Oddly, despite dancing around the iPhone 6s (and 6s Plus) after having access to the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, I don't think I've done a direct camera head to head between them yet. And with the arrival of the latest iPhone SE, with identical imaging to the 6s, and with both in hand, I thought the time was right to do a comparison. It's 16MP versus 12MP but results are very good from both units to the naked eye, so I think it's time we called on our famed interactive comparator again. 

The usual small print and notes:

• The Lumia 950 was on Windows 10 Mobile 10586 build 164, i.e. the latest production version, while the iPhone SE was on iOS 9.3.1.
• Both camera applications were left on full auto, though with flash disabled on all but the one shot noted, since I wasn't testing that here. All shots are handheld, as would be typical of a real world user, though I do have quite steady hands, so the OIS in the Lumia 950 wasn't called to do much in most shots.
• The 950 shoots at 16:9 and has a 16MP mode, which I used for simplicity here, while the iPhone SE (and 6s) shoots at 12MP in 4:3. The two phones have different fields of view as well as different resolutions, but you'll still get an idea of differences in detail captured, colour and artefact levels.

Note that the interactive comparator below uses javascript and does need to load each pair of images. Please be patient while this page loads, if you see a pair of images above each other than you've either not waited long enough or your browser isn't capable enough! You need a powerful, large-screened tablet or a proper laptop or desktop. This comparator will not work in IE or Edge on Windows phones. Sorry about that.

Test 1: Sunny subject

Here's my local church, with loads of detail. Here's the full scene:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and iPhone SE, click the links to download. And here are 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

There's little to choose here between the two, aside from the increased detail in the 950 shot that comes from the slightly higher native resolution. Both phone cameras fail to cope with the sunny reflections from the clock numbers and hands.

Lumia 950: 9 pts, iPhone SE: 8 pts

Test 2: Sunny, intense natural detail

Here's a tree near me, with loads of natural detail and texture. Here's the full scene:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and iPhone SE, click the links to download. And here are 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Again, there's little to choose here between the two, with the 950 just edging it on detail and the iPhone edging it on colour subtleties. Both phone cameras employ a sensible balance in terms of sharpening, with neither getting anywhere near the horror that was the Galaxy S7 edge when I tested it (though apparently a firmware update is fixing this).

Lumia 950: 9 pts, iPhone SE: 9 pts

Test 3: Sunny macro

Some tiny and early bluebells. Here's the full scene:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and iPhone SE, click the links to download. And here are 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

I have to give this one to the iPhone SE by a nose. The flowers weren't really that purple (I'd guess somewhere in between the two shots), but the iPhone managed to nail the very close focus, while the 950 seemed to focus (judging from examination of the images later) on a flower at the back of the bunch. Both nice photos, but the iPhone got closest to the perfect sunny macro.

Lumia 950: 7 pts, iPhone SE: 9 pts

Test 4: Light challenge

Shooting an ornamental light fitting directly. More out of curiosity as to how the shot would turn out. Here's the full scene:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and iPhone SE, click the links to download. And here are 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Again, I have to give this one to the iPhone SE. The Lumia 950 does a (probably) clever job at correcting white balance to the degree that the light/glass shows the colour it is in daylight, while the iPhone camera captures the scene as my eyes saw it, with a warm yellow glow from the bulb inside. As a bonus, there's less blow out of the very brightest areas.

Lumia 950: 7 pts, iPhone SE: 9 pts

Test 5: Low light detail

A real test of sensor and algorithms in a real world setting, here of a guitar in a dimly lit room (all curtains drawn, only one table lamp on), so 'moody' at best. Here's the full scene:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and iPhone SE, click the links to download. And here are 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The iPhone SE is acceptable, given the conditions, but the larger aperture on the Lumia 950 (f/1.9) and the OIS enabling double the exposure time means that there's far more colour and far less noise in the Windows phone's photo. Neither phone camera managed to reolve the windings on the guitar's bass strings - though perhaps I'm expecting too much here!

Lumia 950: 9 pts, iPhone SE: 6 pts

Test 6: Flash test

In a dark bedroom, shooting a slightly faded post-war print on the wall, obiquely (so as not to get reflection from the flash). Here's the full scene:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and iPhone SE, click the links to download. And here are 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

A clear win for the 950 here, thanks to the higher resolution, brighter flash, larger sensor, larger aperture and OIS. Having said that, the OIS-less iPhone camera did better than I expected, with no hand blur even from a 1/17s exposure (the 950 went for 1/12s).

Lumia 950: 10 pts, iPhone SE: 8 pts

Test 7: Night time

Dead of night, shooting down the street. Here's the full scene:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and iPhone SE, click the links to download. And here are 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Surprisingly, there's not that much between the two shots. The Lumia 950 should walk this test, with 1/4s exposure, larger aperture, OIS-stabilised, etc, but it makes a right mess of focussing (I had to set it to 'infinity' manually) and, at 16MP here, there's very clear digital noise, which looks distracting. This is a tough photo to achieve detail in, to be sure, but the iPhone does remarkably well. With a 1/17s exposure (just short enough that someone with steady hands can get a good shot) and excellent noise rediction in software, the iPhone's snap is right up there.

Lumia 950: 8 pts, iPhone SE: 8 pts

Test 8: Extreme dark

Both phones did so well in the previous test, so I tried something akin to imaging magic. The bedroom photo from a previous test, but without flash and in a room at night, lit only by a dim streetlamp filtering through curtains. To my naked eye, I could barely see the picture, let alone ANYTHING in it! Here's the full scene, roughly corresponding to my own human vision:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and iPhone SE, click the links to download. And here are scaled crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

I was astonished that the Lumia managed to get a recognisable picture, using its OIS and a full 1/4s exposure, handheld. Impressive. In contrast, the iPhone SE produced a sea of black with hardly any detail on it, limited perhaps by the max 1/17s exposure (though see below).

Lumia 950: 5 pts, iPhone SE: 1 pts

iPhone fans will point out at this point that there are applications in the App Store that go beyond Apple's Camera restrictions. I dug out 'Night Camera' and this takes the iPhone up to 1/3s and (probably) multiple exposures, aligned and combined. Yes, this is trickery of sorts, but at least it gets a picture under these extreme conditions:

I'm not going to score this though, since the Lumia 950 could equally have been massively improved by using the manual exposure control to as much as a full second - the OIS means that with a steady hand such long exposures are easily possible.

Verdict

I must emphasise again that the iPhone SE here shouldn't be discounted because of its small size and physical resemblance to the old iPhone 5s - the imaging is identical to the very latest iPhone 6s, and therefore any comments and scores above can be applied to the 6s too. The '6s Plus' has OIS, notably, so that might level the playing field even further.

Adding up the scores above gives:

1. Lumia 950: 64/80 pts
2. iPhone SE(6s): 58/80 pts

Given how much I was pushing the two phone cameras, both scores are very decent, though the Lumia 950 still has the edge and, as I proved with the Galaxy S7 edge and even against the mighty Lumia 1020, is probably the best phone camera in the world right now, at least according to my typical tests across extremes of light.

As ever though, Apple's camera out-performed its specs, I have a huge respect for their image processing algorithms, which seem on a par with Nokia/Microsoft's and vastly better than Samsung, Sony and HTC's. All the current flagships in 2016 have good cameras though, we're very much down to having to go to extremes in order to find significant differences - which can only be good for the consumer in the long run.