We get to overview a heck of loads of smartphones at Tech Advisor. In recent times, it’s change into onerous to determine which of them are finest, as a result of they’re all so good.
Up till just lately, most smartphones often had main flaws. Horrible battery life, a device-ending boot loop. Overheating, possibly. Maybe a foul show.
However within the final couple of years, the enjoying discipline has levelled, and most high-end telephones are glorious. Purchase any of one of the best smartphones and you may be completely satisfied.
It means cameras are one of many final actual differentiators on the subject of telephones. It’s one of many hardest issues to get proper.
Which cellphone has one of the best digicam? It’s a subjective query, however all of us right here at Tech Advisor towers has an opinion.
I’ve been fortunate to overview or use telephones in 2022 such because the iPhone 14 Professional, Google Pixel 7 Professional, Huawei Mate 50 Professional, and Sony Xperia 1 IV. They’ve all had excellent cameras with premium {hardware} and polished software program experiences.
However for all their prowess – and title model recognition – none of them have my favorite cellular digicam of the yr.
This yr, my colleague Dom Preston and I agree: our favorite cellphone digicam of 2022 is the Vivo X80 Professional.
That’s proper, not the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely or iPhone 14 Professional. Not even the Pixel 7 Professional. Vivo has all of them beat for sheer pictures efficiency, in a tool that’s pleasant to make use of as a cellular digicam.
It’s all the way down to the principle digicam, a 50Mp f/1.6 sensor that’s 1/1.3in. That’s giant for a cellular digicam, letting in additional gentle and giving the X80 Professional phenomenally good low gentle efficiency.
Vivo’s V1+ picture processing chip combines with this glorious sensor to drag off day time pictures with gorgeous, correct color and nice element that doesn’t over sharpen scenes the place different cellphone manufacturers are inclined to.
You’ll be able to faucet or scroll by the photograph galleries:
However it’s in low gentle that the X80 Professional actually excels. It gives gorgeous excessive dynamic vary (HDR) and might confidently steadiness the combination of sunshine sources with out blowing them out too vivid.
The place different telephones will render an evening time shot far brighter than it was in actuality with its night time mode, the X80 Professional as a substitute offers an correct shot that displays the temper of the scene.
Under, I in contrast the X80 Professional’s digicam to the favored iPhone 13 on a darkish road. You need to use the slider to see the distinction between the pictures.
The iPhone (on the left) does a stable job however discover how the Vivo’s (on the fitting) is just higher. The Vivo captures way more element within the leaves on the fitting and the automobiles and homes on the left. The color of the pavement can also be more true to life the place the iPhone renders it extra yellowy.
That is largely all the way down to the sensor having the ability to absorb extra gentle, and Vivo’s software program having the ability to course of the info effectively. The iPhone’s picture isn’t dangerous – however the Vivo’s is streets forward with sharper element, and sometimes in these state of affairs doesn’t even click on into its night time mode as a result of the auto setting is already so good.
I thought of writing an in depth comparability article like this with pixel peeping to match the Vivo to different telephones in depth, however that might have taken the enjoyment out of it. I’ve merely been having fun with the X80 Professional protected within the data it’s this good.
One of the best cellphone cameras make me wish to use them extra. Although I’ve carried varied iPhones this yr, from the 12 Professional Max to the 14 Plus to the 14 Professional, I nonetheless don’t discover myself utilizing them as cameras as a lot as I do with the Vivo. The cellphone compels me to be extra inventive and observant.
The X80 Professional is ready to deal with vivid neon lights with out them blurring or overpowering the scene, and night time time pictures have an ideal environment to them.
However it will probably deal with a number of ranges of sunshine throughout the day too. Check out the shot under. This can be a very troublesome factor to attain, with darkness inside and outside, however gentle sources aplenty outdoors. It’s a breeze for the X80 Professional, which may absorb all of the depth of the scene.
Henry Burrell / Foundry
With the X80 Professional at hand, I’m snapping away as a result of I’m as a rule blown away with the outcomes. It makes me a greater photographer, and, extra to the purpose, makes my common pictures look a lot better because of its stupendous skills.
In addition to the principle sensor, there three different versatile lenses – a 48Mp f/2.2 ultrawide lens a 12Mp f/1.6 2x zoom telephoto lens with gimbal stabilisation and a remaining 8Mp, f/3.4, 5x zoom periscope lens with OIS.
The gimbal stabilisation on one of many telephoto lenses offers glorious readability and good bokeh to portrait pictures that may in any other case undergo from my shaky palms.
I don’t usually zoom in to 5x, nevertheless it’s good to know the choice is there with a 5x optical sensor, although at 8Mp the standard diminishes considerably. I choose the ultrawide digicam, which may deal with HDR very effectively:
Henry Burrell / Foundry
As an apart, I additionally actually just like the off the wall digicam bump design on the again of the X80 Professional, which anecdotally I do know lots of people don’t. A minimum of Vivo is making an attempt one thing distinctive in a world of glass slab telephones.
I’m much less enamoured with Vivo’s Funtouch OS Android pores and skin, which is a bit more palatable after an replace to Android 13 however is far much less polished than Google’s Android 13, Samsung’s newest One UI, and even OnePlus’s Oxygen OS.
Dominik Tomaszewski
However it doesn’t matter to me when the X80 Professional’s cameras are this good. On the finish of the yr, it’s nonetheless the cellphone digicam I attain for once I wish to nail a shot or seize photographs on an necessary day.
It’s a giant deal that Vivo is promoting the X80 Professional in Europe and the UK formally. Importing is usually a enormous barrier to buy, and if Vivo desires to really promote its glorious telephones within the West it wants to enhance availability for all its telephones.
However with the brand new X90 Professional+ introduced and already promising to be a fair higher pictures expertise with its 1in fundamental sensor, the long run appears to be like vivid for Vivo. If cellular pictures is necessary to you, look past Apple, Samsung, and Google. You may be shocked what’s on provide.