The imaging specs of the Axon 7 are impressive: 20MP f/1.8, dual LED flash, 1/2.6" sensor, Phase Detection auto-focus, plus OIS. On paper, these are close to those of the Lumia 950 XL, with the latter having slightly larger sensor and ZEISS optics, plus some smarts if you want to go into lower Megapixel oversampling, but otherwise this should be a close run thing!
Notes:
- Both smartphone cameras shoot at 16MP in a 16:9 aspect ratio, so I can crop down to 1:1 and there should be no issues with framing, other than minor differences caused by the optics. [The 950 XL also shoots in 'pure'/oversampled 8MP mode, which I personally use, though it's not appropriate here.]
- All shots were on full 'auto', except where stated.
- In each case, the overall scene is shown as the Lumia 950 XL sees it - it's a known starting point, if nothing else. Even if, as you'll see, the 950 gets the colour balance wrong occasionally!
- I look at full size shots as well as crops. But if you're in any way concerned about the use of crops then just grab the JPGs yourself and compare them at any scale you like.
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Test 1: Sunny scene
My typical detailed landscape shot. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950 XL:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and ZTE Axon 7, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 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:
Terrific detail from both phone cameras, and remember that 1:1 crops from 16MP images represent quite a tiny fraction of the frame. Overall, I'm going to give this one to the Axon 7 for the more saturated colours, the Lumia's rendition of the scene doesn't seem 'green' enough!
Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Axon 7: 10 pts
Test 2: Pretty flowers
Some striking pink flowers, moving in the breeze, but I thought I'd get away with it. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950 XL:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and ZTE Axon 7, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 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:
Terrific detail again from both phone cameras, quite stunning, but this time it's the Lumia that nails the colour and the Axon 7 which produces something that's (literally) a pale shadow of the real thing. So I'm reversing the score line from the preious test!
Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Axon 7: 9 pts
Test 3: Absolute detail
A great test of resolving power, with a mass of detail on this church clock scene. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950 XL:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and ZTE Axon 7, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 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 think the Lumia 950 XL, with its ZEISS optics, just wins this one in terms of detail, though there's not much in it. Plus the Axon 7's colours are again a little pale.
Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Axon 7: 8 pts
Test 4: Zooming in
A good real world use of zoom - this plaque was high up on a wall in the church, in low light (much lower than the shows suggest) and this was zoomed in by about 2x, with the phone held at arm's reach, trying to get maximum subject in the viewfinder! Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950 XL:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and ZTE Axon 7, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 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 Camera software on the Lumia 950 XL is notoriously bad at digital zoom, though I think I kept it in check here - the results from the two camera phones have very different characters, but neither are terrible, each helped by OIS and longish shutter times. The Lumia goes for a more natural look, albeit with noise (this was in low light conditions, after all, I was trying to make the job hard!), while the Axon 7's camera app goes for noise reduction in a big way. Overall, I prefer the Axon 7's result, though neither photo is perfect.
Lumia 950 XL: 7 pts; Axon 7: 8 pts
Test 5: Blossom
Forgive yet another sunny coloured test, but it's Spring in the UK and this was a pretty typical end user shot. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950 XL:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and ZTE Axon 7, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 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 the Lumia 950 XL's Camera software renders the scene with perfect colouring, while the ZTE Axon 7's app produces a result that's more 'muted'. I think end users would prefer the former, don't you?
Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Axon 7: 9 pts
Test 6: Night time
After sunset, with almost no natural light left in the street. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950 XL - and note that this makes it look a LOT brighter than it actually was to my eyes(!):
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and ZTE Axon 7, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 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 no comparison here, of course. Leaving aside that the Axon 7 (which toggled itself automatically into 'Night' mode and used 1/10s exposure) managed to represent the light levels to my eyes more accurately (i.e. pretty dim), the Lumia 950 XL camera with its presumably more effective OIS manages to stretch out a 1/3s exposure - handheld, which is simply amazing. It's something of a technological what Nokia's imaging engineers achieved (and then Microsoft acquired).
The Lumia gets the win here by a country mile, though I have to knock off a point for being nothing like reality - comment welcome on how far I should change the scoring because of this!
Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Axon 7: 5 pts
Test 7: Party time
A typical moving subject, artificial light shot, with phone-supplied LED flash. In each case I had two stabs at this (with a tripod in use) and took the best for each phone. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950 XL:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and ZTE Axon 7, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central crops, not at 1:1 this time since under these circumstances it'd be kind of silly. Just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
What you're seeing here is a combination of factors. The Dynamic flash system in Lumia Camera on the 950 XL kicks things off with a blend of super short (1/100s) exposure (for the flash and to freeze motion) and a longer flash-less exposure, to add ambience and to make sure that nothing's too blown out. Then add in a much brighter triple LED flash and the ZEISS optics, and the result is dramatically better than the Axon 7's result, which is typical camera phone blur. I was expecting more from the latter, with its large aperture and dual LED flash, but a 1/33s exposure for a moving human subject in low light just doesn't cut it.
Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Axon 7: 4 pts
Verdict
And the scores are in (as they say on TV):
- Lumia 950: 63/70pts
- ZTE Axon 7: 53/70pts
A very definite win for the Lumia 950 XL yet again - it has topped everything from 2016 and 2017 that I've thrown at it here on AAWP, from the competition. In fact, the only smartphone cameras to beat the Lumia 950/XL unit have been specialist units such as the Lumia 1020 (and then only under certain use cases) and the even older Samsung Galaxy K Zoom (and again not for general snaps).
The ZTE Axon 7 has a typically good 20MP sensor from the 2016 flagship range - but it let down a little by ZTE's image processing (all the muted shots above) and, ultimately by the optics, the OIS and flash all being below the level from Microsoft's (Nokia's) camera here.
PS. See also my general comparison between the Lumia 950 XL and ZTE Axon 7.