Photo Battle: Camera comparison between Huawei P50, Pixel 6 and iPhone 11

Recently released on Lifehacker review flagship Huawei P50, which was pleasantly surprised by the camera and in the category up to 50 thousand rubles seemed to be quite an interesting option. For the same money today you can buy Pixel 6, which is also known for its wide shooting capabilities. We decided to compare these smartphones and find out which one shoots better. And for the sake of clarity, the test was added to the third iPhone 11, which, by the way, fits into the same price range.

Rear camera specifications

Main camera

Shooting during the day and indoors

Today, even budget smartphones can take beautiful shots in the summer in bright sunshine, not to mention models with a claim to the flagship segment. Therefore, street shots on the Huawei P50, Pixel 6 and iPhone 11 usually do not disappoint.

Huawei's post-processing algorithms make colors slightly oversaturated and lighten more of the dark areas, so the image is a little less natural. Although this option may seem to many more visual and attractive.

Pixel 6 on automatic settings often makes the frame warmer and "tube". This applies to both landscape scenes and close-ups.

Photos on the iPhone 11 are often closer to natural colors, but in terms of gamut, these are always faded tones that you want to “twist” in editor.

In general, in such conditions, all smartphones offer enough data so that any frame can be adjust according to your own preferences - make it cold, less saturated, sharper and etc.

Shooting in low light

When shooting at night with good street lighting, all devices also do well, although the colors of the Huawei P50 and iPhone 11 embellish the picture a bit. However, this is unlikely to disappoint anyone.

But if the conditions are complicated, leaving several times fewer light sources, then the iPhone 11 begins to clearly lose to its opponents. And the more darkness, the more lag.

Especially well the ability to cope with complete darkness can be traced when shooting the starry sky. In the footage below, the Huawei P50 was set to 30 seconds, while the Pixel 6 and iPhone 11 picked it up. automatically (the first one simply does not have manual settings, and the second on the machine shot better than with setting).

This is already a photo from under a metal arch - also with exposure. Here Huawei again pleasantly surprised. Comments are superfluous.

Wide camera

On a wide-angle camera in daylight, the situation with colors is approximately the same as in the case of the main module, but problems with sharpness at the edges of the frame are also added to it. They are relevant for Huawei P50 as well.

Pictures on the Pixel 6 are often closer to natural hues and less "noisy". They can easily be pulled into the same scale as the P50.

AT indoors the difference in color reproduction and frame processing is much more pronounced. In such conditions, the iPhone 11 makes the picture too warm and often noisy, the Huawei P50 goes too far with contrast, but the Pixel 6 maintains the right balance.

zoom

As for the zoom, here the Huawei P50 has a priori an advantage, since the Pixel 6 and iPhone 11 simply do not have a separate camera for this purpose - they crop and interpolate frames from the main module. The result is quite expected.

Huawei P50 pulls out both 5x and 10x zoom perfectly, albeit with color distortions. But you definitely shouldn’t increase it to the maximum 50 times - no light will help you there, and even a tripod is unlikely to allow you to get an acceptable picture.

The Pixel 6 has a good software zoom x2, which tries to sharpen the image, as if the frame was taken on a telephoto. But it only works during the day outside. In other conditions, pictures often fail.

Results

Almost all shots here, with the exception of the starry sky, were taken on automatic settings. The photos show not so much the capabilities of optics or sensors, but the difference in post-processing. Today, algorithms make it possible to improve frames even where the human eye is not able to distinguish one detail from another.

If we somehow briefly evaluate the heroes of this comparison, then the Huawei P50 is an excellent camera for night photos and zoom, the Pixel 6 is more a universal device for shooting outdoors and indoors, but the iPhone 11 is just the owner of a good main camera and no more Togo.

Of course, it is not entirely correct to compare the iPhone 11 with the P50 and Pixel 6, since this model is two years older than them. But, as noted earlier, all these devices are similar in price - each of them can be found for about 50,000 rubles. And if the camera is one of the most important criteria for you when buying a smartphone, then you may have to choose from among these devices.