Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 is hot off the production line, and it wants a shot at the smartphone
camera champion Huawei’s P20 Pro.
The U12+ from HTC and the Find X from Oppo also have their eyes on the crown, so let’s
test them all in another round of Last Cam Standing!
Last Cam Standing is PCWorld’s video series that determines the best phone camera for
still images in a King-of-the-hill style battle.
Whichever phone wins moves on to face the next major smartphone release... so jam on
that subscribe button to see which goes on to battle the next iPhone!
First up, let's meet the fighters.
The returning champion P20 Pro from Huawei has won the past two rounds, and is showing
no signs of stopping.
Even a cracked back hasn’t affected its triple camera system supported by a powerful
artificial intellegence.
But the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is eager to take it down.
For better or worse, it has the same exact camera system as the S9+ that lost earlier
this year - and many of you weren’t happy with that.
However, Samsung has added AI features that promise to make a significant difference for
the existing hardware.
Will it be enough take the top spot?
We’ll see...
Next up is a unique one!
Oppo’s Find X made waves a couple months ago with its retractable camera system.
Its overall hardware design is supposed to be a revolution, so let’s hope the cameras
are just as impressive.
And finally we have the HTC U12+, the successor to the U11, which faired pretty well in our
battle last year.
Even though it’s been around for a bit the U12+ still deserves a shot at the title...
so let’s see how it holds up!
As always, our tests are broken into four categories: color, clarity, exposure, and
extra features.
Each phone is tested using its default camera app, just as it was confirgured right out
of the box.
I left the P20 Pro’s Master AI on by default, and photos will be marked accordingly when
used.
In cases where the P20 Pro did offer a suggestion, a second photo was taken with the profile
dismissed.
Now let’s get to the results of the battle!
First up is color, and here we’re looking for accurate reproduction and white balance.
Right off the bat these photos seem pretty similar in terms of color reproduction, but
let’s dig deeper.
Judging by the concrete above the graffiti, we see that the Note 9 is favoring warmer
tones and the P20 Pro is favoring cooler tones.
The Note 9 also has some of that signature ‘Samsung saturation’ which helps the colors
in the face pop but it’s not too overdone.
Checking out the photos of this large plant, the color results are once again very close.
But when I swap the P20 Pro’s standard version with the profile that the Master AI offered
me, the contrast gets bumped significantly.
The ‘Greenery’ profile works very well in these situations, especially if you like
a colorful scene.
Moving inside, each camera struggles with representing the glow of the sunset.
The Find X is muted and on the cooler side.
The U12 is a bit greenish overall.
And the Note 9 is just a tad warmer than the P20 Pro - which is the closest to accurate.
Now, I’ve heard your feedback so I’m making sure to include some humans in my color testing!
Here on the street, let’s focus on Adjani’s skin tones.
The Note 9 and U12’s photos have a slight red/purple hue.
The Find X’s shot leans towards a yellowish skin tone, which isn’t flattering at all.
And the P20 Pro seems to smooth over the color and shadows which presents her to be paler
than she actually is - it’s quite curious.
But replace it with the Master AI’s ‘portrait’ profile, and aside from the added bokeh, it
warms her skin back up to where it should be, offering the best result.
But once we get inside and have to deal with harsh office lighting - aka those awful flourescent
bulbs - I’m even more impressed with Huawei’s approach to it’s ‘Portrait’ profile.
Once activated, it tries to counteract any hint of the warm glow from the light overhead.
The U12+ on the other hand seemingly leans into it - which is not a good look.
The Find X isn’t horrible - it’s just meh - and the Note 9’s shot is better despite
the saturation.
The last thing I’ll note is that the Note 9 exhibits some very ugly yellow tones in
low lighting situations.
It’s not compensating properly for white balance and it’s a problem with every dark
shot I took.
Hopefully this can be addressed in a future update, but as it is right now it’s a problem.
Apart from that, I’m not seeing much difference from the S9+ that Samsung launched earlier
this year.
It’s Scene Optimizer is barely affecting the results and honestly seems to be a Samsung
marketing gimmick like the dual apeture camera - at least so far.
But what Huawei is giving me is accurate colors and in some cases an enhanced option if I’m wanting it.
Now color preference can be a subjective thing, and none of the phones are horribly inaccurate,
but my eyes prefer the P20 Pro, which wins the color category.
Next up is clarity.
This test digs into the sharpness of each image in various lighting scenarios.
Starting with a view across San Francisco, things don’t appear to be too different.
But zooming in is where the rubber meets the road, and we can see some interesting results.
Looking at the buildings on the hill we see more detail in the P20 Pro’s shot - even
though it’s a 40 megapixel sensor that defaults to 10 megapixels with the use of pixel binning.
That pixel binning is apparent in the flag, where you can see obvious stair-stepping.
But check out the cell towers in the distance--they’re almost non-exsistant in the U12’s shot.
Moving to a closer range photo, we can see how the resolution holds up at normal distances.
Looking at the texture of the wood, the U12 does better here, and even the Note 9 keeps
up with the P20 Pro.
Not sure what the hell happened to the Find X’s version, though - it’s a swirly mess.
And of course I had to include a brick wall!
This time it’s not in full daylight so it’s even more stressful on the camera.
Zooming in reveals great results for the P20 Pro, which has plenty of texture on the paint.
The U12 does pretty well and only falls behind because of the slow shutter speed which introduced
some hand shake.
The Note 9 and Find X are falling behind here, both struggling with heavy amounts of post processing.
And once night hits, the P20 Pro just further runs away with this category.
Even when the Note 9 opens up it’s apeture to f/1.5, it doesn’t help maintain detail.
The Find X does a bit better in the detail department, but there is a healthy amount
of grain present which kills the overall depth o the scene.
