OnePlus 9 Pro Camera vs OnePlus 8 Pro After Updates: Better or Worse? By Danny Winget

What's up everybody. This is Danny, and today we're going to find out. If you have an OnePlus 8 pro, do you need to upgrade to the new OnePlus 9 pro, so you're, still looking at 1080p video, no 4k on the front still, which is kind of amazing at this time in 2021? But what I'm going to do. Is I'm going to test this camera out in every condition to see how much of an improvement the OnePlus 9 pro has over the eight pro? Or should you just stick with the pro the front facing video looks so much better, though, on the OnePlus 9 pro look at that dynamic range: let's go ahead and test these cameras all right. So before we get started, this video was a long time in the making, because I finished this comparison and then OnePlus pushed out a camera update to the OnePlus 9 pro on the day that I uploaded so instead of releasing it, I went back out and took another 150 plus photos to make sure this video is the most current, so you're going to hear me mention shots before and after the update so hit that like button and subscribe to the channel for that dedication, let's jump right into it. Let's start with the daytime shots.

All of these shots were taken on auto mode. I said this last year and not a lot of people believed it, but the OnePlus 8 pro was a major leap for OnePlus in terms of camera quality. So it's no surprise that it's keeping up with the new 9 pro during the day. In fact, a lot of these side-by-side shots. I wouldn't blame the average consumer for not noticing much of a difference, but there are some improvements that you need to know about.

So let me point those out for you. First thing I want to talk about is sharpness and detail. Some pictures are more noticeable than the others, but generally you're going to get a sharper picture on the OnePlus 9 pro. When you punch in on this bench, you will see that there's a little more detail on the wood looks slightly sharper as well on this leaf shot from a distance. You really don't see a huge difference, but when you punch in you can see that leaf capture is more detailed on the new OnePlus 9 pro now.

That shot is not as clear as this example crop in here, and you really see the difference. I did notice that in some pictures, like this landscape shot, the OnePlus 9 pro tends to over sharpen some will like this and some won't when you crop in heavy, you can see it on the trees, but usually no one crops in this hard. So it's probably not a big deal for most. You can also see in this 48 megapixel or high-res image. When you punch in 300 percent, you can already see a difference, and then, when you punch in 1 000 scale, you can see the over sharpening on the 9 pro.

The good thing is that most average consumers will see a sharper image and that's what OnePlus was going for, and they did it. The biggest thing that I think you will notice is the color and saturation difference. The OnePlus 9 pro in certain scenarios like this one does render the scene totally different. The 8 pro is more natural and accurate to the scene with the color rendition. So I wouldn't blame you at all for liking it better where the 9 pro is very punchy with the colors, but makes the picture look more memorable again.

It picks up more detail on the hoodie and also in the concrete. So there is an improvement from the 8 pro in that regard. I know a lot of people will tell me that these colors have to do with the smart scene recognition being on, but in my testing it really doesn't make much of a difference. Here is a shot with scene, recognition on and then here's a shot with scene recognition off. I did this multiple times to make sure.

Sometimes there is a slight difference in saturation. So to make things fair, I turned off smart recognition for the rest of the testing. It all depends on what predominant color is in that scene. You can obviously see when it detects water, the nine pro really over saturates, but this could be the look that they're going for, and I know some people might actually like that better. So it's going to come down to personal preference, but it does go back and forth because in scenes with a lot of green in it like this, the OnePlus 8 pro is the one.

That's bumping up the saturation, but this test reminded me of how much I like the OnePlus 8 pros camera and how good it is. During the day some shots had less of that magenta cast than the 9 pro, and it does create the more pleasing shot when it comes to white balance. Sometimes still so, I can see a lot of you picking the 8 pro shot to be better, but where I did notice, a significant difference in color is when you switch to the pro mode. It creates a different looking shot with better white balance and both of them here created a much different, looking picture with the sky rendition, but pro mode can really change those saturation levels in certain shots, especially with the OnePlus 9 pro. So this is your best bet if you want the most natural looking colors, but for the most part in auto mode, the images are really, really close.

A lot of these look very similar, and while it's not a giant leap, these minor improvements in macro shots like this look better on the 9 pro with less fringing and that extra sharpness really works here, and even the super macro mode is better on the 9 pro. So that is nice to see the zoom. Shots have also improved slightly with the new phone. It's not a huge difference, but it's more detailed and is sharper even with the old firmware. The same results happen.

So I'm glad that OnePlus is stepping it up with the new phone. I just wish it went beyond the 3.3x, but maybe on the next phone, we'll see another zoom option. I am so glad that I did this comparison again because, prior to the update, I found that the 8 pro was outperforming the 9 pro in a lot of the scenarios. My original video was heavily focused on the pro being better during the day, and you can't blame me with these types of results, but I can verify that the last OnePlus 9 pro updates tuned the camera with better white balance, and I also saw improvements in dynamic range in some of these scenarios before the update like in this shot- and I saw that continue as well with the update. So even though I wouldn't say this is a must upgrade camera for daytime shots.

There are improvements and if you shoot a lot of video, you do get improvements in the OnePlus 9 pro. First, you can shoot up to 8k video at 30 frames per second, which is nice. The other devices so far have been 24 frames per second. So this is nice to see here is a side by side of 8k on the OnePlus 9 pro and 4k on the OnePlus 8 pro the new OnePlus 9 pro also has 4k at 120 frames per second, which is incredible. Stabilization isn't supported at this time, so it is shaky video, but this can be used for some really high quality.

