Smartphone Camera Reviews - DXOMARK

133

184

150

175

143

169

112

169

98
Video

125

186

148

140

Use cases & Conditions

Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.

BEST 169

Portrait

Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people

BEST 185

Outdoor

Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)

BEST 180

Indoor

Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)

BEST 147

Lowlight

Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)

BEST 159

Zoom

Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)

Pros

Target exposure is often accurate in photo.
Color rendering is often pleasant with accurate white balance in photo.
Level of details is good in bright conditions in photo and Video.
Dynamic range is pretty extended in Video

Cons

Target exposure is often slightly underexposed especially in HDR conditions for Video
White balance is often pink with desaturated colors in Video
Noise can be visible even in bright conditions in photo and video
Level of details is low while using bokeh mode
Residual motion can be visible in motion or static videos in Video
Some artifacts are visible such as hue shift, flare and fusion artifacts in photo.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE is the fan edition of the S25 series. Unlike its flagship counterpart, which is powered by a Snapdragon chipset, the FE version relies on the Exynos 2400. While the main camera module is largely unchanged from the S25, the telephoto module has a slightly lower resolution (8 MP vs. 10 MP), and the ultra-wide module appears less capable in terms of overall performance.

In terms of image quality, the S25 FE ranks lower in our database. Still photos generally show good quality, but results can be inconsistent, particularly for color rendering and exposure. Bokeh mode struggles to retain fine detail and can appear soft in low-light conditions. The ultra-wide camera captures solid images, but it does not support 4K 60 fps video recording. The telephoto module also underperforms, with noticeable loss of detail in indoor and low-light scenarios.

Video performance falls behind many competitors. Footage is often slightly pinkish and underexposed, and overall detail retention is limited, particularly in challenging lighting conditions.

Test summary

About DXOMARK Camera tests: DXOMARK’s camera evaluations take place in laboratories and real-world situations using a wide variety of use-cases. The scores rely on objective tests for which the results are calculated directly using measurement software in our laboratory setups, and on perceptual tests where a sophisticated set of metrics allow a panel of image experts to compare aspects of image quality that require human judgment. Testing a smartphone involves a team of engineers and technicians for about a week. Photo and Video quality are scored separately and then combined into an overall score for comparison among the cameras in different devices. For more information about the DXOMARK Camera protocol, click here. More details on smartphone camera scores are available here. The following section gathers key elements of DXOMARK’s exhaustive tests and analyses. Full performance evaluations are available upon request. Please contact us on how to receive a full report.

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Camera Scores

This graph compares DXOMARK photo and video scores between the tested device and references. Average and maximum scores of the price segment are also indicated. Average and maximum scores for each price segment are computed based on the DXOMARK database of devices tested.

Photo

130

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

180

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

About DXOMARK Camera Photo tests

For scoring and analysis, DXOMARK engineers capture and evaluate more than 3,800 test images in controlled lab environments as well as outdoor, indoor and low-light natural scenes, using the camera’s default settings. The photo protocol is designed to take into account the main use cases and is based on typical shooting scenarios, such as portraits, landscape and zoom photography. The evaluation is performed by visually inspecting images against a reference of natural scenes, and by running objective measurements on images of charts captured in the lab under different lighting conditions from 0.1 to 10,000+ lux and color temperatures from 2,300K to 6,500K.

Main

133

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

184

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Photo scores

The photo Main tests analyze image quality attributes such as exposure, color, texture, and noise in various light conditions. Autofocus performances and the presence of artifacts on all images captured in controlled lab conditions and in real-life images are also evaluated. All these attributes have a significant impact on the final quality of the images captured with the tested device and can help to understand the camera's main strengths and weaknesses at 1x.

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE – Accurate target exposure, pleasant color rendering on SDR scenes

Autofocus irregularity and speed: 1000Lux Δ0EV Daylight Handheld

This graph illustrates focus accuracy and speed as well as zero shutter lag capability by showing the edge acutance versus the shooting time measured on the AFHDR setup on a series of pictures. All pictures were taken in one light condition and indicated illuminant, 500ms after the defocus. The edge acutance is measured on the four edges of the Dead Leaves chart, and the shooting time is measured on the LED Universal Timer.

Texture

117

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

132

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score vs lux levels for handheld conditions

This graph shows the evolution of the DMC detail preservation score with the level of lux, for two holding conditions. DMC detail preservation score is derived from an AI-based metric trained to evaluate texture and details rendering on a selection of crops of our DXOMARK chart.

Visual noise evolution with illuminance levels in handheld condition

This graph shows the evolution of visual noise metric with the level of lux in handheld condition. The visual noise metric is the mean of visual noise measurement on all patches of the Dead Leaves chart in the AFHDR setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.

Tele

112

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

169

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

All image quality attributes are evaluated at focal lengths from approximately 40 mm to 300 mm, with particular attention paid to texture and detail. The score is derived from a number of objective measurements in the lab and perceptual analysis of real-life images.

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Telephoto Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

This graph shows the evolution of the DMC detail preservation score with respect to the full-frame equivalent focal length for different light conditions. The x-axis represents the equivalent focal length measured for each corresponding shooting distance and the y-axis represents the maximum details preservation metric score: higher value means better quality. Large dots correspond to zoom ratio available in the user interface of the camera application.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

UltraWide

143

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

169

Vivo X200 Ultra

These tests analyze the performance of the ultra-wide camera at several focal lengths from 12 mm to 20 mm. All image quality attributes are evaluated, with particular attention paid to such artifacts as chromatic aberrations, lens softness, and distortion. Pictures below are an extract of tested scenes.

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Ultra-Wide Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Video

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

172

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

About DXOMARK Camera Video tests

DXOMARK engineers capture and evaluate almost 3 hours of video in controlled lab environments and in natural low-light, indoor and outdoor scenes, using the camera’s default settings. The evaluation consists of visually inspecting natural videos taken in various conditions and running objective measurements on videos of charts recorded in the lab under different conditions from 0.1 to 10000+ lux and color temperatures from 2,300K to 6,500K.

Main

125

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

186

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Video scores

Video Main tests analyze the same image quality attributes as for still images, such as exposure, color, texture, or noise, in addition to temporal aspects such as speed, and smoothness and stability of exposure, white balance, and autofocus transitions.

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE – Slightly underexposed, pinkish white balance

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Good target exposure, pleasant white balance

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation video score vs lux levels

This graph shows the evolution of the DMC detail preservation video score with the level of lux in video. DMC detail preservation score is derived from an AI-based metric trained to evaluate texture and details rendering on a selection of crops of our DXOMARK chart.

Spatial Noise
Temporal Noise

Spatial visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.

Temporal visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

This graph shows the evolution of temporal visual noise with the level of lux. Temporal visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup.

The post Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Camera test appeared first on DXOMARK.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Camera Test Video Boost

dxomark-qa — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 09:51:37 +0000

We put the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL through our rigorous DXOMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our testing with an extract of the captured data.

Overview

Key camera specifications:

Primary: 50MP 1/1.3″ sensor, 1.2µm pixels, 25mm equivalent f/1.68-aperture lens, Octa PD, OIS
Ultra-wide: 48MP 1/2.55″ sensor, 0.7µm pixels, 13mm equivalent f/1.7-aperture lens, Quad PD
Tele: 48MP 1/2.55″ sensor, 0.7µm pixels, 128mm equivalent f/2.8-aperture lens, Quad PD, OIS

Pros

Accurate and stable exposure and wide dynamic range
Accurate white balance with generally good skin tones
Few artifacts compared to competition
Very good texture/noise trade-off with fine detail and nearly no noise
Quite reliable autofocus with fast convergence
Good detail in tele and ultra wide videos

Cons

Target exposure on face slightly low on strong HDR scenes
Skin tones can be slightly too red on fair models in outdoor
Slight lack of detail in medium range zoom shots
Flare in some outdoor scenes

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Video boost mode delivered the best perfomance in the DXOMARK Camera video tests, earning itself a top score in our current ranking. This mode shows really impressive improvements compared to the basic video mode available on the camera. It enhances already good parts of the Pixel Video and compensate some lacks giving us an overall really good experience as a user.

Videos come with good exposure and a wide dynamic range, as well as generally nice colors and accurate white balance. Moreover, the on cloud treatement allows to correct nearly all unstabilities in terms of exposure and colors, offering very stable videos with smooth transitions between different light conditions. The main interest of this mode is the exceptionnal trade-off between noise reduction and detail retention in all conditions, especially in lowlight and night. It maintains a high level of fine details without having noise visible. Stabilization is also slightly improved compared to the normal mode.

Using the tele and the ultra wide module, video boost also allow us to have better video quality than the normal mode, giving it even better details and reducing drastically the noise visible on the videos. It still lacks of details at medium range, just before switching to its tele dedicated camera, but once it switches level of details is quite impressive.

Please note that our tests were conducted using an HDR compatible monitor. All image quality comments are based on viewing on such a monitor.

Test summary

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL (Video Boost) Camera Scores

Video

175

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

About DXOMARK Camera Video tests

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL offers an interesting Video Boost mode, allowing the user to capture a video which will be treated on the cloud and downloaded automatically, ensuring a better quality than the on-phone videos. The final video produced can be up to 8K30fps, but we performed the tests at 4K 60fps. On the photo app two options are available, (Original quality or space saver) which will allows to have reduced sized videos (1080p). The upload and treatment process can be a bit long (1-2h for a 5s video) making it not really suitable yet for social medias but it is done automatically and the final video will be synchronized on the phone Photo app once ready.

Overall it is quite a game changer in terms of quality, ensuring a really stable experience with high level of texture and very low level of noise, offering the best video quality observed for a smartphone, outperforming the iPhone 17 Pro and of course the Pixel 10 Pro XL without VB.

Main

186

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL (Video Boost) Video scores

Exposure

126

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Exposure tests evaluate the brightness level of the main subject, the global contrast and the ability to render the dynamic range of the scene (ability to render visible details in both bright and dark areas). When the camera provides Video HDR format, the videos are analyzed with a visualization on an HDR reference monitor, under reference conditions specified in the metadata. Stability and temporal adaption of the exposure are also analyzed.

Pixel 10 Pro XL videos already offer a wide dynamic range and with good exposure in most conditions but the Video Boost allows an even better and stable exposure and dark recovery especially in lowlight conditions. The stability and the transitions in terms of exposure are also way smoother and natural. The only slight issue we noticed is in strong HDR conditions, the target exposure on face (especially on dark skin tones) tend to be slightly low, allowing a good recovery of the highlights in the background, but the face can be slightly too dark and hard to read.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL VB – Accurate exposure on both subjects, slight highlight clipping

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Target exposure slightly low on subjects, slight highlight clipping

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Accurate subject exposure, slight highlight clipping

Color

131

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Image-quality color analysis looks at color rendering, skin-tone rendering, white balance, color shading, stability of the white balance and its adaption when light is changing.

The Pixel 10 Pro is showing really good color rendering in most conditions. The Video Boost mode shows an improvement especially in terms of stability and adaptation. In bright and indoor conditions it offers a neutral and pleasant white balance, while in lowlight it tends to be more yellow green than orange. Color rendering is slightly different than the normal mode, with more vibrant colors and bluer skyes. We noticed in some cases that skin tones can be slightly too red in outdoor conditions on already red kind of skintones.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL VB – Good color rendering and skin tones, neutral white balance, accurate exposure

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Good color rendering and skin tones, neutral white balance, slightly lower exposure

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Good color rendering and skin tones, warmer white balance, accurate exposure

Sharpness & Timing

116

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

For video, autofocus tests concentrate on focus accuracy, focus stability and analysis of convergence regarding speed and smoothness.

In terms of autofocus, the Video boost mode does not show a lot of difference as it is quite depend of the original videos from the Pixel 10 Pro XL.

Texture

119

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Texture tests analyze the level of details and texture of the real-life videos as well as the videos of charts recorded in the lab. Natural videos recordings are visually evaluated, with particular attention paid to the level of details in the bright and areas as well as in the dark. Objective measurements are performed of images of charts taken in various conditions from 0.1 to 10000 lux. The charts used are the DXOMARK chart (DMC) and Dead Leaves chart.

One of the main quality of the Video Boost mode is the high level of details produced, especially compared to the original video from the Pixel 10 Pro. Fine details are very well preserved in bright conditions and still natural, and in lowlight it is better than most of the competition. Some slight local loss of details can be sometimes visible on flat areas in lowlight, but the Texture noise trade off is by far the best observed on a smartphone video.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL VB – Fine details very well preserved, natural texture rendering

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Fine details well preserved, natural texture rendering

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Fine details well preserved, natural texture rendering

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation video score vs lux levels

Noise

145

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Noise tests analyze various attributes of noise such as intensity, chromaticity, grain, structure, temporal aspects on real-life video recording as well as videos of charts taken in the lab. Natural videos are visually evaluated, with particular attention paid to the noise in the dark areas and high dynamic range conditions. Objective measurements are performed on the videos of charts recorded in various conditions from 0.1 to 10000 lux. The chart used is the DXOMARK visual noise chart.

With the Video boost mode, noise is nearly not visible even in challenging or lowlight videos. Luminance noise disappear nearly completely without impacting the level of details. Some slight chromatic noise can be sometimes visible in really low light conditions.

Spatial Noise
Temporal Noise

Spatial visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

Temporal visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

This graph shows the evolution of temporal visual noise with the level of lux. Temporal visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup.

Stabilization

124

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Stabilization evaluation tests the ability of the device to stabilize footage thanks to software or hardware technologies such as OIS, EIS, or any others means. The evaluation looks at residual motion, smoothness, jello artifacts and residual motion blur on walk and run use cases in various lighting conditions. The video below is an extract from one of the tested scenes.

Video stabilization does a good job already on the Pixel 10 Pro XL, and is even better with the Video Boost. During static or motion, movement is well compensated in most light conditions.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL VB – Slight camera shake when walking

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Slight camera shake when walking

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Walking motion well compensated for

Artifacts

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Artifacts are evaluated with MTF and ringing measurements on the SFR chart in the lab as well as frame-rate measurements using the LED Universal Timer. Natural videos are visually evaluated by paying particular attention to artifacts such as aliasing, quantization, blocking, and hue shift, among others. The more severe and the more frequent the artifact, the higher the point deduction from the score. The main artifacts and corresponding point loss are listed below.

Main video artifacts penalties

UltraWide

156

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

All image quality attributes are evaluated at focal lengths from approximately 12 mm to 300 mm, with particular attention paid to texture and smoothness of the zooming effect. The score is derived from a number of objective measurements in the lab and perceptual analysis of real-life video recordings.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

The Pixel 10 Pro XL VB offers a even better video zoom experience, especially when using the tele and ultra-wide camera modules. It uses the very wide ultra wide field to capture crisps details without visible noise in bright conditions. However, quality drop in low light, with more intrusive noise and also when zooming to the primary camera

Tele

135

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

As the Video Boost mode upgrade the results from the Pixel 10 Pro cameras, texture noise trade off is quite impressive when using its dedicated tele camera (at 5x and higher). Slight lack of details can also be noticeable at medium range (less than 5x) and jump between cameras can be noticeable.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL VB – Good focus tracking, accurate exposure, lack of fine detail at the end of the clip

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Good focus tracking, slight underexposure while subject is moving, lack of fine detail at the end of the clip

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Good focus tracking, slight underexposure while subject is moving, lack of fine detail at the end of the clip

The post Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Camera Test Video Boost appeared first on DXOMARK.

Apple iPhone Air Camera test

DXOMARK — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 09:54:19 +0000

We put the Apple iPhone Air through our rigorous DXOMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our testing with an extract of the captured data.

Overview

Key camera specifications:

Primary: 48MP 1/1.56″ sensor, 1.0µm pixels, 26mm equivalent f/1.6-aperture lens, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Apple iPhone Air

141

camera

134
Photo

166

184

165

175

169

106

169

155
Video

178

186

148

116

140

Use cases & Conditions

Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.

BEST 169

Portrait

Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people

BEST 185

Outdoor

Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)

BEST 180

Indoor

Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)

BEST 147

Lowlight

Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)

BEST 159

Zoom

Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)

Pros

Accurate target exposure and wide dynamic range
Nice color in most conditions
Good balance between texture and noise, especially in bright conditions
Good detail and exposure in night shots
Very effective image stabilization in video mode results in smooth footage

Cons

No tele or ultra-wide camera modules
Some underexposure when capturing photos of high-contrast scenes
Narrow depth of field can result in out-of-focus background subjects
Lack of detail, inaccurate exposure in bokeh mode, slight segmentation errors in difficult scenes
Slightly slow focus in photo mode, occasional loss of focus in video mode
Exposure instabilities, slight color casts and white balance adaptation issues in video

The Apple iPhone Air did well in the DXOMARK Camera tests, but the lack of dedicated tele and ultra-wide camera modules means it cannot claim a spot among the best in our ranking. In camera terms the iPhone Air is essentially a simplified version of the iPhone 17 Pro, with only one camera module instead of the Pro’s three. Performance is very close to the 17 Pro’s primary camera module, producing bright pictures with very good image quality. However, the lack of tele and ultra-wide modules impacts the Air’s photography experience, especially when compared to some direct competitors, such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, which include an ultra-wide module for added shooting flexibility.