And the U12 does pretty damn well, even when pushing the exposure higher than the rest!
The praise doesn’t last long once we get to an even darker area of the garage.
The U12 doesn’t resolve much detail and even has some chroma noise appearing.
The Note 9’s shot isn’t helped by the sharpening, but still fairs better than the
Find X. I also can’t get over the Note 9’s white balance problem -- this image looks
like a twinkie.
And to push these phone’s capabilities one step further, I shot in a darker spot, even
though I knew these weren’t going to be pretty.
Boy was I right!
The Find X falls apart and can’t get a proper exposure, the chroma noise on the U12 gets
turned up to 11, and the P20 Pro starts to exhibit a checkerboard pattern.
Interestingly, the Note 9 does the best here, but it’s still not very usable.
Are you wondering how the Night Mode fairs in this situation on the P20 Pro?
I’ll show you in the extra features category.
So despite it’s poor showing at the end the P20 Pro continues to dominate with it’s
40 megapixel sensor.
When it comes to details sometimes more pixels is better, and Huawei’s P20 Pro has the
most - taking the clarity category.
The third category is exposure, where I’ll focus on the dynamic range of each camera
and how they each expose for a scene.
Starting off on this complicated situation sees the P20 Pro struggling here.
It over exposed the concrete which is something you can’t get back in editing.
Even though the other three images look similar, I am most impressed with the Find X’s shot,
as I was able to pull out more information in the shadows than what was in the Note 9
and U12’s photos.
On the railrod tracks, we can see that the P20 Pro under exposed this time to protect the sky.
Again I’m going to have to favor the Find X’s shot as it has a proper exposure and
still holds information in the brightest parts of the sky.
All of these photos are perfectly usable, though, so I’m having to nit pick.
When we check out this indoor shot, things don’t fair well for the Find X - as it’s
HDR didn’t kick in enough to protect the highlights from the sun.
So in this case the Note 9 does just a bit better than the P20 Pro, which appears flat
but looses shadow information in the dark stools.
In a flat lighting scenario like this it’s important to expose for skin without blowing
out any bright parts of the image.
Unfortunately the P20 Pro and Find X do just that and you can see the peaks on the histogram
indicating clipping on her shirt.
In this case the Note 9 handles its exposure the best.
Ultimately this category ends up being a hard one to judge as all of the phones hold up
pretty well - forcing me to split hairs.
Overall I’m pleased with the performance of the Note 9, especially considering how
much the S9 over-exposed photos earlier this year.
Samsung has come a long way in this respect, so the Note 9 wins the exposure category.
The fourth and final category looks at extra features.
Here I’ll specifically be going over the hardware and software options that set each
camera experience apart.
First off I want to cover the fact that the sliding camera array on the Oppo Find X is
pretty damn awesome.
I’ve unfortunately scratched my fair share of smartphone lenses, so I appreciate the
concept, even if the phone can feel a bit weird to hold in landscape when it moves.
But I also want to point out that Oppo took a page out of Apple’s playbook and put the
camera settings inside the settings app rather than in the camera app itself - not cool.
Each phone sports at least two cameras, all of the telephoto variety.
Too bad none of them can hold a candle to the quality of the P20 Pro’s telephoto camera
-- it’s just too good to deny.
And even though my mom doesn’t geek out about pixels the way I do, she does use the
zoom on her phone all the time and I know she’d appreciate the level of detail on
display here.
And remember the low light photos from the clarity category?
The P20 Pro had a great showing, even without using its impressive Night Mode.
In this mode Huawei exposes the scene for around four seconds and stitches the information
together, which can reveal a brighter and clearer photo - a feature none of these other
phones offer.
Huawei also gets another nod for it’s AI compared to the rest.
Not only does it offer substantial recommendations, it’s easy to dismiss if you would rather
have the unaffected version.
Sure, the AI on the Find X and Note 9 recognize the scene just as well as the P20 Pro, but
it doesn’t alter the results of the photos in any discernable way compared to having it off.
I’m inclined to think this is another gimmick by Samsung to help you forget this is just
the same camera system thats in the S9+.
And when it comes to each phone’s default camera app, all of them except for the U12
use a carossel style layout - which I’m not very fond of.
Not that I prefer the app layout on the U12, I just like to switch between modes from a
list rather than scrolling through till I get to the one I want to use.
Speaking of the U12+, I had a hell of a time quick launching the camera app with the ‘non-button
power button’, and that’s a bigger issue with the phone itself.
The last point I’ll hit is the protruding lens system on the P20 Pro.
Used next to the other phones that have the cameras either flush with the back glass -
or hidden - it sticks out like a sore thumb and it needs to be addressed in the next version.
All that said, the P20 Pro is the only phone that offers three unique and powerful cameras
on top of a more beneficial AI system.
So the Huawei P20 Pro takes the extra features category.
And now it’s time to crown a winner!
While Samsung continues to refine its approach to photo processing, it still can’t topple
the P20 Pro - keeping Huawei in the top spot for three rounds!
This makes the P20 Pro the longest winner of 2018 so far!
It’s hard not to love what Huawei is doing with the P20 Pro’s camera.
It’s the first to offer a triple system and packs in a ton of horsepower.
It’s unique secondary black and white sensor not only helps the other lenses get sharper
results, it also captures stunning black and white photos to boot.
Huawei is also leaning heavily into it’s AI processing that - for the most part - offers pleasing results.
And to top it off, the P20 Pro uses Leica lenses which provide an edge in this crowded market.
With all of this power who know’s how long it will keep the lead?
Well the next iPhone and Pixel are almost here, which should prove to be tough opponents!
If I were you I wouldn’t wanna miss it, so subscribe to see the next episode of Last Cam Standing!