Can you tell if a photo is from a $1,300 flagship or a $280 budget phone?

With each passing 12 months, the cameras on a smartphone develop into nearly as necessary because the smartphone itself. Individuals know that just about any telephone can do the “telephone” issues they want, however not simply any machine may be the most effective digital camera telephone available on the market. As such, within the overwhelming majority of instances, the explanation you’re paying a sure value for a telephone is closely influenced by the digital camera {hardware} you’ll discover there.

However actually, how far does this go? Is a telephone that prices $1,300 actually so a lot better than one which prices lower than $300? Is there a $1,000+ distinction between the pictures you’ll get on one versus the opposite?

I made a decision to check to search out out. I’ve pitted two very completely different telephones bought at very completely different value factors towards each other to see how you actually really feel in regards to the flagship vs budget telephone digital camera debate.

The Galaxy S25 Extremely is probably the greatest digital camera telephones you can presently purchase. It has a huge digital camera system, together with a 200MP major sensor, two telephotos (a 10MP 3x optical and a 50MP 5x optical), and a 50MP ultrawide. It additionally has a high-end 12MP selfie digital camera.

In the meantime, the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional has a a lot weaker {hardware} system. Its 50MP major digital camera is smaller and decrease decision than the Galaxy S25 Extremely’s. Likewise, its tiny 8MP ultrawide digital camera can’t examine on paper, and its 16MP selfie digital camera is undoubtedly a cheaper little bit of {hardware} than the one on Samsung’s flagship. Notably, although, the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional has a 50MP telephoto lens (2x optical), which is not often seen on a telephone this cheap.

For the exams beneath, I attempted to make every shot match the opposite as carefully as potential. I used out-of-the-box settings and targeted on the usual options between each units. For instance, I didn’t do a macro shot check as a result of the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional’s software program doesn’t help this characteristic. I additionally didn’t do a lot setup. I held the telephones in my hand (no tripods) and captured every photo with minimal tweaking. I didn’t do any reshoots, both — the primary photo from every setup is the one I went with. I really feel this finest displays real-world utilization.

In every part, the 2 pictures are unlabeled and in a completely different order. As you scroll by way of, decide which photo in every pair you assume did the higher job. When you get to the tip of the article, I’ll tell you which telephone produced every photo, and you can see which telephone you actually favor.

One last word: all of the pictures listed below are compressed for website loading velocity. If you need to see them in an uncompressed state, take a look at this Drive folder. Simply don’t use that to cheat!

This is essentially the most fundamental shot possible. The solar was behind me, and I simply took a fast snap of the park utilizing the first lens. Observe how completely different these are when it comes to publicity. The Digital camera 2 shot additionally has way more pronounced grass coloring, and shadows are a lot much less distinct. This is particularly obvious within the park bench behind the tree on the decrease left. The gazebo (decrease proper) additionally has a bizarre blue tinge within the Digital camera 2 shot that isn’t obvious in actual life, nor within the Digital camera 1 photo.

This isn’t a macro shot, nevertheless it provides an thought of how every digital camera captures smaller particulars. Digital camera 2 did a a lot better job of stabilizing the picture, lowering the blur you see across the lettering within the Digital camera 1 picture. Nevertheless, the Digital camera 2 picture has some bizarre artifacts across the wooden grain, which aren’t obvious within the Digital camera 1 picture.

This session produced essentially the most important distinction between the 2 cameras. The coloring of Digital camera 1 appears very washed out, however the synthetic bokeh appears fairly real looking. In the meantime, the Digital camera 2 picture has some good coloring on the flowers, however the bokeh is flat-out horrible. I nearly canned each of those and did a re-shoot, however I made a decision to stay to my rule and never do this.

Finally, it’s all in regards to the particulars with this selfie instance. Digital camera 1 reveals a lot extra pores and skin particulars than Digital camera 2. However Digital camera 1 additionally pushed the colours of the vegetation within the background method an excessive amount of. Nonetheless, the brilliant daylight on my face was dealt with a lot better with Digital camera 1 than the washed-out, off-coloring produced with Digital camera 2.

Digital camera 1 did a fairly good job right here, particularly with the bokeh on the appropriate facet of my face. You possibly can see the bokeh having some hassle round my hair within the higher left, nevertheless it nonetheless appears fairly good. In the meantime, Digital camera 2’s bokeh simply appears like grain within the background, with no blurry softness that you would count on from a shot like this. The world round my hair within the higher left is additionally weird — it appears prefer it was simply cropped out utilizing Photoshop or one thing.

We’re beginning to see some developments right here. The Digital camera 1 picture has some extraordinarily pushed colours from its HDR impact, with shadows principally being non-existent. Take a look at the distinction in shadowing on the slide — it’s just like the pictures have been taken at two completely different instances of day (they weren’t). The sky does look a lot higher within the Digital camera 1 shot, although, at the very least in my view.