That being said, the Air’s single camera module captures nice photos in most shooting conditions, with usually pleasant colors and warm white balance. Detail is good and noise levels are low, especially when shooting in daylight. Minor differences to the 17 Pro are noticeable in low light, where the Pro is slightly ahead in terms of detail retention and noise reduction. Like on the Pro, depth of field is slightly limited. As a result background subjects in group shots can be out of focus.

In video mode, the iPhone Air offers a wide range of resolutions and frame rates, up to 60fps at 4K and 240fps at 1080p Full HD. Our testing was performed at 4K/60fps where the device produced the overall best results, with the HDR format delivering a wide dynamic range and vivid colors. The texture/noise trade-off is good in most shooting conditions and the effective image stabilization ensures stable footage. However, our testers noticed occasional exposure instabilities and white balance adaptation issues, as well as some slight refocusing during recording.

Test summary

Apple iPhone Air Camera Scores

Photo

134

Apple iPhone Air

180

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

About DXOMARK Camera Photo tests

In our tests, image quality and camera performance of the iPhone Air were very close to the iPhone 17 Pro’s primary camera module, with similar strengths and weaknesses. Overall image quality is very good, with pleasant image output in most shooting conditions. Skin tones are rendered very well and nicely exposed, especially when images are viewed on an HDR display, but some occasional underexposure can be noticeable in difficult high-contrast scenes.

Images captured with the iPhone Air camera offer very good detail and a good trade-off between detail and noise, especially when shooting in bright light. In low light scenes noise can become more intrusive and detail levels lag slightly behind the flagship iPhone 17 Pro. The autofocus system does mostly a good job. Pictures are sharp and well focused in most situations, but the focus could be slightly faster to lock on. Depth of field is a little narrow as well, resulting in some out-of-focus background subjects in group shots.

When shooting in portrait mode, the camera produces nice pictures with a natural simulated bokeh effect. However, there can be a lack of detail on subjects and our testers also noticed some imprecise subject segmentation, especially in difficult scenes. The iPhone Air does not come with a dedicated tele zoom camera, so unsurprisingly detail in tele images could be better, especially at medium and long range tele settings. This is also where the difference to the iPhone 17 Pro is most noticeable. At close range tele, the camera produces decent detail which is pretty much on par with the flagship iPhone model.

Main

166

Apple iPhone Air

184

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Apple iPhone Air Photo scores

Exposure

125

Apple iPhone Air

134

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Color

129

Apple iPhone Air

133

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Exposure and color are the key attributes for technically good pictures. For exposure, the main attribute evaluated is the brightness level of the main subject through various use cases such as landscape, portrait, or still life. Other factors evaluated are the global contrast and the ability to render the dynamic range of the scene (ability to render visible details in both bright and dark areas). When the camera provides Photo HDR format, the images are analyzed with a visualization on an HDR reference monitor, under reference conditions specified in the ISO-22028-5 standard. Repeatability is also important because it demonstrates the camera's ability to provide the same rendering when shooting several images of the same scene.
For color, the image quality attributes analyzed are skin-tone rendering, white balance, color shading, and repeatability. For color and skin tone rendering, we penalize unnatural colors according to results gathered in various studies and consumer insights while respecting the manufacturer's choice of color signature.

Apple iPhone Air – Accurate target exposure, warm white balance, pleasant color rendering

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Accurate target exposure, warm white balance, pleasant color rendering

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge – Slight overexposure, neutral white balance, slight skin tone inaccuracies

Sharpness & Timing

116

Apple iPhone Air

135

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Autofocus tests concentrate on focus accuracy, focus repeatability, shooting time delay, and depth of field. Shooting delay is the difference between the time the user presses the capture button and the time the image is actually taken. It includes focusing speed and the capability of the device to capture images at the right time, what is called 'zero shutter lag' capability. Even if a shallow depth of field can be pleasant for a single subject portrait or close-up shot, it can also be a problem in some specific conditions such as group portraits; Both situations are tested. Focus accuracy is also evaluated in all the real-life images taken, from infinity to close-up objects and in low light to outdoor conditions.

Edge acutance irregularity and average shooting delay along all tested conditions

This graph illustrates focus irregularity and speed as well as zero shutter lag capability, for different light conditions. Each point is the result of the aggregation of the measurements for a group of 30 pictures per conditions. The y-axis shows the average acutance difference with the best focus in percentage. The lower the better. On the x-axis, a negative delay means the photo is taken just before the user triggers the shutter, a positive delay means the photo is taken just after. The closer to 0 ms, the better. Acutance and delay are measured respectively using the Dead leaves chart and the LED Universal Timer, on the AF HDR Setup.

Autofocus irregularity and speed: 1000Lux Δ0EV Daylight Handheld

Texture

124

Apple iPhone Air

132

Vivo X200 Ultra

Texture tests analyze the level of details and the texture of subjects in the images taken in the lab as well as in real-life scenarios. For natural shots, particular attention is paid to the level of details in the bright and dark areas of the image. Objective measurements are performed on chart images taken in various lighting conditions from 0.1 to 10,000+ lux and different kinds of dynamic range conditions. The charts used are the proprietary DXOMARK chart (DMC), and the Dead Leaves chart. We also have an AI based metric for the level of details on our realistic mannequins Eugene and Diana.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score vs lux levels for handheld conditions

Noise

121

Apple iPhone Air

129

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Noise tests analyze various attributes of noise such as intensity, chromaticity, grain, structure on real-life images as well as images of charts taken in the lab. For natural images, particular attention is paid to the noise on faces, landscapes, but also on dark areas and high dynamic range conditions. Noise on moving objects is also evaluated on natural images. Objective measurements are performed on images of charts taken in various conditions from 0.1 to 10000 lux and different kinds of dynamic range conditions. The chart used is the Dead Leaves chart and the standardized measurement such as Visual Noise derived from ISO 15739.

Visual noise evolution with illuminance levels in handheld condition

Artifacts

Apple iPhone Air

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

The artifacts evaluation looks at flare, lens shading, chromatic aberrations, geometrical distortion, edges ringing, halos, ghosting, quantization, unexpected color hue shifts, among others type of possible unnatural effects on photos. The more severe and the more frequent the artifact, the higher the point deduction on the score. The main artifacts observed and corresponding point loss are listed below.

Main photo artifacts penalties

Bokeh

165

Apple iPhone Air

175

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Bokeh is tested in one dedicated mode, usually portrait or aperture mode, and analyzed by visually inspecting all the images captured in the lab and in natural conditions. The goal is to reproduce portrait photography comparable to one taken with a DLSR and a wide aperture. The main image quality attributes paid attention to are depth estimation, artifacts, blur gradient, and the shape of the bokeh blur spotlights. Portrait image quality attributes (exposure, color, texture) are also taken into account.

Apple iPhone Air - Bokeh mode

Apple iPhone Air - Slight loss of detail, nice subject segmentation

Apple iPhone 17 Pro - Bokeh mode

Apple iPhone 17 Pro - Slight loss of detail, nice subject segmentation

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge - Bokeh mode

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge - Loss of detail, nice subject segmentation

Tele

106

Apple iPhone Air

169

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Apple iPhone Air Telephoto Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Apple iPhone Air - Tele zoom

Apple iPhone Air - Loss of detail

Apple iPhone 17 Pro - Tele zoom

Apple iPhone 17 Pro - Slight loss of detail

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge - Tele zoom

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge - Loss of detail

Video

155

Apple iPhone Air

172

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

About DXOMARK Camera Video tests

Not only the iPhone Air’s photo quality very close to the 17 Pro’s primary camera. The same is true for the video output. Video clips are bright, with a wide dynamic range, thanks to Apple’s HDR processing and format. Color rendering is generally accurate in most recording conditions, but our testers noticed some slight white balance casts and adaptation issues, as well as some exposure instabilities.

Video footage offers decent trade-off between texture and noise in bright light. Video noise is well under control and detail is good when recording in daylight or under typical indoor lighting. Video autofocus is fast and mostly accurate, but we did notice occasional loss of focus when tracking faces. Video stabilization is very effective, making for stable video, even when running during recording. In addition, motion is very smooth, thanks to a 60fps frame rate. The lack of tele and ultra-wide camera modules also has a negative impact on the video experience, especially when zooming. While at close range tele settings video detail is decent and on a similar level as on the iPhone 17 Pro, there is a noticeable reduction in detail at medium and long range tele.

Main

178

Apple iPhone Air

186

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Apple iPhone Air Video scores

Exposure

123

Apple iPhone Air

127

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Color

121

Apple iPhone Air

131

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Exposure tests evaluate the brightness level of the main subject, the global contrast and the ability to render the dynamic range of the scene (ability to render visible details in both bright and dark areas). When the camera provides Video HDR format, the videos are analyzed with visualization on an HDR reference monitor, under reference conditions specified in the metadata. Stability and temporal adaption of the exposure are also analyzed.
Image-quality color analysis looks at color rendering, skin-tone rendering, white balance, color shading, stability of the white balance and its adaption when light is changing.

Apple iPhone Air – Accurate target exposure, warm white balance, nice colors

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Accurate target exposure, warm white balance, nice colors

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge – Accurate target exposure, neutral white balance, slightly red skin tones on fair skin

Texture

113

Apple iPhone Air

118

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation video score vs lux levels

Noise

124

Apple iPhone Air

129

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Spatial Noise
Temporal Noise

Spatial visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

Temporal visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

This graph shows the evolution of temporal visual noise with the level of lux. Temporal visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup.

Stabilization

122

Apple iPhone Air

124

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Apple iPhone Air – Very effective stabilization

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Very effective stabilization

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge – Effective stabilization

Artifacts

Apple iPhone Air

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Main video artifacts penalties

Tele

116

Apple iPhone Air

140

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Apple iPhone Air – Accurate target exposure, slight loss of detail

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Accurate target exposure, slight loss of detail

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge – Slightly underexposed subject, slight loss of detail

The post Apple iPhone Air Camera test appeared first on DXOMARK.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Camera test

DXOMARK — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 13:22:24 +0000

We put the Apple iPhone 17 Pro through our rigorous DXOMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our testing with an extract of the captured data.

Overview

Key camera specifications:

Primary: 48MP sensor, 2.44μm quad pixels, 24mm equivalent f/1.78-aperture lens, Dual Pixel AF, OIS
Ultra-wide: 48MP sensor, 1.4μm quad-pixel, 13mm equivalent f/2.2-aperture lens, Dual Pixel AF
Tele: 48MP sensor, 1.4μm quad-pixel, 100 mm equivalent f/2.8-aperture lens, Dual Pixel AF
A19 Pro chipset

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

168

camera

166
Photo

175

184

170

175

150

169

141

169

172
Video

186

148

123

140

Use cases & Conditions

Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.

BEST 169

Portrait

Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people

Top score

Outdoor

Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)

BEST 180

Indoor

Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)

BEST 147

Lowlight

Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)

BEST 159

Zoom

Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)

Pros

Excellent video performance
Accurate exposure and wide dynamic range, even in low light
Pleasant colors across most conditions with a fairly neutral white balance.
High texture levels at preset zoom levels
Smooth zooming, including when switching between camera modules
Bokeh effect is natural in segmentation, intensity, spotlights.
Image artifacts well under control

Cons

Occasional slight focus and white balance instabilities on moving subjects in video mode
Decreased texture levels at intermediate zoom settings, close to preset levels
Slight image noise when shooting indoors or in low light

Thanks to noticeable improvements over last year’s model and excellent results across almost all test attributes, the Apple iPhone 17 Pro secures a spot among the best in the DXOMARK Camera ranking, competing head-to-head with rival flagship phones released earlier this year. The latest Apple device offers best-in-class video performance, impressive zoom capabilities, and overall great versatility.

Apple’s brand new iPhone 17 Pro comes with the company’s latest and most powerful chipset to date, the A19 Pro, which features a 6-core CPU architecture, as well as a 6-core GPU, allowing for faster processing and rendering. In addition, the new chip helps accelerate AI tasks, thanks to a new 16-core neural engine.

On the camera side, the iPhone 17 generation introduces design changes not only under the hood, but also on the exterior of the device. The raised square camera section of previous iPhone generations has been replaced by a ‘camera plateau’ which covers almost the full width of the device. The three lenses of the individual camera modules remain on the left, but the LIDAR and flash modules have been moved to the right.

On the inside, there are important improvements to the camera hardware. The dedicated tele module now comes with a 48MP sensor. After the ultra-wide camera was previously upgraded to the same resolution with the introduction of the iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max, the 17 Pro now features 48MP sensors across all three camera modules. This opens up new zooming capabilities and increases versatility. Using intelligent cropping and changing sensor capture modes, the camera is now offering a range of preset focal lengths with optimized image quality, which can be selected via dedicated buttons in the camera UI. Apple calls this the ’48MP Pro Fusion camera system’ and claims it replaces ‘8 pro lenses in your pocket.’

The following equivalent focal lengths can be selected directly via a button in the UI when shooting under normal light conditions:

- macro (12MP)
- 13mm (0.5x, 24MP)
- 24mm (1x, 24MP)
- 35mm (1.5x, 24MP)
- 48mm (2x, 12MP)
- 100mm (4x, 24MP)
- 200mm (8x, 12MP)

In very low light (5 lux and less), the camera switches to the long exposure night mode which was introduced with the iPhone 11 in 2019. In this mode the output resolution is 12MP.

Video mode has been improved as well. The iPhone camera now offers a Dual Recording feature which allows for simultaneous recording with the front and rear cameras. This way a scene and the videographer’s reaction to it can be filmed at the same time. On the primary camera module, the 17 Pro can now also record 120fps slow motion video in Dolby 4K HDR. This feature is not tested under our v6 test protocol, however.

For videographers who want or need maximum flexibility in post editing, and do not mind very large file sizes, there is now also a new ProRes RAW recording mode which allows for a direct recording of the raw data from the sensor. This feature is not available through the default camera app, though.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro
Good contrast and exposure, vibrant colors, high levels of detail

BEST 147

Lowlight

The iPhone 17 Pro captures beautiful images with high levels of detail in low light, and generally maintains a 24MP output size. Even in extremely low light the camera is still capable of capturing scenes without any moving subjects by triggering its long exposure night mode. Images taken in this mode still show high levels of detail and natural rendering, earning the iPhone the current number one spot in the photo night ranking.

Noise in low light images is managed better than on the previous iPhone Pro generation, but the Apple device still lacks behind the best-in-class devices in this respect. For example, noise can become quite intrusive in some low light scenes with high contrast.

Low light videos look great on the iPhone 17 Pro, thanks to a natural overall rendering with great color, texture and noise management.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – accurate target exposure, high level of details but some slight noise visible in the field

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – accurate target exposure, high level of details but some slight noise visible in the field

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – accurate target exposure, high level of details, noise is well controlled

BEST 169

Portrait

The Apple iPhone 17 Pro delivers excellent portrait images, thanks to very good skin tone rendering as well as high levels of detail on faces. HDR playback allows for an even more stunning rendering, boosting color and brightness when needed, for example in HDR scenes. Zero shutter lag integration means there is no delay when pressing the shutter button, allowing to capture exactly the desired moment. This works well, even in low light, but not after the camera has switched to the long exposure night mode.

In group portrait scenes, with subjects at different distances to the camera, the iPhone’s slightly limited depth-of-field means that subjects towards the back of the scene can appear out of focus.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

BEST 159

Zoom

Zoom is an area where the iPhone 17 Pro shines particularly bright. The camera’s tele module now comes with a 48MP sensor and a 4x optical zoom factor. It also features Apple’s Fusion Camera technology, making the 17 Pro the first iPhone with Fusion Camera across all camera modules. The new tele module offers an improved long range performance, allowing the 17 Pro, taking the iPhone much closer to the best rivals in terms of long range tele photo and video performance. Apple’s Fusion Camera feature provides improved detail across the zoom range, but particularly at the zoom presets in the camera UI, for example at 2x and 8x zoom factors.

On the ultra-wide camera reduced noise is the most obvious improvement, but the increased 24MP output size also makes for better detail and improved rendering of fine textures. It is also worth mentioning that pinch zooming works very smoothly during video recording. Some parallax is inevitable due to the different positions of the camera modules on the device, but you have to look very carefully to notice transitions between camera modules during zooming.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – 4x high level of texture, very low level of noise

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – 5x high level of texture, slight noise, slight uneven texture rendering

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – 4x high level of texture, very low level of noise

Test summary

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Camera Scores

Photo

166

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

180

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

About DXOMARK Camera Photo tests

Like previous iPhone generations, the iPhone 17 Pro again delivers still image performance that is among the best we have seen. Images consistently show high levels of detail, even in difficult night conditions, and unwanted image artifacts are very well under control. Portrait shots with the primary cam offer outstanding natural and detailed face rendering, as well as very nice skin tones.

