Today we let three top smartphones battle it out in a camera phone showdown. Yes, we understand that the Droid and N97 have the advantage when it comes to megapixels, but if there is one thing we’ve learned it’s to let real world testing dictate opinions not spec sheets. In order to get a complete understanding of each device’s imaging capabilities we used seven photos scenes for our analysis: outdoor nature, outdoor landscape, outdoor macro, indoor macro, indoor normal, indoor low light, indoor no light.
Now let’s quickly recap the camera capabilities of each device starting with the Touch Pro2 (Tilt2). The Touch Pro2 features a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and images are saved as 2048 x 1216 pixels. The N97 has a 5-megapixel camera with dual led flash and autofocus with images that are 2592 x 1944 pixels. Last is the Motorola Droid which also has a 5-megapixel camera and dual led flash, but images are saved at 2592 x 1936 pixels.
HTC Touch Pro2 (Tilt2)
Nokia N97
Motorola Droid
And the winner is…
When it comes to color reproduction I would rank the devices in the following order (best to worst): Nokia N97, Motorola Droid, HTC Touch Pro2. I find the pictures on the N97 to have excellent saturation and best represent the lighting conditions for the given scenes while the Touch Pro2 seemed to wash out images in good outdoor sunlight. I found the Touch Pro2 takes its best images with indoor lighting or outdoor photos without direct sunlight.
In terms of image sharpness I have a tough time deciding between the Touch Pro2 and the N97, but it is clear the autofocus issues on the Motorola Droid prevent it from winning this category. The third photo in the comparison (outdoor macro) really shows the sharpness of the Touch Pro2’s camera while the N97 really shines in low light image sharpness.
Low and no-light scenes can only be done when you have a flash. Unfortunately the flash on the Motorola Droid is almost too powerful for night shots where you are closer than 14 inches from your subject. The N97 on the other hand excels in the dark and the flash provides an even well lit scene whether up close or up to 6 feet away.
Overall the Nokia N97 is my choice out of the three devices when it comes to imaging and this can be attributed to the dependable Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash and quick autofocus system. If you do not plan on taking many night photos the Touch Pro2 still takes excellent razor sharp images and does extremely well in macro shots. However for my personal needs I would still put the Motorola Droid in second place for a final ranking (best to worst) of the Nokia N97, Motorola Droid and Touch Pro2. If you would like additional photos taken with any of these devices please leave your requests in the comments section.
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I love my N97. It not only takes the best photos but is also the most feature rich and mature smartphone (bought one after returning my Android device and I am really happy I did so).
Yea you’re right, Android devices just don’t seem up to snuff when it comes to their cameras. Even though I’ve seen some quality pictures taken with HTC’s WM devices it seems their Android devices can’t produce the same crisp image. Not sure if it’s a manufacturing issues or a software issue, but Android devices need to figure it out.
There is a firmware update for Droid coming out this week which address the camera auto-focus and time-to-shot, among other things. Hopefully this improves your stance.
Nice review. N97 is a better device… I’m having fun clicking whenever I can. With device like this one can leave their camera behind without any problem.
Thanks. I definitely agree that leaving your point and shoot camera behind is a great feeling and easy to do with the N97. Even if the N97 didn’t take such excellent photos I still would be inclined to use the phone to replace my digital camera because of the low power consumption and quickness it takes photos.
How did you get rid of the flash flooding in the N97 night pictures??
You know I did have some problems with flash flooding in absolute darkness when shooting a subject that was more than about 6 feet away. However, for some reason I haven’t had the flash flooding show up since last week. I was actually expecting to have some images show the effect in the test. I’m running the latest firmware and I keep the lens cover clean with cue tips, but I do have the infamous self-inflicting lens cover problem so there’s a scratch or two.
Nick, you can send in your scratched n97 to a nokia care point near you and get it replaced for free.
More info:
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/10588_Getting_the_Service_Centre_low.php
Will you be repeating this assessment after the auto-focus update for the Droid comes out this week?