Published by Steve Litchfield at 8:37 UTC, April 25th 2017

A year ago I pitched the Huawei P9 against the camera phone world champion (in terms of image quality), the Lumia 950. A year on, the P10 adds extra resolution and OIS to the mix in trying to challenge the Lumia - but is it enough? With a bunch of interesting lighting challenges I test the phone cameras out...

Despite its relative age (18 months), the Lumia 950's camera still stacks up well against the modern competition, with 20MP 1/2.4" sensor, PureView with oversampling down to 8MP, f/1.9 lens, fifth generation OIS and triple LED flash, while the Huawei P10 offers twin cameras (20MP and 12MP), at f/2.2 and (according to the specs) with OIS, plus dual LED flash.

Notes:

Both smartphone cameras shoot naturally at roughly 8/9MP in a 16:9 aspect ratio, so I can crop down to 1:1 and there should be no issues with framing, other than minor differences caused by the optics - the Lumia's are definitely 'wider angle' than the P10's. Both phones also shoot in a higher resolution mode, though this doesn't use oversampling and, in the P10's case, is only at 4:3, which is.... weird, presumably shooting detail with the monochrome higher-res camera only and then filling in with colour data from the lower res camera in software.. All shots were on full 'auto', except where stated. In each case, the overall scene is shown as the Lumia 950 sees it - it's a known starting point, if nothing else. I look at full size shots as well as crops. But if you're in any way concerned about the use of crops then just grab the JPGs yourself and compare them at any scale you like.

Note that the interactive comparator below uses javascript and does need to load each pair of images. Please be patient while this page loads, if you see a pair of images above each other than you've either not waited long enough or your browser isn't capable enough! You ideally need a powerful, large-screened tablet or a proper laptop or desktop. This comparator may not work in IE or Edge on Windows phones. Sorry about that.

Test 1: Sunny scene

A typical detailed landscape shot. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P10, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Not a good start for the P10 and I've no idea what went wrong - it was in full auto mode and yet the shot is clearly a bit over-exposed. This does tie into the mess the older P9 used to make of sunny scenes, mind you, so maybe it's not that unusual after all.

Lumia 950: 10 pts; Huawei P10: 8 pts

Test 2: Bright macro

In shade but on a bright day, here's some arty camera work, manually focussed on the dandelion in each case. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P10, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The P10 shot isn't terrible, but scan across and look at the stunning result from the Lumia 950 - such precision in the fine detail. That's a combination of ZEISS optics and mature algorithms for you... Plus the P10 again over-exposes, by a third of a stop of so. A theme is developing here...

Lumia 950: 10 pts; Huawei P10: 8 pts

Test 3: A little zoom

Zoom is not something either camera phone shouts about, but here's a shot zoomed by about 2x - with the extra resolution for the sensors, each camera phone is thus using some native resolution and some lossy digital zoom. Here's the overall (zoomed) scene, as shot by the Lumia 950, I was trying to get optically closer to the berries:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P10, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Both phones are well into lossy digital territory here, and this is - as usual - the Lumia 950's weak spot - I slightly prefer the smoother (though not perfectly focussed) version on the Huawei P10 to the sharpened, blockier berries on the Lumia.

Lumia 950: 6 pts; Huawei P10: 7 pts

Test 4: Artificial light

A still life scene indoors, with weak artificial light, from around a metre away. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P10, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Both phone cameras do pretty well here, but the P10's image is definitely darkier and 'murkier', along with digital noise creeping in. Exposures were similar, leaving the larger lens and sensor in the 950, along with the more mature image processing, as the main differentiator.

Lumia 950: 9 pts; Huawei P10: 8 pts

Test 5: Low light, close-up

A candle-holder statue indoors, in very low natural light, from around 30cm - in each case I tapped on the holly section to focus. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P10, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Despite the twin cameras and OIS, the P10's image is noticeably noisier and more artefact-strewn than the much 'purer' output from the Lumia 950.

Lumia 950: 9 pts; Huawei P10: 7 pts

Test 6: Night time

My suburban street at night, with just street lamps. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950 - and yes, it makes it look lighter than it was to my eyes:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P10, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Proof, if it were still needed, that the P10's issue is mainly in software (noise reduction is the worst culprit), with tiny details crisp (showing the OIS working) yet with a horrible water colour-like smudging of almost everything in the frame. The Lumia's shot is nicely balanced, despite not really being 'dark' enough, but the P10 is even lighter again, so there's nothing to save it here.

Lumia 950: 9 pts; Huawei P10: 5 pts

Test 7: party time!

My mocked up 'real world party' shot, with me moving/laughing, in typical subdued artificial light and with the LED flash activated on each phone. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P10, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Neither party shot is perfect, and I do like the colouring in the P10 shot, but it's ultimately too blurry if the human subject is moving, going with a 1/50s exposure. The Lumia 950 does slightly better, going with a 1/100s exposure, thanks to the triple LED flash, and freezes motion better. Plus the latter has the dual capture system available, so you can adjust the amount of flash or ambient light after the fact, which is handy. Neither are a patch on 'real' (Xenon) flash, of course - cue my usual rant.

Lumia 950: 8 pts; Huawei P10: 7 pts

Verdict

And the scores are in (as they say on TV):

Lumia 950: 61/70pts Huawei P10: 50/70pts

Mu gut feel is that a lot of the P10's issues are in its image processing algorithms, not least for messing up simple shots in bright light. Hopefully a future system update can fix this. In the meantime, another image quality challenge seen off by the Lumia 950/XL, and relatively comfortably. I've seen loads of rave reviews of the Huawei P10 camera, but on the showing here I can't understand them at all - the P10 shows all the issues of its P9 predecessor and is reminiscent of the issues with the Sony Xperia range of camera phones where the software consistently let the side down.

It's quite remarkable, not for the first time, how the competition is still some way behind when you look down at the pixel level. Yes, the likes of the P10, Galaxy S8 and LG G6, not to mention the iPhone 7, have much faster focussing times and better burst performance, but when you stop and look at raw image quality, you still can't beat the old Lumias, it seems. And people ask me why I keep bothering doing these features...



Thanks to Vodafone UK for the loan of the review P10.

PS. Of note is that the Huawei P10 Plus has a totally different, f/1.8 lens, so I'm guessing that this will make a good shoot out versus the Lumia 950 XL? Watch this space.