Published by Steve Litchfield at 3:48 UTC, September 21st 2016

Having already looked at the zoom facility in the new Apple iPhone 7 Plus, compared to the PureView zoom in the existing Lumia 1020 and 950 smartphones , the next logical (and, seemingly, much anticipated) comparison is to look at photos taken without using the small aperture telephoto lens. In other words, does the regular iPhone 7 camera trump that in the existing world champion, the Microsoft Lumia 950? The raw physics and specs suggest that, even though it's newer, it's going to have a hard time.

Notes:

The Lumia 950 (and XL) has a choice of resolutions - the 16MP (non-oversampled) mode was the best one to go for in matching the 12MP resolution and wide field of view of the iPhone 7' - I tried the 8MP photos from the Lumia 950 and there was too much mismatch in framing! It's worth noting that on the iPhone there's no way to change the capture resolution, plus the 12MP is at 4:3 and again you can't change this. There's no 'sunny scene' shot here because the sun hasn't been out for about 4 days in the UK - we're in late September now! If it appears in the near future, I'll revisit this piece and add an extra test shot. All shots were on 'auto' apart from forcing HDR or flash on as needed and described below. In each case, the overall scene is shown as the 950 sees it - you'll say this is because this is AAWP and I'm biased, but it's more that, having looked at the shots below from both phones, I judged that the 950's were better on the whole, plus the AAWP audience will be very familiar with the Windows 10 Camera image processing, so it's a known starting point.

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: HDR scene

The famous lion of Reading against an overcast sky - HDR needed, methinks. Here's the overall HDR 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 Apple iPhone 7, click the links to download. And here are the interesting 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 slight reddish tinge to the sky (the iPhone gets the colours right), I'm still going to give the win to the Lumia 950 here, since there's clearly more resolved, genuine detail - as you'd expect from a higher resolution sensor, even though the field of view in the crops isn't that different.

Lumia 950: 9 pts, iPhone 7: 8 pts

Test 2: Nude scene

Oh yes, the very first nudity on AAWP! [FX: Rafe has heart attack in background] This is indoors, in Reading Museum, where I retired to escape the gloom. 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 Apple iPhone 7, click the links to download. And here are the interesting 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:

Again we see that the iPhone nails the colours best (to my eyes) but loses out in image processing and resolution - have a look under the lady's arm and there are ugly artefacts which simply aren't there in the Lumia 950's image. However, the reddish tinge in the 950 shot is enough to knock it down to level with the iPhone this time round, in my opinion.

Lumia 950: 8 pts, iPhone 7: 8 pts

Test 3: Nautical scene

No, not out at sea (no budget for that!), but still in the Museum - I loved this biscuit tin top! 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 Apple iPhone 7, click the links to download. And here are the interesting 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:

Although the iPhone 7 photo looks to have less mottled artefacts in areas of solid colour, this is actually less accurate, since the tin top has the texture as part of the painting/printing process, as you can see if you look at the full image close-up. The Lumia 950, with its higher class optics and slightly higher resolution, produces a stunning shot here, I think - and this is through glass.

Lumia 950: 10 pts, iPhone 7: 8 pts

Test 4: Telling the time

Time for some tricky lighting, an illuminated clock face on a dark background. 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 Apple iPhone 7, click the links to download. And here are the interesting 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:

I swear this test isn't biased - the above results really are those from the two phones and the iPhone 7's rendition looked fine on the phone screen. However, look more closely, as here, and the iPhone 7 made something of a mess of the exposure on the clock face. My guess is that because the iPhone 7 has a wider field of view, the brightness of the clock wasn't taken into account as much as on the Lumia 950. Regardless, and even though the detail is essentially there, I have to dock the iPhone 7 a couple of points for not getting the shot I actually wanted.

Lumia 950: 9 pts, iPhone 7: 7 pts

Test 5: Neon contrast

Just trying to push the light boundaries again, with neon sign writing on a dark background with texture and electrical components. 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 Apple iPhone 7, click the links to download. And here are the interesting 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:

I'm torn here, the 950 and the iPhone 7's photos have very different versions of the neon colouring - the Apple iPhone gets slightly closer to what my eyes saw, though the detail on the tube fixings in the 950 photos is quite impressive. Maybe the subtle difference in focus between the sign and the tubes was enough to affect the light handling? In any case, I'm going to call this one as a draw - the iPhone's is more useable as a snap, but the Lumia's has, ultimately, more detail.

