When comparing Smartphones, many look at the camera specs and leave it with little comments on the actual performance of each camera, whilst instead they focus on benchmarking the hardware performance. But what if you’re looking to purchase a smartphone and the deciding factor will be down to camera performance?

Unfortunately judging by camera parameters and megapixels won’t give you information of the true quality of the camera, and that’s why a lot of testing will have to take place to understand what camera in what phone comes out on top.

Of course as smartphones get better, so do their cameras, and a top high end smartphone will always have a good camera, but what out of the high end handsets has the best camera.

It’ll be interesting to find out what comes out on top as there are varying technologies in every handset, including One’s Ultrapixel camera that packs just 4.3MP, and the Sony Xperia Z that has a camera of 13MP.

We’ll have a look at varying aspects of the camera that should be taken in consideration and then will evaluate each phone’s overall progress.

Detailing

When you want to pick out certain fine details in an image, some cameras have a lot better ‘color’ in this area than others, and it can be important when you want to take vibrant photos filled with detail. The HTC One doesn’t do too great with its Ultrapixel camera, and at 4.3MP it’s understandable. When it comes to detail, especially when zooming in, the One falls behind the others.

• The 920 is second worse, and colors seem to get softened a lot, especially when an image is filled with many areas of distinction. The image details are filled with color, and although it’s a great camera, it doesn’t do well to capture a full images composition.

• Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3 are both at a decent quality in regards to detail, although it’s hard to tell the two apart. Shots with both handsets show that detail capturing is quite high and they far surpass the One and Lumia 920.

• Finally, the Sony Xperia with its 13 megapixel camera seems to have varying results. It has a good enough camera to capture fine details, but occasional smudging can sometimes ruin an image. When it comes down to detail the Xperia Z seems quite temperamental, often relying on outside conditions for better results.

• The Nexus 4 had issue with noise even in brightness, but overall captures show the detail is above the One and Lumia 920, and even the Xperia.

• The Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 take this one.

Color reproduction

This is an important aspect, especially when you’re out in a bright day with many contrasting colors in your shot. 

• The One showed realistic colors, matching the real deal quite well, and when taking a shot including multiple contrasting colors, the One does a good job to reproduce colors clearly, despite the slight yellow tint that is occasionally seen.

• The Lumia 920 in comparison to other smartphones is terrible. In low light it may be acceptable, but it shot color in a way that made it look unrealistic and almost cartoony. Because of this, the images look rather synthetic, usually ruining the whole mood of the photo.

• Once again, the Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 have similar results, and both manage to fairly represent accurate colors, and although the occasional out-of-place color tone is seen, most shots will come out looking realistic.

• The Xperia Z ends up oversaturating images similar to the 920, however, it does it at a lesser extent to the Lumia. However, with the 13 megapixel camera, you’d expect more, and the frustrating purple tint is always bringing down your images.

• The Nexus 4 has nice results, although the images don’t rank with the One, iPhone 5 or S3.

• Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III and the One take top spot.

Indoor

Indoors and outdoors are two completely different worlds when it comes to camera technology, and it’ll be interesting to see what camera can reproduce the most realistic results.

• The One manages to pull off low noise on its images and the colors look sharp, however the colors end up looking a little washed out, leaving images feeling a tad unnatural.

• The 920 on the other hand churns out a completely different experience. It manages to take rather realistic tones even in low light, and it performs a whole lot better than when outdoors. And to top it off, the noise levels and detailing are very well balanced.

• The iPhone 5 shoots nice, accurate tones with its camera, and although in the dark, the flash can at times become more of a hindrance when it comes to noise levels, the overall quality turns out incredibly well in most lighting conditions.

• The Galaxy S3 manages to shoot a very warm pallet of colors indoors, and the detail is as good as when used outdoors. The LED flash ends up tinting the image though, and although the detail is still on poor, the flash certainly weakens the overall result.

• The Xperia Z and Nexus 4 manage to shoot rather fine images when it comes to color degradation, however detail for both the phones is weak, especially when using the image tinting flashes.

• First place goes to the iPhone and Lumia 920.

Night

The final performance tester has got to be night time imaging. 

• The One performs well at night time; the noise levels are well under control, and the exposure is great, although detailing is a little weakened, on top of the yellow-tinted colors.

• The 920 offers a strange range of results outside, showing washed out and at times blurry images often ruin your shots, and the colors tend to look dull even after you focus an image.

• The iPhone 5 manages to reproduce nice warm, realistic colors even in the night, and it can manage even the darkest of situations, and even though the noise starts to creep in the darker it gets, it still surpasses every other camera on the list.

• The Galaxy S3 does poorly outside. Images often come out with unlit darker areas whilst the brighter colors end up becoming overexposed, pushing their appearance to unrealistic contrasts. The image also comes out with a fair amount of noise, whilst missing out on the detail that was found in daylight.

• The Xperia Z manages to shoot well-lit areas greatly, with a decent warm color pallet. However, darker areas end up getting washed out, leaving you with a slightly unbalanced photo.

• The Nexus 4, does a good job, putting it on a level below the iPhone 5, but slightly higher than the other handsets.

Summary

As you can see, the iPhone 5 manages to come out on top, despite its weak spots that are managed to be taken by the One X. The Galaxy S3 does well, but in low light it starts to fall behind. On the lower end, whilst the Nexus 4 has an around good shooter, the Xperia Z lacks a decent detail and gets overwhelmed with noise, and the Lumia 920 usually blows appearance way out of the water with artificial colors and results.

Related news:

• Samsung Galaxy A8 2018 - Review & Technical Specs
• Galaxy S7 Hands On Review
• Galaxy S7 Edge Hands On Review
• Motorola DROID Turbo 2 Vs Samsung Galaxy S6
• Galaxy S6 Edge Plus Review
• Galaxy Note 5 vs Galaxy S6 Edge Plus