Published by Steve Litchfield at 19:10 UTC, February 5th 2018

Huawei has been one of the unsung heroes of phone imaging for a while, pioneering the use of dual cameras in the main, and the new Mate 10 Pro has dual f/1.6 lenses with 12MP colour and 20MP monochrome sensors, with photos constructed from multiple exposures from both. In theory, with enough processing power, the Mate 10 Pro should be more than a match for the classic Lumia 950 XL here. How well will the 2015 Lumia classic fare against one of the 2018 front runners?

In addition to the dual camera set-up just mentioned, the Mate 10 Pro also has 'Leica' branding. In theory this is equivalent to the ZEISS involvement on the Lumia's camera, but we shall see below, as the test shots get harder and harder.



Notes:

The Mate 10 Pro's shots are by default at 8MP shooting at 18:9, so essentially using a slight crop of the main colour sensor, but with the other sensor's data adding information into the mix. Yes, I could have used the full 20MP in 4:3, wherein the colour sensor provides chroma information to the monochrome images, but that seems more like a kludge. Besides, I'm using the 950 XL in its reduced/oversampled 8MP mode (it too could rise to 20MP if absolutely needed), because I intend to make life very hard for these phone cameras in terms of lighting, and they'll need all the oversampling/combination processing they can muster to achieve detail and keep noise down. Plus I do use the smart-cropped zoom on both phones in at least one test below.

All photos were taken on full 'auto' on both phones, unless stated otherwise, and with the phones handheld. Mimicking real life users.

Let's pit the results against each other, using our Famed Interactive Comparator (FIC). All 1:1 crops are at 900x500 for comparison, but see the links for full versions.

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 some browsers. Sorry about that. On Windows 10 Mobile, use the 'AAWP Universal' UWP app, which handles the comparator very competently (see the tips in the app's help screens).

Test 1: Sunny scene

Great lighting, trivial for any phone camera, with loads of detail in my standard suburban scene. Here is the whole scene, as presented 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 XL and Mate 10 Pro, 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:

No real problems here for either phone camera - the Lumia's shot looks less processed, but then there's a slight yellowish tint, to honours even all round on this really easy scene, light-wise.

Microsoft Lumia 950: 10 pts; Huawei Mate 10 Pro: 10 pts

Test 2: 2x zoomed

The same scene as above (though at a different time of day) but still with great light. This time I was testing the zoom capabilities, to roughly 2x.

In case you want to grab the original zoomed images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and Mate 10 Pro, 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:

I'd expect similar results here, since both are cropping into a 20MP sensor, effectively, in terms of detail, but the Mate 10 Pro's result is definitely better in terms of lack of artefacts and general clarity. This is because it's not just using a single sensor, it's taking that same detail and adding in information from the 12MP sensor and - probably - using more than one exposure. Throw all that into the mix and Huawei reckong they can claim a genuine 2x zoom, as proved here, without any special zoom optics. Impressive.

Plus zooming beyond the PureView limit (1.5x in this case) has never been the Lumia 950's strong suit!

Microsoft Lumia 950: 8 pts; Huawei Mate 10 Pro: 9 pts

Test 3: Indoor scene

Somewhat gloomy indoor scene in a church, with plenty of detail, especially in the middle distance, where it was really quite dark. Perfect to really start stretching the phone cameras. Here is the whole scene, as presented 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 XL and Mate 10 Pro, 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:

A big win here for the Lumia 950 XL, which pulls amazing detail from the tableau on the altar - let your own eyes be the judge. The only problem is that I've no idea HOW it got this good result - the shutter speed used was faster that that on the Mate 10 Pro's and the ISOs were similar. So just better image processing or some magic sauce from those ex-Nokia imaging wizards back in 2015? Who knows. But it's certainly why I've continued championing the Lumia 950 XL for image prowess since its launch.

