It's tough to compare large numbers of camera phones at the same time - four is about the limit in terms of coverage on the web. But it's perfectly valid to pick out interesting groupings. In this case, the classic Lumia 1020 and 950 (this being AAWP, and yes, I'm still flip-flopping on which is 'best' for imaging) versus modern flagships which have just had updates. The Galaxy S9+ has just had its second system update, while the Pixel 2 XL hasn't been tested here for six months and now runs a whole new OS, Android P(ineapple), and with its 'Visual Core' chip activated. Whatever happens, it's going to be a power imaging shootout...

It's perfectly true that I'm not throwing in the Apple iPhone X here (I don't have one to hand at the moment, plus the iPhone is a whole different 'thing' anyway - see here for my Lumia/iPhone X shootout), and I'm also not putting in the new Huawei P20 Pro (it's still waiting for major camera updates, so I'll come back to this later in June - see here for my initial Lumia/P20 Pro shootout). But these four contenders should be a pretty close match overall - detail, zoom, low light, etc. 

In terms of snapping logistics, the Lumia 1020 shoots in 5MP at 16:9 but with lossless zoom available and I used some of this where appropriate below to try and match the resolution provided by its competitors below. The Lumia 950 XL shoots in 16MP resolution at 16:9, while the Galaxy S9+ and Pixel 2 XL both shoot in 9MP at 16:9. Tempting though it was to always use the 950 XL in its oversampled 8MP mode, which is a closer match, I'm also aware that I do get criticised for not making more of its native resolution, so I've done the 'good light' tests here, at least, at that full 16MP. Sue me. There's just no simple way to directly compare phone camera sensors ranging from 5MP (and then 34MP) to 8MP/9MP to 16MP , all at the same time. Low light tests are at the 950 XL's oversampled PureView 8MP mode, of course.

As I start to write this intro I haven't started shooting and I have absolutely no idea which smartphone camera will emerge on top. Logic says the Galaxy S9+, especially if there's much zooming included, but the margins are going to be tight and I'd expect the Lumia 950 XL's higher native resolution to produce more satisfactory detail when not zoomed, etc, especially in good light.

Because I'm comparing (sometimes zoomed) output from no less than four different smartphone cameras, I've adopted a grid of 1:1 crops (or scaled images where I'm looking for image characteristics rather than raw quality), making it easy to compare the same subject detail from all four at the same time.

And you'll note that, unlike other sites, I've skipped past the 'great light, man made subject, easy conditions' test shots, and only put in scenarios that should challenge the phone cameras - in one way or another.

Test 1: Greenery

Light was good, though the sun wasn't out. We'll start with this test because, although the sign is the main subject, there's loads of greenery around it - and greenery, i.e. Mother Nature, is something that many phones have problems with in terms of image processing - the fractal detail plays havoc with sharpening and noise reduction algorithms. Here's the overall scene:

And here are 1:1 crops from central detail from (top row, then bottom row) the Lumia 1020, Lumia 950, Galaxy S9+ and Google Pixel 2 XL. Click on each device name to download the original JPGs, if you're interested in studying them more:

  

  

As usual for these type of shots, the Lumia 1020 does a cracking job, between its minimalist processing and 'PureView' oversampling, its photo looks so.... real, even down here at the pixel level. While the others all look 'processed' and artificial to some degree. There's slightly more detail in the Lumia 950 shot, thanks to the higher native resolution, but it's not really worth shouting about...

Lumia 1020: 10 pts; Lumia 950: 9 pts; Galaxy S9+: 9 pts; Pixel 2 XL: 9 pts

Test 2: Bike

Again I'm looking at tricky textures, this time man made but subtle - a knitted bicycle! Here's the overall scene, shot in weak but direct sunlight:

And here are 1:1 crops from central detail from (top row, then bottom row) the Lumia 1020, Lumia 950, Galaxy S9+ and Google Pixel 2 XL. Click on each device name to download the original JPGs, if you're interested in studying them more:

  

  

All four phone camera shots are excellent here, none of them get the knitted stitches perfectly, but they're all easily good enough. I'm going to deduct a point from the Lumia 950 though, for getting the pink of that central 'rose' way too garish.

