Database Users

Touch HD vs. SE Idou

Hey guys.
There's a new competitor in town. SE is definitely looking to gain some market share with the Idou scheduled launch Q2 '09. some specs listed are :
Sony Ericsson Idou
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
HSDPA 900 / 2100
Coming soon. Exp. release 2009, Q3
TFT touchscreen, 16M colors
360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
Symbian OS
12.1 MP, 4256 x 2832 pixels, autofocus, xenon flash, video, video LED flash, secondary VGA videocall camera
- Built-in GPS
- aGPS function
- Camera images geo-tagging, face and smile detection
- Google maps
- FM radio with RDS
- MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player
- Organiser
- Built-in handsfree
- Voice memo/dial
- Java MIDP 2.0
Some links:
Engadget
Phonedog
Some other video
What are your thoughts on this new model.

The SE Idou has a smaller screen, lower resolution, not WinMo, no North American 3G (Telstra model has 850).
The only positive that jumps out is the camera, but that's not enough to overcome the above negatives for me. Sorry, not interested.

I bet the Idou-NOT camera will still be shooting 3gp video in 320*240 resolution

My 3 and a half year old Universal has a bigger, higher resolution screen than the Idou. If that's progress I'm not impressed.

That phone was epic back in the day! Still has some decent specs now!

really cant stand all those nonstandard resolution.
heck, enough's enough already with vga wvga q and square stuff!

crashDebug said:
really cant stand all those nonstandard resolution.
heck, enough's enough already with vga wvga q and square stuff!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well get used to it - it's the same resolution that all the new touchscreen Symbian handsets are coming out with such as the Nokia 5800 and the Samsung OmniaHD.
The reason they've gone for it is that it's a 16:9 aspect ratio.
There's no point trying to compare the Touch HD to the Idou as one of those handsets isn't even available yet.
In fact, going on SE's recent form, I'd be very surprised if they get it into shops this year. And I'd even go so far as to say that someone like Samsung or LG will have released a different 12mp handset before Idou is available.
Also, why on earth does anyone think that 12mp on a phone is going to be a good thing?
Think about how poor the camera on the HD can be, do you really think cramming in an extra 7 million pixels will make things better?

Too low res for me - 800*480 is simply a sweet spot, it's the major thing HTC got right.
I bet the 12mp camera takes shockingly bad pictures too. That's more than almost all aps-c DSLRs out there (and the few that tried 14/15mpixel didn't sell, because they took worse pictures than the 10/11 models).

Idou would be a good phone. If this (or N97) is out now, I would not have bought the HD. Don't get me wrong. I am very satisfied with HD (with all the tweaks and cooked roms). Coming from a S60 N95/82 and after using HD for the last 3 months I have to honestly say somehow WM is still not as good an OS compared to Symbian. Symbian is still more robust, nimble and more efficient.

not impressed with it's spec's compared to some of the 2009 htc devices on the horizen...like the Firestone, etc.

I don't know for sure, but normally cameras with these resolution ain't better than any 5 MP camera. Its not the resolution that limits the capacities, but its the lens.

mib1800 said:
Coming from a S60 N95/82 and after using HD for the last 3 months I have to honestly say somehow WM is still not as good an OS compared to Symbian. Symbian is still more robust, nimble and more efficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everyone has their own preferences.
Until the Nokia 5800 was released, I'd never used a Symbian phone that I liked. I just don't feel the way the menus are laid out works all that well.
johnpatcher said:
I don't know for sure, but normally cameras with these resolution ain't better than any 5 MP camera. Its not the resolution that limits the capacities, but its the lens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's both.
Yes the lens makes a big difference but so do the number of pixels.
By cramming more pixels onto the same size of sensor, each pixel is smaller and consequently less light hits it.
Because less light hits it, the picture will appear duller unless you increase the amplification of the signal from each pixel. But if you do that, you also increase the amount of noise, which is detrimental to the picture quality.
Even with premium components it's impossible to amplify a signal without having noise appear but there's no way that a phone is going to be fitted with premium components, so the noise will be much worse than it would be on a digital camera of the same quality, not to mention that proper digital cameras would also tend to have a physically larger sensor anyway, so they wouldn't have to crank the amplification up so much.
Even the C905 (which is, according to GSMArena the best 8mp camera-phone on the market from a camera perspective) already has serious issues with noise and, at best, Idou will have a sensor of the same physical size but with more pixels.
However I've already read rumours that the sensor will, in fact, be smaller than the C905's which will make it all even worse.

Step666 said:
It's both.
Yes the lens makes a big difference but so do the number of pixels.
By cramming more pixels onto the same size of sensor, each pixel is smaller and consequently less light hits it.
Because less light hits it, the picture will appear duller unless you increase the amplification of the signal from each pixel. But if you do that, you also increase the amount of noise, which is detrimental to the picture quality.
Even with premium components it's impossible to amplify a signal without having noise appear but there's no way that a phone is going to be fitted with premium components, so the noise will be much worse than it would be on a digital camera of the same quality, not to mention that proper digital cameras would also tend to have a physically larger sensor anyway, so they wouldn't have to crank the amplification up so much.
Even the C905 (which is, according to GSMArena the best 8mp camera-phone on the market from a camera perspective) already has serious issues with noise and, at best, Idou will have a sensor of the same physical size but with more pixels.
However I've already read rumours that the sensor will, in fact, be smaller than the C905's which will make it all even worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with everything you said, and being a photographer I'm very familiar with issues you described.
However, Sony is leading the market in compact digital cameras, and as such, it would not surprise me that these 12 megapixels turn out to produce "decent quality" photos.
Decent for average Joe Snapshooter, of course. Because, although for last 5 or so years I have been listening to "OMG, they're putting EVEN more pixels onto that tiny sensor", somehow the manufacturers are still running the megapixel race, and image quality has had a small but steady quality improvement. First time I heard this sentence was when first big megapixel jump happened: from 1 megapixel to 2.
So, let's just wait and see before bashing the new Sony, at least camera-wise.

I'm not waiting, I hold out zero hope for Idou or any other 12mp handset.
I've seen both 100% crops and A3 printouts from the C905 and as I said before, noise is a huge problem.
I just don't see how adding extra pixels is going to do anything but make matters worse.
Also, since when have Sony been leading the market for compact cameras?
I must admit I'm not as au fait with everything since the pixel numbers went through the roof but last time I checked, Nikon and Canon were sharing the spoils.

Rozenthal said:
Decent for average Joe Snapshooter, of course. Because, although for last 5 or so years I have been listening to "OMG, they're putting EVEN more pixels onto that tiny sensor", somehow the manufacturers are still running the megapixel race, and image quality has had a small but steady quality improvement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There have been tests recently that showed the best compact ever made was the Fuji f30, a 4 year old 6 megapixel model (people pay a ton of money for them on ebay). Even with improvements in tech since, they've not been able to counteract the quality decrease that cramming more megapixels in causes. Fuji themselves tried to reign back the megapixel race, hold at 8 max for quality reasons, but marketing trumps all and they've had to give it up.
I had a 15mpixel Canon pocket camera recently, the quality was awful.

arfster said:
There have been tests recently that showed the best compact ever made was the Fuji f30, a 4 year old 6 megapixel model (people pay a ton of money for them on ebay).
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Click to collapse
I don't suppose you have a link?
I tried my fair share of Fuji cameras in the past and was never hugely impressed by them, so I'm a little surprised at that.
Also, for them to try and position themselves as the voice of reason in the megapixel war is rather hypocritical since they were the manufacturer who traditionally always aimed for more, staying on with interpolation long after most other manufacturers had given up on it.

Screen Comparison - HTC One / HTC One X

I had a possibility to compare HTC One and HTC One X side by side. I couldnt believe my eyes - 8MP camera of HTC One X couldnt even match up, HTC One photo is soo crisp and cristal clear and ..ohh, ahh. ISO rating goes up to 1600 but when comparing at ISO 100, photo is absolutely few times brighter than HOX.
Now the screens. I really like my HOXs screen. But than I compared it at full brightness with HTC One.
this happened:
https://twitter.com/miHah1/status/306137264126316544

/jelous, can you run only "GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD offscreen or onscreen(1080)" on it ?

That One X screen looks really dark...Not a fair test

TheChiller said:
That One X screen looks really dark...Not a fair test
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Click to collapse
He states both at full brightness

Dude please can you do the same under sunlight?
The OneX was just good so I hope the One is better

Unless you've disabled the 'Reduce screen brightness' in your Powersaver options then regardless of how high you set your screen brightness - It'll never be at maximum.
There is no way that's maximum brightness, it would hurt your eyes in such dark conditions.

