Two Game-Changing
Cameraphones
One of the reasons you’ll love or hate your
phone is going to be the camera
The
Pixel 2 not only disappoints, but does it acutely and achingly
It basically translates
down to this. Irrespective of what reason, criterion or justification you come
up with to buy one phone over another, one of the main reasons for you to
either love or hate your phone is going to be the camera eventually. Looks,
screen, battery and specs will all pale in comparison if the camera results are
horrible. It’s the one tangible that goes out into the world as almost
everything else remains within. The pictures are shared, posted, printed and
commented upon. Horrendous pictures will be singularly flamed while your phone
and your own picture taking abilities will be put to shame. The camera in a
phone matters the most! And, two companies made sure that they took optics on a
phone to a whole new level.
Honor
9i – 4 cameras in 1 phone
I’m going to start with
the more economical option first because the Honor 9i is a major disrupter.
Honor has lead the whole dual camera revolution and has been able to bring that
technology down to the masses. Thus it was important for them to pull a serious
rabbit out of the hat. And the 9i is just that, a super bunny and not just in
the camera department. An all metal body, borderless edge to edge display, a
super sharp 5.9 inch 2096 X 1080 screen, 4GB RAM/64GB storage, microSD slot and
some serious battery life to boot. The metal body and full display makes this a
very premium looking phone. Then they added four cameras to the phone (more on
that in a bit) and went incredibly aggressive and priced it at ~17,999. I spent
a whole week with the phone and took some startling pictures. Both the front
and back cameras are dual, thus you shoot some awesome pictures and can also do
some very cool tricks. With the front camera also having a dual set, you can
now elevate your selfies to a new level too. Portrait selfies with a blurred
background or even group selfies with more depth were specially impressive. The
Honor 9i is easily the best in its category in multiple ways, but in optics it
can take on almost any cameraphone at any price point.
Google
Pixel 2 – highest scoring cameraphone ever
Let’s put things in
perspective before we start here. The original Google Pixel phone was a bit of
an oddity. It had all the major chops in hardware, the Google Assistant feature
was excellent and the camera on the phone set new standards. But it still
wasn’t a phone that set the market on fire. Maybe because it looked drab or
didn’t have any whiz bang gimmicks. It did create a name for itself and a niche
fan base, so the Pixel 2 had big shoes to fill. Google went with the same
strategy here too. It’s a dull-looking phone, has serious hardware chops, some
nice new features and once again sets a record in the camera department. In the
DxOMark Mobile Test (a word standard that evaluates over 1500 test images and
more than 2 hours of video) it scored an astounding overall score of 98. Picture
reproduction in indoor and outdoor as well as in brightly-lit and semi-dark
conditions were outstanding. Maybe the only cameraphone that can shoot such
perfection in any condition is the Samsung Note 8. But therein lies the
problem. The Pixel 2 does have competition already in the Note 8 and the
upcoming iPhone X may make it even tougher. On top of it, the Pixel 2 has
hardly anything else going for it. It’s mainly a phone made by nerds for nerds.
It’s not flashy, it doesn’t have any other killer or wow feature and it
strangely shuns the all new standard of an edge-to-edge display, omits the
3.5mm jack and then takes the horrible decision to even omit a microSD card
slot. And yet, it’s priced astronomically, almost the same as a Note 8 or an
iPhone 8. Somehow the Pixel 2 not only disappoints but does it acutely and
achingly. Huge missed opportunity for Google that may well be the start to the
end of the Pixel legacy.
It’s obvious that
smartphones seem to be reaching a level of parity in terms of hardware and
specs. Thus the major differentiator only seems to be the camera for the time
being. The Honor kills it while the Google Pixel 2 may have killed itself.
Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology,
NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3
HT15OCT17
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