Smartphone camera showdown: iPhone 5S, Lumia 925 and Lumia 1020

iPhone 5s vs Lumia 925 vs Lumia 1020

Windows Telephone Central compares and contrasts today's pinnacle smartphone cameras

2013 and so far tin exist described equally the year of the camera phone. Between Nokia's engineering and the likes of its competitors playing catch up, consumers accept plenty of choice when it comes to smartphones with excellent cameras.

Following upwardly our recent Lumia shoot out, we decided to accept three of today's high end devices out for a showdown, specifically the brand new iPhone 5S, Lumia 925 (review) and Lumia 1020 (review). All iii tin be considered top contenders on paper, but nosotros'll see who is the best when we dig deeper into the pixels.

Care to come across our results? You lot may be surprised.

Camera specifications

Before we swoop into the shot by shot analysis, let'south directly compare all the hardware:

iPhone 5S camera

iPhone 5S

8 megapixels with ane.5µ pixels
ƒ/2.2 aperture
Sensor size: northward/a
Sapphire crystal lens cover
True Tone wink
Behind illumination sensor
Five-chemical element lens
Hybrid IR filter

Lumia 925 camera

Lumia 925

8.7 megapixels PureView with one.4µ pixels
ƒ/2.0 aperture
Sensor size: 1/three inch
Carl Zeiss Tessar lens
Backside illumination sensor
Six-chemical element lens
Dual LED flash

Lumia 1020 camera

Lumia 1020

41 megapixels PureView with 1.12µ pixels
ƒ/2.two aperture
Sensor size: i/1.5 inch
Carl Zeiss Tessar lens
Backside illumination sensor
Vi-element lens
Xenon flash

On paper, all of those specifications are quite amazing for any camera telephone. Apple does edge out the Lumia 925 and Lumia 1020 in pixel size. While the Lumia 1020 has a bigger sensor overall, it crams so many pixels on to it that they are smaller than the Lumia 925, which is slightly smaller than iPhone 5S. That matters for noise reduction as the bigger the pixels, the better the epitome (though HTC One's ii.0µ pixels are perhaps too farthermost, every bit epitome quality is reportedly not that great).

The Lumia 1020 definitely wins for being able to "crop to zoom" equally its 41 megapixels gives Windows Phone much more than to work with compared to the iPhone'southward eight megapixels. Still, for normally framed photos we have to acknowledge that Apple's iPhone 5S does an beauteous job compared to both Lumias.

More reading: Nokia Lumia 1020 – Low Lite photos samples and comparison shots to Lumia 920, 925

Conditions

For the Lumias, all images were shot using the Nokia Pro Cam app on full machine. For the iPhone 5S, automobile was also used with the default settings. No flash was used in any photos (we may do a wink comparison follow up in a few days). Phones were handheld hence the slight discrepancy in angles.

For full-shot comparisons, the Lumia 1020'due south 5 MP oversampled images were used. For crops, the full sample from the 1020'southward 38 MP images was substituted, since using "ingather to zoom" on the phone would practice the same thing in real life. Images were resized to fit for web use.

Low light

Nosotros noticed that in depression-light imaging the iPhone 5S tended to be on the xanthous side for white balance with the Lumia 1020 doing slightly better and surprisingly the Lumia 925 doing the all-time for color in night situations.

The iPhone 5S does well in regards to sharpness, maybe due to the f/2.2 discontinuity when compared to the Lumia 925's f/ii.0. Lower apertures allow in more light simply it can too make images softer. Yous tin run into this in the night photo below of the table exterior, where the foreground and background were both in focus for the iPhone 5S. Of course that lower aperture gave united states of america brighter photos on the Lumia 925 when compared to the iPhone and even the Lumia 1020.

If we had to rank them, it would be the Lumia 1020 at top followed by the iPhone 5S and Lumia 925 running cervix and cervix for 2nd place. Apple's iPhone 5S was slightly sharper with more item and less dissonance, just the color representation on the Lumia 925 was much more than accurate and images were overall brighter.

Daytime

During the day, the Lumia 1020 was the top performer with brighter colors and whiter-whites than either the Lumia 925 or iPhone 5S. Information technology also of grade provided the about item. You can especially encounter this in the embankment-log photo (and crop) below, where the colour of the rocks stood out more on the Lumia 1020's sample. The iPhone 5S meanwhile had much more item than the Lumia 925, though both were slightly off on color.

The Lumia 925, while a strong performer, cruel short of the iPhone 5S for sharpness and detail.

Here, once more, the Lumia 1020 wins against both the iPhone 5S and Lumia 925. For 2d place though, we're going to give it to the iPhone 5S with the Lumia 925 falling backside for third.

Panorama

All three phones of course can do panorama stitching, though we take to requite the nod here to Apple tree who's congenital-in panorama was both easier to utilize and much more than accurate. Indeed, in trying to photograph the ability station, Nokia's Panorama app completely failed on 2 unlike phones.