Ashalak said:
Unless you've disabled the 'Reduce screen brightness' in your Powersaver options then regardless of how high you set your screen brightness - It'll never be at maximum.
There is no way that's maximum brightness, it would hurt your eyes in such dark conditions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use power saving for anything but cpu downclock, I forgot to mention that.
both phones are at the highest brightness, the thing is that HTC One is so much brighter that camera automaticaly lowers exposure of picture and makes HTC One X so dark.
HTC One has absolutely one of the best screens out there! No doubt!

miHah said:
I had a possibility to compare HTC One and HTC One X side by side. I couldnt believe my eyes - 8MP camera of HTC One X couldnt even match up, HTC One photo is soo crisp and cristal clear and ..ohh, ahh. ISO rating goes up to 1600 but when comparing at ISO 100, photo is absolutely few times brighter than HOX.
Now the screens. I really like my HOXs screen. But than I compared it at full brightness with HTC One.
this happened:
https://twitter.com/miHah1/status/306137264126316544
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the pictures you took with the HTC One looked better then the pictures taken with the One X? I'm more interested in that. I want to see the screen in person really badly, but I already know its going to look better then every other screen out there. :laugh:

ErikWithNoC said:
So the pictures you took with the HTC One looked better then the pictures taken with the One X? I'm more interested in that. I want to see the screen in person really badly, but I already know its going to look better then every other screen out there. :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason why pictures taken with HTC One looks better than with HTC One X:
1. HTC One has optical stabilization, which means even if you move just a little bit, image will be still so it will not be blurry and have more details. The difference between HTC One and HTC One X is similar as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q8k7KnMUe8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
2. HTC One lets more light in so it can produce more detailed picture. "the more the light = higher shutter speed = less blur = more detail". At same conditions HTC One X lets less light in so it needs slower shutter speed and creates blurry pictures.
3. HTC One has 4MP widescreen, and HTC One X only has 6MP if you are shooting widescreen so HTC One X actually has only 20% more MP than HTC One which has nothing to do with image quality. It only matters when you crop the image but again, if you crop image from One X that is just a bit bigger but has less light, slower shutter speed and almost always some blur the results are ..lets say "not useful for cropping".
4. HTC One has ISO from 100-1600 and HTC One X only has 100-800. Again that means HTC One lets more light in and image is more detailed and is not blurred that much. But high ISO means more noise on the other hand. Comparing ISO 800 between the phones = more noise on HTC One X and also less light - double win for HTC One.
So what are actually MP good for? Cropping. Period.
when you hit certain number of MP, it has no effect if you still raise them up. It is like a gas in a car..car needs some gas to run, if you give it more gas it will be heavier and consequently less efficient and slower but it will still run as if it would have "just enough" gas. But when you have a faster/sports car it will require more gas - like the "big" cameras with bigger sensor size can have more MP.
Have a nice day

miHah said:
The reason why pictures taken with HTC One looks better than with HTC One X:
1. HTC One has optical stabilization, which means even if you move just a little bit, image will be still so it will not be blurry and have more details. The difference between HTC One and HTC One X is similar as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q8k7KnMUe8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
2. HTC One lets more light in so it can produce more detailed picture. "the more the light = higher shutter speed = less blur = more detail". At same conditions HTC One X lets less light in so it needs slower shutter speed and creates blurry pictures.
3. HTC One has 4MP widescreen, and HTC One X only has 6MP if you are shooting widescreen so HTC One X actually has only 20% more MP than HTC One which has nothing to do with image quality. It only matters when you crop the image but again, if you crop image from One X that is just a bit bigger but has less light, slower shutter speed and almost always some blur the results are ..lets say "not useful for cropping".
4. HTC One has ISO from 100-1600 and HTC One X only has 100-800. Again that means HTC One lets more light in and image is more detailed and is not blurred that much. But high ISO means more noise on the other hand. Comparing ISO 800 between the phones = more noise on HTC One X and also less light - double win for HTC One.
So what are actually MP good for? Cropping. Period.
when you hit certain number of MP, it has no effect if you still raise them up. It is like a gas in a car..car needs some gas to run, if you give it more gas it will be heavier and consequently less efficient and slower but it will still run as if it would have "just enough" gas. But when you have a faster/sports car it will require more gas - like the "big" cameras with bigger sensor size can have more MP.
Have a nice day
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although I've already read up plenty on the camera in the HTC One, I appreciate your well thought out reply! I'm just glad to hear that the One is producing better photos then the One X (which I thought were fantastic).

miHah said:
I had a possibility to compare HTC One and HTC One X side by side. I couldnt believe my eyes - 8MP camera of HTC One X couldnt even match up, HTC One photo is soo crisp and cristal clear and ..ohh, ahh. ISO rating goes up to 1600 but when comparing at ISO 100, photo is absolutely few times brighter than HOX.
Now the screens. I really like my HOXs screen. But than I compared it at full brightness with HTC One.
this happened:
https://twitter.com/miHah1/status/306137264126316544
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but your power saving was "Enabled", please test again without power saving.

Pls htc give htc one more color saturation than the droid dna...

Out of curiosity - are you able to see more detail / sharpness in the 1080 screen rather than the 720 one (ignoring brightness and colour levels)?

Ok but who is interested in 16:9 photo shooting...4:3 is still the most common!!! so when you want 4:3 from HTC One you will get only about 3Mpx photos and thats awful...
Mihah: please could you still give both phones to minimum brighness and show us the black level quality on new SLCD3 screen?

I think this whole ultrapixel thing is to reset the marketing of cameras in smartphones,instead of evolving to 13,16,24 mp they just go back to 4mp,next year 5 or 8mp (which will stay for another 3 years),so they are just buying time.
The results of ultrapixel are nice but not much better than a ''classic'' 8mp smartphone,the low light pics are brighter but still very noisy.
If the SGS4 will get a 13mp with the same low light results,it will be a huge slap for HTC

germanojose said:
Sorry but your power saving was "Enabled", please test again without power saving.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please read up - my power saving is for CPU only and does not effect brightness or anything

Which phone had more colour saturation???
Thanks

vegetaleb said:
If the SGS4 will get a 13mp with the same low light results,it will be a huge slap for HTC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's impossible.
It's not physically impossible, clearly; but it's commercially and financially impossible.
The reason the One's low-light performance is good is mostly *because* the megapixel count is lower. Most smartphones have a camera sensor the same size - about a third of an inch across. If you cram three times as many pixels into that, each pixel has only a third of the area, and therefore (other things being equal) receives only a third as much light. To get the same low-light performance as the One, you therefore need a sensor three times as big (and an upgraded lens as well).
That can be done - the Nokia Pureview 808 has a sensor like that - but the problem is that it's expensive. To add a sensor like that would require Samsung either to massively increase the selling price of the phone, or to severely cut back on the phone's other features to keep the price down; and either one would be commercial suicide.

FUN PAGE
Hello guys and gals. I have made HTC One fun page on Facebook. Feel free to join us
Admins are welcome. (just pm. me on facebook page)

Pretty obvious the screens are on different brightness levels and the OP is drunk.

HamdiR HTC One Semi Review, vs HTC One X - extras: Double Flip Cover & Media Link HD

