Published by Steve Litchfield at 6:59 UTC, August 27th 2019

Having eschewed zoom completely in my previous feature , it's all in on zoom again for this one(!) With zoom being a big feature of the original Lumia 1020 (albeit at lower output resolution), it's always interesting to see how far the modern 2019 competition have got in terms of bringing subjects 'closer', optically and in software. With the arrival of the 'OPPO Reno 10x Zoom' for review, and armed with the 1020, the also venerable Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, and my Huawei P30 Pro on latest firmware, let the fight begin!

A brief summary of the tech used before getting going:

Nokia Lumia 1020 (2013) : 1/1.5" 41MP sensor, PureView oversampled down to 5MP, 2.5x lossless zoom by 'smart cropping', OIS, Xenon flash

: 1/1.5" 41MP sensor, PureView oversampled down to 5MP, 2.5x lossless zoom by 'smart cropping', OIS, Xenon flash Samsung Galaxy K Zoom (2014) : 1/2.3" 20MP sensor, 10x optical (variable) zoom, OIS, Xenon flash

: 1/2.3" 20MP sensor, 10x optical (variable) zoom, OIS, Xenon flash Huawei P30 Pro (2019) : 40MP, 1/1.7", PDAF, OIS, Periscope 8MP, 1/4", PDAF, OIS, 5x telephoto, 20MP, ultrawide, 1/2.7", PDAF

: OPPO Reno 10x Zoom (2019): 48MP, 1/2.0", Laser AF, OIS, Periscope 13MP, 5x telephoto, Laser AF, OIS, 8MP, ultrawide

Meaty specs all round, with the interesting factoid that, though outgunned massively in 2019, the six year old Lumia 1020 still has the physically largest sensor(!)

Note that:

I'm going to include some challenging non-zoomed shots as well - life isn't all about the zoom. Let's make this at least a vaguely rounded feature. Differences in output resolution and optics do mean that framing is going to vary below - what you're looking for is captured detail and (ideally) fewer artefacts and noise - don'y worry about matching framing from crop to crop!

Test 1: Sunny zoom

Perfect lighting and a nice bit of signage in the distance. Here's the overall scene, unzoomed, from the Lumia 1020:





And here are 1:1 crops first of all from unzoomed shots, for interest, from (top to bottom) Lumia 1020, Galaxy K Zoom, Huawei P30 Pro, and OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, just use the links to grab the original images if you want to look at them yourself in detail:











As you might expect, under sunny, perfect conditions, there's little in these crops, though I'm going to give the 1020 a token extra point for its sky being bluer (which it was) and for its greenery looking 'real', with less sharpening than in the other shots. Hey, the six year old phone is going to need all the points it can get, after all...

Lumia 1020: 10 pts; Galaxy K Zoom: 9 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 9 pts; OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 9 pts.

Test 2: Now zoomed, x5

The same scene, but zoomed in to the 5x of the periscope cameras on the P30 Pro and OPPO Reno 10x Zoom (yes, yes, we'll get to a hybrid 10x zoom example below). Curiously, this zoom factor comes up as 6x on the OPPO device, showing perhaps that there's software optimisation to add detail from the main camera into the 5x periscope, to give one more zoom stop by default. Curious! Plus the Lumia is limited, of course, to about 2.5x zoom, and on a smaller output resolution. That's 2013 for you!

So here are 1:1 crops from the 5x(ish) zoomed shots, from (top to bottom) Lumia 1020, Galaxy K Zoom, Huawei P30 Pro, and OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, just use the links to grab the original images if you want to look at them yourself in detail:











Again as expected, this time on the zoom front, the 2.5x PureView zoom on the Lumia does well, but it can't match the genuine 5x zoom on the P30 Pro and Reno, plus both get burned a little by the much larger zoom optics in the Samsung. The K Zoom does have a smaller sensor, so it's not all gain, mind you, so the latter does have noise in the shadows. Of the two periscope cameras, the Huawei's extra sharpening routines bring out good results on this artificial subject.

Lumia 1020: 6 pts; Galaxy K Zoom: 9 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 8 pts; OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 7 pts.

Test 3: Indoor detail

Inside a church, not quite low light, but much more gentle than the sun outdoors. Here's the overall scene, unzoomed, from the Lumia 1020:





And here are 1:1 crops first of all from unzoomed shots, for interest, from (top to bottom) Lumia 1020, Galaxy K Zoom, Huawei P30 Pro, and OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, just use the links to grab the original images if you want to look at them yourself in detail:











Despite the lower output resolution, the Lumia 1020 takes the win here because its shot looks exactly as the scene did to my eyes, together with a complete lack of sharpening or other enhancement. The OPPO Reno is in second, with decent detail and only a little enhancement, with the P30 Pro looking a little over-cooked as usual and the older K Zoom coming off as slightly too 'soft'.

Lumia 1020: 10 pts; Galaxy K Zoom: 7 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 7 pts; OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 8 pts.

Test 4: Indoor detail, zoomed x2

The same scene, but trying a simple 2x zoom before we go crazy with a 10x example below. This is in the 1020's comfort zone, of course, and trivial for the K Zoom, while the Reno and P30 Pro have to also do 'PureView-like' (though not as good) smart cropping into their 40MP+ sensors.