This was a powerful name to make as a result of the 2 telephones don’t have the identical zoom capabilities. The CMF Cellphone 2 Professional has a 2x optical zoom whereas the Galaxy S25 Extremely makes use of digital cropping for 2x photographs. I might have pushed the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional to 3x — which might have had it utilizing a digital crop — and seen the Galaxy S25 Extremely’s optical picture, however I figured I ought to give this one to the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional because it’s the budget telephone. Anyway, one in every of these photographs is 2x optical and the opposite is 2x digital — can you tell which is which?

This one is the other of the final one, with the Galaxy S25 Extremely having a distinct benefit because it makes use of a 5x optical zoom lens to create a 10x digital crop, whereas the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional creates a 10x digital crop primarily based on a 2x lens. As such, this needs to be the best one to suss out of the entire bunch.

It’s not within the shot, however the solar is straight above the gazebo, shining brightly over the California city of Novato. This is able to be a tough shot for any telephone digital camera, as a result of all that daylight could make it powerful for even the most effective sensor to stability publicity appropriately. There are some distinct, apparent variations between these two photographs, nevertheless it is fairly unimaginable that the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional didn’t buckle beneath the stress. Which one do you assume appears finest?

Essentially the most evident distinction between these two pictures is that one has real-life colours and the opposite appears like Technicolor-levels of coloring. Nevertheless, wanting on the grass on each side of the Digital camera 1 picture, you’ll additionally see some blurry artifacts there. The tree half within the body on the left facet is notably poor within the Digital camera 1 shot, too. Which one in every of these comes from the $1,300 digital camera?

Just like the Portrait mode instance, one of many cameras flat-out failed this check. This room was fairly darkish — not blackout darkish, however mild was scarce. My try and get Digital camera 1 to give attention to something was not possible, however Digital camera 2 additionally confronted focus points. I feel each pictures are poor, however one is clearly higher than the opposite — however which telephone made them?

OK, I hope you have your scorecard prepared, as a result of you’re about to spoil the solutions for your self if you don’t. Listed here are the cameras that shot every of the pictures above:

• 1x in daylight: Digital camera 1 is Galaxy S25 Extremely; Digital camera 2 is Cellphone 2 Professional
• 1x texture closeup: Digital camera 1 is Cellphone 2 Professional; Digital camera 2 is Galaxy S25 Extremely
• Portrait mode: Digital camera 1 is Cellphone 2 Professional; Digital camera 2 is Galaxy S25 Extremely
• Customary selfie: Digital camera 1 is Galaxy S25 Extremely; Digital camera 2 is Cellphone 2 Professional
• Portrait mode selfie: Digital camera 1 is Galaxy S25 Extremely; Digital camera 2 is Cellphone 2 Professional
• 1x exhibiting colour: Digital camera 1 is Cellphone 2 Professional; Digital camera 2 is Galaxy S25 Extremely
• 2x in daylight: Digital camera 1 is Galaxy S25 Extremely; Digital camera 2 is Cellphone 2 Professional
• 10x in daylight: Digital camera 1 is Cellphone 2 Professional; Digital camera 2 is Galaxy S25 Extremely
• HDR instance in direct daylight: Digital camera 1 is Cellphone 2 Professional; Digital camera 2 is Galaxy S25 Extremely
• 0.6x in daylight: Digital camera 1 is Galaxy S25 Extremely; Digital camera 2 is Cellphone 2 Professional
• Evening mode: Digital camera 1 is Cellphone 2 Professional; Digital camera 2 is Galaxy S25 Extremely

If you sum up all the most effective pictures — and by “finest,” I imply those which are objectively superior in high quality, coloring, focus, and many others. — the Galaxy S25 Extremely is the clear winner on my scorecard. Nevertheless, that wasn’t the case 100% of the time. The Galaxy S25 Extremely’s portrait mode fail was particularly egregious. Sure, I might have stood there and re-focused the shot and tried to enhance it, however the truth that I had to try this with a $1,300 telephone and never a $280 telephone is fairly ridiculous.

What’s additionally exceptional to me is that the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional clearly can’t match the Galaxy S25 Extremely, nevertheless it nonetheless holds its personal fairly properly. Sure, it failed the evening mode shot dismally, and I wouldn’t use the ultrawide digital camera for something ever, however every little thing else was greater than fantastic. Simply have a look at the HDR instance shot. Sure, the Galaxy S25 Extremely’s photo is higher, however is it $1,000 higher? I don’t assume so.

In different phrases, the Galaxy S25 Extremely wins, however the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional proves that you don’t have to spend over $1,000 to get a digital camera that may ship ample outcomes, at the very least in good lighting.

What do you assume? Have been you shocked by the end result of any of those examples? Let me know your ideas within the feedback, and make sure you select one thing within the ballot above!