The Honor 9 essentially has two f/2.2 cameras, one with 20MP resolution and tasked with gathering monochrome detail (i.e. no coloured Bayer filters over its sensor) and the other 13MP and tasked with gathering colour information. Information from the two is then algorithmically combined, often with multiple exposures on each, using the power of the Kirin 960 chipset to work the magic and produce super-detailed and noise free shots. Well, that's the theory.
In terms of comparing the Honor 9's camera with the 950's:
- both units offer full and reduced/oversampled resolutions - I do like to match up resolutions as best possible so that I can use Rafe's fancy interactive comparator, below, so I've mixed and matched according to the tests. Plus, for both phones, the full sensor still gets used at max capacity when zooming.
- all photos were taken on full 'auto' on both phones, unless stated otherwise.
But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. So let’s start snapping and pit the results against each other, using our Famed Interactive Comparator (FIC). All 1:1 crops are at 900x500 for comparison, but see the links for full versions.
| 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 ideally need a powerful, large-screened tablet or a proper laptop or desktop. This comparator may not work in some browsers. Sorry about that. On Windows 10 Mobile, use the 'AAWP Universal' UWP app, which handles the comparator very competently (see the tips in the app's help screens). |
Test 1: Sunny scene
My standard suburban test scene, here at full resolution on both phones (and in 4:3). Here is the whole scene, as presented by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Honor 9, 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:
Although the Honor 9 photo isn't terrible, there's a lack of clarity - something which is there in spades in the Lumia 950 shot, thanks to the ZEISS optics, mainly, I suspect. Plus the sensor's larger, physically, and there's less chance for pixel-level confusion. Hopefully your eyes will agree. The 950 absolutely nails this shot, with just enough sharpening to be crisp, without ever seeming over-processed and artificial.
Lumia 950: 10 pts; Honor 9: 7 pts
Test 2: Sunny 2x zoom
Another suburban test scene, here over lots of trees to distant house detail, in 16:9 and using the default 8MP/9MP modes on both devices and then zooming from there. Here is the whole scene, as presented by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Honor 9, 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:
Everything's more even when zooming is done. I tried (by eye) to go to 2x on both handsets - the Honor 9's UI helps, but the Lumia 950's doesn't - annoyingly. In theory, both should use some 'PureView; smart cropping and then some interpolating digital zoom on top, so I'd expect results to be similar. And they are, with the Honor 9's image appearing slightly clearer and cleaner, perhaps thanks to those two camera units. A win by a nose to the Honor 9, but then the Lumia 950 has never been big on digital zoom, as I've noted a dozen times!
Lumia 950: 7 pts; Honor 9: 8 pts
Test 3: Sunny, 3x zoom
Let's take things further, seeing as the Windows 10 Camera allows it and seeing as the Honor 9 boasts about its 'hybrid zoom'. Let's throw caution to the wind and try a photo at (roughly) 3x zoom. Here is the whole (unzoomed) scene, as presented by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Honor 9, 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:
Both photos are pretty awful if you look at 1:1 here and reinforce the idea that digital zoom is a bad idea. The 20MP sensors on each phone allow a nominal 1.5x zoom without any loss, and if you want to go further then you'd better have a Lumia 1020/Nokia 808/iPhone 7 Plus or something with wither higher underlying resolution or an optical zoom of some kind.
I can't pick a winner above because both phones are losers and make such a mess of the digital zoom - the Lumia 950 is horribly blocky while the Honor 9's attempt is too indistinct, too blurred.
Digital zoom. Just don't go there.
Lumia 950: 3 pts; Honor 9: 3 pts
Test 4: Extreme macro
Let's try getting as close to something as I can - a tasty(?) berry. Here is the whole scene, as presented by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Honor 9, 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:
Now this is interesting - the Lumia 950 let me get slightly closer (using its manual focus feature as the 'auto' couldn't cope), but it also made a slight mess of the colours, making the (in reality totally) black berry seem to have a hint of blue. Having said that, the Honor 9's photo looks slightly more 'processed' (which it is), so a score draw overall.
Lumia 950: 8 pts; Honor 9: 8 pts
Test 5: Low light
A painting on a wall, around 60cm away, in low indoor light. Here is the whole scene, as presented by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Honor 9, 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:
Despite using two cameras and multiple exposures, the Honor 9's image is significantly less clear than the Lumia 950's. Just look at the detail on the stair rail or the artist's signature, bottom left of the crop. The ZEISS optics, the OIS and the single exposure oversampling are all stars here, of course. And this is a great example of why the Lumia 950 range's camera is still top of the heap, no matter what other sites might say.
Lumia 950: 10 pts; Honor 9: 7 pts
Test 6: Night time
My standard night test, shortly after dusk here, so the distant sky had some light left, though - as usual - it was a LOT darker to my eyes than the super-vision of the Lumia makes it look! Here is the whole scene, as presented by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Honor 9, 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:
To be honest, the Honor 9 did surprisingly well here - with no OIS to call on, it took multiple shots with both cameras and then aligned and combined them to produce a very acceptable result with no blur and relatively little digital noise. Impressive. But not as impressive as the Lumia 950, which - as usual - turns night into day (or at least late afternoon!) with almost no compromises.
Lumia 950: 10 pts; Honor 9: 8 pts
Verdict
As usual, adding up the points gives us a feel for how the two phone cameras did:
- Lumia 950: 48/60pts
- Honor 9: 41/60pts
This series of smartphone camera comparisons is showing a distinct trend, across dozens and dozens of test shots and challenging light scenarios. Microsoft's 2015 flagship had/has an astonishing camera (mainly inherited from the Nokia imaging engineers and the work on the 930 and 1520) and this still can't be beaten, even mid-2017. Android pretenders come and go, producing what are very good single and dual cameras in ultra-thin devices - yet physics continues to win, aided by some PureView oversampling and some post-processing magic. The largish sensor, the largish aperture, the mature OIS, the ZEISS optics, the PureView software tech, all come together in the 950 range to produce the phone imaging benchmark device of modern times.
I've tested the lot this year, including the Pixel, the OnePlus 5, the iPhone 7 Plus (albeit only looking at zooming), the Huawei P10, the HTC U11 and now the Honor 9 above, and - across all subject and lighting ranges, and even though it itself isn't perfect - the Lumia 950 and 950 XL are guaranteed to win out. Still.
PS. As usual, people will point out that shot to shot time on the Lumia 950 range is hampered slightly by the speed of background post-processing, in that if you take more than half a dozen shots in a burst then you have to wait while it all gets sorted out in the background. It's worth noting that something similar applies in low light to the Honor 9, which puts up a message asking you to hold steady while multiple exposures are taken and they are combined, though at least you don't ever have to stop and wait for multiple seconds on this new device.