Here are 1:1 crops from the zoomed shots, from (top to bottom) Lumia 1020, Galaxy K Zoom, Huawei P30 Pro, and OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, just use the links to grab the original images if you want to look at them yourself in detail:











A clear win for the K Zoom and its 'proper' optics here, with the 1020 doing very well in second place, with almost as much detail and perfect colours. The P30 tries hard, but there are too many artefacts by comparison - and I'm not sure what happened with the OPPO Reno here - perhaps the 'main sensor' zoom algorithm is just flawed?

Lumia 1020: 9 pts; Galaxy K Zoom: 9 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 7 pts; OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 6 pts.

Test 5: And now with the periscope cameras...

The same scene, this time at up to 5x (or so), using the two periscope telephoto cameras on the P30 Pro and Reno:

Here are 1:1 crops from the zoomed shots, from (top to bottom) Lumia 1020, Galaxy K Zoom, Huawei P30 Pro, and OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, just use the links to grab the original images if you want to look at them yourself in detail:











The 1020 falls behind here, of course, it's the same 2.5x zoomed crop as in the previous test. I'm going to give the win here to the P30 Pro, which gathers plenty of light, with its more modern sensor behind the 5x telephoto lens. The old K Zoom is some way behind, with lesser dynamic range, and the new Reno is very slightly blurred, showing that the OIS on the telephoto doesn't perhaps work as well as OPPO hoped.

Lumia 1020: 5 pts; Galaxy K Zoom: 8 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 10 pts; OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 7 pts.

Test 6: Extreme (10x) zoom

Massively tricky real life zoom example. High up in the church roof is a stained glass window that's hard to make out with the eye and even harder in an overall camera phone shot. What's needed here is the ultimate zoom-equipped camera phone! Here's the overall scene, unzoomed, from the Lumia 1020:





So then I zoomed to maximum capability (well, 10x in three cases here) with each camera phone. Here are 1:1 crops from each from (top to bottom) Lumia 1020, Galaxy K Zoom, Huawei P30 Pro, and OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, just use the links to grab the original images if you want to look at them yourself in detail:











This is way beyond what the 1020 can cope with, of course, and its results pale. Standing out by a country mile here is the K Zoom, with its genuine 10x zoom lens. Quite unbelievable clarity at such distance and under such tricky conditions. The 'hybrid' zooms of the P30 Pro and OPPO Ren battle it out for a distant second, but the Huawei device gets it - I feel the LEICA optics play a part here, while the OPPO phone makes do with lesser optics and also less sharpening, which worked in Huawei's favour in this case.

Lumia 1020: 2 pts; Galaxy K Zoom: 10 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 6 pts; OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 5 pts.

Test 7: Low light macro

Away from zoom, how are these phone cameras under challenging light conditions? Here's the overall scene for a delicate little pink flower in dim lighting in a corner of the church, from the Lumia 1020:





And here are scaled (because direct crops would be a) far too close to gain perspective for a macro subject, and b) hard to match exact points of focus) 1:1 crops from (top to bottom) Lumia 1020, Galaxy K Zoom, Huawei P30 Pro, and OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, just use the links to grab the original images if you want to look at them yourself in detail:











Detail levels are so similar here from all four phone cameras - all very good indeed - that it's tough to split them. But the K Zoom gets docked a point because the pink wasn't quite pink enough and because its light handling didn't quite 'zing' as much. I can't really split the others, though it's worth noting that I had to drop back a little on the larger-lensed 1020 in order to achieve focus.

Lumia 1020: 9 pts; Galaxy K Zoom: 8 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 9 pts; OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 9 pts.

Test 8: Night time

Finally, the ultimate light gathering test - dead of night, with only a couple of weedy street lights. Here's the overall scene, from the Lumia 1020:





And here are 1:1 crops from (top to bottom) Lumia 1020, Galaxy K Zoom, Huawei P30 Pro, and OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, just use the links to grab the original images if you want to look at them yourself in detail:











The small (and old) sensor, allied to bulky optics, mean that the Galaxy K Zoom struggles here, despite OIS. The Lumia 1020 does very well in terms of rendering what my eyes saw, so props for that, even if theres's a tiny bit of blur due to hand wobble (the ball bearing OIS isn't foolproof). But in terms of working miracles, it's between the P30 Pro and the OPPO Reno. I'm going to give the win to the Reno because it's not drenched in noise-reduction and sharpening - yes, there's noise and some ugly artefacts, but there's genuine detail that's not drowned out in processing.

Lumia 1020: 7 pts; Galaxy K Zoom: 3 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 8 pts; OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 9 pts.

Verdict

Scoring here isn't deadly serious - after all, we have a 2013 and a 2014 phone in the mix! But for those keeping score at home, out of a maximum 80 points:

Huawei P30 Pro: 64pts Samsung Galaxy K Zoom: 63pts OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 60pts Nokia Lumia 1020: 58pts

So yes, this is the first (though a little extreme) imaging feature on AAWP where my beloved Lumia 1020 has come in 'last'! But the scores are actually pretty close overall. My conclusions?