Not looking good. GSM Arena compares Nokia N9 against iPhone 4S, SGSII, SE Xperia Arc S, Sensation XE and HTC Titan

Nokia and camera phone shoot outs. Nokias always win, right?  If there’s anyone to trust in mobile reviewing space, especially on comparisons, it is GSM Arena. In a recent 8MP comparison against the iPhone 4S, SGSII, SE Xperia Arc S, Sensation XE and HTC Titan, GSM Arena wasn’t all that pleased with the Award winning (even in camera department) Nokia N9 saying “we’re not that impressed with its overall performance.”

http://www.gsmarena.com/8mp_shootout_2011-review-673p8.php

What’s worse – it is slaughtered by the iPhone 4 in stills AND video. The thing I’ve found annoying in Nokia from day 1 of owning a Nokia is that you can never be certain there will be a clear progression in features. In the camera department, the N9 clearly has regressed from the N8 – still regarded as the camera king – though in quite a hefty package.

Nokia has boasted that what was seen in the amazing N8 was only a fraction of what was capable. However, it is such a shame for us geeks at least that in 2011, there is no camera successor. We can only hope for such a thing in 2012, whilst all this is happening, the N9’s camera brother, the Lumia 800 will and has started to falter in similar comparisons.

On the upside, the N9/Lumia 800’s cameras aren’t awful.  If given sufficient light as noted in several reviews and this comparison by GSMArena. Gizmodo says it’s on par with other smartphones (except, unfortunately, the iPhone 4S, something that is always progressively getting better, even if not by much. FU Nokia and your always backward ways of removing things).

Here’s some positive things to note on camera:

• The Nokia N9 impresses with spot-on exposure and superior dynamic range – it’s the best of the bunch in this respect
• Photos in poor lighting have fairly low amounts of noise and decent detail
• For Dynamic range - The Nokia N9 shows the least amount of clipping in both the bright (mostly the white objects) and dark areas (virtually nothing).
• Shares second place with SGSII for colours

Oddly, the N9 apparently is having great difficulty providing fine detail, even in bright sunlight, it comes last with the Titan. In low light, it comes last again with the Titan. No huge sensor from N8, not xenon.

Hopefully the whole user experience will be good enough for most people. I think it will be. Remember that article from the independent. As a starting phone, it’s ok. Should they continue lacking armament of that nature next year I think we all have a right to go ballistic on Nokia.

Whilst the N8 camera was very important and the N8 was sold on the merit of its camera and multimedia, I think if it had the user experience of either N9/800 it would have flown off the shelves as that’s first and foremost what people right now care about the most.  As awesome as it would have been for masses of folks to flock to the N8 over the iPhone or something else purely because of the camera phone, that wasn’t entirely the case. And that’s a good thing right now since the N9/Lumia 800 camera has somewhat slipped up against its competitors.

Source: gsmarena.

Cheers all for the tip.

Category: Nokia