Lumia 950: 7 pts, iPhone 7: 7 pts

Test 6: Material detail

Back in the museum, there's a replica of the Bayeux Tapestry, with some wonderful detail. 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 Apple iPhone 7, click the links to download. And here are the interesting 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:

Time for the iPhone 7 to win a round, I think - the Lumia 950 shot, which seemed fine on the phone screen, is clearly a little 'soft' when examined at 1:1. It's not clear whether this is a focussing issue (though conditions were the same for both) or just a lack of sharpening compared to the Apple algorithms. The iPhone does take a win here, but it's only slight because I'd argue that the Apple image processing goes too far the other way, and that the soft materials and weaving have been 'hardened' too much.

Lumia 950: 6 pts, iPhone 7: 7 pts

Test 7: Party time!

My infamous drink-in-hand dancing party mock-up, with me chatting and deliberately moving and with someone else operating the phone camera. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:





No original images this time, to spare my blushes in terms of dentistry and complexion...! But here are the interesting 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:

I'm at something of a loss as to why the iPhone 7 shot is blurry and the Lumia 950 one isn't, since both have multi LED flashes and both used around a 1/17s exposure with similar aperture. I suspect that a) the iPhone is optimising for brightness, perhaps even combining multiple exposures (as would benefit a night time scene normally) and not for movement; plus b) the quad LED flash in the iPhone isn't as bright as the triple LED in the Lumia - to my eyes anyway. Then there's Microsoft's 'Dynamic Exposure/Dynamic Flash' secret sauce - which you do, admittedly, have to wait for (up to ten seconds of processing in the background before you can see the final image).

The end result is impressive though, with almost Xenon-like freezing of (admittedly gentle) motion, and another win for the Lumia 950.

Lumia 950: 9 pts, iPhone 7: 5 pts

Test 8: Night time

Another very challenging scene. The OIS in the iPhone (at last) should mean that it can shoot a longish exposure and get a decent snap. 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 Apple iPhone 7, click the links to download. And here are the interesting 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:

Curiously, the iPhone went for a 1/6s exposure, three times longer than the Lumia, which went for 1/20s - ISOs were 100 and 400 respectively, so perhaps the Lumia was yet again making sure that any movement (not that there was any) would be better frozen, I suspect. Both phones struggle to some extent with the variations in light and dark, as you'd expect, though the Lumia 950 coped better with the bright spots in the 1:1 crops above, plus it was better at gathering light across the whole image, as you can see below - I've loaded resampled versions of both photos into the comparator:

Whether looking at specific detail or at the scene as a whole, you have to give the Lumia 950 the nod here.

Lumia 950: 8 pts, iPhone 7: 6 pts

Test 9: Bonus sunny(ish) scene

Well, the sun kind of came out for a bit this morning, so I snapped my standard suburban landscape. 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 Apple iPhone 7, click the links to download. And here are the interesting 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:

There's nothing really wrong with the iPhone 7's photo, it's not over-processed, but the dynamic range of the Lumia 950's optics and sensor is yet again apparent. This was with HDR disabled on both, by the way. There's just a tinge of over-sharpening and over-processing on the 950's photo, but oh, that detail...

Lumia 950: 8 pts, iPhone 7: 7 pts

Verdict

And, without the tech breakthrough that is, arguably the iPhone 7 Plus's 2x (extra) lens, the main iPhone 7 camera struggles compared to the Lumia 950, as did the iPhone 6s camera before it, even though the addition of OIS has at least eliminated iPhone hand-shake in low light. The quality of the optics, the size of the sensor and its resolution, the maturity of the image processing when light conditions get tough, the brightness of the LED flash, all still give the Lumia 950 a definite edge in my tests.

In fairness, every other smartphone I've tested here on AAWP has been defeated by the Lumia 950 in the same way. The Lumia 950/XL just isn't given enough credit by other tech sites in the imaging department. Zooming aside, it's simply stunning.

The final score tally reads (though you won't need me to add up to get an idea of the overall winner):