Landscapes are beautifully rendered as well, featuring the deep blue skies with rich cloud detail that Apple devices are generally known for. The ultra-wide camera makes it easy to squeeze more landscape into the frame by zooming out, but keep in mind there will be slightly more image noise than on the primary camera.

The new 4x tele camera performs very well for long range tele shots. Thanks to Apple’s Fusion Camera system, rendering is excellent at intermediate zoom levels as well, especially at the presets that can be set via dedicated buttons in the camera UI, for example 4x and 8x. At the 4x setting the camera produces 24MP image output, but this can be reduced to 12MP at some intermediate zoom settings. This said, rendering always remains natural with good detail. At intermediate zoom settings that are very close to the preset values, for example 3.9x or 1.9x, the level of detail is slightly lower. We would therefore recommend against using those settings whenever possible.

Main

175

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

184

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Photo scores

In daylight shooting the iPhone 17 Pro is one of the very best devices tested to date. In photo mode the camera delivers accurate exposure and a wide dynamic range, thanks to Apple’s proprietary Smart HDR 5 technology, which is capable of recovering noticeable amounts of fine detail in the brightest highlights and darkest shadow portions of the frame.

While face contrast is pleasant, in sunny conditions white balance can occasionally appear slightly more yellow than on competing devices at default settings. In addition, darker skin tones can show a slightly reddish undertone. This can be easily fixed, though, thanks to the Photographic Styles feature which allows for intelligent tone, color, and look customization after capture. First introduced with the iPhone 13 series in 2021 and improved for the latest models, this feature is not covered by our current test protocol, however.

Close-Up

In macro mode, the iPhone 17 Pro uses its ultra-wide camera to capture close-up shots with good detail preservation, especially at the center of the frame. While the overall rendering is pleasant, sharpness and detail tend to drop off slightly toward the edges, and fine textures are not as well defined as on devices like the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, which benefits from dedicated macro options and more advanced processing. Nonetheless, the iPhone delivers consistent macro performance with natural colors and decent subject isolation, making it a reliable option for everyday close-up photography.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Good detail, slight noise, loss of sharpness at the edges

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Good detail, slight noise, loss of sharpness at the edges

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Good fine detail, slight noise, few loss of sharpness at the edges

Exposure

126

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

134

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Exposure is one of the key attributes for technically good pictures. The main attribute evaluated is the brightness level of the main subject through various use cases such as landscape, portrait, or still life. Other factors evaluated are the global contrast and the ability to render the dynamic range of the scene (ability to render visible details in both bright and dark areas). When the camera provides Photo HDR format, the images are analyzed with a visualization on an HDR reference monitor, under reference conditions specified in the ISO-22028-5 standard. Repeatability is also important because it demonstrates the camera's ability to provide the same rendering when shooting several images of the same scene.

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

These graphs represent the output level on the face measured on the images captured by the device under test in multiple lighting conditions on the AFHDR Portrait setup. We show here the intensity measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin, for a picture displayed on a HDR monitor in standard ISO/TS 22028-5 playback conditions. The multiple lighting conditions of the scene are characterized by the illumination level in lux and the relative brightness of the backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions. The intensity is measured in JND derived from the ICtCp color space.

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Eugene)

Like on previous iPhone models and current flagship phones from other manufacturers, images are well exposed across all test conditions, even in very low light, thanks to the automatic triggering of a dedicated night mode. First launched on the iPhone 11 in 2019, this mode uses a long exposure time to optimize light collection. This works very well, as long as there are no moving subjects in the scene. Our testers found that night mode activated at light levels of around 5 Lux or lower.

Dynamic range is wide in most conditions, thanks to Apple’s proprietary Smart HDR 5 technology, which is capable of recovering noticeable amounts of fine detail in the brightest highlights and darkest shadow portions of the frame. This said, some competitors, such as the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, sometimes achieve an even wider dynamic range when capturing very challenging high-contrast scenes, such as a backlit portraits of subjects with darker skin tones.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Accurate exposure, wide dynamic range

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Accurate exposure, fairly wide dynamic range

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Accurate exposure, wide dynamic range

In some scenes with very strong backlighting the camera is still capable of preserving good contrast, but at the expense of shadow detail.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro - Shadow detail in backlit scene

Apple iPhone 17 Pro - Accurate exposure, but some loss of shadow detail

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Shadow detail in backlit scene

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Accurate exposure, nice contrast with decent shadow detail

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra - Shadow detail in backlit scene

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra - Accurate exposure, better shadow detail but slightly low contrast

Contrast is very nice with images viewed on an HDR display, thanks to the use of an embedded gain map which provides well-balanced contrast levels on faces and realistic highlights in the background. This is achieved without brightening the picture too much, unlike we have seen on some competing devices.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Brightest highlights boosted in HDR

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Brightest highlights vigorously boosted in HDR

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Brightest highlights slightly boosted in HDR

Color

131

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

133

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Color is one of the key attributes for technically good pictures. The image quality attributes analyzed are skin-tone rendering, white balance, color shading, and repeatability. For color and skin tone rendering, we penalize unnatural colors according to results gathered in various studies and consumer insights while respecting the manufacturer's choice of color signature.

Like most previous iPhone cameras, the 17 Pro delivers excellent results in the color test. Colors are nice and rich, with a generally neutral white balance. In portrait shots skin tones are very nuanced across all skin types. Compared to last year’s iPhone generation, white balance is even more neutral, but with a preference for warmer tones in sunny conditions.

Color can be modified in the camera app after capture, using the latest generation of the Photographic Styles feature. It allows for adjustment of the tonal balance while taking into account scene content, including skin tones if there are human subjects in the frame.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Nuanced skin tones, warm white balance in sunny conditions

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Nice color rendering, very neutral white balance, good skin tone rendering

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Nice color rendering and skin tones, slightly warm white balance

Sharpness & Timing

120

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

135

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Sharpness & Timing tests concentrate on focus accuracy, focus repeatability, shooting time delay, and depth-of-field. Shooting delay is the difference between the time the user presses the capture button and the time the image is actually taken. It includes focusing speed and the capability of the device to capture images at the right time, what is called 'zero shutter lag' capability. Even if a shallow depth-of-field can be pleasant for a single subject portrait or close-up shot, it can also be a problem in some specific conditions such as group portraits; Both situations are tested. Focus accuracy is also evaluated in all the real-life images taken, from infinity to close-up objects and in low light to outdoor conditions.

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Diana setup: 10000Lux Δ0EV D55 Handheld

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Eugene setup: 5Lux Δ0EV 2700K Handheld

Zero shutter lag technology is well implemented across almost all shooting conditions, making it easy to capture the decisive moment. This is in line with previous iPhone models and most current flagship phones.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Zero shutter lag well implemented

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Zero shutter lag well implemented

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Zero shutter lag well implemented

Depth-of-field on the 17 Pro’s primary camera is slightly limited, which becomes particularly noticeable in portrait shots with multiple subjects at different distances to the camera. In this situation subjects toward the back can end up out of focus. Devices featuring a variable aperture, such as the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, are capable of widening the depth-of-field when such scenes are detected, keeping all subjects in focus.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Focus on largest face in the frame, background subject out of focus, ƒ/1.8

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Focus on largest face in the frame, background subject out of focus, ƒ/1.7

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Focus on largest face in the frame, background subject in of focus, ƒ/1.7

Texture

128

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

132

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score vs lux levels for handheld conditions

The Apple iPhone 17 Pro generally captures images with high levels of detail, down to low light. Portrait shots show natural and detailed facial features, including eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes and beards. In addition, the 24MP pixel counts allows for plenty of zooming-in during image review if required. This said, in some more complex backlit low light scenes, competitors, such as the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, are sometimes capable of preserving better detail in faces.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Excellent detail

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – High levels of detail

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Excellent detail

The iPhone 17 Pro is our new number one device for night shooting. When shooting at light levels of 5 lux or under the camera switches to its night mode which uses a long exposure of 1 second or even longer. While in this mode, the camera produces lower resolution 12MP images than in the 24MP default mode. It captures higher levels of detail than last year’s iPhone generation and provides natural detail rendering, avoiding issues we have seen on some competitors.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Good texture/noise trade-off, very fine detail

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Loss of fine detail

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Unnatural detail rendering

Noise

120

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

129

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Visual noise evolution with illuminance levels in handheld condition

Noise remains one of the areas for improvement on the iPhone 17 Pro. Noise is generally well under control when shooting in daylight, with only some fine luminance noise occasionally noticeable in the shadow portions of the frame. However, luminance noise becomes more intrusive in complex HDR indoor scenes, and particularly in low light scenes, especially when zooming in to a 100% view.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Luminance noise with slight chroma component on face and in shadows

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Slight luminance noise, chroma noise patches

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Low noise levels

Artifacts

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Main photo artifacts penalties

As it is common for Apple’s iPhone devices, artifacts are well under control on the 17 Pro, with only some occasional moiré, flare and ghosting effects noticeable.

Bokeh

170

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

175

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Bokeh mode on the iPhone 17 Pro delivers a refined portrait experience, with well-executed subject isolation and a softly dimmed background blur that enhances depth and focus. Subject segmentation is fairly accurate and natural, producing convincing results in most scenarios. However, segmentation around fine details such as hair strands or eyeglass frames is slightly less precise when compared to competitors like the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra or Oppo Find X8 Ultra.

The background blur is nicely rendered, with a realistic gradient and well-shaped spotlights that contribute to a natural depth-of-field effect. Even in night conditions, the iPhone manages to maintain good subject isolation and relatively good detail rendering, offering consistent portrait performance across varying light conditions. Overall, the bokeh mode on the iPhone 17 Pro delivers visually pleasing images and a reliable experience, making it well-suited for mobile portrait photography.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Good subject segmentation, slightly less effective on very fine detail, natural background spotlights

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Good subject segmentation, nice background spotlights

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Excellent subject segmentation, effective on very fine detail, such as hair strands, nice background spotlights

Tele

141

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

169

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Telephoto Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

The Apple iPhone 17 Pro delivers impressive detail rendering across all zoom ranges, showing notable improvements over last year’s model. Exposure and color rendering are consistently good, resulting in images that are both sharp and visually pleasing. Thanks to the advanced Fusion Camera system, the device manages to lift image quality at intermediate zoom factors, such as 2x and 8x, providing a solid experience across the entire zoom range.

However, when setting the zoom to a ratio just below the preset values, which can be set via dedicated buttons in the camera UI, the camera does not engage the fusion process, resulting in a noticeable loss of texture. In addition, at long range tele zoom beyond 8x, the level of detail drops significantly compared to some competitors, such as the Vivo X200 Ultra or the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra. Both these devices benefit from dedicated long range tele modules and advanced image processing. Despite these limitations, the overall improvements in detail, exposure, and color make the iPhone 17 Pro a strong tele zoom performer in its class.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – (8x | 200 mm) Good detail but loss of very fine detail

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – (8x | 200 mm) Good detail but loss of fine detail

Vivo X200 Ultra – (8x | 200 mm) Good detail, even very fine detail preserved

UltraWide

150

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

169

Vivo X200 Ultra

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Ultra-Wide Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

The iPhone 17 Pro comes with an ultra-wide camera that has been improved over its predecessor. It offers a wide dynamic range and, thanks to an increased 24MP output size, captures higher levels of detail than before, with natural rendering. Noise artifacts are noticeable, though, not only slightly on subjects, but also across the frame. Compared to competitors, such as the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra or Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, the difference is noticeable.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – (0.6x | 16 mm) Good exposure and color, good detail rendering, fine noise

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – (0.6x | 16mm ) Good exposure and color, good detail rendering, fine noise

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – (0.6x | 16 mm) Good exposure and color, fine detail preservation, limited noise

Video

172

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

About DXOMARK Camera Video tests

Like previous iPhone generations, the new iPhone 17 Pro makes it to the very top of our video ranking, thanks to the best video performance we have seen to date and improvements over the iPhone 16 generation across all test conditions. The iPhone 17 Pro’s video mode was tested at 4K resolution and 60fps in Dolby HDR mode which provided the overall best results.

Like in photo mode, both videos with human subjects and landscape videos offer high texture levels and low noise, even in low light. This is a noticeable improvement over last year’s iPhone models. Adaptations to changes in the scene are managed very well, too. Exposure, color and autofocus transitions are very smooth, with very few artifacts. The image stabilization system counteracts camera shake effectively during handheld recording standing still and when walking. It is even capable of smoothing gentle running motion. Adding the 60fps frame rate into the mix as well the iPhone 17 Pro provides an overall very smooth and natural video experience.

Main

186

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Video scores

Exposure

127

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

The Apple iPhone 17 Pro delivers accurate video exposure with a wide dynamic range. In addition, transitions during light changes are smooth across all test conditions.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – accurate target exposure, good contrast and extended dynamic range

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – accurate target exposure, good contrast and extended dynamic

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – accurate target exposure, good contrast and extended dynamic

Color

131

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Image-quality color analysis looks at color rendering, skin-tone rendering, white balance, color shading, stability of the white balance and its adaption when light is changing.

Like for still images, color is a strength of the 17 Pro’s video mode. White balance is neutral and colors are rich yet natural, even in low light. White balance transitions during scene changes are very smooth.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – neutral white balance with pleasant color rendering, face presents a wide variety of tones.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – neutral white balance with pleasant color rendering, face presents a wide variety of tones.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – visible white balance adaptation, pleasant color rendering, though the skin tone colors are more mono-chromatic

Sharpness & Timing

118

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

124

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

For video, autofocus tests concentrate on focus accuracy, focus stability and analysis of convergence regarding speed and smoothness.

Video autofocus performance is in line with other current flagship phones. The focus is very fast to react and converge when a new target appears in the frame. Subject tracking is excellent, even when moving during recording. A slight change in field of view is noticeable when the autofocus switches target, though. The Huawei Pura 80 Ultra corrects this.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – subject is always in focus, when changing of target: fast to react

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – subject is kept in focus, when changing of target: fast to react

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – subject is always kept in focus, when changing of target: fast to react with no stuttering of the AF

Texture

117

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

118

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

The Apple iPhone 17 Pro shows consistently high levels of detail and natural texture rendering across all test conditions. Video detail performance is on a comparable level to other current flagship smartphones.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation video score vs lux levels

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – High levels of detail

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – High levels of detail

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – High levels of detail

Noise

129

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Video noise is managed very well across pretty much all test conditions and the new iPhone is the best device in this category to date. As a result the texture/noise trade-off is very good in all test conditions as well.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Either on faces or in the background, noise is well kept under control.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – A slight luminance noise is visible on dark parts.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – A slight chrominance and luminance noise is visible, affecting faces.

Spatial Noise
Temporal Noise

Spatial visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

Temporal visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

This graph shows the evolution of temporal visual noise with the level of lux. Temporal visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup.

Stabilization

124

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

During handheld recording camera shake is very effectively compensated for. Rendering is smooth and fluid, with almost no artifacts, even when walking fast or running gently while recording. This can create an almost cinematic sensation.

It is worth mentioning that the iPhone features a dedicated Sports mode in video that applies more extreme stabilization by cropping deeper into the video frames before aligning them which results in a lower output resolution. This mode is not covered by our test protocol, however.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – Very effective motion compensation when walking and limited judder result in smooth video

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Effective motion compensation, some slight camera shake

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Very effective motion compensation when walking, barely noticeable vibrations

Artifacts

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Like its recent predecessors, the iPhone 17 Pro offers a fast 4K HDR 60fps frame rate, contributing to a reduction of unwanted artifacts, such as the judder effect, which can occur during panning shots. Our testers observed other common artifacts, such as aliasing, flare, and ringing, in some scenes, but their impact on overall quality is usually small. Flare can be quite noticeable in some scenes with the sun, or a strong light source inside the frame, but this is common to most flagship devices.

It is worth noting that in very low light the frame rate is reduced to 30fps rate in order to increase exposure.