Slow motion footage if you slow it down in post editing. So it's a feature that you don't see on smartphones right now, but when comparing 4k to 4k on both of these devices, there isn't a huge change. The older 8 pro seems to have more contrast videos, so some might prefer that to the nine pro which favors higher exposure with more shadow detail and crisper white balance. In this scenario, so let me know which one that you prefer in the comments below here is a walking stabilization test. This is handheld.

I don't see much of a difference here, so let me know if one is doing better than the other when it comes to stabilized video. The last thing I want to talk about during the day is the front-facing camera, and I'm not seeing a huge difference. There are some slight differences with white balance, but I'm not seeing any kind of large improvement here. Let's talk about the skin tones on the rear camera, even though the OnePlus 8 pro brightens the skin. I think it's doing a better job here.

The OnePlus 9 pro is over saturating the skin tones, and I saw that in my last camera comparison with the galaxy s21 ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro max. So if you want to see that I'll leave a link down below, I can see where the OnePlus 9 pro is going in terms of skin rendition, but I still think the OnePlus 8 pro looks better in these two shots. The daytime is a little harder to call, but low light is where I think you're going to notice the improvements more after the update, I'm seeing an improvement in the single snap look here at the bricks. There is much better sharpness and detail is very muddy on the OnePlus 8 pro when you kick in nights cape. Both of them do a great job, letting more light in and capturing more detail.

The OnePlus 8 pro catches up quickly here with nights cape, but when you crop in you can see that the 9 pros extra sharpening helps in low light with the brick detail, but the 8 pro isn't bad whatsoever. I saw these types of results in pretty much every shot. This is probably due to the Qualcomm snapdragon 888 that is powering the OnePlus 9 pro it's way more powerful in terms of the ISP resulting in better single snap performance, but nights cape again is very similar between the both of them. Now the faster processing is able to capture moving subjects a little better. It was a windy night and the trees were getting blown around, but you can see that there's less smearing on the leaves when you punch in and even under night mode.

It's the same thing, because it's slightly faster at capturing, so you can see here, there's less movement in the shot, which is a nice improvement. I, like the white balance rendition on the OnePlus 9 pro better here in this shot, but it is a little cold to the actual scene. It is somewhere in between the middle of these two and while the scene is warmer closer to the capture of the OnePlus 8 pro, I do like the overall rendition of the OnePlus 9 pro better in this scene. While color is subjective. I can't deny the improvement in sharpness and detail.

Just look at this punched in it gives you a perfect idea and even with the wide angle, it's the same thing. The single snapshot doesn't look too different here, but when nights cape kicks in, it makes a difference. I took a bunch of these shots before the update at Epcot, and it shows really well take a look at how muddy the building is with the OnePlus 8 pro even with nights cape, and then look at how much more detail got picked up by the OnePlus 9 pro again. I'm so glad that I redid my comparison with fresh pictures, because I was dealing with inconsistent white balance like this between the nights cape shots. It was frustrating, but, with the new update I haven't had those issues.

I also noticed before the update. By the way there was an update on both of the phones. I had smart scene recognition off, but I noticed that the OnePlus 8 pro was taking a longer exposure picture even with single snap, so the nights cape shots didn't look too much different, but it made it look like the OnePlus 8 pro was doing much better on single snap and while the 8 pro still captures the brighter picture, sometimes the consistency is definitely better. With the 9 pro now there are still saturation differences like with this flower. I do like the warmer tones better here on the pro, but for the most part, you're getting a much better nighttime photo experience with the nine pro you're getting a brighter shot, most of the time with more shadow detail and a lot of times, you're getting more vibrant colors, so I'm glad to see a bump in low light performance on the new phone.

If you take a lot of single snapshots without nights cape, I think you'll be impressed, but if you use nights cape mostly in the nighttime scenarios, I think you'll be just fine sticking with your 8 pro another year nighttime. Video is definitely more vibrant. When it comes to the color on this year's OnePlus 9 pro, you can see it on the bushes here. The green is darker and more saturated with a cooler tone like we saw on the picture, so the processing is consistent between the photos and video. There is slightly sharper video too, on the OnePlus 9 pro, I wouldn't say it's a huge improvement, but it's noticeable.

You can see it more here in an extremely dark scenario like this one: they both are very contrast, crushing the shadows but noticeably sharper. Video on the 9 pro on the bark detail on the tree is where you can see it. Take a look now. I do have to say in this stage performance scenario. I was surprised to see that the OnePlus 8 pro doing better with dynamic range and overall balance.

So it all depends on the environment, but again the OnePlus 8 pro is still great and still keeps up well with the brand new OnePlus 9 pro. So is the new phone worth upgrading to, and I'd say that it all depends on the positive. Is it's not a downgrade? So that's a good thing in the daytime shots. You do get some improvements in detail and sharpness, but I don't think that's enough alone to upgrade. But if you really want that 8k video in 120 frames per second 4k for epic slow motion, then it might be worth looking into the low light performance, especially on single shot, is way better and the extra detail, sharpness and color does make nighttime shooting experience better.

So I think the combination of all the little things and refinements might have you thinking about that upgrade, but if you're happy with your OnePlus 8 pro stick with it another year, but if you're on the fence, I just wanted to show you all the benefits that you will get from upgrading to the OnePlus 9 pro. Thank you for watching. I hope this helped you in your buying decision. If it did hit that thumbs up and subscribe for a lot more videos like this- and I will see you in the next one.

Source : Danny Winget