Nokia Lumia 920 demolishes SGSIII, HTC OneX and iPhone 5 in Engadget’s low light shootout
Total props to Myriam Joire who is doing a sterling job reporting back on Nokia related news recently.
Apologies this was late – bit of a busy day at the ward. It’s a low light comparison between the Nokia Lumia 920 against the HTC One X, SGSIII and iPhone 5. They’re slaughtered.
Quite rightly some have said things might look different if we looked at the photos beyond the phone’s display.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/26/lumia-920-low-light-shootout
So there are some 100% crops.
I’m finding some comments funny because they’re whining that the 920 should be set to auto whilst the other phones on night mode :/.
SGSIII
HTC OneX
iPhone 5 – (apparently improved for low performance, but still no where near 920). Heavily pixelated, orange cast.
Nokia Lumia 920.
Engadget says the yellow cast is acceptable given the low light situation.
Here’s an interesting one against the 808. This had long exposure which apparently meant losing colour detail with magenta cast, but ‘commendable performance, fantastic compared to others’ but the 920 is the king of low light. Myriam adds that the 808 can be coaxed to perform better in low light by changing some settings (like ISO).
There are certain low light shots that no amount of flash will help with (note again for people who think it’s stupid to take low light pictures without flash).
Watch the video below to explain how the test was done.
Cheers Andre, Webby and Viipottaja for the tip!
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Ace.
Just in time for this too – http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/26/the-iphone-5s-camera-is-faulty-shows-a-purple-haze
Good job
It’s like instagram is built into the lens
Lol!
“I’m finding some comments funny because they’re whining that the 920 should be set to auto whilst the other phones on night mode :/.”
Well, to be honest they have a point. Android limits ISO if you don’t use Night Mode, it also limits exposure time.
Nokia is able to use high ISO in auto mode. I have a GS 3, I know what it’s capable of and I know it’s capable of more than show in those sample shots.
That’s not the point I was trying to make. The point was that folks are asking for one phone to be left in auto (non night mode) whilst the other phones are put into night mode.
If they want, put all the phones in the best setting possible for low light (sans flash) and then retest when everyone is on as equal parameters as possible. Don’t hamper one phone and not the others.
I think these tests are fairly representative of what the majority of consumers will experience with their mobile photography. Instant on, capture in auto. Of course we’ll have those who want to tweak a few more settings, which is nice to have that option.
Yes, and I frankly agree with them, not putting the Android phones into Night Mode is limiting their ISO, which will always result in underexposed pictures.
If Night Mode was a very clumsy affair I would agree, but that’s not the case, it’s a single setting that takes 2 seconds. Android was limited in ISO range in that test, which made it in my opinion unfair.
I also agree that Nokia does better in automatic, but to make the test fair, there should have been shots in Night Mode also.
To make the tests fair, ALL should be in night mode. That’s the thing about a ‘FAIR’ test. Everyone changes the same thing and keeps constant the same thing. You can’t set one phone in auto and another in night mode. What’s the point? It’s like doing video comparisons in different locations/dates/times/seasons. Too many parameters changing.
Also, night mode would favour the phone with better stabilisation too – unless you have to put them all on tripod. I rarely find myself having a tripod in my pocket.
I just tested my Nokia N8 and my TMobile SG2 in the dark with both in night mode (no tripod), and it is not even close the Nokia N8 win by a country mile.
True. Then again, another way to do this would be to put all phones on auto, and let the phone decide whether to deploy flash or not. THAT is what I think most people do (at least used to IEBPV920 = In the Era Before Pure View 920).
Yes, I agree.
Just keep it on auto – even flash. Sometimes, without flash is better but we’ll have to see if the cameras are smart enough to realise when the appropriate time is to use flash or not.
Automatic macro and automatic flash. If only these worked more perfectly. It’s a real shame to see FB pictures of horrendous flash misuse.
All phones set in auto mode, there nothing unfair in this. If other phones set in night mode still they will fail due to the shake and blurry in pics. L920 wins in all mode sets so get over your SG3 and come to the good side. #SwitchToLumia
@agasain…Night mode or not, the Lumia 920 will still take better low light photographs than the SGSIII and the One X.
Perhaps you should mosey on over to The Verge where they did a similar test, all with Android devices in ‘Night Mode’.
Lumia 920 still wins.
