As I discovered when testing the classic Lumia 950 XL against the iPhone X last year, the addition of a decent 2x telephoto lens does swing camera comparison rather a lot, especially if - like me - you're interested in resolving distant detail. This year's iPhone XS range claims a larger sensor and better algorithms, this time using more concurrent exposures to do 'Smart HDR' with. Given that a lot of the iPhone imaging improvements in recent years have been down to the PureView expertise of Ari Partinen and his team, I'm expecting a lot from the new iPhone.
In terms of methodology, I wanted to stretch the phone cameras, so I'm shooting into light and then in the dark. Every phone camera can nail a sunny day with the sun behind the shooter, so I was mixing things up. The Lumia 950 XL can shoot in oversampled 8MP mode and in 16MP as-is mode, both at 16:9. I used the former for the night shots, to give best noise handling, and the latter for the daytime shots, to give best absolute detail. While the iPhone uses twin 12MP sensors, fixed at 4:3, so I'd typically shoot the scene with each of its lenses, i.e. at 1x and 2x, as you'll see below.
Fun, fun, fun!
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Test 1: Shooting into sunlight
In theory an easy snap, but I was shooting into the sun, to give added drama and hopefully a good work out for the auto-HDR in both cases. Here's the scene from the iPhone:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and iPhone XS Max, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, again use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Great results from both, albeit with the expected flaring and sun 'green spot' reflections. The Lumia has the higher resolution, and thus detail, while the iPhone's 'Smart HDR' system brings out even greater dynamic range, evidenced by the writing on the tyre walls.
Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Apple iPhone XS Max: 10 pts
Test 2: Sunset landscape
Another fairly easy shot, but again I was shooting towards the brighter part of the sky, with light levels starting to go at sunset. And plenty of detail in my favourite test subject here. Here's the scene from the iPhone:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and iPhone XS Max, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, again use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
The Lumia 950 XL's greater native resolution produces significantly more detail here, and with less sharpening artefacts. The iPhone photo looks brilliant on the phone screen, but you can see imperfections at the pixel level here.
Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Apple iPhone XS Max: 8 pts
Of course, when looking at distant detail, what's needed is a telephoto lens... which is why I also took this shot with the iPhone XS Max's 2x lens, below.
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and (zoomed) iPhone XS Max, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, again use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
I'd expect the telephoto lens in the new iPhone to bring out more detail, here of the church door and surroundings, and indeed this is the case, though not perhaps by the margin I was expecting. There's still processing going on in the iPhone that adds a slight air of unreality to detail. But a small win for the XS Max overall.
Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Apple iPhone XS Max: 11 pts
(See what I did there? I couldn't reduce the 950 XL score, so I had to take the iPhone 'to 11'. Fittingly!)
Test 3: OK, greenery and one more zoom
Having established the selling point of having a telephoto lens, I should provide another good example of its use. And I also need to stress that you can only use it when there's enough light, since the iPhone (and competing phones) switch to their main lens with larger aperture when light is low.
Anyway, here's a typical garden snap in surprisingly warm September sunshine in the UK, not least because one of the Achilles heels of many phone cameras is their handling of greenery, with grass and shrubs often being reduced to photographic mush. Here's the scene from the iPhone:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and iPhone XS Max, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, again use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Again the Lumia 950 XL's greater native resolution produces significantly more detail here, and as usual Nokia's/Microsoft's algorithms are right on the edge of 'OK' - any more sharpening and you'd be dealing with artefacts. Which what happens to some degree on the iPhone XS Max, though its sharpening is nowhere near as egregious as on some Samsung phones.
Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 8 pts; Apple iPhone XS Max: 7 pts
But hang on, I wanted to demonstrate the 2x telephoto lens again, so let's try a shot with that, on the iPhone XS Max.
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and (zoomed) iPhone XS Max, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, again use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Again, the use of telephoto - at least for this example - helps the iPhone leapfrog the Lumia. The XS Max's photo does have artefacts, and all detail is lost in the red flowers, but there's also great dynamic range and detail in the shadows.
Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 8 pts; Apple iPhone XS Max: 9 pts
Test 4: Low light
One of my favourite subjects again, floodlit at night. A real test of colour balance, light gathering and stabilisation. I dropped the Lumia down to 8MP oversampled mode and, as explained above, I couldn't use the telephoto lens on the iPhone. Here's the scene from the latter:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and iPhone XS Max, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, again use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Good shots, though the Lumia makes the night sky (well, two hours after sunset) too blue and somewhat artificial, while the iPhone gets the colours about right. What's interesting here is the difference in crispness. Now, some of this is down to sharpening routines in Apple's camera software, but some of this is also down to more accurate focus and I get the feeling that the Lumia 950 XL didn't quite focus properly. And anyone who's used a Lumia at night will be familiar with this - basic PDAF focussing can't compete in low light with more modern techniques (on the iPhone, 'focus pixels', on other competitors, laser, etc.)
Put the two factors together and I'd say the iPhone's result is 'better'. Perhaps a tiny bit over-sharpened, but there is genuine detail shown (e.g. in the stained glass windows) that you'd struggle to make out in the Lumia shot.
Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 7 pts; Apple iPhone XS Max: 9 pts
Verdict
- Apple iPhone XS Max: 54/60 pts
- Lumia 950: 53/60 pts
I have perhaps been a little unfair to the Lumia by including the zoom shots - but then again a telephoto lens is a pretty significant selling point in a modern phone camera and it deserves a few plaudits. It was so for the mighty Samsung Galaxy S9+ earlier in the year and it's true here, with the new iPhone pipping the Lumia 950 XL too.
Technology moves on, eh? But the winner is probably the consumer, with some great post-Lumia camera phones to play with. The 950 XL is still a stonkingly good imaging device. But it's now being outgunned by iPhones, Galaxys, and (probably, next month) Huawei flagships and that's fine - three years in tech is a long, long time!
PS. I haven't forgotten the Galaxy Note 9, which adds extra exposure tech, but Note 9s have been rarer than hen's teeth here in the UK, at least on the review circuit. Watch this space!