Camera Face-Off: We Pit Smartphones From Xiaomi, Oppo, and Honor to Find a Winner

The champion camera is ever the 1 you person with you. That makes a smartphone’s camera 1 of its astir important features—after all, telephone makers person been vying for the rubric of the “best camera phone” for decades. Interestingly, the apical Chinese phones contiguous person brainsick bully camera hardware; namely, ample sensors that committedness to upgrade the prime of the photos captured connected a phone. Unfortunately, you can't bargain astir of them successful the US.

But to find retired which telephone befits the crown, and however these ample sensors stack up, I conducted a camera shootout with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, Oppo Find X7 Ultra, and the Honor Magic 6 Pro. For a fashionable constituent of comparison, I included the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus. I changeable countless photos with these phones. Below are conscionable a fewer examples, with little explanations of the antithetic hardware and bundle approaches the manufacturers person taken and why.

With each acceptable of photos, I've ranked them with my favourite first, but you whitethorn disagree. All the photos person been taken with each phone’s automatic settings, arsenic that is however astir radical volition usage them. Truthfully, determination isn’t a large quality astir of the time. I enactment photos from the Samsung Galaxy S24+ past for comparison.

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The Hardware Specs

Each telephone features an tremendous camera strategy packed with cutting-edge camera tech. Here’s a speedy breakdown of the main camera specs:

• Xiaomi 14 Ultra: 50-MP main camera, 50-MP ultrawide, 50-MP telephoto, 50-MP periscope telephoto
• Oppo Find X7 Ultra: 50-MP main camera, 50-MP ultrawide, 50-MP periscope telephoto, 50-MP periscope telephoto
• Honor Magic 6 Pro: 50-MP main camera, 50-MP Ultrawide, 180-MP periscope telephoto

I'm not pitting the Galaxy S24 Plus against these three; it’s included for examination purposes. But present are its specs anyway:

• Samsung Galaxy S24+: 50-MP main camera, 10-MP telephoto, 12-MP ultrawide

Main Cameras

The main camera is the 1 you’ll usage astir often. All 3 phones person excellent, versatile main cameras susceptible of capturing stunning photos successful antithetic conditions and scenarios. Point and shoot, and much often than not, you volition beryllium pleased by the results. However, determination are important differences successful the method capabilities.

All of these phones person ample sensors. The Xiaomi and the Oppo person the Sony LYT-900 1-inch sensor, portion the Honor has a smaller H9000 OmniVision 1/1.28-inch sensor. The larger the sensor, the much airy it tin instrumentality successful quickly, truthful low-light photos should beryllium clearer and little prone to question blur.

The aperture is the opening of the lens that lets airy in, and it works overmuch similar the pupil of your eye. Both the Xiaomi 14 Ultra (f/1.63 to f/4.0) and the Honor Magic 6 Pro (f/1.4 to f/2.0) person adaptable apertures. The f-stops bespeak the aperture size, with a little fig denoting a larger aperture susceptible of letting successful much light. The Oppo Find X7 Ultra (f/1.8) has the aforesaid fixed aperture arsenic the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus (f/1.8).

The imaginable occupation with a ample sensor and a ample aperture is that you tin extremity up with a shallow extent of field. The camera has trouble focusing connected everything. That tin beryllium large erstwhile you are taking a representation changeable and privation a bokeh effect, but with close-ups, you mightiness get blurring astir the edges, and with scenery shots, you mightiness suffer absorption successful the foreground oregon background. A adaptable aperture reduces that problem, allowing for a wider extent of tract to support everything successful a radical changeable oregon scenery successful focus. (We explicate galore of these camera presumption successful our How to Shop for a Camera guide.)