Right away – the usual comment regarding the set of smartphones under testing. Yes, there is no older Sony Xperia, yes, there is no Google Pixel 9 Pro or OPPO Find X8 Ultra, for example. Each of them deserves the right to be here, but, firstly, sometimes it is simply too difficult to gather everyone you want in one place at the same time (this applies to both people and gadgets), and secondly – the material is already quite voluminous, and I would not like to inflate it to an indecent scale. So we will limit ourselves to six devices – five of them are completely obvious and, along with, perhaps, the “pixel” are always in the elite recognized by the people. And vivo X200 Pro (like vivo X100 Pro last year) plays the role of an unobvious character, “Mr. X”, unavailable in official retail, but capable of causing a stir in a seemingly familiar environment.
Another not quite standard guest is HUAWEI Mate 70 Pro. The thing is that this year the Chinese company delayed the release of its photo flagship until mid-summer, and we did not wait for another Pura, stopping at the spring flagship, albeit without such an emphasis on the camera – especially since this is in any case one of the main contenders for victory in the competition without any additional accents. The problem for Huawei is that from six equal contenders, it has been impossible to choose clear leaders or outsiders for quite a long time.
As for the testing methodology, we did not modify or complicate it in any way. The set of scenarios is classic: a couple of daytime “landscape” (clouds and sun), macro, portrait, indoor shooting, night shooting. I will not compare smartphones by additional functionality either: we note a larger number of filters, some fierce options for shooting portraits in separate reviews, but to compare a conditional iPhone 16 Pro Max with its functionality at the level of “you can take a photo with or without blur” and Xiaomi 15 Ultra with plus or minus a hundred different combinations of shooting portraits is pointless, to each his own. Such comparative reviews, in any case, are not the ultimate truth, but simply a reason to take another look and think about what is closer to you.
The main difference between this material and last year’s is that the voting will be blind. Yes, the voting forms will be inserted not after each selection of photos, but at the end of the section, otherwise, again, the material would be too bloated. But in each section, the order of examples in the selection will be different, and it will not be possible to vote for a brand “head-on”.
And yes, the material will be divided into two. In the first, we will demonstrate examples of shooting on different smartphones side by side and post the originals of the photos in a separate archive – for the most meticulous readers. And we will ask you to choose a winner in each of the five large sections: shooting in natural light, evening and indoor shooting, shooting at night, macro photography and portrait photography. Later, we will release the second article with the results of the reader vote, as well as our comments and our own rating.
Shooting was generally carried out with the basic settings offered by the smartphone by default, except in specially specified cases.
List of test participants, with links to full reviews:
- Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.
- HONOR Magic 7 Pro.
- HUAWEI Mate 70 Pro.
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
- Vivo X200 Pro.
- Xiaomi 15 Ultra (review in preparation).
⇡#Shooting with natural light
Wide viewing angle, sun-facing
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
Standard viewing angle, by the sun
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
2x zoom, sun-focused
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
3x/4x/5x zoom, sun zoom
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
This is where the differences begin, not all smartphones offer the same focal lengths. I had to choose, for example, which specific focal length to offer here for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. But I will not report on this.
4x/10x zoom, sun oriented
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
And tenfold zoom is simply not available everywhere. We offer examples of shooting on those that have it available, but also on one smartphone with a wide range of available focal lengths, but without tenfold zoom.
Wide viewing angle, against the sun
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
Standard viewing angle, against the sun
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
2x zoom, against the sun
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
3x/4x/5x zoom, against the sun
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
4x/10x zoom, against the sun
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
⇡#Shooting in the evening/indoors
Wide viewing angle, indoors
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
Standard viewing angle, indoors
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
2x zoom, indoors
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
3x/4x/5x zoom, indoor
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
4x/10x zoom, indoor
Top row, left to right: smartphone A, smartphone B. Bottom row: smartphone C, smartphone E, smartphone F
Wide viewing angle, evening
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
Standard viewing angle, evening
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
2x zoom, evening
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
3x/4x/5x zoom, evening
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
4x/10x zoom, evening
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B. Bottom row: Smartphone C, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
⇡#Night shooting
In this case, I did not take two pictures – in the basic mode and night mode. All smartphones presented for testing activate the night mode by default if they consider that there is not enough light for basic shooting. I simply did not interfere and did not turn off this setting.
Wide viewing angle
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
Standard viewing angle
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
2x zoom
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
3x/4x/5x zoom
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
4x/10x zoom
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B. Bottom row: Smartphone C, Smartphone D, Smartphone E
⇡#Portrait shooting
Here, all the capabilities are similar at the same time, but they allow a huge number of different options, such as filters and special effects on artificial bokeh. Only basic options are selected, no retouching (or rather, retouching by default – some smartphones still use retouching, even if you do not specifically activate it) and three focal lengths (although some test participants have more) for general, waist and close-up plans.
Growth plan
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
Belt plan
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
Close-up
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
⇡#Macro photography
The most difficult scenario to evaluate due to different inputs. HUAWEI Mate 70 Pro and vivo X200 Pro offer zoom cameras for macro photography, while other smartphones rely more on a wide angle in this scenario or do not focus on macro at all. To maintain at least a semblance of anonymity, we will offer here one, subjectively the most successful photo in macro mode, without comparing by focal lengths.
Top row, left to right: Smartphone A, Smartphone B, Smartphone C. Bottom row: Smartphone D, Smartphone E, Smartphone F
Download original photos (ZIP, 603 MB)
In a week or a little more, we will sum up the voting results and republish the material, having already commented on the results.