Lumia 1020: 10 pts; Lumia 950: 9 pts; Galaxy S9+: 10 pts; Pixel 2 XL: 10 pts

Test 3: Tower detail

First of all, without involving lossy digital zoom, here's a distant tower block shot in bright overcast conditions. Here's the overall scene, unzoomed:

And here are 1:1 crops from central detail from (top row, then bottom row) the Lumia 1020 (which had lossless 2.5x PureView zoom), Lumia 950, Galaxy S9+ (which had 2x optical zoom), and Google Pixel 2 XL. Click on each device name to download the original JPGs, if you're interested in studying them more:

  

  

Regular patterns are what the Samsung image processing loves, so combined with the 2x telephoto lens it's not surprising that the detail it produces here looks best. In fact, the Lumia 1020's PureView zoom gets close (and could probably match it with some extra sharpening), but the Lumia 950 and then Pixel 2 XL, without any zoom facilities (the 950 was in 16MP mode here) are some way behind in terms of resolved detail.

Lumia 1020: 8 pts; Lumia 950: 7 pts; Galaxy S9+: 9 pts; Pixel 2 XL: 6 pts

Test 4: Digital zoom, Plane

Just before sunset, with 'golden hour' light on the plane, here's another zoom example, this time allowing digital (lossy) zoom if the phone's UI allowed it. Here's the overall scene, unzoomed:

And here are 1:1 crops from central detail from (top row, then bottom row) the Lumia 1020, Lumia 950 (using part digital zoom, part PureView), Galaxy S9+ and Google Pixel 2 XL (using all digital zoom). Click on each device name to download the original JPGs, if you're interested in studying them more:

  

  

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 2x optical zoom on the Galaxy S9+ wins out, with an incredibly clear and detailed photo. In theory, the Lumia 1020 should be in the same ball park for detail and it is, but the poorer dynamic range of the 1020's sensor (a known trait) means that a lot of the detail is blown out here in the sun. The Lumia 950 is just horrible when digital zoom is needed (how I wish Juha and his team at Nokia/Microsoft had put in a hard stop at the PureView limit of 1.5x!!) Surprisingly, the Pixel 2 XL's digital zoom isn't much better - though it doesn't have any PureView help, so maybe I shouldn't be as hard on it.

Lumia 1020: 8 pts; Lumia 950: 6 pts; Galaxy S9+: 10 pts; Pixel 2 XL: 7 pts

Test 5: Bokeh time

Looking at depth of field, it's the classic bokeh test, here letting the phone cameras determine focus. Here's the overall scene:

What was interesting below was how the depth of field from these wide aperture cameras is so small that it proved impossible to even get all the blossom in focus at the same time! Oops.

And here are scaled crops from central detail from (top row, then bottom row) the Lumia 1020, Lumia 950, Galaxy S9+ and Google Pixel 2 XL. Click on each device name to download the original JPGs, if you're interested in studying them more:

  

  

Don't worry that different bits of the blossom were in focus in different shots - that was me being taken by surprise and illustrative of just how finicky taking macro shots can be! What I was mainly interested in was how blurry the plane in the background was, i.e. how much bokeh effect could be achieved naturally in the phone camera optics, i.e. without special effects. Unsurprisingly, the Lumia 1020 just wins out here, since although it has a smaller f stop (f/2.2), the camera unit/sensor is much larger overall, so its physical aperture is larger too.

