The Truth about engadget's Nokia N8 versus iPhone 4

UPDATE: ENGADGET HAS CLOSED OFF COMMENTS AND CENSORED POSTS, DELETING A FEW HUNDRED THAT POINT OUT THEIR POSTS’ FAILINGS.

A few of you have sent this link to us (adnan/n#o#r#u#l#e#s/a few others through comments). It’s at shoppaholicdaily.com/n8/ who took the time to investigate the iPhone 4 versus Nokia N8 camera “test” (aka lookhowcooliPhoneis) that engadget showed the world.

It’s not about being unhappy because according to the fanboy driven comments, iPhone 4 was better – it is about having FAIR and BALANCED tests with EQUAL PARAMETERS, minimizing HUMAN ERROR (such as

• dirty lenses (please clean both. The slightest smudge adversely affects images – hence why I miss camera cover for N8)
• half pressed false locked images (trying to take a shot but not letting autofocus lock properly -why?)
• Subjects focused on different objects. This makes it terribly hard to compare because both might be clear, but just at different part of the photo (due to human error and not the devices)
• Removing automode for flash (or tampering with any setting other than auto – just let the cameras do by default what they’re supposed to do)
• Distinct motion blurs (to an extent, a cam should have some sort of antiblur – or be fast enough not to register movement, but an obvious movement on one handset but not the other is distracting. Perhaps for a few shots, set it on a tripod?)
• overly compressing images which lessens the differences – having 12MP and 5mp images and then shrinking them down to obscurity will obviously minimise the differences between the two photos.
• Not providing full size images from both devices (if you’re doing a bloody comparison, despite the incompetences and failures above, still provide the image samples from both devices as it’s extremely difficult to tell differences between any camera when your viewing window is VGA)
• not showing pixel for pixel comparison. This would show if at all the extra 7MP from the 12vs5mp makes a difference. Are those pixel for pixel shots still clear?

Not to mention the lack of night mode, extreme low light which any xenon phone would crush a LED counterpart.

• The reason we say this is that Engadget isn’t the only source of N8 samples.

We have seen time and time again that the N8 produces incredibly detailed photos with very accurate colours (which Damien Dinning was adamant on having the N8 capture what you see, not a false fairy land depiction e.g. according to engadget, dull grey skies don’t exist in London. They’re not blue either. Just a canvas of ghostly white)

So here’s an excerpt from the post we’d like to share from shoppaholicdaily.com/n8/

Recently, Engadget posted a mobile phone camera fight between Nokia N8 vs iPhone 4. I honestly don’t know how or why their N8 photos came out so shitty compared to the iPhone; and the iPhone photos they took were pretty shit, so that’s saying a lot.

Most of the problems with the photos really were due to the resizing, heavy compression employed and human error with the camera focus. They then presented the comparisons to be heavily biased towards the iPhone. In short, the comparisons were very badly done and heavily skewed against the N8. Many of us have seen samples from other sites that clearly showed the N8 camera as being superior and of closer quality to a good, dedicated point and shoot camera.

We’re here to take Engadget’s extremely amateur comparison and even it out more.

The writer demonstrates the over processing to iPhone 4 pictures (and shopping the N8. Some would argue that that’s how people prefer their photos. Odd – how come those bagillions of digital cameras aren’t shitting crayola colours on their photos? But to each their own. N95 vs K850 fell for the same, with N95 producing the cartoony colours.

Slight adjustments to saturation gives a little warm to N8 but transports iPhone 4 to SEPIA land.

Doing post processing isn’t really necessary to prove the N8’s worth. Some have argued that iPhone 4 post processing is so perfect, any more tips it over the edge (*cough*BS allergy*). You guys have done the N8 justice time and time again by showing off your own image samples.

We shared our own tests – from independent resources and took a look at 100% pixel by pixel crops, showing just how good the Nokia N8 is – not just against the iPhone 4, but against dedicated compact digital cameras. In some cases (especially in terms of detail as the N8 will have larger sensors than most compact cams) there is much more detail in Nokia’s mobile phone.

• Gallery: Nokia N8 versus Canon IXUS 130 – 9MP vs 10MP shots – witness the N8′s precision pixels.

• 

  N8 on left, canon IXUS 130 on right

• Nokia N8 – closer quality to a digital camera than your iPhone 4. Closer to reality colours and higher detail.

• 

  FUJI camera, N8 and iPhone 4. Which one actually says SANYO?

p.s. thanks to the blogs posting about this and showing that there was a reason to make such a big deal about the N8 camera.

We should expect more comparisons with the N8’s camera with other devices – camera phones, cameras, SLRs etc. It is after all, the N8’s show stopper. We might have another debate sooner than we think tomorrow, as renowned shit stirrer, Eldar said this morning:

“@eldarmurtazin: Symbian fans so funny after engadget comparisson. They are find out thousand explanations. Tomorrow they will cry much more”

Samsung Pixon 12 vs Nokia N8? Another iPhone 4 vs Nokia N8? What ever the results, it should be taken with a pinch of salt as there already seems to be the intent of just pissing off a certain category of users.

via shoppaholicdaily.com/n8/

Tags: Nokia, Nokia N8, Nseries

Category: Nokia, Nseries, Symbian