Are you looking for the best budget smartphone camera? Since the newly announced Sony XA2, is the Sony XA1 still relevant in year 2018? In this article, we will be talking about the best smartphone camera in the sub RM1000 price tag. Please note that we will be ignoring others aspect like screen size, performance and user interface. Only camera.
Yah. It's Christmas. And for that. I have enough reason to convince my wife that I need a new smart phone to replace my old banged up Acer entry level not so smart phone. in the midst of researching current sub RM1000 phone, I stumble upon the Huawei Nova 2i. Upon reading some reviews, it was quite promising. Since camera performance is one of my main concern, the quad camera set up was nonetheless quite convincing.
Well, what next. We finally went to Lowyat Plaza a couple of days ago and without even considering any other phone choice, we straight away went into one of our favorite IT store and with excitement and high expectation, we tested out the Huawei Nova 2i and the penny drop with a big bang. Boy oh boy the camera is not what I had expected.
Was it bad? Yes. And here is why. Don't get me wrong. The Huawei Nova 2i camera was perfect when the lighting conditions are good or perfect. And you are shooting at ISO 800 or below. Only when you crank the ISO up to 3200, everything seems to fall down the stairs. And the reason why I was dissapointment was because my 1 year old plus Xiaomi Mi Max camera did much better than the Huawei Nova 2i at ISO 3200.
Here is the technical part aka boring James May explanation part. The first thing I do was to inspect the f-stop of the image taken with the Huawei Nova 2i main camera. And it shows f2.2 whereby my Xiaomi Mi Max was at f2.0. In photograph term, means more light coming in the sensor hence lower f number is better. But the sensor size also plays a big role but we shall not touch on that.
So here is what I have concluded. Budget or Mid Range smartphone with dual camera does not guarantee you good quality photos for sure. And we are referring to low light situation which really push the crew sensor to the limit. For bright perfect lighting situation, any potato camera will perform well. Ask those ancient Sony Ericsson VGA phone camera. No I was just lying. I am not sure about that. But anyway, I did a search on the web about he Huawei Nova 2i camera specs and can't find the f number of the main camera even in GSM Arena Spec sheet. Only the front camera is mentioned f2.0. Not the main camera. Maybe I did not search hard enough to or too stupid. I guess if the company does not provide any details about the camera f stop of make it difficult for readers to find. The f stop is most probably rubbish. So go for phone companies that boost about their f1.8 or f1.7 f number cameras.
But don't get me wrong. If you do not shoot much in low light conditions, the Huawei Nova 2i has one of the best of the best of the best features on a phone especially the quad camera set up. Its still not a deal breaker and a very good all rounder phone for average gaming, multi tasking and selfies. The only reason you need to shoot at ISO 3200 is when you need to capture in low light where slow shutter speed tests to blur out the image of you are not steady enough and the lack of OIS makes it worst or mild moving subject when slow shutter speed is not an option. Oh and did I mentioned, the Xiaomi Mi Max shoots 4K video. But it will be cropped and the quality is questionable. But it's nice to have it to boast about.
Anyway, this is just my preliminary testing. And due to this factor, I did not end up buying the Huawei Nova 2i. Otherwise I will be having it in my hands now. I did not really did a throughout testing with the camera due to the time constraint and the sales person looking at me like I am some kind of weirdo. So Huawei if you are reading this, I would love to have a test unit to do a throughout testing of the camera performance because I really like the Huawei Nova 2i and also the Honor 7X which I believe shares the same camera setup. I could be wrong but no further details found on the web. Or maybe again I did not look hard enough or too stupid to do so.
I guess I will stick to my over sized Xiaomi Mi Max as my go to anywhere camera when I do not have access to my "big guns" to do my photography works. Thanks again for reading and have a nice day ahead.
PS: Forget what is say and just buy the Huawei Nova 2i if your are planning to. Enjoy and be amazed with the portrait mode from the front and back dual camera setup. Or, just get the Honor Mate 10 Pro or the Cheers......