Main video artifacts penalties

UltraWide

148

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

The iPhone 17 Pro shines in ultra-wide video, earning itself the number spot in this test category. Recorded clips are exposed well, even in difficult light conditions, and offer a wide dynamic range. Footage looks sharp and detailed, with nice and natural colors.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – high level of details

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – fine level of details

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – fine level of details

Tele

123

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

140

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Video zoom is one of the areas where camera systems are pushed to their limits. On the iPhone 17 Pro, Apple’s Fusion system delivers consistent detail and smooth transitions across a range of focal lengths. Our lab results show the video zoom performance across several zoom settings, from moderate to longer telephoto:

- 60mm equivalent (approximately 2x): Fusion system of the primary camera performs very well, better than the competition.
- 72mm Equivalent (approximately 2.4x): Drop in detail across all flagship phones, due to heavy cropping of the primary camera sensor.
- 93mm equivalent (approximately 3x): iPhone crops further into the sensor, reducing detail even more. Huawei Pura 80 Ultra and other competitors have already switched to their dedicated medium tele modules and therefore capture better detail.
- 127mm equivalent (approximately 4x); iPhone tele module is now in use and the performance gap to the competition is closed. The 17 Pro captures better detail than last year’s model and comes close to the Oppo Find X8 Ultra.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – high level of details

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – fine level of details

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – high level of details

Zoom smoothness:
The iPhone 17 Pro does a great job in terms of zoom smoothness. Switches between camera modules are smooth and hardly noticeable. During testing our experts also noticed that at some switching points, for example 2x and 8x, there seems to be a sudden increase in image detail. This is probably enabled by the fusion camera system, allowing for optimized detail across the entire focal range.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro – very smooth transition when switching between camera modules, slight increase of details at intermediate zoom factors (2x and 8x)

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – slight jump between camera modules, and a bit of jerkiness at very long range movement

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – slight jump between camera modules

The post Apple iPhone 17 Pro Camera test appeared first on DXOMARK.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Camera Test

DXOMARK — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 17:00:56 +0000

Overview

Key camera specifications:

Primary: 50MP 1/1.3″ sensor, 1.2µm pixels, 25mm equivalent f/1.68-aperture lens, Octa PD, OIS
Ultra-wide: 48MP 1/2.55″ sensor, 0.7µm pixels, 13mm equivalent f/1.7-aperture lens, Quad PD
Tele: 48MP 1/2.55″ sensor, 0.7µm pixels, 128mm equivalent f/2.8-aperture lens, Quad PD, OIS

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

163

camera

165
Photo

173

184

160

175

158

169

141

169

160
Video

172

186

145

148

118

140

Use cases & Conditions

Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.

BEST 169

Portrait

Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people

BEST 185

Outdoor

Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)

BEST 180

Indoor

Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)

BEST 147

Lowlight

Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)

BEST 159

Zoom

Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)

Pros

Generally good exposure and wide dynamic range for photo and video
Accurate white balance with generally good skin tones for photo and video
Few artifacts compared to competition
Good texture/noise trade-off in daylight, with fine detail and low noise
Quite reliable autofocus with fast convergence
Good detail in telephoto shots

Cons

Local noise in still images, temporal noise in low light video
Low light detail slightly behind competitors
Flare in some outdoor scenes
Slight lack of detail in medium range zoom shots
Depth estimation artifacts in bokeh mode

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL delivered a solid performance in the DXOMARK Camera tests, earning itself a spot among the best devices in our current ranking. The latest Google flagship phone uses the same camera modules as its predecessor Pixel 9 Pro XL but, thanks to the new Tensor G5 chipset, camera performance has improved significantly in some areas.

Still images come with good exposure and a wide dynamic range, as well as generally nice colors and accurate white balance. Artifacts are very well under control, with only some ghosting and halo effects occasionally noticeable. The camera also maintains a very good trade-off between noise reduction and detail retention, but cannot quite keep up with the very best in this respect.

The new Pixel captures high levels of detail at the native focal length of its dedicated 5x tele zoom camera module, but a lack of detail and texture is noticeable at shorter tele zoom settings. As for the ultra-wide camera, it delivers a great performance, capturing very detailed images with an expansive field of view.

Like for photo, the Pixel 10 Pro XL is among the best in video mode, thanks to a quite wide dynamic range and nice colors. In terms of white balance control and exposure, it even outperforms some of the very best competitors, such as the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max. Video detail is quite good and noise levels are kept low in daylight recording, but the texture/noise balance drops somewhat off as the light gets dimmer. Video stabilization is pretty effective, despite some noticeable camera shake when walking during recording.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL also comes with Google’s cloud based Video Boost which provides outstanding video quality. Pro Res Zoom is a feature that enhances image quality at tele zoom factors between 30x and 100x, using generative AI. However, this feature does not activate if a face is detected in the frame to avoid unnatural facial distortions. Other imaging-related AI features include Camera Coach which helps with framing and use of camera modes, based on the scene, as well as intelligent object removal and group shot optimization tools. Keep an eye on our website if you are interested in more information about Video Boost. A dedicated content detailing the impact of Video Boost on the device’s performance will be available soon .

Please note that our tests were conducted using an HDR compatible monitor. All image quality comments are based on viewing on such a monitor.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Accurate target exposure on subject, pleasant white balance and skin tones

BEST 147

Lowlight

The Pixel 10 Pro XL does well in low light, with the auto exposure system generally ensuring good exposure of the scene. Compared to its predecessor, on the new Google flagship noise management has been improved significantly, especially when recording video. In addition, the camera produces nice skin tones in low light. On the downside, while video clips offer decent detail, there is a lack of fine detail. Our experts also observed some slight exposure inconsistencies in low light.

BEST 169

Portrait

The Pixel 10 Pro XL camera renders portraits very well. Skin tones are true to reality, and exposure is generally accurate, even in dimmer conditions. In group shots, all subjects are usually in focus, thanks to a software-enhanced depth of field. In night portraits, some loss of detail on faces is noticeable, however.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Nice skin tones, good exposure

BEST 159

Zoom

Thanks to its dedicated 5x tele module, the Pixel 10 Pro XL captures high levels of detail at a 5x tele zoom ratio. Noise can sometimes be observed locally, but is overall quite well controlled. Between 1x and 5x tele settings, digital zoom crops the main sensor to achieve the desired magnification, resulting in a slight loss of detail.

Between 3x and 5x zoom factors the camera is not capable of maintaining the same level of detail that is captured at the tele and primary camera’s native focal lengths, and a slight drop in detail and texture is noticeable. Overall, for telephoto the Pixel 10 Pro XL lags slightly behind the best in class devices which usually use larger sensors and dual-tele setups. This said, tele-zooming with the new Google flagship is still a quite satisfying experience.

The ultra-wide camera offers a quite expansive field of view at 13mm equivalent. It captures good detail but some image noise can often be noticeable, especially when shooting under indoor lighting.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Nice colors and good detail at 5x tele zoom

Test summary

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Camera Scores

Photo

165

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

180

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

About DXOMARK Camera Photo tests

Main

173

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

184

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Photo scores

The Pixel 10 Pro XL does very well in still image mode. Images show good exposure, with a wide dynamic range. Our testers only noticed occasional low contrast on faces in very difficult light conditions. Detail rendering is good, with only some local loss of detail, mainly in difficult light situations, such as backlit scenes. Image noise is pretty well under control, too, with noise only becoming more intrusive in night shots or the shadow portions of the frame. Overall, unwanted artifacts are well under control as well, but in bright daylight flare can be quite intrusive. Our experts also noticed some ringing and, very rarely, hue shifts.

Close-Up

In macro mode the Pixel 10 Pro XL captures images with quite high levels of detail at the center of the frame. However, sharpness and detail drop off noticeably towards the edges. Our testers also found color rendering to be somewhat dull in some low light macro scenes, but with indoor macro shots the Pixel applies a warmer white balance than the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Good detail, slight noise, loss of sharpness at the edges, warm white balance, slight underexposure

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL – Good detail, slight noise, loss of sharpness at the edges, warm white balance, slight underexposure

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Good detail, loss of sharpness at the edges, neutral white balance and brighter exposure

Exposure

130

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

134

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Eugene)

The Pixel 10 Pro XL camera’s target exposure is generally accurate on portraits and landscape images. In addition, the wide dynamic range ensures decent detail, even in the highlight portions of the frame.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Accurate target exposure, controlled hue shift in the sky

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Accurate target exposure, slight hue shift in the sky, halo artifacts on the tree

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Accurate target exposure, slight hue shift in the sky

It is also worth mentioning that the Google camera struggles with rendering faces in backlit scenes. In such conditions local contrast is often slightly low on faces.

Color

130

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

133

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

The latest Google flagship phone provides excellent color rendering in most use cases, earning itself a position among the best in the color ranking. Skin tones look nice and natural, even on fine skin detail, and our testers found white balance to be quite neutral across most test scenes.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Natural skin tone rendering, natural contrast on face

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL – Orange undertone on face and warmer white balance

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Accurate skin tone but stronger contrast on face

Sharpness & Timing

115

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

135

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Diana setup: 10000Lux Δ0EV D55 Handheld

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Eugene setup: 5Lux Δ0EV 2700K Handheld

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL’s autofocus performs accurately in most situations. In our test samples we only found a few inconsistencies in series of consecutive shots. Like the previous generation Pixel 9 Pro XL, the Pixel 10 Pro XL uses a detail recovery algorithm that helps maintain good sharpness on background faces in group shots, despite the camera’s large f/1.68 aperture. However, this feature also results in sharpness differences between face and body. Overall, depth of field feels a little wider than on the Pixel 9 Pro XL, but is still more limited compared to the best in class competitors that feature variable apertures.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Group shot

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Decent detail on background subject

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Group shot

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Loss of sharpness on background subject

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Group shot

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Loss of sharpness on background subject

Texture

123

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

132

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score vs lux levels for handheld conditions

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL captures quite high levels of detail, with detail rendering that is very close to the predecessor Pixel 9 Pro XL. A slight loss of detail is noticeable in low light conditions, but blur on moving subjects in the frame is usually well under control, even in dimmer scenes.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Detail

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - High levels of detail with good contrast on face

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Detail

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - High levels of detail, low face contrast

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Detail

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Sharper details, higher contrast on face

Noise

122

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

129

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Visual noise evolution with illuminance levels in handheld condition

Image noise is mostly well controlled on the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, especially when shooting in daylight. However, in lower light, for example night scenes, noise can be quite intrusive, especially closer to the edges and in the shadow portions of the frame.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Low light noise

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Noise

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Low light noise

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Slight noise

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Low light noise

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Slight noise

Artifacts

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Main photo artifacts penalties

Bokeh

160

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

175

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

The Pixel 10 Pro XL portrait mode delivers pretty good results, with nice skin tones and accurate target exposure. However, the segmentation of fine details, such as the subject’s hair, remains an area for improvement. Here the Pixel lags behind the best in class devices which are capable of isolating very fine detail from the background and make it look natural. Our testers also noticed a slight lack of detail on the subject and aliasing along edges.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Bokeh mode

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Slight lack of detail, segmentation errors around fine detail

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Bokeh mode

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Lack of fine detail, segmentation artifacts around subject's hair

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Bokeh mode

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Slight loss of detail, slightly better edge detail

Tele

141

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

169

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Telephoto Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

The new Google flagship phone offers a good telephoto shooting experience overall, with the camera capturing good detail at a 5x tele zoom factor. Noise is overall quite well under control but becomes noticeable in the shadows and in backlit scenes at 5x and longer zoom settings. At shorter telephoto factors (less than 5x) digital zoom is used. At these settings detail is inconsistent and drops before going back up again at 5x where the dedicated tele camera takes over. At shorter tele settings noise is also noticeable, mainly in portrait shots and areas of plain color.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - 5x tele

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - More fine detail and lower noise than competitors

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - 5x tele

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - Fine luminance noise

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - 5x Tele

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - More loss of fine detail than Pixel 10 Pro XL

UltraWide

158

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

169

Vivo X200 Ultra

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Ultra-Wide Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

The Pixel’s ultra-wide camera offers an expansive 13mm equivalent field of view. Images show good detail but some noise can be noticeable, especially when shooting under typical indoor lighting. Our testers also noticed some ringing in daylight shots.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Ultra-wide, indoor conditions

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL - Decent amount of detail, slight noise

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Ultra-wide, indoor conditions

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Low levels of detail, slight noise

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Ultra-wide, indoor conditions

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Low levels of detail, noise

Video

160

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

172

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

About DXOMARK Camera Video tests

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL is a great choice for shooting smartphone videos, thanks to very few exposure adaptation issues, generally good exposure and a quite wide dynamic range. In bright light recording, footage shows a good balance between noise reduction and detail retention, and color rendering is pleasant and stable. That said, our testers noticed a few exposure inconsistencies and the Google phone is not quite on par with the best in class in terms of stabilization.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL video mode was tested in HDR mode at 4K resolution and 30fps (maximum frame rate in HDR mode), which provides the overall best results. In addition, outside of our typical protocol, we also performed tests using Google’s Video Boost mode at 4K and 60fps (up to 8K at 30fps is available). While the results of video boost were not included in the final video score, In this mode the Pixel 10 Pro XL scored an outstanding 175, crushing the competition in the DXOMARK video test.

Main

172

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

186

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Video scores

Exposure

123

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

127

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Pixel 10 Pro XL videos offer a wide dynamic range and generally good exposure but our testers saw some occasional underexposure in difficult light situations. We also noticed a few exposure inconsistencies in low light, and slightly jerky adaptation in changing light conditions.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Accurate subject exposure, slight highlight clipping

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL – Accurate subject exposure, slight highlight clipping, strong face contrast

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Accurate subject exposure, slight highlight clipping

Color

129

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

131

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Image-quality color analysis looks at color rendering, skin-tone rendering, white balance, color shading, stability of the white balance and its adaption when light is changing.

Video footage features nice colors and natural skin tones. Our testers only noticed very few temporal white balance issues with changing scene content.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Good color rendering and skin tones, neutral white balance, accurate exposure

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL – Good color rendering and skin tones, neutral white balance, slightly lower exposure

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Good color rendering and skin tones, warmer white balance, accurate exposure

Sharpness & Timing

121

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

124

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

For video, autofocus tests concentrate on focus accuracy, focus stability and analysis of convergence regarding speed and smoothness.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL video autofocus performs quite well, with accurate tracking keeping the subject in focus. Our experts only observed some issues in scenes with subjects in multiple planes. In this kind of situation, the camera did not always lock focus on the subject closest to the camera.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Good tracking, smooth adaptation when subjects leave the frame

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL – Good tracking, smooth adaptation when subjects leave the frame

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Good tracking and smooth adaptation

Texture

112

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

118

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL video footage offers high levels of detail. However, in challenging conditions, such as backlit indoor scenes or low light, a slight loss of fine detail can be observed. Compared to the predecessor Pixel 9 Pro this is a slight step backwards.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation video score vs lux levels

Noise

112

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

129

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Video noise is well under control on the Pixel 10 Pro XL which is a noticeable improvement over the Pixel 9 Pro XL, especially in difficult light. Noise levels are low in daylight recording, but noise is more noticeable in difficult conditions, such as backlit indoor scenes or dim light, where our testers observed shadow noise and noise in areas of plain color.

Spatial Noise
Temporal Noise

Spatial visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

Temporal visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

This graph shows the evolution of temporal visual noise with the level of lux. Temporal visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup.

Stabilization

114

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

124

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Video stabilization does a good job, especially when standing still during recording. However, when walking or running, camera motion is not fully compensated for. Slight camera shake is noticeable at each step. The best in class competitors are capable of producing smoother walking videos.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Slight camera shake when walking

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL – Slight camera shake when walking

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Walking motion well compensated for

Artifacts

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Main video artifacts penalties

UltraWide

145

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

148

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

The Pixel 10 Pro XL offers a nice video zoom experience, especially when zooming between the ultra-wide and primary camera modules. It also comes with a wider field of view in ultra-wide video than one of its closest competitors, the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, and achieves the best results for ultra-wide video among all devices tested to date. In daylight recording, textures look nice and noise is well under control and lower than on the Pixel 9 Pro XL. However, quality drops somewhat in low light, with more intrusive noise and a loss of detail.

Tele

118

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

140

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

When recording with the dedicated tele camera at 5x, the 10 Pro XL delivers high levels of detail, with an excellent texture/noise trade-off in daylight and under indoor lighting. However, a slight lack of detail is noticeable at medium telephoto settings (less than 5x). In addition, the camera is capable of tracking the subject well during video zoom action. However, when switching between the primary and tele cameras during recording an obvious jump is noticeable.

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL – Good focus tracking, accurate exposure, lack of fine detail at the end of the clip

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL – Good focus tracking, slight underexposure while subject is moving, lack of fine detail at the end of the clip

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max- Good focus tracking, slight underexposure while subject is moving, lack of fine detail at the end of the clip

The post Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Camera Test appeared first on DXOMARK.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra Camera Test

DXOMARK — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 13:01:35 +0000

We put the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra through our rigorous DXOMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our testing with an extract of the captured data.

Overview

Key camera specifications:

Primary: 50MP 1″ sensor, 1.6µm pixels, 22.5mm equivalent f/1.6-4 aperture lens, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
Ultra-wide: 40MP 1/2.8″ sensor, 0.7µm pixels, 13mm equivalent f/2.2-aperture lens
Tele: 50MP 1/1.28″ sensor, PDA, OIS (used by both periscope style tele lenses)
Tele lens 1: 83mm equivalent f/2.4-aperture lens, 50MP image output
Tele lens 2: 212mm equivalent f/3.6-aperture lens, 12.5MP image output

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

175

camera

180
Photo

184

175

168

169

169

166
Video

175

186

144

148

134

140

Use cases & Conditions

Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.