HamdiR HTC One Semi Review, vs HTC One X - extras: Double Flip Cover & Media Link HD
This is my semi review for the HTC One
Batch Date: HT33W, Made in Taiwan 28th of March
Firmware: 1.28.401.7
Region: EMEA, French unlocked unit
update: HTC just issued a statement about an upcoming update dealing with few camera issues mentioned in the review
HTC One updated with camera enhancement suite and more in Europe (1.29.401.13)
• Noise reduction in slow motion movie capture
• Improved color reproduction and dynamic range (reduced over-exposure in non-HDR images) in certain conditions
• Fix to display correct ISO in EXIF information when ISO settings are manually changed by the user
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This device is still not widely available in my country, given that we still don't have official HTC presence in Lebanon it's up to sub dealers to import HTC devices, some of which are registered with HTC, the device can be purchased for around 1100$ which is a crazy price at the moment, my cousin bought the device along with the media link and double flip cover accessories and i was able to spend some quality time with the device.
Design and Build quality: Pristine and Flawless
The device finish is exquisite, the metal parts are laser cut to perfection and the injected plastic bands are completely flush with the device, both the plastic parts and metallic back plate are "one" piece they are cut and molded together hence a zero gap uni-body shell, the independent frontal metallic speaker covers are perfectly flush as well, unlike some reported early cases of misalignment or gaps, this more recent unit had an almost zero gap speakers covers, you can visually identify its not as microscopic zero gap as the unibody shell but both covers are so rigid and tightly fit there are no gaps, no overhangs, the screen and its metallic protection sides are also perfectly fit and finished
Curiously it has a French warning sticker about speakers' loudness
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
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"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
The white plastic band had no imperfections to the USB or earphone ports however you can detect some micro imperfections to the interior of the earphone port and the SIM tray hole, i have to say without close inspection this can not be seen from any distance and returning such a device on this account is just being bitter
The volume button looks and feel like a brushed metal but i actually suspect its plastic with metallic finish
Unlike what you would assume from online photos, the device physically looks very different than the iPhone, it looks much slimmer due to the tapered sides, the mixture of black screen glass and metallic sides plus silver metal plates and white plastic inserts gives a very polarizing effect, it actually feels more male than you would imagine, the aluminum parts project a more premium metal feel, in other words the device has a machinery stainless steel feel due to the beveled machined metal parts, combine all this with the slim profile and the resulting look is a very sleek yet bold and edgy
In terms of ergonomics the moment you hold the device you are surprised by how well it slips into the palm of your hand, it holds very well, I commend them for not going with a bigger screen since due to the extra speakers space the device lost a little percentage of it's one hand usability coming from the One X, the screen is very comfortable to use however and i found it still manageable with one hand, the device is just barely bigger than the One X as I was able to fit it in the same tight pouch I use for my One X
I found reports of a slippery finish surprising since the device was really easy to juggle around even when rotating it constantly for the different tests I've done, perhaps it's a different story for sweaty hands or black finish?
Speaking of black finish, I recommend going with the genuinely colored silver version, I can see the One is clearly not itself in any other color
In terms of durability, we have to remember this is not really rugged device, with such pristine metallic finish, it's not hard to imagine how easy it would be ruined with one drop, I am not talking about breaking the device but actually dents to the fit and finish will clearly go less easy than it does on the single piece single colored One X, any sort of protection is highly recommend, I would go with a transparent slim cover or simply a pouch so i can both enjoy the design while protecting the device.
Screen: 4.7" 1080p 468ppi screen Laminated and Bright as the One X
The screen like the One X before it is laminated to the glass, there is no air between the glass and LCD, hence it appears floating on the surface, a laminated screen would not suffer from the old dust under screen concerns
Within the first few moments of use you realize the famed 720p screen on the One X is now outdated, its hard to describe, the difference isn't so obvious but for me I was always able to detect density when reading in low light, not anymore! pixel density eye detection on a phone is now history, the screen is sharp and pristine, a perfect reflection of the sleek device design and build material
I actually found the color accuracy on the One a little better than the One X, yes it's clearly a cooler calibration but in actual use it was obviously whiter than the warm saturated One X screen (again perhaps due to my low light environment), it was also a little less saturated which is a good thing in terms of Apple like accuracy but might disappoint saturation lovers
The full brightness on both devices was surprisingly a match, i couldn't tell any difference between brightness, blacks and view angles as you can see in this photo taken by a Desire SV
One thing was clear however especially in view angles, the One screen had little more glass reflections, this is why it appears to have darker view angles in some photos which is not the real case, I assume it would perform slightly less in outdoor visibility than the One X
A reminder: As reported by Anandtech, OEMs are known to use different panel sources which can differ in calibration, it's also worth noting the HTC One is using a sort of dynamic contrast which might influence white point tests.
Audio Quality: "BoomSound" Stereo speakers and HDR sound recording
This part will not take a long write to describe, the speakers on the HTC One are beyond anything you have experienced on a mobile device, it's not the loudness or actual deep bass but the quality of the output, its crystal clear you simply can not fail to notice how clear and crisp it sounds whenever an audio plays even the tiniest of notifications tons or how clean it remains with the loudest of music, one thing to note however is that Beats audio is enabled by default, when disabled the sound quality is significantly worse, it's good know HTC finally made real use of it's Beats deal, whether its by HW alone or SW as well is not clear (it might still be a counter trick just to emphasis the importance of beats branding)
What's even more impressive is audio recording quality, just phenomenal, I tried two tests:
- First is recording straight from TV, the results were excellent, crisp but not very loud due to the distance from TV
- The second is re-recording the audio captured by the One from this video while playing on my One X! very impressive, it played back almost as crisp as we have it on youtube (I will upload this test once i get the chance)
There was some kind of low a frequency hiss with these video in their playback on the One but not nearly as audible when those same videos played back on the One X, my guess is that this noise was being exaggerated by the BoomSound speakers, I didn't get the chance to try disabling Beats during playback which might resolve this issue
Unfortunately I also had no chance to test earphones performance, this will have to go till my my next time with the device
Video Recording: 1080p at 20MB per second
The default video quality was excellent, it recorded 1080p video at constant 20Mbps, Anandtech noted this is the maximum ability of the s600 SOC, the resulting one minute H264 mp4 file was 150MB, and as reviews has stated optical stability during video recording is impressive as well, I was doing tests in indoor low light and colors were an accurate reflection of the real scene, much better than the redness of the One X during low light, the video runs at locked 30fps which is very impressive considering the One X video lag in low light
Unfortunately the same can not be said about both slow motion and 60fps modes while both modes functioned probably in terms of frame rate the image quality was very bad, HDR however was a mixed bag it actually works, dynamic range and especially colors are much improved but in my low light environment there was some strange flickers, I expect this mode to work better during daylight, the good news encoding in HDR mode is as good as the standard mode, the following screenshots will tell the story:
Standard mode, 30fps(indoor low light), 1920x1080, 20Mbps
HDR mode, 29fps(indoor low light), 1920x1080, 19Mbps
Slow motion mode, 24fps(indoor low light), 768x432, 2.5Mbps
60fps mode, 43fps(indoor low light), 1280x720, 8.5Mbps
Download full size screenshots
Ultrapixel Camera: 4MP 4µm F2.0 wide angle, aka Advanced Night Vision Goggles
As we've observed in the photo thread, the default camera settings had two slight issues: aggressive digital sharpness and lack of contrast due to the brightness loving (2.0µm x 2.0µm) sensor, thankfully both are within our control due to the honestly deep options in the camera UI, sharpness can be reduced by setting it to -1 or -2 for disabled while contrast can be boosted in few ways like setting contrast to +1, exposure to -1, apply auto enhance from gallery > edit > effects (you can also drag the preset to customize it) or third party apps
Again my environment was low light indoor, so i was only able to test it within this context and compare it with the 8MP (1.0µm x 1.0µm) F2.0 One X, in general I still found results to be only missing a little contrast punch and naturally based on my own recommendation I reduced sharpness to -1 on all the shots
Here I found all the tweaked results better than the default settings, low light color capture was a lot better than the redness on the One X, in terms of 1:1 detail the 4MP results were clearly better than the noisy One X results:
There are four One vs two One X samples in this comparison
The One X is weak in it's low light default capture, but it's still F2.0, there is a special mode on the One X allowing for great low light capability and that is HDR + Auto flash, the same mode can be used on the One, it captures three shots along with two quick flashes for combined HDR exposures without tinting the colors, the One HDR capture is dramatically faster than the One X, sometimes you don't even see the "processing" notification, this means HDR results form the One have a tremendously less chance of blurring than the One X, as you can see it's almost night vision:
There are three One vs three One X samples in this comparison
There are four One vs two One X samples in this comparison
There is something very odd about the first standard results, first in this dark white scene the automatic camera settings struggled, I could clearly see it in the view finder as it's struggling to setup, the first shot is the one above (exposure 1/7 ISO 1922) the second capture (not displayed above) was weirder it used exposure 1/30 ISO 235, the results were noise free but curiously low ISO seems to apply more aggressive detail smudging, more about this later
In the following I attempt again to tweak camera settings in order to boost contrast:
It seems contrast +1 and auto enhance can often achieve similar results, sadly it sometime feels too harsh, a middle ground would be more ideal like auto enhance from perfectly clear app, examples here
In conclusion contrast + 0.5 would have been ideal
Comparing 1:1 Detail:
HTC One, ISO-193, 4MP 1:1
HTC One X, ISO-800, 8MP downscaled
iPad 4, ISO-250, 5MP 1:1
HTC One, exposure 1/60 ISO-104, 1:1
HTC One X, exposure 1/20 ISO-125, 1:1
If a good light source is nearby, the camera will choose a very low ISO + extreme shutter speed and those noise free slightly smudgy results will appear again, colors are way off on the One X meanwhile it's a perfect shot from the HTC One
HTC One, exposure 1/60 ISO-104
HTC One X, exposure 1/20 ISO-125
One last time, macro, light source away, resulting in noisy high ISO
HTC One, exposure 1/10 ISO-1027
HTC One X, exposure 1/20 ISO-1000
Download full size HTC One samples
Download full size HTC One X samples
In general I found the camera an amazing performer in low light, especially when it comes to color accuracy, shutter speed and most important power, those settings are empowering but as a side effect it definitely has a learning curve, those expecting point and shoot awe inspiring results might struggle
For the average user much of this photographic power might remain unseen
Last thing to note the camera view finder, shutter, UI and processing speed is absurdly fast, it totally out-dates the already fast One X camera
The front camera is similar to the "full frontal" ultra wide angle camera as the HTC 8x. Shutter speed and viewfinder fps is a lot better than on the 8x, but after reinspecting indoor photos i previously took with my 8x i noticed the quality is indeed reduced on the One.
HTC Zoe:
This is the most fun feature of the HTC camera, lets get to the negatives first, the Zoe trigger is actually just an icon without any label, this alone might keep this feature unseen to many! once you click the icon the shutter button will have a Zoe label over it and it starts caching images, when you click it collects few pre frames and the remaining captures until the red bar runs out.
Once you have a Zoe you can do great things but yet again those abilities are a little hidden, in order to apply sequence shot for example you have to go to edit > enhance,Ii struggled few times to find it since it only appears if it's a Zoe and sometimes I confused its location with edit > effects, either way "sequence shot" and all Zoe abilities like "always smile" are the perfect party camera features, tons of fun if you are using these abilities with a couple of friends or your family
In Zoe capture many options including sharpness controls are actually disabled, I also noticed captured quality can be different than normal capture, for example all my Zoe still shots appear to be the most in lacking contrast
Now for the best Zoe part "highlights" again it's confusing at first since you see those moving zoe thumbnails and a still thumbnail with a play icon, once you press play you realize it's a highlight reel being generated in realtime, I was spending the whole evening with my cousin and wife trying out this phone, when we finally arrived to the highlights part it caught us by surprise, it was video recap of the entire evening with the neat default "vega" theme, it was hilarious seeing all our tests, videos, zoes, expressions and beer photos come together, there couldn't be a more perfect "memory capture" of the evening
A word of warning a highlight is not automatically saved and they will change once you capture more content, so if you see something you like hit menu and save in order to keep it as a video, you can also share it to HTC Zoe website, it's wise to clean up your zoe's once your done, if you don't want to overwhelm your camera folder
Sense 5.0, Blinkfeed and Buttons layout:
The new UI is all about less is more, there is much less UI and a lot more functionality, from the get go I changed the app drawer grid from the default 3 columns and i've a set a normal homescreen as my default, although there were few accounts loaded like Facebook, I was not fuzzed by blinkfeed it was left there to the left and harmless, if those feeds have ugly or low res photos expect the phone to greet you with them, so it does what it does and that is providing feeds but it should not be the default homscreen
As for the rest of the UI its just minimalist, clean and a lot more AOSP in terms of cursor and buttons etc, most importantly its so fast and locked triple buffered 60fps JB smooth, so smooth you really don't care about it anymore, you can be busy multitasking, jumping back and forth and the UI will never break a sweat, it's never in your way, after this my One X feels a little "old fashioned"
Not once did I confuse the HTC logo for a button, I was perfectly adapted to the new home button location and double tapping for multi view, in fact I have enjoyed the change
If I was to be picky, I can say I have noticed some fps drops in folders' animation inside the app drawer, otherwise the OS is scorching fast and liquid smooth
Gaming:
update: check the following 3D games reports
3D Games Performance Report Part II>>
3D Games Performance Report Part I>>
As a recap here is the current HTC One GPU situation:
http://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?benchmark=gfx27&D=HTC+One
in T-Rex offscreen 1080p:
Tegra4 project shield @18fps
554MP4 iPad 4 @16.8fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz OC @18fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 450mhz OC @17fps
Adreno320 s600 SGS4 (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz stock @17ps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 400mhz stock @15fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 400mhz stock @14.8fps
544MP3 Octa SGS4 @12.5fps
Tegra3 HTC One X @4.1fps
in Egypt HD 2.5 offscreen 1080p:
Tegra4 project shield @54.5fps
554MP4 iPad4 @54.4fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz OC @45fps
544MP3 Octa SGS4 @43fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 400mhz stock @41fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 450mhz OC @40.4fps
Adreno320 s600 SGS4 (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz stock @40fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 400mhz stock @37fps
Tegra3 HTC One X @12.5fps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also the T-Rex results are reflected in the 3D mark tests
The HTC One is currently lacking the latest Adreno 320 drivers with Open GL ES3.0 support, these drivers require Android 4.2.2. Thankfully HTC and Qualcomm demonstrated then promised these drivers in an upcoming update, which is good sign since few other Adreno 320 s600 devices running on 4.2.2 are achieving better GPU performance
Be sure to check my gameplay videos analysis, the HTC One runs Modern Combat 4 smoothly in native 1080p with full effects engaged
Finally with S600 you need to be aware of thermal throttling so check my [GUIDE] How to easily unleash your HTC One gaming powers ★ root>>
Battery and Temperature:
Throughout my time with the device, I had the brightness cranked up to full, I tested the device heavily for four hours, it was connected to wifi but not mobile networks, there was few accounts in Blinkfeed and most of my tests revolved around the camera, impressively in those non stop full brightness four hours the battery only fell from around 90% to 50%, coming for the One X limited screen on time this is a significant leap
The HTC One metal back plate did get warm, but never hot, it was clearly getting warm but quickly dissipating the heat
IR Remote: Who would say no!
I tried this quickly on my Sony bravia and LG LCD TVs, it worked perfectly, there was only one negative is that it requires you to setup the TV mode first by choosing a limited list of countries and your cable provider, needless to say non of this is supported in my country and all i wanted is to access the remote function, once i skipped through the setup, i chose my TV brands, it quickly downloaded the profiles, worked instantly (and yes I did try a practical joke with this)
Conclusion:
I was left speechless, it's not that the HTC One masters one specific element but it is the global quality of this device as a whole that is mouth watering, there is not one area left out or neglected, the entire abilities of this device combined working in harmony to give you a truly unique, sleek and "next level" experience, it continues the work started by the HTC One X and in the same time renders it obsolete, compared to the early life of the One X where many areas were still unfinished, taking a while to reach it's promise (through both hw and sw revisions), the HTC One is a fully refined out of box experience
After HTC's track record of software improvements on it's flagships of 2012 (X/S/XL) from which the One X was remade, I can only imagine where the One will be a year from now
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accessories: Official Double Flip Cover, pretty but flimsy
I am angry at this cover, first I never expected to like the color combination but as you can see, it is actually pretty neat
The kickstand concept works perfectly as well, sadly so sadly there is one jarring omission and that is a lock mechanism when the cover is closed, you would imagine with all this metal at the front HTC would have used a magnet to snap the cover to the body once it's closed (like the iPad kickstand cover), sadly it's not the case, the flip is left clumsy and loose
In terms of quality, the clipping parts have a matt finish, these are rigid but have a tender finish meaning they slide easily out and can not do damage to the device, meanwhile the bendable parts have a fake leather finish, the texture is good quality but i found the HTC engraving a little cheap as well as the uneven back side
All in all a great concept, great design especially when it's in kickstand position but for a device with the quality of the HTC One, an "official" cover should do better
Accessories: HTC Media Link HD, an excellent tool but not as sleek
Note I wasn't able to confirm which model but the best part is that it is so easy to setup, just plug it to TV and charger, it will instantly appear on screen, all it takes is a swipe gesture and your UI is onscreen (if you disabled the gesture for multitouch reasons you can immediately enable media link from the settings or notifications menu)
The moment you connect to wifi the device will also alert you about Media Link's presence
I tried it on both the One and One X, Videos and photos are easily played back on your TV in 1080p24, the One was clearly faster than the One X which had a laggier UI due to the 3D launcher and had to pre load 1080p films before they play, the One never had to pre load those videos, they played from the moment you press play, you can also keep playing the video while you continue using your UI
In conclusion it's neat tool however there is a main issue and that is performance, the liquid smooth UI is not reflected on screen, its running at lesser frame rate, so eventually I found it hard to enjoy photo viewing for example and preferred to simply stream them through my PS3
You can also play any game through your media link, i tried RipeTide on both the One X and One but both performed badly even if the resolution was reduced in-game, the game was running liquid smooth on both phones but not on the screen there was also evident compression, I guess it has to do with wifi streaming speed
I'm not sure if this version supports the faster wifi on the HTC One but it's not hard to imagine an updated model will be released sooner or later
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you find my work helpful in some of your unanswered questions please hit the thanks button
Don't forget, a lot more info here:
HTC Flagship 2013 - HTC One - Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600 - Mega Information Thread>>

