Wooden Spoon for Apple & Samsung: Who Won the Camera Blind Test?
Which phone has the best camera? In our big camera blind test, we pitted five of the latest top smartphones against each other and the nextpit community voted for a winner with 22,000 votes. The big surprise: the winner was not the iPhone 15 Pro or the new Galaxy S24 Ultra - quite the opposite. Apple and Samsung came in last place.
Even the Google Pixel 8 Pro, which won our camera blind test last fall by a wide margin, only made it to third place this time. This left both Chinese smartphones in first and second place, respectively. Anyone who took part in last week's camera blind test would know this: Gold and silver went to Honor and Xiaomi.
How did the camera blind test work?
Just a reminder for those who are unfamiliar with our metrics: In our camera blind tests, we presented 14 scenes we photographed using five different smartphones. Without knowing which smartphone took which photo, you then selected your favorite for each scene.
Incidentally, we always used standard settings and photographed each scenario three times with each smartphone to rule out any potential random outliers. We also made sure that all five photos were taken within about one minute to guarantee the most consistent conditions possible.
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In the evaluation, we primarily rated each photo using a points system. The smartphone with the most votes in a scene gets five points, second place gets four points, and so on. In the event of a tie, both smartphones will receive the same number of points, with the next podium position dropped.
We also calculated the result for you using two other ways: Once is based on the total votes cast, and the other is based on the average percentage points achieved per scene. However, this does not change the rankings.
Best smartphone camera: Winners of the camera blind test
Here they are now, as presented via the results of the camera blind test:
- 56 points: Honor Magic 6 Pro (review) - 6,390 votes, average: 29%
- 46 points: Xiaomi 14 Ultra (review) - 4,689 votes, average: 22%
- 42 points: Google Pixel 8 Pro (review) - 3,834 votes, average: 18%
- 40 points: Apple iPhone 15 Pro (review) - 3,794 votes, average: 17%
- 31 points: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (review) - 3,115 votes, average: 14%
The Honor Magic 6 Pro actually made it to the top by a clear margin with more than twice as many votes as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. The gap between it and the runner-up, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, is even rather stark. It looks like Honor's exotic concept with the large 180 MP image sensor behind the 2.5x zoom lens is working!
A little note before we get started: The camera blind test was also carried out on our domains nextpit.fr and nextpit.de—we tallied all the votes for the final result.
Scene 1: Daylight, ultra-wide angle
Things are still looking good for Apple in the first scene: the iPhone 15 Pro collected a total of 42 percent of all votes. The remaining smartphones all received between 11 and 20 percent, with the Honor Magic 6 Pro coming in second place with 20 percent.
Scene 2: Daylight, main camera (1x)
The second scene has two winners, splitting 80 percent of the votes between them. 45 percent went to the Honor Magic 6 Pro with 35 percent to the Pixel 8 Pro, followed by Xiaomi, Samsung, and finally, Apple.
Scene 3: Daylight, main camera (2x)
The winner here is the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, having amassed a good third of all votes cast. The Pixel 8 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro were well behind with 23 and 21 percent, respectively, while Honor and Samsung only have 11 and 9 percent, respectively.
Scene 4: Daylight, telephoto camera (3x)
The fourth round also went to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra with 31 percent of the votes. Silver and bronze went to Samsung and Apple with 24 and 20 percentage points, respectively. Honor came in fourth with 16 points, while the Pixel 8 Pro took last place.
Scene 5: Daylight, telephoto camera (5x)
In the fifth scene, the Honor Magic 6 Pro collected the most votes with 28 percent, finishing just ahead of the Galaxy S24 Ultra with 27 percent. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra came in third with 22 percent.
Scene 6: Daylight, telephoto camera (15x)
This scenario had an obvious winner: The Honor Magic 6 Pro collected a whopping 70 percent of all the votes! With 13 and 10 points respectively, Samsung and Apple remained in 2nd and 3rd place.
Scene 7: Daylight, Portrait (3x)
As clear as the previous scene's result was, votes for the portrait photo were evenly distributed. All five smartphones scored between 15 and 25 percent. The first two places went to Apple and Google, with the Magic 6 Pro in third place.
Scene 8: Dawn, main camera (1x)
The backlit scene at dawn has a clear winner with a stalemate between the next two handsets. The Honor Magic 6 Pro collected 39 percent of the votes, with Xiaomi and Apple sharing second place with 19 percent each.
Scene 9: Indoor shot, main camera (1x)
The ninth scene once again showed a clear winner: Honor came in first at 33 percent. Second and third place went to Google and Apple with 21 and 18 percent respectively.
Scene 10: Night & artificial light, ultra-wide angle
Honor's relentless march to victory continued here with the Magic 6 Pro taking first place, raking in 37 percent of the votes. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra kept up with the pace at 26 percent, followed by Google, Samsung, and Apple with 16, 12, and 9 percentage points respectively.
Scene 11: Night & artificial light, main camera (1x)
In the eleventh scene, another smartphone finally made it to first place. 29 percent of the votes going to Google, while Xiaomi and Apple shared second place with 20 percent each.
Scene 12: Night & artificial light, main camera (2x)
Honor struck back by regaining first place with 36 percent of the votes for the twelfth scene. It was followed by the Pixel 8 Pro with 22 percent, while Apple and Xiaomi were tied with 14 percent each.
Scene 13: Night & artificial light, telephoto camera (3x)
You've almost made it! In scene 13, the glass filled with oatmeal provided a lot of detail, where the only light source hailing from an LED spotlight in the opposite corner of the kitchen. Which smartphone captured the best colors and contrast here?
Scene 14: Night & artificial light, telephoto camera (10x)
Finally, the telephoto camera is put to the test in the last scene, with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra coming out on top as it scooped 60 percent of the votes! Second and third place went to the Pixel 8 Pro with 21% and the Magic 6 Pro with 12%.
You can view the final results at a glance below:
- 56 points: Honor Magic 6 Pro (review) - 6,390 votes, average: 29%
- 46 points: Xiaomi 14 Ultra (review) - 4,689 votes, average: 22%
- 42 points: Google Pixel 8 Pro (review) - 3,834 votes, average: 18%
- 40 points: Apple iPhone 15 Pro (review) - 3,794 votes, average: 17%
- 31 points: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (review) - 3,115 votes, average: 14%
What do you think of the results? Do you think the Honor Magic 6 Pro is currently the best camera smartphone, or is there a better camera phone? I look forward to your opinion in the comments!
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