60 frames per second, whereas the
XS Max is also capable of shooting 4K at 24 FPS.
In terms of the front cameras of both phones, the OnePlus 6T's 16 megapixel camera actually
has more than double the megapixel count of the 7 megapixel TrueDepth sensor found on
the XS Max.
These cameras can record 1080p video.
Now I’m going to get into the side-by-sides.
I’m going to start off with pictures taken in ideal lighting scenarios and then I’m
going to look at images taken in progressively worse lighting scenarios until I get to night
time shooting.
And finally, I’ll test the video and audio.
This first image shows right off the bat that both of these camera systems are really good.
Somethings I do notice though are the facts that there is a bit more color on the building
and overall, highlights are better exposed in the XS’s image.
The XS does have that telephoto lens, so if I had to zoom in and just take a picture of
the building, I would have to just software zoom on the 6T, which results in a good picture,
but noticeably not as detail as the XS’s.
Here, the pictures captured by each phone are fantastic.
There are tons of detail and colors look great.
The only real differences arise from the fact that the XS will tend to take the warmer images,
whereas the 6T tends to take the cooler images.
Again, both images are excellent, and the only real differences come in how the colors
are processed.
The 6T clearly has the more saturated image.
Some people love this look, while others hate it.
Let me know where you stand on image saturation down below.
Apple really stepped up their portrait mode game with the XS and XS Max, and a lot of
people really love how the colors turn out on the XS’s portrait shots.
OnePlus also really stepped up their image processing on portrait shots and the 6T also
takes very high quality portrait pictures.
All of these side-by-sides were taken from the same vantage point, and right after one
another.
In my opinion, the XS takes the more detailed and overall more visually appealing pictures,
but I also know a lot of people who would really take advantage of the wider-angled
portrait shots taken by the 6T, which aren’t bad at all.
The selfie camera of the 6T picks up a ton of detail because of its high megapixel count,
but it also manages to wash out a lot of the colors on my face and in the sky.
The XS’s selfie on the other hand, is clearly not as detailed, but the colors look so much
more flattering.
Looking at portrait mode selfies, I can see that both struggled with my hair, as expected,
but at least the XS Max was able to maintain all of the colors in the image.
The 6T’s image is bright, but everything is overexposed.
So the two cameras, for the most part, performed pretty good in ideal lighting, which was exactly
what I expected.
So now I’m going to start looking at images shot in non-ideal lighting inside and outside.
This first scenario used to be a very challenging lighting scenario for cameras.
Light is coming in from the background, but both phones do a great job with maintaining
the details in the foreground.
Again, the 6T has the more saturated image, so you can determine for yourself the image
that you prefer.
This lighting situation is interesting because of the fact that the skylights are the only
real light sources.
The 6T actually did the better job of properly exposing the skylights themselves, whereas
the XS kept the entire foreground brighter with help from its Super HDR feature.
On the other hand, this image shows how great the HDR features of the 6T are.
The sun is coming in through the trees, and while the XS was able to maintain more of
the color in the sky, the 6T was able to keep the foreground brighter, while still not allowing
the sun to overpower the image.
Here, the sun was setting and again I was really impressed with how both cameras processed
the image.
The colors are different because of the warm vs cold trends I mentioned earlier, but both
phones were able to pick up a ton of detail given the lighting situation.
Previous OnePlus phones never really performed too well in low light, but now with the 6T’s
new night mode, I’m curious how the two phones stack up.
These two pictures were taken in the automatic modes of both devices.
The 6T’s image is good and has minimal noise, but the XS I think, took the more natural-looking
picture with colors that are more like what I saw.
With night mode turned on, I am honestly underwhelmed with this shot.
It seems as if the image got even more washed out on the 6T’s image.
Let’s look at some other shots though.
Now this is the type of shot I expect from a night mode picture.
The longer 3 second exposure was able to get much more information in the shadows of the
image so the 6T was able to pull out more of the colors.
Still, I’d like to commend the XS’s ability to take pretty good pictures at night almost
instantly.
The 6T’s night mode isn’t the best implantation out right now, but if you stay still for those
three seconds, you can get good shots.
I just wish, it did a better job of maintaining the colors on illuminated signs.
Nonetheless, the night mode on the 6T will result in pictures that are overall brighter
because it was simply able to take in more information due to the 3 seconds it takes
to capture each image.
Now for video.
Both phones are capable of shooting 4K video at up to 60 FPS, but I set both to 4K at 30
FPS because that is what this video was uploaded at.
From my experience, the iPhone XS actually has 4K video that is more on the saturated
side when compared to other camera systems.
But when I look at the XS’s video next to that of the 6T, the XS actually seems like
the much more naturally looking video.
I don’t know what OnePlus was thinking when they made the 4K video this saturated.
The stabilization is decent and it does pick up a lot of detail, but it is impossible to
look past the fact that it looks like there is a fake filter placed over the 6T’s video.
As I’ve said in previous camera comparisons, it is a lot harder to remove saturation than
to add saturation in videos.
Nonetheless, there are people out there that like the colorful look of the 6T’s video,
and I respect that they hold that opinion.
It just isn’t what I prefer.
In terms of the front camera video qualities of both phones, I’d say that the 6T actually
picked up more details on my face and hair, and also had better image stabilization as
I walked.
Both phones didn’t really get my skin tone right, but both phones actually did pretty
good jobs overall in terms of the quality of the video itself.
But when I talk about audio, there is clearly an advantage with the XS.
My voice sounds so much fuller on the XS when compared to the tinny audio on the 6T.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Before I give my final thoughts about these two camera systems, I wanted to talk to you
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For the most part, I think the OnePlus 6T put up a decent fight against the iPhone XS.
And we cannot simply gloss over the fact that the XS Max literally starts at a price twice
as much as the 6T.
I know that more times than not, the XS’s images were better than the 6T’s, but it
is impossible to say that the XS produced images that are twice as good.
There were even some images where I can totally see a majority of people choosing the 6T’s
image in a blind test.
There’s just the little things like proper exposure, 4K video saturation and audio that
are holding the 6T back from more expensive devices.
But the nice thing is that a lot of these issues can potentially be solved through software
updates.
If you haven't already, make sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter and DM me on those
platforms and I will try to get back to you.
As for this channel, make sure you're subscribed and have the notification bell clicked to
stay up to date on my latest videos because I do have a Note 9 camera comparison planned
for later this week.
As always, thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.