Great review hamdir and as detailed as I expected it to be.
Glad to see that you like it and to see the detail on the camera (which is something I don't generally know much about apart from taking standard photos).
Will be adding this to post #2 of the review thread later today

Dude, you are allmost at same level with Brian.
Thank you so much! I'm hoping to get mine in next few weeks (Finland).

review
Good review...thx

Thanks a lot. Awesome review. Only sad thing is how cheap flip case looks. I mean seriously, nillkin and other chinese brands are much cheaper but much better in terms of quality. This should have been better.

Great comparison review, Hamdir. Do you still intend to keep the One X until the launch of One + or your will got weaker with these few hours with the One?

myself11 said:
Great comparison review, Hamdir. Do you still intend to keep the One X until the launch of One + or your will got weaker with these few hours with the One?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm already weaker

Just a note I will soon be uploading full scale photos samples from this review as well as my audio recording test

Great review, i wish the buttons weren't visible when the screen is off

DynamicRam said:
Great review, i wish the buttons weren't visible when the screen is off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an incredibly minor nitpick. But I agree with you - that would have been nice.

Great work hamdir, a priviledge to read your post. Now I see why you are a reference across many worldwide technology forums when the subject is HTC
(...) the HTC One is a fully refined out of box experience
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is something very dear to me, thankfully you pointed it out.

Thanks guys
I have added fill size video screenshots and photo samples to the review

Wow. That's one hell of a review! :thumbup:
Sent from my EVO using xda premium

updated this part
The front camera is similar to the "full frontal" ultra wide angle camera as the HTC 8x. Shutter speed and viewfinder fps is a lot better than on the 8x, but after reinspecting indoor photos i previously took with my 8x i noticed the quality is indeed reduced on the One.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I'd totally forgot about adding the IR Remote to mine until I read it in here.
Our reviews are a bit too big I think
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium

KidCarter93 said:
I'd totally forgot about adding the IR Remote to mine until I read it in here.
Our reviews are a bit too big I think
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like Brian said there is just so much to cover with this device

hamdir said:
like Brian said there is just so much to cover with this device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more. When I originally wrote mine, it was much longer than it is now but knew I had to cut it down a bit otherwise I'd use up the 30,000 character limit.
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium

KidCarter93 said:
Couldn't agree more. When I originally wrote mine, it was much longer than it is now but knew I had to cut it down a bit otherwise I'd use up the 30,000 character limit.
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you forget to add your review and mine to the second post?

hamdir said:
did you forget to add your review and mine to the second post?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not forgot, I just haven't got around to doing it yet
I'm too lazy at the moment but will defo get it done soon-ish
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium

Excellent write-up! You touched on a few things I was wondering about. Thank you and cheers!!

