iPhone 12 Pro Max vs. OnePlus 9 Pro camera comparison By CNET

The OnePlus 9 pro has one of the most hyped camera systems in recent memory, thanks to a partnership with legendary camera maker Hasselblad. But how does it do against the iPhone 12 Pro max? Let's find out the OnePlus 9 pro costs 969 dollars and has five cameras. The iPhone 12 Pro max has four cameras and costs 1099. For this comparison, the OnePlus 9 pro I used has 12 gigabytes of ram and cost 1069, so 30 bucks less than the iPhone on the back. The OnePlus has a 48 megapixel camera, a 50 megapixel ultrawide camera, an 8 megapixel telephoto camera with 3.3 times optical zoom, and a 2 megapixel monochrome camera, which helps capture more detail. The iPhone has a 12 megapixel main camera, a 12 megapixel ultrawide camera and a 12 megapixel telephoto camera with a 2.5 times optical zoom. On paper.

These phones take very different approaches to get you a good photo, but let's start with the main cameras on each in good lighting outdoors. Both phones take great photos. In general, the OnePlus tends to over sharpen its images in this photo of a Buick look closely at the bricks. In the background and the grille of the car- and you can see that overall, I like the color of photos from the OnePlus, it's one of Hasselblad's contributions to the phone, but when it comes to the sky, sometimes the colors skew to more of a blue indigo like it does here. Compare that to the iPhone photo of the same car.

The OnePlus tends to push the brightness, especially boosting shadows, and now this will be a personal preference. But I like the more contrast look of the iPhone than an overly bright one in these photos. The OnePlus nail's, the brick color better than the iPhone, but there's this weird blue hue over the windows in the building and the lit letters and the sign also in the OnePlus there's a strange delay between hitting the shutter button to take the photo and then seeing a preview of the photo you just took and then seeing the final version photo and in this photo that delay was long enough to change the focus point it's almost like when you take a photo. You just have to keep your hand in the same position for like a breath longer before moving your hand away in general. iPhone colors are more punchy.

Colors from the OnePlus are more subdued. The iPhone has better dynamic range. Just take a look at the highlights on the footbridge here and how they're kept in check in the one plus photo. The bridge's highlights are bright, and the green color is washed out in the iPhone photo textures like the bricks of the buildings, the leaves on the bottom right of the photo and the water look better in the one plus picture, textures look more flat and are over sharpened. Moving to indoor shots, you can see that this photo from the OnePlus has a lot of images: noise.

The iPhone and its steep fusion processing cleans all that noise up by using multiple exposures, also notice the difference in sharpness between the OnePlus and the iPhone. The ultra-wide camera on the OnePlus is outstanding and is by far my favorite camera on this phone. The iPhone's ultra-wide is a tad wider, but in every way the one plus ultra-wide in photos like this, the detail and colors are good and the white balance is accurate. In this photo, the one plus skews a tad cool shadows get crushed to black, but in the iPhone photo you can see that smart HDR really pushes things to the lemons, and here the OnePlus gets colors more accurate and remember that weird blue tint in the photo from its main camera. It's gone look closely at the color of the bricks in the bookstore building.

Compare that to the building on the left hit by sunlight. Now take a look at the iPhone's photo notice. How the highlights the clouds are blown out to white. The OnePlus does a better job of protecting highlights here on paper, the difference between a 2.5 times, optical zoom and a 3.3 times. Optical zoom is not huge, but in terms of the actual photos there are some pretty big differences.

Here's a picture of a building taken with the main camera, the iPhone and here's the same building taken with the iPhone at 2.5 times, optical zoom, and let's compare that to the OnePlus taken at 2.5 times. Digital zoom, the iPhone looks so much better and that's because the OnePlus crops, the main camera to zoom in until it hits 3.3 times, in which case it switches to its dedicated telephoto camera. Even at 3.3 times, digital zoom. The iPhone photo looks better than the OnePlus at 3.3 times. Optical zoom.

The dynamic range and details are better. The colors are punchy without being over the top, whereas the OnePlus picture looks flat and the sky skews indigo blue at 10 times digital zoom. Neither phone takes a great photo, but the dynamic range is better on the iPhone. Despite there being a lot of over sharpening oh and the OnePlus photo just looks soft. The iPhone tops out at 12 times, it'll zoom and the OnePlus can zoom to 20 times digital zoom and even 30 times.

Digital zoom. Both are pretty horrible, but hey the range. Is there the iPhone and the one plus each have a night mode for taking better pictures? In the light on the OnePlus, it's called nights cape overall night mode photos from the OnePlus are brighter than those from the iPhone also notice how the iPhone colors are warmer. That said, the iPhone suffers from a light source reflection problem, which you can see above the building in the middle overall, I'm impressed with night mode photos from the OnePlus, but let's pivot from photos to videos, the OnePlus can shoot 8k video, even in great lighting. I think 4k video from the OnePlus looks better 8k video looks over sharpened moir? the screen door effect you see on the bricks here is bad and colors are over saturated 4k.

Video looks better in terms of color, there's still a little more a, but nothing compared to the 8k video. The iPhone tops out at 4k video, but it has better detail better dynamic range and color notice, the textures of the cobblestones and the flowers to the right. When you get to the end of the video, the OnePlus video is softer again look at those flowers in this scene. Both videos are good, but both suffer from moir? in the bricks of the buildings and the footbridge, the iPhone has better detail and dynamic range, but it's not a huge difference over the OnePlus when we go indoors. OnePlus video has a lot of image noise in the background, but it also has a shallower depth of field at night.

Videos from both phones are just okay. The OnePlus pushes its shadows to black, and again you can see the that light source reflection problem. The iPhone has very apparent here too. Let's talk, selfies in good light. Selfies from the iPhone have better dynamic range and a greater depth of field.

Selfies from the OnePlus have a pleasing natural both, but sometimes my eyes would be just slightly out of focus and I think it's that shallow depth of field, I noticed in the videos as well also I prefer the skin tones from iPhone selfies to those from the OnePlus for indoor selfies. The iPhone has better dynamic range notice. The three counter lights over my shoulder there, though both photos suffer from image: noise and noise reduction blur here. The OnePlus selfie nails focus on my eyes. The OnePlus also has a pro mode.

This is something the iPhone doesn't pro mode give you detailed control over focus, shutter, speed, ISO. Also in pro mode, you can take 12-bit raw photos. Compare that to the 12-bit apple pro raw photos on the iPhone pro max. Now, technically, you can take raw photos on the iPhone using a third-party app, but in terms of editing apple pro raw photos is like having a head start over the OnePlus regular raw photos. Well, that's all I've got, but I want to hear from you guys.

What do you think of photos and videos from both phones? Do you have an iPhone 12 Pro max or OnePlus 9 pro? If so, let me know what you think of photos and videos you've captured in the comments.

Source : CNET