Honor 8 vs Galaxy S7 Photo comparison. (iPhone 7 in pipeline)

[MRU]

S7

Honor 8

S7

Honor 8

S7

Honor 8

S7

honor 8

s7

honor 8

s7

honor 8

 

[spinedoc77]

STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!! I'm stuck in the ugliest state in the US, and you get to see beautiful vistas every day. No JK, the pictures are quite comparable, although the honor ones seem slightly blown out in color. I'd be curious about low light performance as that's my personal metric for cameras these days. I think we are past the point where cameras really matter anymore, that's why we see gimmick stuff like bokeh and dual cameras. Well not gimmicks, but not really any specific improvements that are more than slightly ahead of the previous generation.

 

[MRU]

STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!! I'm stuck in the ugliest state in the US, and you get to see beautiful vistas every day. No JK, the pictures are quite comparable, although the honor ones seem slightly blown out in color. I'd be curious about low light performance as that's my personal metric for cameras these days. I think we are past the point where cameras really matter anymore, that's why we see gimmick stuff like bokeh and dual cameras. Well not gimmicks, but not really any specific improvements that are more than slightly ahead of the previous generation.

Yeah that was really the point of the thread that they are genuinely favourably comparable in normal light. TBH I don't really shoot much low light stuff, but I'll do that tomorrow and post comparison between the two.

It is great to see a mid-range device prove itself to be adept enough to offer a similar daylight photo shooting to the highest rated android camera.

One thing I do notice between them though is the 'over-sharpening' done post processing wise on the Samsung photos. The dog picture looks sharper when viewed on a small device or in a small window, but view the image full size and that over-sharpening actually degrades the image quality significantly. Compared to the Honor 8 snap, which initially seems softer, (that is because it doesn't have the harsh over-sharpening) when viewed full size the fur is actually far more representative of reality (being all soft and woolly) than the S7 shot which makes the fur looks wiry and synthetic.

Samsung really do need to tone down the over-sharpening.

 

[kasakka]

Nice comparison. The S7 pics look better to me in smaller size (like if you were to upload to social media sites) but not so much in full size. It's too bad if you can't do anything about the sharpening effect.

 

[MRU]

Nice comparison. The S7 pics look better to me in smaller size (like if you were to upload to social media sites) but not so much in full size. It's too bad if you can't do anything about the sharpening effect.

Yeah it's a shame it can't be turned off.

 

[nviz22]

Prefer the S7, but the differences are really negligible if you want a good camera without getting into the nit and grit. I still think that the software features like specific color filters plays a huge part, so Samsung all the way here.

 

[5105973]

Thank you! I love these comparison shots and you did an amazing job maintaining consistency for lightning and scene and so forth between the two cameras.

Quick question: does the Honor 8 record video with stereo audio sound like the Samsungs do? iPhone doesn't do that. I'm just curious because we could be looking at a phone that could match or better the iPhones and Samsungs for basic features at half the cost. The only caveat is that Honor 8 supposedly has a high SARS rating according to someone who posted about it on a discussion I ran into somewhere.

 

[msavic]

Yeah it's a shame it can't be turned off.

It appears that shooting in Pro mode with all of the settings on Auto produces a JPEG that is slightly less sharpened than one taken in the Auto Mode. You could also shoot in RAW and do a quick adjustment in LightRoom with one of the presets for Detail and adjust to your desired level.

Regardless, I'm impressed the Honor 8 is able to produce comparable images. The difference in colour should not be considered a con as Samsung tends to boost contrast and vibrance all of which can easily be adjusted to taste. While I was testing the 7Plus I noticed that adjusting the Vibrance to 10-15 on LightRoom produced images with the exact same saturation/vibrance as the S7 produced straight from the Camera.

 

[kasakka]

Quick question: does the Honor 8 record video with stereo audio sound like the Samsungs do? iPhone doesn't do that. I'm just curious because we could be looking at a phone that could match or better the iPhones and Samsungs for basic features at half the cost. The only caveat is that Honor 8 supposedly has a high SARS rating according to someone who posted about it on a discussion I ran into somewhere.

Does recording in stereo matter much though when the recording source has little stereo separation? Most things when recorded are mono and then panned and mixed into stereo audio.

 

[5105973]

Does recording in stereo matter much though when the recording source has little stereo separation? Most things when recorded are mono and then panned and mixed into stereo audio.

Well, when I was doing comparison testing between my iPhone 6S Plus and my Note 7, I recorded videos of myself walking through my house and through my property which has a fish pond and we are out in a semi rural area so I had a lot of interesting sounds I could pick up. When I played back the movies I made, everything sounded flat and lifeless on the iPhone video.

When I played back the Note 7 video, as I was walking down the steps of my deck you could tell there was a fish pond to my left and that there were animals of different kinds to my right where my neighbor lives and even make out the sounds of birds at the bird feeder straight ahead. On the iPhone video all of these sounds were mushed together and you couldn't really feel like you were there hearing them in person. It was just audio accompaniment to the video but didn't really immerse you in the scene. I've only ever had iPhones until fairly recently so I didn't realize what I was missing from the auditory experience I could have been having on smart phone videos.