So the S7 camera performs better than the Z5/Z5P ? I can't stop laughing...

Ok I'm Kinda mad here... There are things I don't understand and I will probably never....
How on earth, would every review on the internet including youtube videos give the upper hand to the S7 camera which has SONY IMX260 R EXMOR that has 7.18 mm sensor size and a 1.4 μm x 1.4 μm unit cell size while the Z5/Premium has the "exclusive cutting edge" RS EXMOR IMX300 with 7.87 mm sensor size and 1.1 μm x 1.1 μm pixel size ?
And please don't tell me about image processing ? Why on earth a giant Japanese corporation such as SONY specialized and leader in photography, videography, pictures and music Entertainment without forgetting their BIONZ image processor that compete or even wins over Nikon EXPEED and
Canon DIGIC can't do image processing right on a freaking CMOS sensor ?
Now yeah the Z5/P pictures are decent and although very good on a very sunny day.... I'll remain quiet for the low light part....
So to sum it up... a Samsung with an IMX260 12MP sensor is on par or outperforms a Sony IMX300 23MP ( 25MP ) sensor...
Funny isn't it ?

It's not funny at all.
Still,I find that Z5 camera is best on market atm.
Xperia Z5 via Tapatalk

Very easy good hardware and bad software.
Sony can't compete software wise with who had nexus phones.
Samsung LG know better about android and how to create a better software cause they took lot of info from Google while they have Nexus phones.

Well money talks. S7 just cant match Z1+ line. Take a look at original S7 full resolution photos. Photo IQ is awfull on the S7. Over-sharpening that creates awfull halos and contrast, to much texture detail, texture extraction that gives a gritty look and to much noise reduction that makes for a blurry image with lost detail and plastic look. S7 has borderline the bad CRT chromatic aberration look and reminds me of old cheap digital cameras.
I'll quote one of my other posts wher one can see that even in an unfair comparision that favors the S7 my Z1 just performs much better. Much better and if making things more even by choosing 2048x1536 for my Z1 photos and same or similar for S7 my Z1 just walks all over the S7. Z5 does no worse unless in SA or the NR goes wonky.
When I look at S7 photos in good and low light it just reminds me of the bad CRT "chromatic aberration" look. Great artistic value but the persons S7 destroys IQ beyond reparation. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/
I mean even the Z1 blows it out and Z5 even more. Look at this comparision which favors the S7 as the images are shown at 100% size which means my Z1 is showing a far bigger image aswell as in worse lighting conditions with far less photons in the ambient to capture (see shutter speed difference) yet it performs better. Would I scale it down to same size as the S7 it would be a brutal comparision leaving the S7 in the dust. One can choose 2048 pixel width to see this in the links.
Stock original photos, default camera apps.
S7 buildings.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25743187832/sizes/o/
Z1 buildings.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/csls/25516883060/sizes/o/
S7 forest.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25837956126/sizes/o/
Z1 forest.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/csls/25019022984/sizes/o/
Might take some time some day with the Z5c and capture photos in same locations once the sun is about same (wild weather over here).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And here are more S7 samples.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25837956126/sizes/o/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25208922064/sizes/o/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25404249180/sizes/o/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/25021532094/sizes/o/
And here is low light.
Will check files once released here and compare CRC to see if they changed algorithms. As for the S7 I agree, it does moderately good but far worse than Sonys Xperia Z1+ line. The biggest issue on the S7 besides tending to go overboard with sharpening and noise reduction which smoothes out to much and gives a bad fake plastic look (often easily visible around fine-grain detail like branches and leaves) is that it also when post-processing brightens up the image by tweaking curves. Most software does this but should be catiously used to extract detail from low contrast areas. Samsung goes overboard often giving it the 'fake ISO' look where black turns grey. Xperia Z1+ phones give quite a bit better low light photos same ISO for ISO and shutter speed while not even having to resort to major curve tweaking just minor or barely any and it does it selectively in a often excellent way. I assume the BIONZ is really a power beast for such dedicated tasks but sensors in Sonys phones are just better even though older and they are coupled with great optics.
It's just now that Samsung is starting use similar tech that Sony already employed in their mobiles years ago. I think Iphone 6s also got a bit of it but it relies mostly on multi-frame photo composition to create higher ISO like the Nexus 6p HDR+ does. Xperia Z1+ also does this but only when doing ISO 6400 (atleast the Z1) else not. Problem is you need to keep scene static else you get ghosting and bluriness. Haven't checked it fully out for the Z5c though but it should do better.
I guess you could say the S6 gives more detail and less blur but it also has way to much curve tweaking as the S7 but just much worse for same low light situations. S6 just turns to a mess at ISO 1000+ and low light while S7 does better. Both S6 and S7 also automatically (atleast in auto mode) if stable does multi-frame capture in low light to create improved noise reduction. Why some S6/S7 photos at say ISO 1000 looks bad and others much cleaner. Scene has to be static though and mobile firm. Same concept you can find in ProCapture camera app and their noise reduction mode.
Photo example of the S7 post-processing and curves.
Without HDR enabled.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
With HDR enabled.
Sony avoids this in most cases and dont go overboard like that keeping blacks deep and rich aswell as colors punchy and representation of captured scene is far better.
And a Z1 sample from manual mode 8MP, 1/8 ISO 3200. Little and smart use of brightening via the changing curves despite high ISO of 3200 keeping the blacks quite well, global contrast and colors punchy despite heavy tungsten lighting!
Manual mode, 1/8 ISO 1600 of same scene two days apart around same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The sensor is just one part of the camera, there are so many other elements that can make it better or worse.
That's like saying one restaurant has better steak and complaining as somewhere else uses better cows - it's all about the cooking of the meat and the accompaniments that go with it.
In photography's case it's about the lens system, the image stabilisation and the post-processing. As posters above have said, the software controlling the Sony sensor in the S7 is great, no doubt.
Answer me this: if you give an amazing camera to a bad photographer will you get a better photo than giving a bad camera to a good photographer?

Answer me this: if you give an amazing camera to a bad photographer will you get a better photo than giving a bad camera to a good photographer?[/QUOTE]
Let me answer :
Are you able to drive faster in a Bentley than in a Renault even if you are a bad driver ?
Yes !!!
Same with photos quality (not photo skills)
I agree that the human factor is there but can not excuse all Sony conservative attitude plus Sony do not want to let 3rd party improve their lack of dev.
But still happy with my Z5 result... It is a phone and we do not have to expect the same quality as a Reflex

NJ72 said:
The sensor is just one part of the camera, there are so many other elements that can make it better or worse.
That's like saying one restaurant has better steak and complaining as somewhere else uses better cows - it's all about the cooking of the meat and the accompaniments that go with it.
In photography's case it's about the lens system, the image stabilisation and the post-processing. As posters above have said, the software controlling the Sony sensor in the S7 is great, no doubt.
Answer me this: if you give an amazing camera to a bad photographer will you get a better photo than giving a bad camera to a good photographer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand what you're trying to say but is it justified ? Is it possible that SONY can't make a software that control their own sensors ? Is it acceptable that other companies using SONY sensors whether modified or not, can make better use of it ?
SONY that has been in the photography industry since decades can't deal with their own driver and post processors on a mobile phone ?
Again the pictures on the Z5P are good but try going zoom to 100%... most of the details are missing compared to rivals.... not sure if it's lack of sharpness whatsoever but certainly the post processing needs work.
Look at their Z5 camera promotion bragging about the auto-focus speed... I literally had to find one single time I could get a a clear photo of somebody moving.
Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of the device but it just puts me on my nerve that we have the best hardware and the " best " brand name yet we always have excuses for the camera behavior.

Xeon said:
I understand what you're trying to say but is it justified ? Is it possible that SONY can't make a software that control their own sensors ? Is it acceptable that other companies using SONY sensors whether modified or not, can make better use of it ?
SONY that has been in the photography industry since decades can't deal with their own driver and post processors on a mobile phone ?
Again the pictures on the Z5P are good but try going zoom to 100%... most of the details are missing compared to rivals.... not sure if it's lack of sharpness whatsoever but certainly the post processing needs work.
Look at their Z5 camera promotion bragging about the auto-focus speed... I literally had to find one single time I could get a a clear photo of somebody moving.
Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of the device but it just puts me on my nerve that we have the best hardware and the " best " brand name yet we always have excuses for the camera behavior.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my opinion it's quite obvious with the Z5 premium that Sony spent more time focussing on the display than the camera's image processing. Sony could do a lot more with the camera than they do, but there are numerous other factors Sony consider when designing a smartphone. Evidently they either A) do not have the skills, B) don't rate it high enough or C) think they nailed it when it comes to the camera.
I agree that Sony should have done more with it, but I bought the phone knowing that they hadn't and I'd buy it again over Samsung's TouchWiz interface. I prefer my DSLR for photography, for me the rest of the phone is more important.
And, in answer to your first question, yes - what I said is justified. Whether it's what you'd have done if you were part of Sony's dev team, who knows, but what they did is make a very good phone with a camera that could be better.