Microsoft Lumia 950: 10 pts; Huawei Mate 10 Pro: 8 pts

Test 4: Indoor low light macro

A close-up shot of the intricate detail on my dad's clock face, in very low light (all curtains closed, no lights on). Here is the whole scene, as presented by the Lumia 950, which yet again manages to 'turn night to day':





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and Mate 10 Pro, 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 Mate 10 Pro here 'out PureViews' the Lumia, with less artefacts, and crisper and clearer detail. In part this is the two sensors working together, in art this is - I suspect - down to the Lumia relying on the imprecise (and slow) PDAF, while the Mate 10 Pro gets pin-sharp focus in a micro-second thanks to four different focussing technologies. Impressive.

Microsoft Lumia 950: 8 pts; Huawei Mate 10 Pro: 10 pts

Test 5: Ultra-gloomy

Also inside the church from above, one of the side altars is in full shade, with no light falling on it. Very gloomy to my eyes, but here is the whole scene, as presented by the Lumia 950, working its usual magic (though the Mate 10 Pro does the same this time round!), in making a very dark scene look well lit(!):





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 XL and Mate 10 Pro, 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:

While this is a win for the Lumia 950 XL, whose image is cleaner and clearer in every way, the Mate 10 Pro gets closer than any other phone ever has in terms of matching the faux-lighting. Not bad at all. Just not as stellar as the 950 XL's PureView algorithms.

Microsoft Lumia 950: 10 pts; Huawei Mate 10 Pro: 8 pts

Test 6: Dusk, LED flash forced on

Your truly, snapped in low light at dusk, with a (kind of) sunset sky behind, with 'fill in flash' from about two metres. Here is the whole scene, as presented 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 XL and Mate 10 Pro, 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 950 XL shot is markedly clearer and crisper, with the Mate 10 Pro bringing out too much texture to my eyes. The Lumia glosses over some texture in composing its result but I think it gets the balance right more than the Huawei phone.

Incidentally, you can tell that both shots are 'flash lit/filled' by the red-eye reflections.

Microsoft Lumia 950: 9 pts; Huawei Mate 10 Pro: 7 pts

Test 7: Dusk landscape

Also at dusk, a landscape shot of a floodlit church. Here is the whole scene, as presented 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 XL and Mate 10 Pro, 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:

A narrow win for the Lumia here, with the Mate 10 Pro using too much sharpening and not managing exposure quite as well. But both shots are very acceptable given the low light.

Microsoft Lumia 950: 10 pts; Huawei Mate 10 Pro: 9 pts

Test 8: Night time

The same church as in test 7, but this time from a slightly different angle and only lit by the floodlights. The ultimate night time test shot. Here is the whole scene, as presented 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 XL and Mate 10 Pro, 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 Mate 10 Pro was right on the limit of over-exposing this shot and blowing out floodlit highlights, but I'm allowing it a pass here because of the tremendous detail elsewhere in the frame. The Lumia 950 XL does well enough overall, but you can see wooliness creeping in at the pixel level (focus issues or algorithms?), while focussing precision, dual sensor and sharpening just work a treat on the Mate 10 Pro's shot here, as you can see.

Microsoft Lumia 950: 7 pts; Huawei Mate 10 Pro: 9 pts

Verdict

Adding up the points gives us:

Lumia 950 XL: 72/80

Huawei Mate 10 Pro: 70/80

It's amazing really. That a 2015 camera phone can still be holding off the 2018 competition. But in truth there's not that much in it overall. The iPhone X, Google Pixel 2 XL and now Huawei Mate 10 Pro are all right up there at the same level, shot for shot, and of course the much newer phones are faster to focus and much faster to process.

Still, it shows how good a job Juha Alakarhu and his team did at Microsoft back in 2014 and 2015, and that the Lumia 950 and 950 XL can still hold their heads very high.

PS. Will any current phone actually defeat the Lumia 950 XL? Kind of, yes, see my head to head with the iPhone X.