Remember those days when people carried around cameras to take photos of their adventures? Do you even remember cameras? Now when you walk the streets, you’ll most likely see people with smartphones. These smartphones have cameras that can capture megapixels. The higher, the better and more accurate in terms of image resolution.

Smartphone brands are constantly upgrading their cameras to challenge professional cameras in the best way they can. However, to be able to know who the reigning king of smartphone photography is, there is a need to directly compare their capabilities.

In this smartphone camera showdown, we pitted the Samsung’s Galaxy S7, Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus and Huawei’s P9 against each other. Let’s take a look at their specs: Seven participants, comprised of Instagram influencers and photography enthusiasts, have been invited to test out smartphone photography.

In respective order, Samsung, Apple and Huawei came out as the top three with the most smartphones sold globally during Q2 and Q3 of 2016. As such, for the challenge, the selected smartphones to be used were the Samsung S7, Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Huawei P9.

Now, let’s check out their capabilities:

Challenge 1: Bokeh in a tight space

“Bokeh” is the ability of the camera to blur out the background while focused on the foreground. Most Instagram users are fond of this feature. Here, the phones’ cameras are tested in a tight space.

Challenge 2: Bokeh on landscape

Here the cameras are tested on a subject with a larger background.

Challenge 3: Monochrome

Another favorite of people on social media platforms are the black and white photos they take of their adventures. Let’s take a look at the results:
Here the cameras are tested on a subject with a larger background.

Challenge 4: Vivid Settings (outdoor)

As smart phones’ cameras get more sophisticated, their ability to capture vivid images rival those of digital SLRs. Let’s take a look at the results in an outdoor setting:

Here the cameras are tested on a subject with a larger background.

Challenge 5: Vivid Settings (indoors)

Here, we tested out the cameras in an indoor setting and on a subject with a larger background.

Challenge 6: Lowlight (Indoors)

One of the common weaknesses in smart phones cameras is the ability to capture images in a low light environment. Here we test out the cameras on an indoor settings with very little light available:

Here the cameras are tested on a subject with a larger background.

Challenge 7: Low Light (outdoors)

Here we tried out the cameras outdoors as the sun sets and on a subject with a larger background.

Challenge 8: Blind Test

The photos were presented to 50 respondents. Find out the results in this blind test below:

The Result of the Challenges

As this was a blind test for all the respondents, both surveys swing in the same results with the Samsung Galaxy S7 as the least favorite for all of the features suggested. Meanwhile, the iPhone 7 Plus gets applauded for its excellent lowlight capacity.

As for the rest of the features tested–bokeh, monochrome and vivid–Huawei P9 proves to be the best and it can be said that the brand’s partnership with Leica has turned out to be the most wonderful decision it has made to date.

Do you agree with the result? What’s your choice and what would you say works best for you? Find out here.