NJ72 said:
In my opinion it's quite obvious with the Z5 premium that Sony spent more time focussing on the display than the camera's image processing. Sony could do a lot more with the camera than they do, but there are numerous other factors Sony consider when designing a smartphone. Evidently they either A) do not have the skills, B) don't rate it high enough or C) think they nailed it when it comes to the camera.
I agree that Sony should have done more with it, but I bought the phone knowing that they hadn't and I'd buy it again over Samsung's TouchWiz interface. I prefer my DSLR for photography, for me the rest of the phone is more important.
And, in answer to your first question, yes - what I said is justified. Whether it's what you'd have done if you were part of Sony's dev team, who knows, but what they did is make a very good phone with a camera that could be better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well to be honest, SONY only brags about their camera performance in their devices.... This time in September they mentioned nothing but the 4K screen and the IMX300. No major change to the device design, software is close to stock android and the IP68 has been there for ages.
http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/phones/xperia-z5/
See ? They are so proud of their camera that this is the only marketing card in their hands for now. As for lack of expertise, I really doubt but I can nothing but believe that they thought they nailed it when in fact it's still horrible in low light conditions.

The big problem I have with the Z5 is its shutter lag and no burst shooting. So you're left with rapidly tapping the shutter button which only gives you about 3fps. On the S7 you get a burst mode at over 20fps.
It's ridiculous how their ads show an instantaneous shutter but it could be no further from the truth. Even with Marshmallow the shutter lag is still pretty bad. This seagull was standing on the bridge when I pressed the shutter and the camera captured when it already started to fly away.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5hcj2jeazzjs77/DSC_0988.JPG?dl=0
Even HTC M9+ Supreme Camera has faster shutter and better manual options than Z5. It uses IMX230 and is a pretty bi

FYLin21 said:
The big problem I have with the Z5 is its shutter lag and no burst shooting. So you're left with rapidly tapping the shutter button which only gives you about 3fps. On the S7 you get a burst mode at over 20fps.
It's ridiculous how their ads show an instantaneous shutter but it could be no further from the truth. Even with Marshmallow the shutter lag is still pretty bad. This seagull was standing on the bridge when I pressed the shutter and the camera captured when it already started to fly away.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5hcj2jeazzjs77/DSC_0988.JPG?dl=0
Even HTC M9+ Supreme Camera has faster shutter and better manual options than Z5. It uses IMX230 and is a pretty bi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I'm talking about... you see... in your pic nothing looks OK, what was the focus doing ? i can't find any part of the pic clear....
One thing I noticed is that even Whatsapp camera looks awful. I understand that the pic is compressed and the post processing is non existent but on my Xperia Z the difference wasn't noticeable that much.

gm007 said:
Very easy good hardware and bad software.
Sony can't compete software wise with who had nexus phones.
Samsung LG know better about android and how to create a better software cause they took lot of info from Google while they have Nexus phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but I tend to disagree. I dont think OEM release need google assistance. In fact SONY is very conservative when it comes to camera software. I bet they know how to unlock raw mode and compatibility yet they don't want to.
It's obvious that the post processing has been inconsistent across the Xperia line. A bit of trial and error if you want my opinion....
What you say about bad software is correct however unjustified. I can't accept it from an industry leader such as SONY.
OK the camera is almost perfect in manual mode if you want to go hardcore and adjust every possible value and mode for a snapshot but I don't want to spend 2 minutes for that :
Look at the difference between iPhone 6S and Z5 camera.... this lack of details is what makes me go nuts.

Xeon said:
This is what I'm talking about... you see... in your pic nothing looks OK, what was the focus doing ? i can't find any part of the pic clear....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has been zoomed a bit using "clear image zoom" which just oversharpens things. It could be fine if they just use something that rounds off the edges for up sampling, but you see a lot of jagged circular blobs throughout the edges. I had taken a few pictures of this bird standing there but the camera kept overexposing the scene. Then I brought the exposure down and tried taking a photo - the bird a still standing there the moment I pressed the shutter.
The only thing to get around no burst mode is using 4K video. You can capture 8MP stills while you film but sometimes it causes the video to stutter and it takes a long time to save them. The stills also look worse than the video itself - the contrast is lower with washed out colours. It's better to grab frames after filming but you'l need another app to do this and I'm not sure which one as I do it on my computer using Media Player Classic. You can also crop to 1080p which is better than using the digital zoom in the app - unfortunately the bitrate of 4K video is a bit low so you can see some artifacts when cropped to 1080p ...
Is the shutter lag due to software or hardware? it's hard to say. Low resolution photos from Facebook messenger can be taken instantaneously, but all the third party apps I've tried exhibit shutter lag - I think even worse than the stock camera app... and don't forget only 8MP works with third party apps.
If the images were downscaled to 8MP or something, they would be good compared to some other cameras but that defeats the purpose of having 20/23MP.
Imagine seeing the loch ness monster and you took a photo but the shutter lag means your photo doesn't show it because it dove into the water

I will give you a small example why sony is bad software wise,
In lollipop we had fingerprint scanner test in the diagnostic menu and the test was not working.
So instead to fix it in marshmallow they removed the test completely lol.

Xeon said:
Ok I'm Kinda mad here... There are things I don't understand and I will probably never....
How on earth, would every review on the internet including youtube videos give the upper hand to the S7 camera which has SONY IMX260 R EXMOR that has 7.18 mm sensor size and a 1.4 μm x 1.4 μm unit cell size while the Z5/Premium has the "exclusive cutting edge" RS EXMOR IMX300 with 7.87 mm sensor size and 1.1 μm x 1.1 μm pixel size ?
And please don't tell me about image processing ? Why on earth a giant Japanese corporation such as SONY specialized and leader in photography, videography, pictures and music Entertainment without forgetting their BIONZ image processor that compete or even wins over Nikon EXPEED and
Canon DIGIC can't do image processing right on a freaking CMOS sensor ?
Now yeah the Z5/P pictures are decent and although very good on a very sunny day.... I'll remain quiet for the low light part....
So to sum it up... a Samsung with an IMX260 12MP sensor is on par or outperforms a Sony IMX300 23MP ( 25MP ) sensor...
Funny isn't it ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, and it's no surprise, it has been the case forever.
There was never any need for Sony to stupidly try to play the MP race again, seems they didn't learn from the point and shoot and DSLR MP race/nonsense. It's all marketing BS to say hey we've got something that no one else has.
Push the boundaries of the ideal MP for a certain sensor size, then you will always have problems with different types of noise entering your photo, due to sensor heat and the sensors small size and not being able to dissipate that amount of heat effectively, as a result to clean all this up they end up having to have pretty aggressive noise reduction algorithms, this also keeps the jpg photo size down a fair bit, handy for a phone unless you want to run your storage out in no time flat. Approx 25-35MB per photo @ 23MP low light high ISO these could have been even bigger.
Realistically would have just been better off running at 12MP and requiring much less noise reduction because due to less heat build up in the photo sites of the sensor.

danw_oz said:
No, and it's no surprise, it has been the case forever.
There was never any need for Sony to stupidly try to play the MP race again, seems they didn't learn from the point and shoot and DSLR MP race/nonsense. It's all marketing BS to say hey we've got something that no one else has.
Push the boundaries of the ideal MP for a certain sensor size, then you will always have problems with different types of noise entering your photo, due to sensor heat and the sensors small size and not being able to dissipate that amount of heat effectively, as a result to clean all this up they end up having to have pretty aggressive noise reduction algorithms, this also keeps the jpg photo size down a fair bit, handy for a phone unless you want to run your storage out in no time flat. Approx 25-35MB per photo @ 23MP low light high ISO these could have been even bigger.
Realistically would have just been better off running at 12MP and requiring much less noise reduction because due to less heat build up in the photo sites of the sensor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ironically their sales and marketing strategy is flawed to death and it's chaotic but they wanna do marketing they do it the wrong way.
Seriously they should start recruiting...

hawker_gb said:
It's not funny at all.
Still,I find that Z5 camera is best on market atm.
Xperia Z5 via Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
post like this really make me wonder about my specific device.... because i am totally with op here: the camera may be very good (the best?) in sunny/ bright conditions, but is just useless in darker situations (not just pitch black.. darker..). a camera like that can NEVER be called the best on market.. i would say

Barthlon said:
post like this really make me wonder about my specific device.... because i am totally with op here: the camera may be very good (the best?) in sunny/ bright conditions, but is just useless in darker situations (not just pitch black.. darker..). a camera like that can NEVER be called the best on market.. i would say
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They should have less NR in low contrast areas for photos as right now it is quite aggressive. Seems the area noise reduction aint so 'clever'. Previous Z phones perform much better in low contrast areas with no smudged out detail. My Z1 for example outdoes my Z5c easily in detail clarity across all contrast variables while keeping noise as low or even lower and resorts to less post-processing. I assume some can be attributed to not as wide sensor (26mm vs 23mm) and 1,2um vs 1,1um pixel size and perhaps the focus system (less electronical noise). They might heat up differently to. Will be interesting to see how the Xperia X performs since AFAIK it uses same or similar sensor as the Z5. Also seems Z5c uses more NR in superior auto vs manual mode despite same ISO.
But despite that it stands really good against competition and overall it just beats them.
Here is an example of the area noise rduction system it uses akin to BIONZ X algorithms just that it is to aggressive. Look at tree trunk and streetlight pole. High contrast area is sharp but low contrast area is smudged by the NR. The problem is it failed to detect that there are bushes infront smudging them out. This is the area NR not working as intended.