Top score

Portrait

Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people

BEST 185

Outdoor

Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)

Top score

Indoor

Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)

Top score

Lowlight

Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)

BEST 159

Zoom

Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)

Pros

Wide dynamic range and accurate exposure
Excellent color rendering in most situations, ahead of competition in difficult scenes
Nice skin tones, even under challenging mixed lighting
High levels of detail in photo and video in most conditions
Accurate autofocus and wide depth of field when required
Low photo noise levels, even down to low light
Good portrait mode with high levels of detail and good subject isolation
Very wide ultra-wide camera, good image quality in most conditions
Effective dual-tele module, great for long range shooting
Very effective video stabilization

Cons

Occasional slight exposure and color instabilities
Slightly unnatural textures in very difficult light conditions
Some artifacts, including hue shift, ghosting and scene integrity artifacts in video mode

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Good contrast and exposure, vibrant colors, high levels of detail

The Huawei Pura 80 Ultra sets a new standard in mobile imaging, earning itself the highest ever DXOMARK Camera score and the top spot in our ranking.The new Huawei flagship device combines cutting edge hardware, including a 1-inch sensor with LOFIC technology (Lateral OverFlow Integration Capacitor is an advanced pixel design that aims at increasing dynamic range by temporarirly storing excess of light to prevent saturation, while keeping low noise and suppressing the risk of artifacts on motion areas that usually happen with multi-exposure), note that some few devices like the Honor Magic 6 Ultimate already featured this kind of technology in the past. In addition it has a multispectral sensor for improved color management, and a variable aperture on the primary camera.A dual tele setup with 3.7x and 9.4x optical zoom lenses offers a lot of flexibility when zooming.

The Pura 80 Ultra camera delivers exceptional image quality across all use cases. It excels in photo mode, with bright and accurate exposures, even in low light scenes, lifelike color rendering, even in mixed light, thanks to the multispectral sensor, as well as a fast and reliable autofocus system.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Good exposure & contrast, pleasant colors and skin tones

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Good exposure & colors, slightly lower contrast

Vivo X200 Ultra – Good exposure & contrast, slight color cast

The variable aperture adds flexibility when capturing group portraits, maintaining sharpness across subjects in all depth planes. Detail is outstanding, with minimal noise, even in challenging conditions. The zoom performance is equally impressive, with the Pura 80 Ultra outperforming competitors at long tele settings. Images taken at high magnification levels have crisp detail, as well as consistent exposure and color.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Some more details recovered on the face

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

Most details lost on face and visible noise

Vivo X200 Ultra

Some fine details lost on face

The ultra-wide camera module offers a very expansive field of view, minimal artifacts and cohesive rendering. Portrait mode delivers a natural looking bokeh effect, with precise subject isolation and strong background blur. Faces are rendered brightly and with a lot of detail, even in dim conditions. In video mode, the Pura 80 Ultra shows major improvements over its predecessor, the Pura 70 Ultra, especially in terms of skin tone rendering, texture retention and noise control. Video stabilization is highly effective, and zoomed video retains excellent detail and clarity, earning the Pura 80 Ultra a place among the best devices for video recording.

Top score

Lowlight

The performance in low light is one of the Pura 80 Ultra’s most impressive aspects. Here the camera clearly benefits from the power of its large 1-inch sensor and advanced image processing. High levels of detail are retained, even in very dim conditions, and the low noise levels do not come at the expense of texture or clarity. In addition, exposure remains accurate, with a wide dynamic range that keeps highlights from clipping and preserves shadow detail.

Noise is exceptionally well controlled, even in very low light, with minimal grain and little to no smearing of textures. The variable aperture plays a significant role here, allowing the device to gather more light when necessary. Here the f/1.6 aperture helps maintain good exposure without increasing ISO too aggressively. White balance remains generally accurate, producing natural tones, but minor inconsistencies can appear in mixed lighting, such as urban night scenes with multiple light sources.

In addition, the autofocus system performs reliably in the dark. Thanks to laser AF and computational enhancements, sharpness on subjects is ensured without focus hunting. Overall, the Pura 80 Ultra is a top performer in night and low light photography, rivaling some dedicated compact cameras in term of both clarity and dynamic rendering.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Excellent exposure, color, details and low noise.

Oppo Find X8 ultra – Good exposure, color, details and low noise.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Good exposure, color, details and low noise.

Top score

Portrait

The Pura 80 Ultra also shines in portraiture, delivering images that are both flattering and rich in visual detail. Leveraging its variable aperture and depth-sensing technologies, it creates natural-looking background blur and excellent subject isolation. Bokeh quality is smooth and visually appealing, with good depth estimation that ensures a natural look of background blur transitions around the subject. Skin tone rendering is typically accurate and pleasant, thanks to the help of a new multispectral sensor which allows for local colors adjustments without any impact on faces. This makes for lifelike portrait shots. In addition, AI assistance is available to guide the user in terms of composition.

White balance and colors are generally well managed, even in mixed lighting situations. Color can be modified by applying one of four different styles that Huawei offers on this device. Each style can be further personalized to your liking in terms of exposure and color.

The wide depth of field and reliable autofocus system help maintain sharpness on the subject’s eyes at all times and texture retention in facial features is excellent, without any oversharpening, resulting in a natural and refined aesthetic. Thanks to the combination of all these factors, the Pura 80 Ultra is an excellent smartphone for taking both casual and artistic portraits.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Nice rendering in portrait mode with good amount of blur, good contrast and exposure, vibrant colors and high levels of detail.

BEST 159

Zoom

Zoom is a standout feature on the Pura 80 Ultra, backed by two dedicated long-range telephoto lenses that provide both reach and versatility. The use of a built-in long telephoto module with an equivalent focal length of 212mm is a first on a smartphone. At medium and long range tele settings, the camera captures very high levels of detail across the frame, maintaining sharpness and structure, even in distant subjects.

Color accuracy and exposure are well-maintained during zoom operation, and remain consistent with the primary camera image output. The Pura 80 Ultra also does very well when zooming out, with the ultra-wide camera capturing good detail across the frame, making it a good option for architecture or landscape photography, as well as group shots. However, at close range tele, detail can sometimes dip compared to longer zoom settings. This can result in slight softness or reduced texture fidelity when shooting subjects at a distance just beyond the primary camera’s reach.

Zoom transitions are smooth in photo mode, but minor inconsistencies can be noticeable at tele zoom settings between the tele lenses’ native focal lengths. Despite this, the Huawei is one of the best-in-class devices for zooming. Overall, the Pura 80 Ultra offers highly flexible and powerful zoom capabilities, outperforming many competitors, thanks to its dual-telephoto architecture. It’s a great smartphone for capturing anything from wildlife and travel scenes to candid street photography without having to crop in post.

Test summary

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra Camera Scores

Photo

180

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

About DXOMARK Camera Photo tests

Main

184

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra Photo scores

The Huawei Pura 80 Ultra delivers a class-leading photo experience, driven by a combination of standout imaging hardware and refined computational photography. At the heart of the camera system is a large 1-inch sensor with a wide dynamic range. It is complemented by a multispectral sensor and a variable aperture, which in combination enable exceptional image quality across a wide range of scenes and lighting conditions. The Pura 80 Ultra camera consistently achieves excellent exposure, even in low light, thanks to the large sensor and wide aperture. At the same time, tuning ensures bright faces with natural rendering. This is particularly noticeable in portraiture and backlit scenes.

Compared to previous generation Huawei flagship devices, color rendering has made a significant step forward. The integration of a multispectral sensor allows for highly accurate and nice colors, even in complex lighting situations where the competition sometimes struggles to maintain consistency across the frame. The variable aperture in the primary camera offers additional versatility, especially when shooting group portraits, where it helps keep all subjects in focus, without compromising background separation.

The autofocus is another strong point of the Pura 80 Ultra. It is fast, reliable, and repeatable, ensuring sharp results in both static and dynamic scenes. Detail is outstanding, with crisp textures and fine, cleanly rendered structures, even in low light. Noise is impressively well under control, allowing for high levels of clarity without sacrificing natural textures. Overall, the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra sets a new benchmark for mobile photography, combining hardware excellence with intelligent software processing.

Close-Up

The Pura 80 Ultra improves the already class-leading close-up performance of its predecessor Pura 70 Ultra. By default it uses the ultra-wide camera for macro shots, but also allows you to select the tele module for a more compressed perspective. Macro quality is consistently high using either camera module, with sharp detail, good subject isolation and pleasant colors.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Nice exposure and colors, good amount o details

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Good amount of details, slightly low contrast

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Good amount of details, slightly color cast

Exposure

134

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Exposure is one of the Pura 80 Ultra’s strongest attributes. Thanks to the combination of the large image sensor in the primary camera with a new HDR technology and advanced processing, the device delivers accurate exposure with excellent dynamic range across a variety of lighting conditions. Highlights and shadows are well-balanced, allowing for natural-looking images, even in high-contrast scenes. The camera system intelligently adapts to challenging situations, consistently retaining good highlight and shadow detail alike.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Great exposure & contrast

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Good exposure & contrast

Vivo X200 Ultra – Good exposure & contrast

Color

133

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

The Pura 80 Ultra offers largely nice color rendering, capturing vibrant yet natural tones and accurate skin color. The multispectral sensor ensures accurate white balance and its ability to make local adjustments within a scene helps maintain tonal consistency across the frame, even in mixed lighting. It also makes for lifelike skin tones, adjusting for external light sources, such as neon illumination in night scenes. Overall, color fidelity is excellent in most conditions.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Pleasant colors, both on the background and skin tones

Vivo X200 Ultra – Skin tones are slightly less well rendered

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Skin tones are slightly less well rendered

Sharpness & Timing

135

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Autofocus irregularity and speed: 1000Lux Δ0EV Daylight Handheld

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Diana setup: 100Lux Δ7EV 4000K Handheld

This graph illustrates focus accuracy and zero shutter lag capability by showing the level of details on the face versus the shooting time measured on the AFHDR Portrait setup on a series of pictures. All pictures were taken at 100 Lux with LED 4000K illuminant, 500 ms after the defocus. On this scenario, the backlit panels in the scene are set up to simulate a fairly high dynamic range: the luminance ratio between the brightest point and a 18% reflective gray patch is 7, which we denote by a Exposure Value difference of 7. The level of details on the face is measured using DXOMARK Detail Preservation Metric on the Realistic Mannequin, and the shooting time is measured on the LED Universal Timer.

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Eugene setup: 5Lux Δ0EV 2700K Handheld

Our testers found the autofocus system to be robust and responsive, contributing to a pleasant and stress-free shooting experience. Thanks to the variable aperture, the camera can adjust depth of field to the scene and maintain good focus on all subjects in group shots. The AF locks onto subjects quickly and tracks reliably, even in moving or complex scenes. Overall, the autofocus is accurate and repeatable, helping minimize out-of-focus shots, even in scenes with fast moving subjects.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

All faces are sharp in group shots

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Faces can be out of focus in group shots

Vivo X200 Ultra

Faces can be out of focus in group shots

Texture

130

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

132

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score vs lux levels for handheld conditions

The Pura 80 Ultra delivers very sharp images and maintains high levels of detail across all lighting conditions, thanks, in part, to its large image sensor and advanced image processing. Texture rendering is natural and refined, avoiding excessive oversharpening and preserving fine detail in textures, such as fabric, skin, or foliage. Even in lower light, detail is retained well. However, in some extreme conditions, minor texture artifacts can be noticeable, slightly reducing the perceived sharpness and natural look. Despite these minor quibbles, texture performance remains a strong point.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Excellent level of details even in dimmer conditions

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Lower level of details

Vivo X200 Ultra

Lower level of details

Noise

128

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

129

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Visual noise evolution with illuminance levels in handheld condition

Image noise is controlled extremely well, even in very low light. Grain is effectively suppressed while texture and detail are maintained. This is a delicate balance that many smartphone cameras struggle with. In night scenes, the Pura 80 Ultra’s noise performance is class-leading, though top competition is very close. Advanced noise reduction algorithms help maintain clean images without aggressive smoothing of detail. Noise artifacts are rare and generally only noticeable when shooting in particularly difficult scenes, or when amplifying the image during review. Overall, balance between detail retention and noise reduction is excellent.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Noise is barely visible even in lowlight conditions though it also means that some fine texture is lost on the wall in the back

Vivo X200 Ultra

Noise is barely in lowlight conditions though a bit more than the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, but it means that texture is slightly better preserved on the wall

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

Noise can be slightly visible in lowlight conditions

Artifacts

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Main photo artifacts penalties

Bokeh

175

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Bokeh mode on the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra is outstanding, setting a new benchmark for portrait photography on mobile devices. Thanks to a combination of advanced segmentation algorithms and powerful hardware, subject isolation from the background is highly accurate, even in challenging scenes and around fine detail, such as strands of hair, jewelry, or eyeglass frames. This precision allows for a depth of field effect that closely resembles the rendering of high-end DSLR lenses, making for a professional and natural look.

The background blur is both intense and well-controlled, creating a strong separation between subject and background while maintaining a smooth and visually pleasing gradient. Blur transitions are handled very well, avoiding harsh edges or unnatural artifacts, enhancing the overall realism of the image.

The subject remains crisp and well-defined, with excellent textures and a bright, flattering facial rendering. This is something that the previous generation of devices often struggled with. Bokeh performance holds up even in low light conditions, where many competitor tend to struggle with noise and loss of detail. This consistency across light conditions make the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra a reliable choice for portrait photography in daylight, indoors, or at night.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Great exposure, color, details and segmentation even in lowlight

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Great details and segmentation even in lowlight

Vivo X200 Ultra – Great details and segmentation even in lowlight

Tele

169

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra Telephoto Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

The Huawei Pura 80 Ultra achieves a new top score for telephoto performance, thanks to its ambitious two-in-one tele module design, a large sensor and fast lenses, including one with a very long 212mm equivalent focal length. The unique tele module mechanism switches between lenses depending on the zoom level, allowing for the use of only one sensor.

This design, in combination with the excellent image processing, results in telephoto images with very high levels of detail, low noise and very accurate color rendering, and the Pura 80 Ultra taking the top spot for tele performance, ahead of the Vivo X200 Ultra.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Some sharp details at long range of zoom ratio

Vivo X200 Ultra

Some more details lost for longer zoom ratio

UltraWide

168

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

169

Vivo X200 Ultra

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra Ultra-Wide Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

The Pura 80 Ultra’s 13mm ultra-wide camera module offers a very wide field of view and captures images with very high levels of detail. This said, like on most phones, ultra-wide detail is slightly lower than on the other camera modules. Compared to the Vivo X200’s ultra-wide, detail is not quite as sharp on at the center of the frame, but at the widest setting the sharpness difference between center and edges is less noticeable. Exposure, dynamic range and color rendering are very good when compared to rival devices, even in difficult light conditions.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Very wide field of view, good exposure and colors.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Narrower field of view, good exposure and colors.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Slightly narrower field of view, good exposure, colors and details.

Video

166

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

172

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

About DXOMARK Camera Video tests

The Pura 80 Ultra’s video performance positions it firmly among the top smartphones in its class. The Huawei delivers an excellent balance between detail retention and noise reduction, as well as smooth stabilization across most use cases and light conditions, and marks a significant step forward compared to its predecessor, the Pura 70 Ultra, particularly in terms of texture and noise. The video processing algorithms have clearly been improved. Thanks to an efficient autofocus system, a wide dynamic range and nice color, the Pura 80 Ultra is a great choice for casual and enthusiast mobile videographers alike. However, minor flaws, such as occasional white balance and exposure instabilities or texture artifacts in the most difficult shooting conditions slightly temper the otherwise stellar video performance.

Main

175

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

186

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra Video scores

Exposure

123

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

127

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

The Pura 80 Ultra excels in video exposure management, offering a wide dynamic range that ensures good highlight and shadow detail across a variety of light conditions. In addition, video exposure is generally stable and reliable, with minimal fluctuations during brightness transitions. This stability contributes to a consistently professional look of the recorded footage, and high contrast levels, for example in backlit scenes, or when capturing scenes with changing light.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Wide dynamic range, good exposure, slight lack of contrast

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Clipping, slightly underexposed subject

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Clipping, slightly underexposed subject

Color

117

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

131

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Image-quality color analysis looks at color rendering, skin-tone rendering, white balance, color shading, stability of the white balance and its adaption when light is changing.

Video color is another standout attribute of the Pura 80 Ultra, thanks to vivid yet natural tones, accurate skin tones and a pleasing color palette in most conditions. This is a notable improvement over the predecessor Pura 70 Ultra, with the new model benefiting from its new spectral sensor and an overall focus on color rendering. This said, while the overall color performance is excellent, occasional white balance instabilities can result in slight color shifts, especially under challenging light.

Sharpness & Timing

122

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

124

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

For video, autofocus tests concentrate on focus accuracy, focus stability and analysis of convergence regarding speed and smoothness.