Nokia recently updated their Panorama app subsequently nosotros tried to shoot the power station sample above, so information technology'due south not clear if the new ability to shoot in portrait would have helped. Regardless, we accept a feeling Apple will even so dominate this category as their app is really fantastic (and piece of cake to access).

Front end facing camera

All three phones also sport a i.two MP forepart facing camera, with Nokia's too having a f/2.4 aperture (we're not sure on Apple tree's). Hither, Nokia has a nice advantage of sharpness over Apple's iPhone and even slightly better lighting with punchier colors. Nokia besides has their excellent Glam Me app for softening and enhancing self-portrait images, giving Lumias another plus.

Ease of use

When it comes to ease of employ, it really depends on how 1 configures the device. On the Lumia 925 and 1020, Pro Cam is certainly slower to launch and more complicated to use than the native camera app. However, users are gratuitous to fix the default camera app to whichever one they delight, including the faster and simpler native camera app.

Still, the iPhone 5S is more straightforward to utilize out of the box. The flipside to that is there are no "good" controls on the iPhone 5S—the camera does all the work for you and y'all are left with the terminal result. For the near part, this actually works quite well nigh of the fourth dimension due to Apple's splendid image processing, but 'prosumer' users will capeesh the fine tuning capabilities found in both Lumias.

With the native camera app, the Lumia 1020 and Lumia 925 are certainly fast enough for most users, just the iPhone 5S with its autofocus system is fifty-fifty faster both for snapping the photo and its processing. This is even true when using the Windows Telephone shutter key to launch the camera when in idle. That's because Apple now has their slide-to-unlock camera feature which makes the process slightly faster.

iPhone 5S camera slide
Apple's camera activity allows you to slide-to-awake the camera directly

Alternatively, Windows Phone has the benefit of being able to "feel" to launch the camera since y'all have a physical shutter key. With the iPhone 5S, you have to await at the screen and position your finger on the camera slider to get it to work. And so once again, pros versus cons. The fact of the matter is Windows Phone could benefit from Apple tree's slide to unlock feature and Apple could stand to utilise a physical shutter key.

The iPhone is more robust past having more on the screen functions e.grand. faux HDR option, square-manner for Instagram photos, panorama, video, slo-mo (video) and filters all without having to dig for them. Windows Phone has Lenses as an alternative, which while very innovative they could get overwhelming (and cumbersome) every time you need quick access to fifty-fifty basic features like filters, panorama or HDR.

Conclusion

From our experience, the Lumia 1020 is nevertheless the undisputed champion for a smartphone camera in terms of raw image quality. Colors were punchier, white residue was decent, images were sharp and there was plenty of item. Toss in the power to "crop to zoom" dissimilar any other device and the Lumia 1020 has a lot going for information technology. Of grade in that location is still room for comeback, like faster image processing and quicker launching of the Pro Cam app (specially if your device is locked).

The Lumia 925 is still out favorite "everyday device" and our recommended Windows Phone for people who aren't photography buffs but still desire a solid camera. Having said that, overall paradigm quality was below that of the iPhone 5S. The Lumia 925 excels in low-light photos and daylight shots looked great too—in that sense, there are very few complaints. But if we're pixel-peeping and directly comparing information technology to the iPhone 5S, Apple gets the nod here for overall image quality.

Indeed we were very impressed with Apple tree's efforts. Their in-house image processing is certainly height notch and the iPhone 5S is very like shooting fish in a barrel to utilise. It's a shame that the iPhone's tech doesn't come in more hardware varieties though—you're stuck with what Apple gives you.

Only there's no question in our mind: the iPhone 5S delivers some excellent images and its pocket-size size betrays its powerful camera. While the Lumia 1020 tin still best information technology in all areas simply speed, the iPhone 5S is quite impressive.

iPhone 5s vs Lumia 925 vs Lumia 1020

A word of caution

The trouble with doing in-depth camera assay similar this is we end up getting hooked on the minutia. To be honest, it wasn't until we started looking at cropped photos on 27-inch IPS/Anti Glare display at 2560 X 1440 resolution (and Adobe RGB, natch) did nosotros notice that the iPhone 5S's photos were often (not e'er) superior to the Lumia 925.

Taken with the iPhone 5S

What does this mean for sharing photos on email, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and other digital networks? It's simple: all three smartphones will give you excellent images with slight tradeoffs. The Lumia 1020 is the best for IQ, merely slower (and the phone is bulkier). The iPhone 5S gives very good images but yous're stuck with a tiny 4-inch display and no transmission controls (i.east. forget long exposures or artistic creations). The Lumia 925 is light and nimble with a gorgeous display, but image quality, while first-class, falls behind both devices.

In the end, the differences between all three devices are less than what you lot are gaining overall: photos that aren't embarrassing to expect at on a calculator display. And that'south just awesome, which e'er device you choose.

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