EQ2000 said:
They should have less NR in low contrast areas for photos as right now it is quite aggressive. Seems the area noise reduction aint so 'clever'. Previous Z phones perform much better in low contrast areas with no smudged out detail. My Z1 for example outdoes my Z5c easily in detail clarity across all contrast variables while keeping noise as low or even lower and resorts to less post-processing. I assume some can be attributed to not as wide sensor (26mm vs 23mm) and 1,2um vs 1,1um pixel size and perhaps the focus system (less electronical noise). They might heat up differently to. Will be interesting to see how the Xperia X performs since AFAIK it uses same or similar sensor as the Z5. Also seems Z5c uses more NR in superior auto vs manual mode despite same ISO.
But despite that it stands really good against competition and overall it just beats them.
Here is an example of the area noise rduction system it uses akin to BIONZ X algorithms just that it is to aggressive. Look at tree trunk and streetlight pole. High contrast area is sharp but low contrast area is smudged by the NR. The problem is it failed to detect that there are bushes infront smudging them out. This is the area NR not working as intended.
Well please accept my very subjective opinion... from first look the pic is catchy, nice, really nice colors but then the disaster...... it's certainly not a focus issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Xeon said:
Well please accept my very subjective opinion... from first look the pic is catchy, nice, really nice colors but then the disaster...... it's certainly not a focus issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kinda hard to make out what you are reffering to but "disaster"? Z5 series applies to aggressive area based NR in low contrast areas, as for the rest the photo is quite good and natural looking. Certainly better than most S7 photos you can find of similar ISO, shutter speed and scenery type. Atleast the NR can be countered partially with texture detail and clarity filters to bring out contrast in smudged areas. S7 you cant do nothing to repair photos as they are beyond reparation.
Click on images to view them in Flickr default display size. Atrocious and beyond reparation. The Z5 IQ despite smudgy NR in low contrast areas is head and shoulders above the S7 IQ. Z5 looks to the DSLR side while S7 looks to the cheap old digital camera side.
S7. Atrocious, the borderline bad CRT chromatic aberration look. Like relief filter applied shifting pixels due to horrible post-processing and subpar sensor.
Z5. The area based NR problem is clearly visible yet it looks much more natural and better despite being taken in much worse lighting conditions as evident by shutter speed and postition of sun and shadows.
As for the highlights you made that is pretty much what I already noted though the left side is from lens problem, that unit has decentered lenses thus blurred sides, right and/or left. You can see that in S7 to depeding on unit. Such a unit should be replaced. And all cameras have to do some detail extraction in low contrast areas (shadowed/non directly lit areas) and thus wont be as detailed as lit areas.
Take a look at S7 photo with shadowed areas, see? Noisy, smudgy with blotches and horrible even though ISO is low. Atleast the Z5 smoothes it out mostly OK. (left and right side)
One more time! You see? (right side trees and bushes)
You still cant see it!? Well some more then!
To the right!
To the left!
To the left!
And all around! :laugh:

Pixel Camera seems dissapointing.

I really want this phone. I have the S7 edge and was waiting for this for daydream mostly. The problem is that i don't like the specs.
These are the shortcomings i've seen.
5" inch version has only 1080.
XL version only has 3440mah batter vs s7 3600
10 grams heavier than S7
Camera sensor seems bad.
The camera got a great review from a site most of us haven't heard much about before but they are sure popular today. DXOmark got alot of traffic after google announced they gave it a high score. I've read the review thoroughly and feel it was tipped in Google's favor by choice. The S7's best strength is the 1.7sensor and the Dual phase focus. Both are weaknesses of pixel, but the overall scores don't reflect it. For autofocus for example, they state that the pixel couldn't focus consistently yet gave it a score of 93. I made the mistake of taking a tilted review before (LG G3 camera) only to find issues later.
So does anyone really think the f2.0 camera on the pixel really is the best out there?

Compared to the S7, I am truly afraid the Pixel camera will disappoint you. My wife's S7 shoots the most amazing photos I've seen from a cell phone. I tried comparing them to my Nexus 6P and even my iPhone 7 and the S7 pictures are just so freaking crisp with perfectly accurate colors.
I don't think you can reasonably expect the Pixel's camera to compete with the S7. Especially without OIS.

5" inch version has only 1080 - This is 441 PPI compared to 336 of iPhone 7. This Also means less processing needed to move the pixels around.
XL version only has 3440mah batter vs s7 3600 - This is a 5% difference. It is also running an under clocked 821 that should be pretty efficient. Also sounds like Google has done a lot of optimization.
10 grams heavier than S7 - 5% I don't think that is very significant.
Camera sensor seems bad. - What? Where do you get this from? It sounds like at a minimum it take 6p quality photos but much faster.

orateam said:
I really want this phone. I have the S7 edge and was waiting for this for daydream mostly. The problem is that i don't like the specs.
These are the shortcomings i've seen.
5" inch version has only 1080.
XL version only has 3440mah batter vs s7 3600
10 grams heavier than S7
Camera sensor seems bad.
The camera got a great review from a site most of us haven't heard much about before but they are sure popular today. DXOmark got alot of traffic after google announced they gave it a high score. I've read the review thoroughly and feel it was tipped in Google's favor by choice. The S7's best strength is the 1.7sensor and the Dual phase focus. Both are weaknesses of pixel, but the overall scores don't reflect it. For autofocus for example, they state that the pixel couldn't focus consistently yet gave it a score of 93. I made the mistake of taking a tilted review before (LG G3 camera) only to find issues later.
So does anyone really think the f2.0 camera on the pixel really is the best out there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DXOmark is an extremely well known camera review site. They've only started reviewing phone cameras in the past 5 years or so, but they are definitely legit.

DXO is the gold standard.

The DxO review is pretty fair at calling the Pixel out in areas for improvement. The overall score is high, but that doesn't mean it's better than other cameras in EVERY aspect. It just means that all things considered they like the Pixel the best.
Something else to consider is that the camera hardware specs are just part of it. Many people at the event commented on/praised the software improvements (improved HDR+, no shutter lag, video EIS using gyroscope). I'm anxious to see a more in-depth review and I'm hopeful that it's as good as they say.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

orateam said:
Camera sensor seems bad.
The camera got a great review from a site most of us haven't heard much about before but they are sure popular today. DXOmark got alot of traffic after google announced they gave it a high score. I've read the review thoroughly and feel it was tipped in Google's favor by choice. The S7's best strength is the 1.7sensor and the Dual phase focus. Both are weaknesses of pixel, but the overall scores don't reflect it. For autofocus for example, they state that the pixel couldn't focus consistently yet gave it a score of 93. I made the mistake of taking a tilted review before (LG G3 camera) only to find issues later.
So does anyone really think the f2.0 camera on the pixel really is the best out there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to learn a little more about camera hardware dude. The sensor seems bad? You are wrong.
It is using a 1/2.3" size sensor. A sensor that size is something that some DEDICATED point and shoot cameras use. It is one of the largest sensors in a smartphone available. The 2016 Samsung phones are using a 1/2.5" sensor, which is inferior comparatively. The Pixels will have larger pixels (heh) to take in more light, resulting in better detail capture and low light photography. This combined with HDR+ (the newest iteration which is really yet to be seen) is going to be incredible.
HDR+ captures RAW images and uses software processing to combine the best of these images into a single JPEG. What does this mean for you? It means incredible dynamic range, the likes of which no other smartphone can compete. Why? Because HDR+ is EXCLUSIVE to Google. Nobody can process HDR as well as them in 99% of cases. I even did a comparison of my 6P against a $1,000 Sony RX100 IV (top of the line point and shoot camera). The 6P had better exposure and far better dynamic range in the vast majority of photos, straight out of the camera. Obviously the RX100 is much more capable and can certainly take better photos, but from a point and shoot perspective, the 6P was superior in terms exposure and dynamic range except in extreme low light. It blew my mind, pissed me off, and made me return that camera because I realized for my purposes, a smartphone camera is all I really need.
The Samsung phones having f/1.7 over f/2.0 is an advantage in some ways, yes, but not an outright advantage. It results in better bokeh (depth of field) effects, but also a more narrow focus range. If you want a lot of stuff in the frame in focus, especially if it's a close-up shot, you're not going to have a good time with Samsung's camera. With f/1.7 there are times you can't even get full focus on an entire object up close, because the focus range is so narrow. It also means the lens itself allows more light in, which can result in a better nighttime photo. But look up some night comparisons of 2016 flagships (including Samsung) vs the 6P. Here is one: http://www.androidheadlines.com/201...galaxy-s7-vs-htc-10-vs-lg-g5-vs-nexus-6p.html
Despite the 6P having f/2.0, it had better night photos in most cases. How? Because of its larger sensor. But wait - the HTC 10 has the same sensor, AND f/1.8 - how did it beat the HTC 10 in most cases? Because of HDR+. I will say it again - no other company beats Google's HDR+ processing in the vast majority of cases. It is incredible. Turn off HDR+ and you will regret it. The downside of using it on the 6P is processing time and shutter lag. That is no longer a problem with the Pixels. Leave it on all the time.
The only advantage I see Samsung truly having is autofocus. The dual pixel AF system is ABSURDLY fast and accurate. Also DxOMark is a very reliable and thorough source...
sn0warmy said:
Compared to the S7, I am truly afraid the Pixel camera will disappoint you. My wife's S7 shoots the most amazing photos I've seen from a cell phone. I tried comparing them to my Nexus 6P and even my iPhone 7 and the S7 pictures are just so freaking crisp with perfectly accurate colors.
I don't think you can reasonably expect the Pixel's camera to compete with the S7. Especially without OIS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is just not true. The Pixel camera will absolutely not disappoint. Samsung also does not have anything close to perfectly accurate colors. Samsung has been known to oversaturate, which can look better to most peoples eyes, but it is not going to be always accurate to the scene. I'm not saying Samsung hasn't been destroying the camera competition this year, because they absolutely have been... but to down talk the Pixels already is shortsighted and unfair. The lack of OIS a letdown. It means you will need to try to be as steady as possible when taking photos, especially at night. I think they either did this to avoid the camera bump (which would be a terrible reason to omit OIS), or because their software EIS is so gyroscope dependent that OIS would inhibit its effectiveness... but the V20 uses EIS and OIS quite well, so I sort of doubt this. Google could be using their own, different EIS method though, so we'll have to wait and see just how good it is. I don't think EIS will apply to photos, but it could - Sony does it with their Xperia cameras.