Well, we can turn on night mode on the 920 and on the GS3. Of course, the difference becomes even greater!
http://i.imgur.com/XxNtg.jpg
Oh no no no, that can’t be. 920 wins again, ah well let’s dismiss this whole night mode thing then. :p
Wtf…are you for real. Regardless of whether or not android limits ISO or not. When you are comparing, you have to be fair. Allowing others to be in night mode and not the lumia is UNFAIR.
If you were to put every phone in night mode, then itd be fair. Why are people wanting to degrade the Lumia by putting the other phones at an advantage? And I’d probably take a bet, that even in night mode(all phones inc lumia) lumia would beat the competition. What excuse would you have then?
iPhone5 & SGS 3 have already demolish Lumia 920 with there sales figures. And wait a sec both are available in market and Lumia 920 is not available till the end of next month.
No matter Lumia 920 beats iPhone 5 or SGS 3 in any test but the real test will be the sales and its where its not gonna beat any of them.
I’ll give you that. Phones on sale sells more than one that doesn’t. Even if they are all on sale, iPhone and Galaxy’s head start is so far ahead. But we’re not talking about sales. We’re talking about what technologies are being implemented in new phones and seeing what’s better.
If we’re interested in bare sales numbers, let’s talk about S40 and basic Nokia phones.
What’s the point in having performance tests if the only factor to care about is sales? Why bother innovating if the actual place everyone should spend money on appears to be marketing and caring for your global brand image.
Agree!… We are talking about latest technology here and innovations and not sales.
Yes, because when I buy a phone my first criterium is how many people buy the same phone. Also, I eat at mcdonalds every day.
SOUR GRAPES!
nice! major props to myriam lately she/he (i really dont know what myriam likes to be called i’ve been banned for asking in the past too) always gives great and unbiased coverage of the cameras
so glad to see that myriam gave the 808 a shot in creative mode i suppose?
I think 808 has greater details then others…even then lumia 920
The 808 was set at an higher ISO than the 920 for the light box image, and so there’s quite a bit of noise involved. Due to the BSI, wider aperture or both, the 920 was able to shoot at the same shutter time as the 808 but at a lower ISO, thus improving the noise performance. In the case of real life performance, I suppose one might sacrifice a bit of colour integrity for the lack of blur, which shows a thumbs up towards the 920. In fact, some of the 920 shots have a shutter speed of 1s, which is ridiculous by any standard, even in dslrs (without tripod).
However, I am still biased towards the 808 (symbian OS and huge sensor mostly) and am curious to see how the ISO performance stacks between the two.
from my understanding myriam opted for a longer exposure with the 808 shots rather than a higher iso
Where are the daylight shot comparisons? I bet Iphone will be better in normal situations. I have not big urge to take photos in the night. 90% of shots are taken in daylight, so where is the daylight shootout?
I think recently this blog always blow-up only one single minor advantage of Lumia 920 compared to other best phone in town such as SGSIII, but intentionally let go all disadvantage of Lumia 920…
Such motive is very clear as PRO-Nokia WP’s Blog, but this is ok to me since many Writer here clearly stated they are WP’s fan.
Sadly now SGSIII already selling like hotcake, and iPh5 is mile ahead even it was announced just few days ago. We still not sure even what is the “availability date” in your own country, don’t talk about the actual date of arrival for 920. This situation will caused Lumia 920 losing potential sale to other competitor since it has no significant advantage compared to SGSIII or iphone5.
By the time Lumia 920 arrive in 2013 in most of the country, Nokia may still call it “The best Smartphone for September 2012″ !
yea, Nokia still doesn’t get it..
Apple waits to hold their Iphone announcements until the actual device is ready to sell.
Nokia announces, then releases MONTHS later.. Giving people a chance to re-think the purchase or move to another phone while waiting so long.
Apple gets so many impulse buys, from people seeing it, and wanting it, and being able to buy it right away.
They lose so many sales due to this..
I’m not really impressed at all. Sure it gets brighter images..but they are still blurry as hell. Just look at that boat. The 808 looks waaaay better with a few level adjustments in photoshop. Sure the “5 lux” image looks a bit better on the 920, but that’s not really a real life scenario
while some of the 920 images are truly amazing (2 or 3 of them), others (I have downloaded full gallery) are nothing to write home about (being OIS or not). You still see a lot of camera blur (due to shake in low light). Was OIS on?
Cheers,
Miki