Smartphone Photography Battle Survey Results, Who Won?

Smartphone camera technology has all but improved in recent years. As a matter of fact, most flagship smartphones right now are good enough to be your main point and shoot camera which changed the game.

Smartphone photography battle survey results are in!

It's no longer about megapixel wars anymore, because there are diminishing returns to with high pixel density per square inch. This is why the move to dual camera technology and better auto focus is the way forward. Examples for these are the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and the late Note 7 adapted the Dual Pixel technology found with some DSLR's while the Huawei P9 / P9 Plus and Apple iPhone 7 Plus uses dual camera sensors for their implementation.

The camera specs of the devices

On paper this sounds like an exciting time for mobile photography but it is another thing in real world usage. Our friends decided to document an event where a group of seven who are comprised of Instagram influencers, and photography enthusiasts were invited for a smartphone shootout. So we decided to look into the video ourselves.

Given that Samsung, Apple and Huawei are at the top of most smartphone sold globally in the second quarter of 2016, the Samsung Galaxy S7, Apple iPhone 7 Plus and the Huawei P9 were chosen to be the competitors for the smartphone shootout event.

Rules of the showdown

Each participant was instructed to shoot multiple subjects using each of the three phones at the exact same angle in four different categories. Namely, vivid, bokeh/depth of field, low light and monochrome/black and white.

YouTube video by our friends from Hungry Geeks

The participants named the iPhone 7 Plus as the winner for the low light category. Huawei however takes the cake in multiple categories: bokeh/depth of field, monochrome/black & white and the vivid. 

Fifty respondents were asked to take a blind test where the results ring true that apparently the Samsung Galaxy S7 lags behind with 18% of votes while the Apple iPhone 7 Plus  got 30% and the Huawei P9 winning with 34%.

Twenty-nine respondents agreed that the Bokeh/depth of field from the Huawei P9 was the best. The iPhone 7 Plus won the Monochrome/Black  and white from 24 votes, and the Vivid categories from 22 votes. It would seem that the shots from the Huawei P9 bests the Samsung Galaxy S7 in the three categories of bokeh/depth of field, monochrome/ black and white and vivid.

For the VOX Pop video: Can the new iPhone 7 stay as the best smartphone for Photography?

Results of the showdown

With both the blind tests and the surveys swinging towards the same results. It surprised us that the Samsung Galaxy S7's performance was lower compared to the iPhone 7 and the Huawei P9. In point and shoots, they're nearly on par with each other in well lit conditions.

Related: Huawei P9 Plus Vs Apple iPhone 7 Plus - Main Camera Photography Comparison!

As for the rest of the categories, it would seem that the Huawei P9's software performed better in the bokeh/depth of field, monochrome or black & white and the vivid categories. This maybe attributed to the Leica partnership.

Note: This is all well because whether a picture is good is truly up to the person looking at it and everybody has a right to his or her opinion. In short, the result of this survey is subjective.

Do you agree to our friend's testing methods and results? Please tell us in the comments below!

Sources: Rappler, Hungry Geeks, IDC