Lumia 1020: 10 pts; Lumia 950: 9 pts; Galaxy S9+: 8 pts; Pixel 2 XL: 9 pts

Test 6: HDR time

With the sun setting, here's a shot of the local church clock tower in deep shadow, silhouetted against the still-light sky. How much detail could the phone cameras pull out of the tower? Here's the overall scene:

And here are 1:1 crops from central detail from (top row, then bottom row) the Lumia 1020, Lumia 950, Galaxy S9+ and Google Pixel 2 XL. Click on each device name to download the original JPGs, if you're interested in studying them more:

  

  

Great though the Lumia 1020 usually is, it can't compete when there's HDR photography to be done, when dynamic range is demanded. And all of this is slap bang what the Lumia 950 XL camera does best - even the result above can be improved on by fiddling, after the fact, with the HDR sliders in the Photos application. The Galaxy S9+ gets very close too, plus it also preserves something of the sky behind the church (see the full JPG), with the Pixel 2 XL's camera surprisingly in third place - combining exposures is normally something it excels in too.

Lumia 1020: 5 pts; Lumia 950: 9 pts; Galaxy S9+: 8 pts; Pixel 2 XL: 7 pts

Test 7: Green Lantern

No, not the super-hero. Something slightly different here, such that my 'crops' are just downscaled version of the full images. I came across this amazing glass bowl, lit only by sunlight coming in small windows in the roof above. Just amazing light bounced around internally. What I was looking for here was capturing what my eyes saw - rich green reflections.

Here are the down-scales then from (top row, then bottom row) the Lumia 1020, Lumia 950, Galaxy S9+ and Google Pixel 2 XL. Click on each device name to download the original JPGs, if you're interested in studying them more:

  

  

All four phone cameras did well here, but there were differences in how much of the brightest reflections were 'blown out' - the Lumia 1020 being the worst offender and the Pixel 2 XL being the best of the bunch, in rendering all the many shades of luminous green with no blown out highlights at all.

Lumia 1020: 7 pts; Lumia 950: 9 pts; Galaxy S9+: 8 pts; Pixel 2 XL: 10 pts

Test 8: Night

Just after sunset, this was the dusky scene - still light left in the dusky, but very gloomy and darker than the phone photos make it seem! Here's the overall scene:

And here are 1:1 crops from central detail from (top row, then bottom row) the Lumia 1020, Lumia 950, Galaxy S9+ and Google Pixel 2 XL. Click on each device name to download the original JPGs, if you're interested in studying them more:

  

  

All the phone cameras did a great job here - OIS making sure that there was no hand wobble and allowing a long exposure. And picking a winner here is hard. The Galaxy S9+'s shot looks crisper, and it is, but does it have any more detail than the Lumia 950 or Pixel 2 XL version? Just about yes - look at the roof tiles, for example. All right on the edge of over-sharpening, but for man-made objects like houses and cars, the S9's photo is remarkably good. The 950's shot stays natural-ish, while the Pixel 2 XL version has just too much noise and too many artefacts for my liking.

Lumia 1020: 7 pts; Lumia 950: 8 pts; Galaxy S9+: 9 pts; Pixel 2 XL: 6 pts

Verdict

Adding up the points gives us (all out of 80):

1. Galaxy S9+: 71 pts
2. Lumia 950: 68 pts
3. Lumia 1020: 65 pts
4. Pixel 2 XL: 64 pts

Rather confirming my headline when I declared, a couple of months ago, 'S9+:The imaging tipping point - I (and the 950) finally give in' - the addition of 2x telephoto, variable aperture and multi-frame processing edge the Galaxy S9+ away from even the Lumia 950 overall, despite Samsung's best attempt to ruin everything with over-sharpening(!)

What's surprising here is that the Pixel 2 XL again couldn't quite match the two Lumias. I know the rest of the tech world raves about the Pixel 2 cameras, but they're usually one notch behind in my tests and certainly way behind the phones with 2x zoom lenses, typified here by the best of the bunch, the rather excellent Galaxy S9+. The unlocking of the Pixel 2's 'Visual Core' in recent updates doesn't seem to have moved the dial on its image quality and general processing, interestingly.

Comments welcome - the Lumia 950 is still there or thereabouts, but have you moved on for your phone imaging?