This is why my curiosity has been so strongly piqued by what the LG V20 promises to offer. I was just curious if a budget friendly phone like the Honor 8 offers this feature as well. I admit to being completely surprised at how beautifully MRU's Honor 8 photos compare to his Samsung S7 photos. That's just astounding. I'm used to picture quality on budget friendly smart phones being of noticeably lesser quality than those of the IPhones and Samsung flagships.

I've been a long time Apple "sheeple" so to speak, and I use that term with affection, not as an insult. But I mean for the last few years since the iPhone's introduction I accepted without question that it was the device with the best of everything...camera, video capability, call quality, GPS, etc. I am only recently making a concerted effort to opening my mind and making a study of what Iphone and its competitors can do well and what they can't.

 

[MRU]

Re: video. I haven't tried any video recording on it yet. I'll add that to my todo list for testing

 

[MRU]

It appears that shooting in Pro mode with all of the settings on Auto produces a JPEG that is slightly less sharpened than one taken in the Auto Mode. You could also shoot in RAW and do a quick adjustment in LightRoom with one of the presets for Detail and adjust to your desired level.

Regardless, I'm impressed the Honor 8 is able to produce comparable images. The difference in colour should not be considered a con as Samsung tends to boost contrast and vibrance all of which can easily be adjusted to taste. While I was testing the 7Plus I noticed that adjusting the Vibrance to 10-15 on LightRoom produced images with the exact same saturation/vibrance as the S7 produced straight from the Camera.

Yeah I should shoot in raw, I have Lightroom (use it for adjusting our studio photos shot without mega expensive Hasselblad digital back and lenses).

Hopefully it will produce better results with pro mode and as you say reduce that over sharpening that on landscape shots at least doesn't really work on their favor.

 

[msavic]

Yeah I should shoot in raw, I have Lightroom (use it for adjusting our studio photos shot without mega expensive Hasselblad digital back and lenses).

Hopefully it will produce better results with pro mode and as you say reduce that over sharpening that on landscape shots at least doesn't really work on their favor.

At this point, I exclusively shoot in Pro mode with RAW enabled and manually step down settings as needed on my S7E. I have LightRoom 5 on my desktop but I do most of my editing quickly on my S7E although I do change the display mode to Basic to ensure more accurate results.

It's really quite impressive that we have the ability to edit RAW files on the go with smartphones. It is extremely CPU intensive though and it causes my S7E to heat up like crazy and lag while rendering.

 

[MRU]

At this point, I exclusively shoot in Pro mode with RAW enabled and manually step down settings as needed on my S7E. I have LightRoom 5 on my desktop but I do most of my editing quickly on my S7E although I do change the display mode to Basic to ensure more accurate results.

It's really quite impressive that we have the ability to edit RAW files on the go with smartphones. It is extremely CPU intensive though and it causes my S7E to heat up like crazy and lag while rendering.

Yeah i always use Basic mode too for display on any Samsung phone I have or have owned. For me it's a must.

I remember when my Lumia 1020 got updated to support RAW capture it took at least 5-6 seconds to process and save each shot. It was as slow as molasses, but I loved the camera on that phone - it's a crime we never got a spiritual successor. Would love to see that camera in a super powerful android handset.

 

[Klyster]

Great pics and must say be happy with either photo.

 

[mclld]

Wow the Honor really held its ground and went toe to toe

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

The Honor seems slightly softer, but other than that it's hard to tell the difference.

 

[MRU]

Just a quick update.

So i decided to run geekbench on both devices

Honor 8 - the mid ranger

Galaxy S7 - the exynos champ

So yet again, this mid range is keeping more than toe to toe with the S7 Exynos.

I am genuinely surprised by the quality of the Honor 8. In every way it really is a flagship top tier and yet it is marketed and priced as a mid ranger.

 

[msavic]

That is seriously impressive for a budget devicr. How is the Honor 8 in terms of daily use with regards to speed and performance?

 

[MRU]

That is seriously impressive for a budget devicr. How is the Honor 8 in terms of daily use with regards to speed and performance?

Lightning fast. Feels buttery smooth for me. Apps open fast. Turn off a power saving feature and i have no problems with multitasking and keeping plenty of apps open in the background and still have plenty of free ram left. As heavy a skin EMUI is, it feels on use to me very light because it's not impacting the device performance.

It was because of how buttery smooth it is that I was curious to find out it's geekbench.

 

[Switchback666]

Dog still knows how to pose, thanks for the pics mate.

 

[JaySoul]

Time to start paying the dog pro rates for modelling!

 

[MRU]

Time to start paying the dog pro rates for modelling!

shush, don't give them ideas. They are demanding enough with 3 walks a day on the beach

 

[Technarchy]

The Samsung pics look immediately better to me.

 

[MRU]

Well despite my protestations I ended up getting a 128gb JetBlack iPhone 7. My next door neighbour's phone died and she wanted a 6S 64gb and offered me a good price for my white model. So I sold it to her and then the iPhone 7 128gb only cost me an additional €150.
Just about justifiable upgrade at that price. Just ....


Was nervous about going jet black but decided whilst being impulsive what the hell. Stuck a case and a screen protector on and I'll hope for the best.


Anyway back to the point ....


My next testing will add the iPhone 7 into the mix with the Honor 8 and S7 in various lights including low light scenarios.