Autofocus performance is another highlight of the Pura 80 Ultra. It demonstrates fast and precise focusing capabilities, even when subjects move quickly or unpredictably. The device’s subject tracking is effective and reliable, ensuring sharp focus is maintained on the intended subject throughout the duration of a shot. This responsiveness significantly enhances usability, particularly in dynamic scenes or while capturing spontaneous moments.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Accurate and reliable autofocus, good tracking

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra – Accurate and reliable autofocus, good tracking

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Accurate and reliable autofocus, good tracking

Texture

118

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Video texture is notably improved over the Pura 70 Ultra, with the new model retaining higher levels of detail across various light conditions, including low light, where many devices tend to smooth textures aggressively. This sharpness contributes to a more refined and professional-looking video output and helps the Pura 80 Ultra achieve a very high position in our video ranking.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation video score vs lux levels

Noise

120

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

129

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

The Pura 80 Ultra does also very well in terms of noise control. It is capable of effectively mitigating noise in most light conditions, including indoors and at night, without sacrificing detail. The improvements over the previous generation device are clearly noticeable and contribute to cleaner, more visually appealing footage. The balance between texture and noise suppression is especially commendable, as it avoids the overly processed look seen in smartphone videos in the past.

Spatial Noise
Temporal Noise

Spatial visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

Temporal visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

This graph shows the evolution of temporal visual noise with the level of lux. Temporal visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup.

Stabilization

121

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

124

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Video stabilization is highly effective and plays a key role in delivering smooth, shake-free video clips. Footage remains steady and natural-looking while walking and during handheld panning, ensuring high-quality video results for users of all experience levels. The system performs particularly well when recording with the primary camera and when zooming, even with a lot of camera motion during recording.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Very effective stabilization

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Very effective stabilization

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Very effective stabilization

Artifacts

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Main video artifacts penalties

Tele

134

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

140

Vivo X200 Ultra

All image quality attributes are evaluated at focal lengths from approximately 50 mm to 300 mm, with particular attention paid to texture and smoothness of the zooming effect. The score is derived from a number of objective measurements in the lab and perceptual analysis of real-life video recordings.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

UltraWide

144

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

148

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

All image quality attributes are evaluated at focal lengths from approximately 12 mm to 30 mm, with particular attention paid to texture and smoothness of the zooming effect. The score is derived from a number of objective measurements in the lab and perceptual analysis of real-life video recordings.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

With its ultra-wide camera and dual tele modules, the Pura 80 Ultra offers a wide range of video zoom. Zoom videos offer fairly high levels of detail, with good exposure and accurate color rendering in most conditions. However, some variation of image quality can be seen across the very long zoom range. Some competitors offer a smoother experience in this respect.

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra – Good detail at long range tele

Vivo X200 Ultra – Loss of fine detail at long range tele

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Loss of fine detail at long range tele

The post Huawei Pura 80 Ultra Camera Test appeared first on DXOMARK.

Vivo X200 Ultra Camera test

DXOMARK — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 12:13:03 +0000

We put the Vivo X200 Ultra through our rigorous DXOMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our testing with an extract of the captured data.

Overview

Key camera specifications:

Primary: 50MP 1/1.28″ sensor, 1.22µm pixels, 35mm equivalent f/1.7-aperture lens, dual‑pixel PDAF, OIS
Ultra-wide: 50MP 1/1.28″ sensor, 1.22µm pixels, 14mm equivalent f/2.0-aperture lens, dual‑pixel PDAF, OIS
Tele: 200MP 1/1.4″ sensor, 0.56µm pixels, 85mm equivalent f/2.3-aperture lens, PDAF, OIS

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Vivo X200 Ultra

167

camera

173
Photo

174

184

175

169

167

169

156
Video

160

186

141

148

140

Use cases & Conditions

Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.

BEST 169

Portrait

Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people

BEST 185

Outdoor

Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)

BEST 180

Indoor

Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)

BEST 147

Lowlight

Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)

Top score

Zoom

Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)

Pros

Excellent exposure in portraits scenes, very well controlled contrast on faces
Good detail in daylight and indoors
Accurate autofocus in daylight and indoors
Realistic bokeh and very fine subject isolation in bokeh mode
High levels of detail across medium and long tele zoom settings
High levels of detail down to low light with the ultra-wide camera
Accurate exposure and transitions in most video scenes
Stable autofocus and nice focus transitions in video mode

Cons

Narrow depth of field can result in out-of-focus subjects in group shots
Slight white balance inaccuracies in difficult indoor and low light scenes
Focus inaccuracies in very low light
Occasional halo artifacts
Slight loss of detail in close and medium range tele shots
White balance casts in daylight video
Loss of detail in low light video
Coarse luminance noise in low light and backlit video scenes
Residual motion when recording video while walking

The Vivo X200 Ultra delivers excellent results in the DXOMARK Camera tests, securing itself one of the top position in our ranking. It offers a highly original and complete camera system that stands out from the competition. Unlike most rival phones, which use a wider focal length of around 25 mm, the Vivo’s primary camera comes with an unusual 35 mm equivalent focal length, making it a very compelling option for portrait photography, thanks to a narrower depth of field which helps isolate the subject from the background. But the Vivo X200 Ultra is not only great for portrait photographers. Its camera’s overall performance make it one of the best imaging smartphones in general.

The device delivers exceptional results in still photography and ranks first in our photo ranking, thanks to excellent exposure control in portrait scenes, a remarkably effective zoom, a highly accurate and natural portrait mode, as well as an ultra-wide camera module with a large sensor that is capable of gathering more light than most equivalent modules on rival phones.

The 35mm equivalent primary module offers an excellent exposure strategy and a vivid, somewhat bold color signature, which should appeal to most users. Images show large amounts of fine detail and well-controlled noise across all lighting conditions. In addition, the Vivo camera outperforms competitors in challenging conditions, such as night scenes, with good exposure and very nice detail in portrait shots.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Sharp image and pleasant subject natural isolation thanks to 35mm eq. focal length design

While the primary camera offers advantages in portrait photography, its still faces few autofocus issues in challenging conditions like very lowlight scenes.

Other manufacturers are slightly ahead of Vivo in this respect, with hardware solutions like variable aperture, that allows for adjusting depth of field to the scene. On the plus side, on the Vivo shutter lag is very brief, although not quite as good as on the best phones in this category, such as the iPhone 16 Pro Max. During testing, our experts also observed some autofocus failures in difficult scenes, for example night shots. The ultra‑wide camera uses a a sensor of the same size as the primary camera, producing crisp landscapes and group shots with minimal distortion, even in low light settings. It is the best ultra-wide camera that we have tested to date, with very good results across all test attributes.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Good exposure, vivid colors, fine detail

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Good exposure, slight white balance cast, slight loss of detail

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Good exposure, slight loss of detail, slight noise

The 200MP telephoto camera offers impressive clarity, delivering sharp detail with low noise and little oversharpening up to around 10x tele zoom factors. Thanks to precise subject detection and natural subject isolation, the tele camera also works well for portrait shots. In daylight, it delivers good color accuracy and a wide dynamic range. Slight overexposure can be noticeable on occasion but the affected images generally still look nice. Only very few rival phones are better than the Vivo in the tele zoom category, for example the Xiaomi 15 Ultra that is capable of rendering slightly more detail in some conditions.

In portrait mode, the Vivo achieves top level results as well. Subject segmentation is precise, with very few depth artifacts compared to competitors like the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The overall rendering looks pleasant and natural, with crips detail on the subject’s face.

In video mode the Vivo X200 Ultra has been tested using at 4K resolution and a 30fps frame rate, shooting with the primary camera. While the camera offers some great video features, such as 4K recording at 120fps and 10-bit HDR, it still trails slightly behind the iPhone and Oppo Find series in a few key areas. Dynamic range in high-contrast scenes can sometimes appear less balanced, especially during extreme lighting transitions. Apple’s computational video processing is still leading in tonal consistency and real-time HDR rendering. In addition, Vivo’s video footage can suffer from softness and occasional noise. Oppo and Apple perform more reliably in this respect. These subtle but important differences mean that the X200 Ultra is still just a notch below the best-in-class devices for video.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Good face exposure, some loss of detail, noise on textures

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Good face exposure, good detail, well-controlled noise

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Slight overexposure on face, unnatural skin tones, noise on subject

This said, video quality is impressive across all camera modules, including the telephoto and ultra-wide. Like the primary camera, the 200MP periscope telephoto module supports up to 4K at 120fps, which is very rare. In daylight tele footage also shows excellent sharpness and detail across a range of settings, especially at 4K/60fps which we used to perform our tele video tests. The optical image stabilization ensures handheld footage is smooth and stable, but in night or low light scenes noise starts creeping in.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Good detail on face, good stabilization

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Slight loss of detail, good stabilization

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Some loss of detail, some camera shake

The ultra-wide camera is also capable of recording 4K/120fps footage, but, like for the tele, our tests were performed at 4K/60fps. At these settings the ultra-wide captures vibrant and stable footage. However, dynamic range can be reduced when compared to the primary camera, especially in complex lighting situations. Overall, both tele and ultra-wide deliver well above average video quality, with good transitions between camera modules and consistent rendering across all zoom ratios.

BEST 147

Lowlight

Low light performance is strong across the entire camera system, but there are a few differences between the modules. The primary 35mm camera excels in dim conditions, capturing clean, detailed images with impressive dynamic range and accurate colors, thanks to a large sensor and advanced processing algorithms.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Good face exposure, warm color cast, fairly high levels of detail

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Good exposure, neutral color, some loss of detail

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Good exposure, cold color cast, loss of detail

The periscope telephoto lens is capable of solid low light photography as well, but shows a noticeable dip in quality for video, with reduced detail and occasional noise, especially at higher zoom levels. The ultra-wide lens performs decently in low light for both photo and video, but its smaller aperture results in less detail and more visible grain when compared to the primary camera. This said, overall the X200 Ultra is among the best Android phones for low light imaging. It only trails slightly behind the Oppo Find X8 Ultra in terms of consistency and clarity when recording video in dim conditions.

BEST 169

Portrait

Vivo X200 Ultra – Very pleasant portrait rendering overall

Portrait photography is one of the Vivo X200 Ultra’s main strengths. The primary camera’s 35mm lens is optimized for natural background compression and provides flattering facial proportions. The phone also delivers exceptional subject separation, realistic skin tones, and a smooth bokeh that closely mimics DSLR-like depth of field.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Well preserved contrast and fine details

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Slight loss of contrast, fine details preserve

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Visible loss of contrast, few fine details lost

Low-light portraits also impress, thanks to effective noise reduction and skin-tone preservation without over-smoothing. However, while results are excellent in most cases, the shallow depth of field can impact sharpness of faces in group portraits, and skin tones can, depending on lighting, be slightly warm. Still, overall the X200 Ultra offers one of the most refined portrait experiences on any smartphone, rivaling or even surpassing the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Top score

Zoom

Zoom performance is outstanding, mainly thanks to the impressive telephoto lens and its periscope design. In daylight shooting, images are highly detailed up to a 10x tele zoom factor, with sharpness and contrast that rival the best in class. At medium to low light levels, zoom performance is still solid for still images, thanks to sensor cropping and smart exposure tuning. For video zoom, the results are similarly good in bright light, with stable focus and vivid detail, but quality decreases in more challenging light conditions, where softness and occasional jitter are creeping in. Overall, the Vivo X200 Ultra takes the lead in terms of tele zoom performance, thanks to its versatility, as well as high quality stills and videos.

Vivo X200 Ultra - Long tele zoom detail

Vivo X200 Ultra - Decent detail

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Long range tele zoom detail

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Loss of detail

Test summary

Vivo X200 Ultra Camera Scores

Photo

173

Vivo X200 Ultra

180

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

About DXOMARK Camera Photo tests

Main

174

Vivo X200 Ultra

184

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Vivo X200 Ultra Photo scores

Close-Up

In our tests the Vivo X200 Ultra delivered a solid, but not class-leading, macro performance. The camera relies on the ultra-wide lens for close focusing, allowing users to capture subjects at a relatively short shooting distance, while capturing decent detail. In good light, macro shots show vibrant colors and respectable sharpness, making the Vivo a good option for capturing close-ups of flowers, textures, or small objects in general. In low light, macro performance declines, with higher noise levels and reduced focus precision. Depth of field can be shallow, which means it’s best to capture several shots to make sure you have at least one well-focused image. Overall, the Vivo’s macro mode is capable and convenient, but more of a bonus than a headline feature.

Exposure

130

Vivo X200 Ultra

134

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Eugene)

The Vivo X200 Ultra delivers excellent photo exposure, with a well-balanced approach to brightness, contrast, and dynamic range. In most conditions, it captures scenes with accurate brightness, avoiding highlight clipping while preserving shadow detail. Vivo’s image processing favors a natural contrast profile, making images look clean and realistic without looking flat.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Well preserved contrast on subject

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Slight loss of contrast on subject

Dynamic range is particularly strong and high-contrast scenes, such as backlit portraits or sunlit architecture, retain both sky detail and subject clarity with very little clipping. Overall, the Vivo X200 Ultra offers top-tier exposure performance, combining well-controlled brightness, natural contrast, and a wide dynamic range to produce appealing photos in pretty much any lighting condition.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Bright face rendering, vivid colors

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Darker face exposure, accurate color rendering

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Slight underexposure on face

Color

128

Vivo X200 Ultra

133

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

The Vivo X200 Ultra delivers refined color performance in photos, striking a balance between accuracy and vibrancy. Colors are generally natural yet quite vivid, with a slight warmth that enhances skin tones especially. The primary 35mm lens produces excellent white balance in bright light. In low light, the camera preserves color well, avoiding the washed-out or overly yellow casts some phones suffer from.

Sharpness & Timing

117

Vivo X200 Ultra

135

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Autofocus irregularity and speed: 1000Lux Δ0EV Daylight Handheld

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Diana setup: 100Lux Δ7EV 4000K Handheld

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Eugene setup: 5Lux Δ0EV 2700K Handheld

The Vivo X200 Ultra features a fast and reliable autofocus system that locks onto subjects quickly and accurately in most conditions. The AF performance is close to top competitors but still slightly behind iPhone 16 Pro Max especially in terms of small shutter lag. Still, in good light, the camera captures images with minimal delay after pressing the shutter, ensuring you don’t miss key moments. In low light or high dynamic range scenes, the processing delay is short, thanks to Vivo’s efficient multi-frame processing but sometimes longer than on competing devices. Some autofocus issues were observed in challenging night conditions.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Out of Focus portrait in the series

Vivo X200 Ultra – In of Focus portrait in the series

Vivo X200 Ultra appears to use an embedded software solutions that slightly enhances detail on background faces in group shots. This is done to compensate for the narrow depth of field that tends to slightly blur faces and objects in the background. However, this software solution is not quite as effective as a smaller aperture would be.

Vivo X200 Ultra - Depth of field

Vivo X200 Ultra -Slight loss of detail on background face

Oppo Find X8 Ultra - Depth of field

Oppo Find X8 Ultra - Sharp detail on background face

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max -Depth of field

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Strong loss of detail on background face

Texture

132

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score vs lux levels for handheld conditions

The Vivo X200 Ultra’s texture rendering is excellent, capturing fine detail when shooting with the primary camera. In good light, textures such as skin, fabric and architectural surfaces are rendered with impressive sharpness, and without looking artificially overprocessed. In low light, texture is also better preserved than on many competing phones, avoiding the waxy look that can result from aggressive noise reduction. Overall, the X200 Ultra provides top-tier texture quality, especially in daylight and portrait scenarios, offering images that look both detailed and natural. In this respect it rivals Apple’s class-leading flagship devices in bright light, and the detail captured by Oppo’s flagship camera in dimmer conditions.

Noise

127

Vivo X200 Ultra

129

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Visual noise evolution with illuminance levels in handheld condition

Image noise is impressively well under control control when shooting with the primary camera. Vivo’s noise reduction algorithms are well-tuned, avoiding excessive smoothing and preserving natural textures. Noise performance is also good in low light. Noise is kept to a minimum while shadow detail is still good and dynamic range is retained. Even in challenging indoor or night scenes, grain remains finely textured.

Artifacts

Vivo X200 Ultra

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Main photo artifacts penalties

Bokeh

175

Vivo X200 Ultra

The Vivo X200 Ultra’s bokeh images are exceptional. When shooting In portrait mode, the camera maintains excellent edge detection and subject separation, even around complex areas like hair or hands. The blur transitions between sharp and blurred areas look gradual and natural.

Vivo X200 Ultra

Very well managed segmentation around fine details

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Very good segmentation around fine details

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

Some fine details lost in background blur

The use of the telephoto camera in bokeh mode contributes nicely to bokeh quality. This is especially true for distant portraits where the tele offers subtle compression and background isolation without distortion. In low light, the bokeh effect remains very good, but minor edge artifacts can occasionally appear. Overall, the Vivo X200 Ultra ranks among the best smartphones for bokeh, delivering a highly refined mix of optical depth, and smooth blur.