Nitemare3219 said:
*Lots of informative information.*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great post. Admittedly, I do tend to like the look of the photos my wife's S7 takes, but I don't doubt what you've said is true.
Personally, I'm still excited for the Pixel's camera. S0 much so that I returned my iPhone 7, which I mainly bought for the camera, to purchase the Pixel. The iPhone definitely took some amazing photos this past weekend. I wish I would have had both phones to do a direct comparison.
Here are samples taken with the iPhone 7. If the Pixel camera can take similar/better photos I'll be extremely happy.
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"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
When the Pixel arrives I'll get up to the same area and try to get some photos with similar lighting to see how it fairs, in comparison.

@sn0warmy
Well I'm pretty sure the 5X takes photos as good as these ones. So there's no reason the Pixel wouldn't take same or better quality photos.
I'll upload some I took here

thesebastian said:
@sn0warmy
Well I'm pretty sure the 5X takes photos as good as these ones. So there's no reason the Pixel wouldn't take same or better quality photos.
I'll upload some I took here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking at the pictures closer, compared to how they look in Apple Photos, Flickr really managed to degrade the quality quite a bit.
Is there a better host site you use that maintains the high quality?

sn0warmy said:
Looking at the pictures closer, compared to how they look in Apple Photos, Flickr really managed to degrade the quality quite a bit.
Is there a better host site you use that maintains the high quality?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use imgur. But I think it also reduces the quality a bit.
Anyway....I took these ones with the 5X (and Nexus 5 2013 camera wasn't bad compared to the one in 5X/6P. So since the N5 2013, Google is keeping the good quality)
http://imgur.com/a/TwJwd

thesebastian said:
I use imgur. But I think it also reduces the quality a bit.
Anyway....I took these ones with the 5X (and Nexus 5 2013 camera wasn't bad compared to the one in 5X/6P. So since the N5 2013, Google is keeping the good quality)
http://imgur.com/a/TwJwd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once we all have our pixels, we can just use Google Photos for all our photos.

orateam said:
I really want this phone. I have the S7 edge and was waiting for this for daydream mostly. The problem is that i don't like the specs.
These are the shortcomings i've seen.
5" inch version has only 1080.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not a shortcoming, that's an ADVANTAGE. Less pixels = higher performance.
XL version only has 3440mah batter vs s7 3600
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you're going to whine about 160 mAh? Also, the s7 has the SD820, which will consume more power than a like-clocked SD821 (like the pixel), so you'll gain that back.
10 grams heavier than S7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Roughly a single grain of sand.
Camera sensor seems bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, its a PHONE, not a camera. ALL phone cameras suck. Just be happy that it apparently loads and shoots FAST.
If you want a good camera, get a good DSLR.

craig0r said:
Once we all have our pixels, we can just use Google Photos for all our photos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I still gonna wait a few months to the price drop. (I don't want to pay more than 550€ for a Pixel so maybe I'll have to wait to next year).
However, I don't know if I really like to have all my photos in "Google Photos".
What I'm doing now is, every-time I reach 3-8GB of Photos+Videos I move all the photos to my PC to a folder where I have all my photos. And that folder is shared with Google Photos Windows app (using the free quality option).
So I only use Google Photos to be able to search all my photos and have them anywhere. But I'm not using google photos to actually "save" my photos. To do that I use my PC's drive + an external backup drive.
If you pass your all the photos to Google Photos (using the unlimited option) and you use the "Delete from device" option when you need space. How do you move all your Google Photos' photos to a folder in Windows to make a backup?

thesebastian said:
What I'm doing now is, every-time I reach 3-8GB of Photos+Videos I move all the photos to my PC to a folder where I have all my photos. And that folder is shared with Google Photos Windows app (using the free quality option).
So I only use Google Photos to be able to search all my photos and have them anywhere. But I'm not using google photos to actually "save" my photos. To do that I use my PC's drive + an external backup drive.
If you pass your all the photos to Google Photos (using the unlimited option) and you use the "Delete from device" option when you need space. How do you move all your Google Photos' photos to a folder in Windows to make a backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does the Google Photos app for Windows not allow you to pull the pics down from the cloud? (I'm not being rhetorical, I actually don't know, I've never used it.)

craig0r said:
Does the Google Photos app for Windows not allow you to pull the pics down from the cloud? (I'm not being rhetorical, I actually don't know, I've never used it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think its just a tool to upload photos. I only use it when I want to resync all my photos.
Sent from my Nexus 5X

doitright said:
That's not a shortcoming, that's an ADVANTAGE. Less pixels = higher performance.
Well, its a PHONE, not a camera. ALL phone cameras suck. Just be happy that it apparently loads and shoots FAST.
If you want a good camera, get a good DSLR.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Higher performance is not really noticeable in day to day use... or even gaming with the latest Adreno. More like battery life. But the Pixels are going to be using pentile AMOLED displays, so 1080p is kind of an issue, ESPECIALLY for VR. 1080p AMOLED with pentile is nowhere near the visual sharpness of a 1080p OLED with true RGB pixel arrangement. People seem to ignore this fact.
Also, phone cameras have come a hell of a long way. They're good enough for the vast majority of people, and can take some damn good photos in the right hands.

thesebastian said:
I think its just a tool to upload photos. I only use it when I want to resync all my photos.
Sent from my Nexus 5X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just checked http://photos.google.com and it's real easy to do a bulk download. You can shift-select items in the web interface, go to the menu and click "Download" and you get a zip file.

from the Camera specs looks they double dipped on the IMX 377. If that's the case you will get pictures on par with the Nexus 6P with minor improvements. The camera will no doubt be solid just not a major improvement over the previous generation.

orateam said:
I really want this phone. I have the S7 edge and was waiting for this for daydream mostly. The problem is that i don't like the specs.
These are the shortcomings i've seen.
5" inch version has only 1080.
XL version only has 3440mah batter vs s7 3600
10 grams heavier than S7
Camera sensor seems bad.
The camera got a great review from a site most of us haven't heard much about before but they are sure popular today. DXOmark got alot of traffic after google announced they gave it a high score. I've read the review thoroughly and feel it was tipped in Google's favor by choice. The S7's best strength is the 1.7sensor and the Dual phase focus. Both are weaknesses of pixel, but the overall scores don't reflect it. For autofocus for example, they state that the pixel couldn't focus consistently yet gave it a score of 93. I made the mistake of taking a tilted review before (LG G3 camera) only to find issues later.
So does anyone really think the f2.0 camera on the pixel really is the best out there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow.
DxO is a well respected site that tests camera equipment, typically DSLR's and mirrorless cameras and lenses. They take a very scientific approach to rating gear. It's been a few years since they started rating smartphones as well, and is one of the leading resources in rating smartphone camera performance.
The Pixel's camera sensor at 1/2.3" is larger than just about all other smartphones out there. For comparison, the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and Note 7 use a 1/2.5" sensor, and the iPhone uses a 1/3" sensor. Just to be clear, the smaller the bottom number, the better.
Although the Pixel does have a smaller aperture at f/2.0, the larger sensor factors into the equation.