HTC says Sensation faster camera than N9’s super fast camera?

Nokia  takes imaging seriously, as evident by the numerous TIPA awards and recognition that the best camera phones come from Nokia. HTC on the other hand, not so much known for strengths in imaging. Lately they’ve been trying to combat this perception (see the 16MP HTC)

When the N9 was released, Nokia showed that it was the fastest at starting up on the market. Note, they also showed that the N9 had some worthy optics. Who would want the fastest camera if all the pictures it took were shitty photos? Fortunately, N9 also takes great pictures.

Here’s samples from Nokia Conversations. Engadget were actually the first before NokConv to praise the N9 camera: Nokia N9 sample photos from engadget.

HTC tweeted recently that Nokia does not have the fastest camera. They believe that goes to their HTC Sensation, linking to Stuff-Reviews’ own test. Maybe a bit annoyed with Nokia, posting the HTC HD7 on a loser-score of 8.3 seconds. Seriously? 8.3 seconds to start a camera? Are you painting it?

Stuff-Reviews showed immediately after Nokia’s post that Nokia should consider themselves beaten by HTC:

The N9 isn’t Nokia’s Imaging King, that still lies with the N8. But, Nokia’s N9 is no slouch. AND it appears to be awesome in other aspects too (i.e. modern interface that most have been expecting with MeeGo-Harmattan Swipe UI. BTW that new camera UI on N9 looks great). We’ll have to wait and see if Nokia can speed up the pre-production N9.

Maybe I’m just looking at the wrong HTC-Sensation image samples (if anyone can find one that really shows it off I’d love to see). From reviews I’m looking at it’s not really much to shout about. Another quick search finds this from GSM Arena:

“Unfortunately, image quality is a traditional weak spot for HTC phones and the Sensation is no exception. Despite its 8MP resolution, the captured detail isn’t all that much – noise reduction is trying too hard at times to offset a noisy image sensor – and although contrast is good, the colors are oftentimes way off. And oversharpening is present throughout all samples”

GSM Arena reckons the Sensation comes close to the Xperia Arc but are beaten by SGSII and Optimus 2x, all of course beaten by the N8 for pictures (and N8 being a device from 2010).

I wouldn’t say the Sensation is terrible by any means (it’s no BlackBerry in terms of blur.)

If there is one HTC to really make some marks back for imaging it might be the 12mp one (that we thought might be a Nokia since it was supporting RAW and was an upcoming Winpho device). Or might it be that new HTC MyTouch Slide 4G, also with F2.2 aperture and bold claims of being “the most advanced camera of any smartphone”. This does seem to offer some cool stuff, such as recording images in background, saving in memory buffer so when you press, there’s zero lag. Does it come with Xenon flash? NO. Then N8 still keeps that title on that feature alone. Still images warrant Xenon Flash. Whilst N9 has Dual LED, being a ground breaking camera phone was not the N9’s priority (though it’s doing a darn good job of it).

I’m mostly interested in the right balance of quick enough photos, high versatility of stills in all lighting conditions and great photo quality when it comes to a smartphone cameras. Remember, what we’ve seen in the N8 is only a fraction of Nokia’s imaging capabilities, according to Elop (all these hidden talents and innovation at Nokia, Elop wants to set free and put on Nokias ready for the market).

Stuff-Reviews Via TheNokiaBlog

Category: Rant