Vivo X200 Ultra – Good subject isolation and nice spotlight shape, sharp detail on face

Oppo Find X8 Ultra – Good subject isolation and face exposure, sharp detail on face

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Some segmentation artifacts around subject, lack of detail on face

Tele

167

Vivo X200 Ultra

169

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Vivo X200 Ultra Telephoto Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

The Vivo X200 Ultra offers one of the most capable zoom systems on any smartphone. The 200MP periscope telephoto lens delivers exceptional detail and clarity at medium to long zoom ranges, particularly between 5x and 10x, where it operates near its optical sweet spot. Thanks to Vivo’s refined computational tuning, images captured at these ratios are crisp and well-exposed. In low light, the telephoto lens performs admirably for stills up to around a 5x tele zoom factor, maintaining acceptable sharpness and contrast. Beyond that, image quality can degrade, with more noise and reduced fine detail. Overall, the telephoto system on the X200 Ultra is top-tier, excelling in sharpness, flexibility, and consistency, especially in well-lit conditions, making it ideal for distant subjects, travel, and creative framing.

Vivo X200 Ultra - Tele zoom

Vivo X200 Ultra - Fairly high levels of detail on face

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Tele zoom

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - More noticeable loss of detail on fine textures such as hair

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

UltraWide

169

Vivo X200 Ultra

Vivo X200 Ultra Ultra-Wide Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

The ultra-wide camera offers a strong overall performance. It captures sharp, well-exposed images with minimal distortion. In daylight, the ultra-wide lens delivers respectable detail, with textures and edges looking sharp. Like on most devices, it’s not quite as sharp as the primary or telephoto sensors, though. Dynamic range is good, with highlights and shadows balanced well, even in high-contrast scenes. In low light, the ultra-wide performance remains decent but, as one would expect, a drop in image quality is noticeable. Noise levels are higher, sharpness is reduced and textures are less defined, especially towards the edges of the frame. Overall, the ultra-wide camera on the Vivo X200 Ultra is well-rounded and dependable, delivering great daylight results. Image quality is still acceptable in low light, but, like on most devices, not on quite the same level as the primary and tele camera modules.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Video

156

Vivo X200 Ultra

172

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

About DXOMARK Camera Video tests

Main

160

Vivo X200 Ultra

186

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Vivo X200 Ultra Video scores

Exposure

122

Vivo X200 Ultra

127

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

The Vivo’s video exposure system offers consistent and well-balanced brightness across a range of lighting conditions. High-contrast scenes are handled well, with smooth highlight preservation, bright highlights and deep shadows, and no clipping. Exposure transitions are fairly fast and natural, even with sudden changes in lighting or motion in the scene, making it reliable for handheld shooting and dynamic scenes. In low light, exposure remains stable and the camera is capable of avoiding underexposed or overly dark videos. The HDR video mode helps further enhance exposure balance, delivering rich tonal gradation and depth that is only slightly surpassed by the Oppo Find X8 Ultra. Overall, the Vivo X200 Ultra’s primary camera excellent video exposure performance, combining fast adaptation, wide dynamic range, and consistent brightness to ensure high-quality footage in nearly any scenario.

Color

121

Vivo X200 Ultra

131

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Image-quality color analysis looks at color rendering, skin-tone rendering, white balance, color shading, stability of the white balance and its adaption when light is changing.

Primary camera video color is pleasant, with rich, natural, and well-saturated tones that look vibrant without feeling exaggerated. Color remains consistent and true-to-life across a range of lighting conditions, with accurate skin tones and balanced hues that avoid oversaturation or unnatural shifts. The Vivo supports 10-bit color depth and HDR video, which significantly enhances dynamic range and color richness, allowing for smoother transitions and more detail in shadows and highlights during post-processing. This said, the best competitors, like the iPhone 16 Pro Max, still manage to provide slightly better true-to-life color and more balanced color rendering in video mode.

Sharpness & Timing

115

Vivo X200 Ultra

124

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

For video, autofocus tests concentrate on focus accuracy, focus stability and analysis of convergence regarding speed and smoothness.

The Vivo X200 Ultra’s video autofocus is fast, accurate, and reliable. It locks onto subjects quickly, maintains sharp focus on moving subjects, and smoothly transitions between focal points. Compared to the iPhone and Oppo Find X8 Ultra, the Vivo’s performance is close, offering similarly fluid focus pulls and strong subject tracking. Convergence can be somewhat slower, though.

Texture

105

Vivo X200 Ultra

118

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Video texture rendering on the Vivo X200 Ultra is quite pleasant. In video mode the camera captures fine detail across a range of lighting conditions. In well-lit scenes, textures, such as skin pores, are preserved well, without excessive smoothing or artificial sharpening. In addition, the balance between noise reduction and texture retention is managed well, avoiding the overly soft look we have seen on some competitors. This said, compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Oppo Find X8 Ultra, which both offer excellent texture, the Vivo lags slightly behind when the light gets dimmer.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation video score vs lux levels

Noise

107

Vivo X200 Ultra

129

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Video noise is managed very well in good light and moderately low light scenes. The phone’s noise reduction algorithms effectively minimize grain. In brighter scenes, noise is nearly imperceptible, contributing to smooth, high-quality video. Compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which offers a very well balanced noise reduction, the Vivo occasionally applies more aggressive smoothing. Particularly in very dimly lit scenes, this can result in some low frequency noise. The Oppo Find X8 Ultra is also slightly ahead of the Vivo in terms of video noise, with cleaner, crisper low light footage and less noticeable noise in challenging conditions.

Spatial Noise
Temporal Noise

Spatial visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

Temporal visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

This graph shows the evolution of temporal visual noise with the level of lux. Temporal visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup.

Stabilization

109

Vivo X200 Ultra

124

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Video stabilization is effective, but compared to competitors with wider lenses on the primary camera, the 35mm focal length poses additional challenges. Footage recorded while walking, handheld panning shots and scenes with moderate motion remain fluid and natural-looking, but some residual motion can still be noticeable. This is better controlled on best-in-class devices, such as the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Artifacts

Vivo X200 Ultra

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Main video artifacts penalties

Tele

140

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

The Vivo X200 Ultra’s telephoto video performance is impressive, with sharp, detailed footage at medium zoom levels (around 5x to 10x), thanks to the well designed periscope tele module. Tele footage exhibits high levels of detail, accurate colors and a balanced exposure. Low light telephoto video looks decent up to around a 5x zoom factor. Beyond that noise increases and image quality drops off more rapidly than on the primary camera. Overall, the Vivo X200 Ultra’s telephoto video is among the best in its class, offering sharp, vibrant footage at useful zoom levels, with solid low light handling. On the downside, autofocus can be slower and show some slight breathing with the tele camera.

UltraWide

141

Vivo X200 Ultra

148

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

In video mode the ultra-wide camera module supports 4K resolution at up to a 120fps frame rate, which is rare and allows for creative, cinematic shots. Stabilization is effective, and footage appears smooth and color-accurate in most situations.

The post Vivo X200 Ultra Camera test appeared first on DXOMARK.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Camera test – Retested

DXOMARK — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:18:08 +0000

We put the Xiaomi 15 Ultra through our rigorous DXOMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our testing with an extract of the captured data.

Overview

Key camera specifications:

Primary: 50MP 1.0″ sensor, 3.2 µm (4-in-1) pixels,23mm equivalent f/1.63 aperture lens, OIS
Tele 1: 50MP, 1.4 µm (4-in-1) pixels, 70mm equivalent f/1.8-aperture lens, OIS
Tele 2: 200MP, 2.24 µm pixels, 100mm equivalent f/2.6-aperture lens (periscope design), OIS
Ultra-wide: 50MP, 1.28 µm (4-in-1) pixels, 14mm f/2.2-aperture lens

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

159

camera

167
Photo

168

184

170

175

158

169

166

169

143
Video

149

186

140

148

119

140

Use cases & Conditions

Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.

BEST 169

Portrait

Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people

BEST 185

Outdoor

Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)

BEST 180

Indoor

Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)

BEST 147

Lowlight

Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)

BEST 159

Zoom

Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)

Pros

High texture levels and low noise in photo
Accurate exposure and wide dynamic range in photo and video
Accurate color rendering and pleasant white balance in bright light photo and video
High levels of detail across all zoom settings
Fairly low noise in bright light video

Cons

Occasional warm color casts in photo and video
Limited depth of field results in blurred background faces in group shots
Occasional contrast issues
Artifacts, including ghosting and flare
Loss of texture in some shots, especially in low light
Occasional autofocus stepping
Less effective video stabilization than some competitors

The Xiaomi Ultra 15 delivered a very good performance in the DXOMARK Camera tests, achieving the best results of a Xiaomi device to date. The new flagship comes with impressive imaging specs, including a total of four image sensors, with pixel counts from 50MP to a whopping 200MP, photo and video HDR modes, as well as a host of other features and modes. In terms of camera hardware, the main improvements over the predecessor are the pixel count on the long tele camera (now 200MP sensor) and the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

In our photo tests, overall image quality was excellent, with a wide dynamic range, low noise and nice colors. With its consistent performance in preserving details and controlling noise, along with its ability to keep single portraits well-focused and sharp in most conditions, the device has achieved a higher ranking than its predecessor in the DXOMARK protocol.

The tele zoom is the Xiaomi’s main strength, with excellent performance across all tele-zoom settings. In our tests, the 15 Ultra achieved the best results for photo tele zoom to date and was particularly impressive at long-range tele settings. However, at the opposite end of the zoom spectrum, ultra-wide results lagged behind other flagships in some test categories. In the latest version of our protocol, as telephoto and especially long ranges performances play an increasingly important role in the user experience, the smartphone has become even more competitive within the DXOMARK rankings.

Video performance was pretty strong, too, thanks to good exposure and a wide dynamic range, nice colors and low noise. However it could not quite match the best competitors in terms of exposure and color adaptation during scene changes, autofocus, and texture. Video stabilization did a good job at keeping video footage smooth and stable, but was less effective than on the best flagship models, such as the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max or the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra.

BEST 147

Lowlight

In low light, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra delivered a nice imaging experience, with the camera providing a warm white balance and impressive noise reduction. Exposure was spot on and a wide dynamic range ensured good detail in both the shadow and highlight areas of the frame. On the downside, colors could be oversaturated on occasion, and warm color casts could impact the image output. While the balance between texture retention and noise reduction was impressive for still images, low-light video footage lacked detail and fine textures. When recording video in dim conditions, our testers also noticed some exposure and color adaptation issues when the content of the scene changed.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Good exposure, saturated colors with warm cast

BEST 169

Portrait

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra was capable of capturing overall nice portrait shots, with realistic skin tones and good exposure across all light conditions. Still portraits also had high levels of fine detail. The camera’s main drawback in terms of portraiture was its narrow depth of field, which made it difficult to keep all subjects in group shots in focus. Subjects towards the back of a group scene were often blurry.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Portraits feature nice colors, good exposure and wide dynamic range

BEST 159

Zoom

Xiaomi’s telephoto performance, is among the strongest in the market, offering excellent detail retention, and sharpness, across a wide zoom range. The periscope tele lens delivers clear and vibrant images, even at long distances. Autofocus is fast and accurate, ensuring sharp subjects in both bright and low-light conditions. Noise is well controlled, and HDR processing helps maintain good dynamic range in challenging scenes. While extreme zoom levels can still show some softness, Xiaomi’s telephoto cameras generally perform better than many competitors, providing reliable, high-quality zoom shots that excel in both everyday and demanding photographic scenarios

Test summary

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Camera Scores

Photo

167

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

180

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

About DXOMARK Camera Photo tests

Main

168

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

184

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Photo scores

The 15 Ultra delivered an excellent performance in photo mode, making it a great option for any ambitious stills photographer. The HDR format delivered very good contrast and a wide dynamic range, ensuring good exposure and nice color rendering. The level of captured detail was excellent, preserving fine detail with a natural look, without oversharpening. In addition, noise levels were low, even when shooting in low light. This made for an excellent texture/noise trade-off.

Colors were generally nice, with natural skin tones in portrait shots. However, our testers also noticed some local contrast issues in scenes with strong backlighting often being to high and leading to lost information on faces. While the autofocus was mostly reliable and stable, the camera’s primary camera has a very wide aperture, which is great for light collection, but the resulting narrow depth of field made it difficult to keep all subjects in group shots in focus. People at the back were often out of focus.

Close-Up

In our tests, the 15 Ultra’s close-up mode did a very good job, capturing good levels of details at close distance. A slight loss of sharpness could be observed at very close shooting distances, but this is similar on most competing devices.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Good details, accurate exposure, and saturated colors

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Good detail, accurate exposure, and natural colors

Exposure

118

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

134

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Eugene)

The Xiaomi delivered very well-exposed pictures in most conditions. Exposure was also very stable and spot-on for portrait, landscape, and still-life shots alike. The camera’s wide dynamic range allowed for good image quality in difficult high-contrast conditions, including strongly backlit scenes. Xiaomi’s HDR rendering was capable of creating nice contrast, tough sometimes slightly strong for users.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Accurate exposure, wide dynamic range, and nice contrast

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra – Accurate exposure, wide dynamic range, and good contrast

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Accurate exposure, wide dynamic range, and good contrast

Color

130

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

133

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

The 15 Ultra comes with Xiaomi’s signature color rendering, providing neutral but saturated colors in most conditions. Colors were nice, with neutral white balance and accurate skin tones when taking pictures in bright light. Under typical indoor conditions and in low light, colors remained saturated, but our testers observed some, mostly warm, color casts that appears to be well tolerated by users in our Insights studies.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Nice skin tones, saturated colors, warm white balance

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Nice skin tones, natural colors, neutral white balance

Sharpness & Timing

117

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

135

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Autofocus irregularity and speed: 1000Lux Δ0EV Daylight Handheld

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Diana setup: 10000Lux Δ0EV D55 Handheld

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Eugene setup: 5Lux Δ0EV 2700K Handheld

Unlike its predecessor, the 14 Ultra, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is capable of delivering zero shutter lag with a reliable autofocus. We noticed very few autofocus failures in bright light, but when shooting in low light, the autofocus could be slower than the best-in-class devices. Overall the autofocus was quite stable across consecutive shots, with focus reliably locking onto the subject. This said, the primary camera’s quite narrow depth of field meant that subjects not in the focal plane could be out of focus.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Good focus on front subject, background subject out of focus

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Good focus on front subject, background subject slightly out of focus

Texture

129

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

132

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score vs lux levels for handheld conditions

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra captured high levels of detail in most conditions, especially when shooting in bright light. Fine detail was preserved well, without being oversharpened, for a natural look of textures. Texture performance in bright light was equal to, or even better than on the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra, but fine detail looked slightly more natural. This said, some detail was lost in low-light shooting. In addition, motion blur was often noticeable on moving subjects in low light.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Outdoor detail

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Very fine detail

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra - Outdoor detail

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra - Good detail

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Outdoor detail

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Loss of fine detail

Noise

127

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

129

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Visual noise evolution with illuminance levels in handheld condition

Image noise was well under control in most shooting conditions, with only some barely noticeable fine luminance noise in outdoor and indoor scenes. Even in low light, noise was hardly noticeable, with images retaining good levels of detail.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Low light noise

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Very fine luminance noise

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Low light noise

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Luminance noise

Artifacts

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Main photo artifacts penalties

Bokeh

170

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

175

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s bokeh mode captured natural-looking images. Subject isolation was mostly natural, with a soft-looking simulated aperture and natural blur gradient. However, some depth estimation artifacts could be noticeable, in addition to some slight exposure and artifact instabilities across consecutive shots. Thanks to its impressive zoom performances, Bokeh usually provided very sharp faces in comparison to Huawei Pura 70 Ultra and even more Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max making it one of our best contester on this feature, along with Oppo Find X8 Ultra.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Soft bokeh effects, slight depth artifacts.

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra – Natural bokeh effect, very slight depth artifacts

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Natural simulated aperture, very slight depth artifacts

Tele

166

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

169

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Telephoto Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

Zoom performance is the Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s main strong point. Thanks to the combination of two tele modules (50MP and 200MP periscope), the 15 Ultra offered very high levels of tele zoom detail, from the primary camera to the long-range tele. Its camera modules delivered impressive levels of detail from close to long-range tele, outperforming even the best competitors in bright light. In addition, image noise was well under control, earning the Xiaomi the top score in the tele zoom category. On the downside, some slight highlight clipping could be noticeable in difficult conditions, for example backlit scenes. We also observed a reduction of detail in low light, but overall tele zoom performance was impressive.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Long-range tele

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Very good detail

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra - Long-range tele

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra - Loss of detail

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Long-range tele

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Loss of detail

UltraWide

158

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

169

Vivo X200 Ultra

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Ultra-Wide Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

The 15 Ultra’s 13mm/50MP ultra-wide camera delivered good image quality overall. Distortion on ultra-wide shots was fairly well under control, exposure was mostly accurate and, despite the occasional color cast, colors were nice. Detail levels could be a little low in some conditions. Fine detail was lost, especially in low-light scenes. Our testers also observed some image noise in indoor and low-light shots.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Ultra-wide

Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Loss of fine detail, good exposure, warm color rendering

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra - Ultra-wide

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra - Loss of fine detail, good exposure, neutral white balance

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Ultra-wide

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Loss of detail, good exposure, neutral white balance

Video

143

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

172

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

About DXOMARK Camera Video tests

Main

149

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

186

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Video scores

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra video mode offers a range of resolution and frame rate settings, up to 8K/30fps and 4K/120fps. Dolby Vision 10-bit HDR recording is available at 4K/60fps and at 1080p resolution settings. The DXOMARK video tests were performed at 4K/60fps with Dolby Vision HDR, which provided the overall best results with image stabilization.

