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THE BEST CAMERA is the one you have on you. While not all of us can have a DLSR on us, our smartphone is a good alternative.
The quality has improved significantly in the last few years with modern phones now allowing low-light photography, sharper focus and pro features to help you capture the perfect photo.
But which one is the best. To find out, we tested four of the top smartphones in the market now. They were
The rules for the tests were as follows: All shots were taken in auto mode. No settings were changed, and most photos were taken inside to ensure consistency.
Starting off with a close-up photo of a fake rose under light, there is a clear and immediate difference between the four in how each camera captured the red colour.
Both the Samsung S7 and P9 go for vibrant colours so their photos pop out more. While the red hue is more striking, both photos end up losing detail as a result, with the P9 being particularly guilty of this.
The iPhone 6s Plus and HTC 10 fare better as both focus on more realistic colour, capturing a much wider range and showing more detail in the shadows. Although it’s close, the colours captured by the 6s Plus were not quite as vibrant as the HTC 10 and one point were slightly over-exposed.
While the iPhone’s colour issues could be corrected with some quick photo editing, the HTC 10 is the winner here.
A shot of the rooftops of Dublin during an overcast day has the iPhone 6s faring well, thanks to its balance between realistic colours and the level of detail it captures. It manages to be more true to life as a result.
The HTC 10 follows closely but ends up losing some detail in the clouds.
The S7 lost even more detail in the clouds, and the camera’s vibrant colours ended up adding a slightly blue tint to the scene.
The P9 ends up being more similar to the iPhone 6s Plus with its brightness but isn’t as detailed.
When it came to using the front-facing camera, the differences between the four cameras really showed. Probably the worst photo came from the Galaxy S7, making the subject look pale and in need of sunlight.
This was followed closely by the HTC 10 which manages to put a little colour into the subject’s face, but didn’t quite capture the hue correctly.
In comparison, the iPhone 6s Plus is more vibrant with a brighter photo, and is more clear than its rivals. Again, the iPhone captured finer details. The P9′s image is little more pleasing to the eye than the HTC and Samsung, but it ends up looking almost airbrushed.
Although the iPhone wins this round, patches of the image are close to being over-exposed.
While it’s something each phone has pushed as a selling point, all four smartphones perform similarly when under low-light conditions.
Noise – a grainy quality to photos taken in low-light conditions – was obvious in the images taken on the iPhone 6s Plus, HTC 10 and P9, although this is to be expected.The HTC 10′s colours were quite gaudy and unrealistic.
The S7 comes out on top – and by a country mile. The noise, although present, isn’t half as obvious, and the colours pop.
Food often looks awful under a phone’s flash, so we picked this plate of flapjacks to test things out. The iPhone 6S Plus fares the worst in this test, yet again overexposing the image.
The HTC 10 ends up with the opposite problem, with an underlit subject even with the flash.
The P9 and S7 both fared better, but in different ways. The P9 captured more of the background while the S7 isolated its subject – both describable but in different situations.
The S7 loses out as it didn’t capture the colour of the flapjacks (which were delicious) as accurately.
Comparing it to the other photos, you’ll notice how the 6s’ field of view is narrower than its competition. The difference is minor, but manages to stay true to the scene in question.
The S7 fares better with a wider shot although the brighter colours does make things look a little washed out as it emphasises the orange light.
The shot from P9 is the darkest of the four but only just yet it’s the HTC 10 that wins out thanks to its wide-angle shot which managed to stay true to the scene’s colours.
While the iPhone range has managed to offer the best smartphone camera for a while now, that appears to be changing very quickly.
While it’s the best in offering accurate colour and detail, the Samsung Galaxy S7 manages to do the same but with a more vibrant – although sometimes unrealistic – colour scheme.
Yet the S7 and P9 are probably better for shoot and show type photos while the iPhone 6s Plus and HTC 10 are better suited for post-editing since they create a more realistic depiction of a scene.
While the iPhone 6s Plus is still the standard, the HTC 10 puts forward a strong case. Which one you think is better really depends on what you want from a camera.
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Friday’s answer = 11
Why?
The written numbers are the number of digital lines making up the preceding number.
It was too simple! Pointless really…
I got it by chance. I saw the difference between the pairs of digital numbers was 6, 6, 12, 12. I thought then the penned in numbers had a similar pattern 7, 9, 9, 11. I thought there must be another 11 then. The real reason makes more sense but it’s funny how this worked out.
Maybe yours is the real reason and mine is by chance.
We’ll probably never know.
Did the same as Mr Dragmire.
You still recognised the pattern Mr dragmire.
Geez, no explanation for Friday’s answer which wasn’t a maths puzzle and no clarification for Tuesday’s mess up either, ending with a whimper.
Tuesday’s was OK – the absence of explanation was unfortunate.
Half the children had a dog – so their can’t be 25 or 27 children, other wise you have half a dog!
So there were either 15 or 26 Dogs
But there were 3 times as many dogs as cats – so which of 15 & 26 is divisible by 3?
OK
15 dogs, 5 cats, 8 goldfish & 2 hamsters – 30 pets – and also 30 children.
It wanted number of pets not number of students. 24 students would have 25 pets between them and 30 students would have 30 pets between them. The only conditions are that total #students must be divisible by 6 and that total #pets must be divisible by 5.
Tuesdays answer could have been 25 also. 12 dogs, 4 cats, 7 goldfish & 2 hamsters equal 25.
All the people that got their knickers in a twist on Tuesday can now un twist them :)
But they haven’t cleared up the confusion despite the reams of comments pointing out their mistake.
What was their mistake on Tuesday? I can’t see one.
With the way the question was phrased both 25 and 30 are possible answers.
The answer is dependant on the assumption that each child only has one pet. It may seem trivial but saying that half the children have dogs doesn’t help at all without that knowledge. It should have just said half the pets are dogs or made it clear that each child had only one pet.
Ok – I see how that could be possible if you allow for a pupil having two pets.
A bit of a contrived gripe in my view.
Not really contrived in my opinion. That caught me up as well until I said fe<k it and just made the assumption. I wrote it in my copy book and everything. Really should have stated it in the question.
Has Jane found out how many kids were in that classroom ? Classic!!
Have you figured out that 72 isn’t the answer to today’s one?
4/5 not bad, water one got me.
water a vexed question right now – especially if one is asked to pay for it.
Professor layton; journal style
I thought the teeth brushing one was poorly worded. I got the “correct” answer if I based the time on 50 mins ie subtracting the rinsing time.
72 should have been the right answer ..
72 is the right answer if you’re looking at the big numbers.
But the next number will be one of the faint numbers.
I think it’s 11.
If you loop the faint numbers, skipping one number each time, you get 11.
The 7 goes with the second 9
And the first 9 goes with the first 11
So the next loop would make it 7 to 9 to 11. The loops are overlapping
a
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