With these settings in our tests, the 15 Ultra delivered good video quality, with good exposure and nice colors. However, it lagged slightly behind the best competitors in terms of detail, noise, and stabilization. Our testers also occasionally found video recording to be slightly unstable, with exposure and color adaptation issues in changing scenes, as well as some autofocus instabilities with stepping.

Exposure

107

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

127

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

Video exposure was accurate, and the dynamic range of recorded footage was wide in most conditions. We did observe some highlight clipping when shooting in low-light settings, but the Xiaomi’s main area for improvement in terms of video exposure was adaptation to scene changes. Instabilities were noticeable when the content or lighting of a scene changed quickly, and exposure had to adapt.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Accurate exposure, wide dynamic range, very slight adaptation issues

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Accurate exposure, wide dynamic range

Color

106

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

131

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Image-quality color analysis looks at color rendering, skin-tone rendering, white balance, color shading, stability of the white balance and its adaption when light is changing.

When recording in bright light, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra delivered accurate and nice color rendering with a neutral white balance. In outdoor settings and under typical indoor lighting, our testers found white balance to be mostly neutral with saturated colors. However, like for exposure, some adaptation issues were noticeable, mostly in low light. In addition, low-light white balance was often very warm, resulting in an overall slightly unnatural color rendering of the scene.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Nice colors, white balance adaptation issues

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra – Nice colors, neutral white balance

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Nice colors, warm white balance

Sharpness & Timing

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

124

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

For video, autofocus tests concentrate on focus accuracy, focus stability and analysis of convergence regarding speed and smoothness.

Video autofocus was generally fast and reliable in most conditions. However, occasionally the autofocus struggled to adapt to changes in the scene and could lock onto the wrong target. We also noticed some slight autofocus stepping, making transitions less smooth than on the best-in-class rivals.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Fast autofocus, slight instabilities at 11.5s

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra – Accurate and reliable autofocus

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Accurate and reliable autofocus

Texture

111

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

118

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

While detail was excellent when taking still images with the primary and tele-zoom cameras, the Xiaomi struggled slightly with detail capture in video mode. Levels of detail were quite high when recording in bright light, but dropped under indoor conditions and in low light, with a noticeable loss of fine detail. In very low light, scene integrity artifacts (slightly moving texture patches) could further reduce texture quality.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation video score vs lux levels

Noise

107

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

129

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Video noise levels were well-controlled in bright light, but some shadow noise could be noticeable. In low-light recordings, noise was more intrusive, with chroma noise creeping in. Overall, noise was more noticeable than on the best rivals in the 15 Ultra’s class.

Spatial Noise
Temporal Noise

Spatial visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

Temporal visual noise evolution with the illuminance level

This graph shows the evolution of temporal visual noise with the level of lux. Temporal visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup.

Stabilization

108

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

124

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Video stabilization was quite effective but not quite up to the same level as the best competitors. Camera shake was still noticeable in many recordings, both when holding the camera still and when walking or running during recording. Slight sharpness differences between frames could be seen in low-light footage.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra – Residual motion is visible

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra – Very good stabilization

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Very good stabilization

Artifacts

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Main video artifacts penalties

UltraWide

140

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

148

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Tele

119

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

140

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra delivers pleasant video zoom performance, as it offers excellent detail retention, sharpness, and natural color reproduction across various zoom levels, allowing versatile framing without significant quality loss. Autofocus is smooth and reliable in both bright and low-light conditions, ensuring consistently sharp subjects. While some softness and noise can appear at extreme zoom distances, especially in challenging lighting, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra remains one of the top performers in video zoom, though it faces strong competition from other flagship devices pushing the limits of long-range video quality. The device is mostly impacted by its lowlight performances where it struggles to preserve the quality visible in brighter light conditions. Overall, it provides strong performances, but still behind key competitors like Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The post Xiaomi 15 Ultra Camera test – Retested appeared first on DXOMARK.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Camera test – Retested

DXOMARK — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:17:35 +0000

We put the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra through our rigorous DXOMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our testing with an extract of the captured data.

Overview

Key camera specifications:

Primary: 200MP 1/1.3″ sensor, 24mm equivalent f/1.7-aperture lens, multi-directional PDAF, OIS
Ultra-wide: 50MP sensor, 120˚ f/1.9-aperture lens, dual pixel PDAF, Super Steady video
Tele 1: 10MP 1/3.52″ sensor, 67mm equivalent f/2.4-aperture lens, PDAF, OIS
Tele 2: 50MP 1/2.52″ sensor, 111mm equivalent f/3.4-aperture lens, (periscope design), PDAF, OIS

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

151

camera

152
Photo

155

184

165

175

146

169

140

169

150
Video

155

186

145

148

130

140

Use cases & Conditions

Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.

BEST 169

Portrait

Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people

BEST 185

Outdoor

Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)

BEST 180

Indoor

Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)

BEST 147

Lowlight

Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)

BEST 159

Zoom

Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)

Pros

Good detail in zoom shots, especially at long range
Good exposure and wide dynamic range in bright light video
Good photo and video detail in most conditions
Natural skin tones in non-challenging scenes
Natural video color rendering with neutral white balance in bright light and indoors

Cons

Some autofocus instabilities in video mode
Exposure adaptation issues in video
Noticeable noise in low-light videos
Noticeable noise, especially in high-contrast and low-light photos
Occasional white balance casts, especially in low light
Occasional activation failures in bokeh mode

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra delivered a solid performance in the DXOMARK Camera tests but was unable to secure a position among the very best in our ranking. An upgraded chipset (Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) and a higher pixel count on the ultra-wide camera (50MP vs 12MP) aside, the camera hardware specifications are very similar to the predecessor Galaxy S24 Ultra. Imaging performance improvements over the predecessor were only modest, despite slight improvements in software processing and some additional AI features.

While the S25 Ultra maintained its predecessor’s solid overall image quality, some issues were noticeable. In bright light, our testers observed some slight highlight clipping. While the camera produced vivid colors with natural skin tones in most tested scenes, we noticed occasional white balance shifts that resulted in slight color casts especially in low light. Image noise was one of the S25 Ultra’s main areas for improvement, with grain particularly noticeable in high-contrast and low-light scenes. Our testers also observed some noise reduction instabilities across consecutive shots. In terms of detail, the S25 Ultra’s sharpness was slightly better than last year’s model in lowlight conditions. When tested under our new DXOMARK Camera v6 protocol, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra revealed more clearly its limitations in meeting user preferences, particularly in challenging scenes. The device often produced low-contrast images, and its HDR processing occasionally failed, leading to inconsistent rendering of color, contrast, and noise. These shortcomings became even more noticeable in portrait photography, where skin tones shifts toward colder hues, such as pink or purple, particularly under mixed or difficult lighting. While the S25 Ultra performs well in many scenarios, these issues prevent it from consistently delivering the level of image quality expected from a flagship device, especially when compared to the best-in-class performers.

In our zoom tests, the Samsung stood out at long-range tele settings, but also provided good image quality at close and medium range. The new ultrawide camera with its higher resolution sensor matched the image quality of the predecessor.

Like for stills, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra did not introduce any groundbreaking improvements in overall video performance. This said, video results remained strong. The camera was taking full advantage of its HDR capabilities to provide video footage with well-balanced highlights and shadows. In good light, video detail levels were high, with accurate exposure management and natural colors, making for an overall pleasant viewing experience. However, some struggles became apparent in dimmer conditions, with more intrusive noise, particularly in the shadows, and some quite pronounced color casts. Our testers also noticed objectionable autofocus and exposure adaptation instabilities. Video stabilization remained largely unchanged from the previous generation, providing a reliable experience. This said, it did not quite match the level of smoothness of the best-in-class iPhone 16 Pro Max.

BEST 147

Lowlight

While in low light, most photos were exposed well, but in some scenes, subjects could be slightly underexposed. Our testers also observed noise and detail inconsistencies between consecutive shots when shooting in low-light scenes. White balance was generally accurate but could appear unnatural at times under challenging illuminants. Overall, the camera provided good rendering but lacked consistency across lighting conditions, particularly in terms of noise and exposure accuracy.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Good exposure and wide dynamic range, slight warm color cast

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Slight underexposure, noise, motion blur, and ghosting on moving subjects in low light

BEST 169

Portrait

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra delivers strong portrait photography performance across default, bokeh, and tele modes, with good subject detail, accurate edge detection, and versatile features like realistic blur effects and adjustable lighting. However, while results are generally pleasing, portrait images can sometimes appear flat due to low contrast, especially in challenging lighting conditions. Additionally, color rendering is not always consistent, with occasional skin tone shifts, affecting the natural look of the subject. In HDR scenes, visible processing artifacts may lead to contrast inconsistencies and tonal imbalances, particularly in high-dynamic-range backgrounds. Although the S25 Ultra performs well overall, when pushed in difficult portrait scenarios, it falls slightly behind top competitors such as the Oppo Find X8 Ultra, which maintains better tonal precision, color accuracy, and rendering stability under the same conditions.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – High contrast on HDR display, nice skin tones

BEST 159

Zoom

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra delivers impressive telephoto performance, leveraging its versatile periscope zoom system to provide sharp, detailed images at medium to long zoom levels (up to 10×). It maintains good texture and contrast, making it well-suited for capturing distant subjects and portraits with natural perspective compression. Autofocus is fast and reliable across zoom ranges. However, at the extreme telephoto end, some softness and noise become more noticeable, especially in low-light conditions, and fine detail retention can drop compared to competitors. Overall, the S25 Ultra’s telephoto module balances versatility and image quality effectively, though it occasionally falls short of the very best zoom performance found in rivals like the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

Test summary

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Camera Scores

Photo

152

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

180

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

About DXOMARK Camera Photo tests

Main

155

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

184

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Photo scores

While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera hardware remains largely unchanged from the S24 Ultra and the new model uses a very similar HDR rendering process as its predecessor, our testers did occasionally observe a slight performance regression on the new model, for example in terms of exposure and noise.

When viewed on a compatible display, the S25 Ultra’s HDR images were vibrant and pleasantly bright, with generally pleasant brightness in non-challenging scenes. However, highlight clipping could be more noticeable than on the S24 Ultra. White balance was neutral, but color casts could make an appearance, mostly in low-light or night scenes. Apart from some exceptions in low light and night conditions were it struggles to preserve fine details the S25 Ultra is usually able to retain texture from the scenes. However, image noise was more pronounced than on the predecessor, particularly in high-contrast scenes with strong backlighting.

Close-Up

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra offers solid macro photography capabilities, allowing users to capture close-up shots with good detail and sharpness at short distances. Its autofocus system performs reliably in macro mode, helping to keep small subjects crisp and well-defined. Color reproduction remains natural, and noise is generally well-controlled in good lighting conditions. However, the device sometimes struggles with depth-of-field management in very close shots, occasionally resulting in parts of the subject falling out of focus. In challenging lighting or extremely tight macro scenarios, slight softness and noise can become more apparent.

Exposure

125

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

134

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Diana)

Brightness on face with illuminance levels (Eugene)

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra delivered a decent performance in the exposure category, benefiting from Samsung’s HDR format and image processing. Overall performance was close to the predecessor, but our testers noted a slight regression in certain scenes. For example, in challenging light conditions, highlight clipping was more noticeable. While colors appeared more vibrant, they occasionally veered towards being overly saturated, resulting in a slightly unnatural appearance in some instances.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Highlight clipping, white balance cast, slightly unnatural background colors, strong noise on subjects

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – White balance cast, noise on subjects

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Neutral white balance, noise on models

Color

119

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

133

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

In terms of color rendering and white balance, our testers observed noticeable differences to the S24 Ultra, and the color reproduction has set debate over our Insights studies showing that a large set of panelists often rejected Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for its color reproduction. Colors were generally nice when capturing bright outdoor scenes, but color casts could result in a slightly unnatural look, especially in low light.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Warm cast

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – Cool cast

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Accurate white balance, natural skin tones

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Green cast

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – Orange/pink cast

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Orange cast

Sharpness & Timing

107

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

135

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Autofocus irregularity and speed: 1000Lux Δ0EV Daylight Handheld

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Diana setup: 10000Lux Δ0EV D55 Handheld

Autofocus irregularity and speed on AFHDR Portrait Eugene setup: 5Lux Δ0EV 2700K Handheld

During autofocus testing, our experts noticed that the delay between pressing the shutter and capturing the image had been reduced when compared to the S24 Ultra, across a variety of shooting conditions but particularly in high-contrast scenes. The autofocus was precise and stable. However, the depth of field could occasionally be shallower than on the S24 Ultra, resulting in a blurrier middle plane (background model in the shots below) in some shots.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Front face in focus, background face out of focus

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – Front face in focus, background face out of focus

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Front face in focus, background face out of focus

Texture

121

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

132

Vivo X200 Ultra

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score vs lux levels for handheld conditions

Overall, the level of detail captured by the S25 Ultra camera was quite comparable to the S24 Ultra. However, in some of our test scenes, the S25 Ultra preserved better detail, particularly in low light.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - Low light detail

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - Very good detail

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - Low light detail

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - Good detail

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Low light detail

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Slight loss of detail

Noise

105

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

129

Oppo Find X8 Ultra

Visual noise evolution with illuminance levels in handheld condition

In bright light, image noise was well under control. However, in scenes with strong backlighting and in low light, noise was more intrusive than on the S24 Ultra. In addition, our experts noticed unpleasant chroma noise and some noise reduction instabilities across consecutive shots of the same scene when shooting high-contrasted scenes.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - Noise in backlit scenes

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - Visible noise on the subject

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - Noise in backlit scenes

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - Noticeable noise on the subject

Apple Iphone 16 Pro Max - Noise in backlit scene

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Noticeable noise on the subject

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - Low light noise

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - Chromatic noise noticeable when zooming in

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - Low light noise

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - Noise slightly noticeable when zooming in

Apple Iphone 16 Pro Max - Low light noise

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Noise slightly noticeable when zooming in

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Image of a series of consecutive shots

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Different shot of the same series – instability in processing is impacting the rendering of details, contrast, and color.

Artifacts

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

Main photo artifacts penalties

Bokeh

165

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

175

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

Like the S24 Ultra, the S25 Ultra uses its short telephoto camera in bokeh mode. The longer focal length, with its compressed perspective, proves to be a better option for capturing portrait images when compared to the wide-angle lenses used by many competitors. In our tests, bokeh performance was very similar to that of its predecessor, with good subject isolation. This said, we found the feature to be somewhat unstable. The bokeh effect did not work every time.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Good subject isolation, foreground blur

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – Good subject isolation, foreground blur

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Very good subject isolation, foreground blur

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Consecutive shots – Bokeh effect triggered

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Consecutive shots – No bokeh effect, instability in color processing

Tele

140

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

169

Huawei Pura 80 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra features a dual optical zoom setup, with 3x and 5x magnifications. In our zoom tests, the Samsung provided reliable image quality at close and medium range settings. Long range was exceptional, capturing high levels of detail, especially when shooting in bright light. In low light conditions, noise could be quite noticeable, though. When using the tele zoom, performance was generally good at close and medium-range settings, but in some scenes, our testers noticed a slight lack of detail. The device really started to shine after switching to the 5x zoom module. This is when long-range performance significantly improved, delivering very good texture and clarity in distant subjects when shooting in bright conditions.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Telephoto Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - Long range

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - Very good detail

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - Long range

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - Good detail

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Long range

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max - Good detail

UltraWide

146

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

169

Vivo X200 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra features a new 50MP ultra-wide camera that maintains the same field of view as on previous models. In our tests, the image output was very similar to the S24 Ultra in terms of exposure and color, but we noticed that noise on the other hand was managed better and less intrusive, especially when shooting indoors or in low light. The device does not always get the best of its new 50MP sensor, and some images in bright light conditions actually showed a level of detail very close to what was seen on S24 Ultra.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Ultra-Wide Scores

This graph illustrates the relative scores for the different zoom ranges evaluated. The abscissa is expressed in 35mm equivalent focal length.

DXOMARK CHART (DMC) detail preservation score per focal length

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Accurate target exposure, noise well controlled on face and slightly visible in the field

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra- Accurate target exposure, visible noise on face and strong noise in the field

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Accurate target exposure, visible fine luminance noise overall

Video

150

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

172

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

About DXOMARK Camera Video tests