HTC One X camera challenge - can you see the difference between a smartphone and a camera?

By Jerry Hildenbrand  | May 12 2012 | 5:19 pm  | 67 Comments

HTC camera challenge

HTC is pretty confident in the new camera they introduced in the One series. I have to be honest, they have good reason to be. The camera in the One S is downright spectacular, and really can replace a typical point-and-shoot digicam. It's a wonderful mix of hardware, software, and magic that truly delivers. In fact, HTC is pretty sure you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between pictures taken with the One X and those taken with a stand-alone camera. Hit the link below, run through and see what all the fuss is about.

Source: HTC

Jerry Hildenbrand

Jerry Hildenbrand Cowboy

"Fascinated by things that go beep."

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There are 67 comments

jjrudey says:

You correctly identified 8 out of 10 photos taken by the HTC One X

So it's really not that great

TyGamer says:

Got the same score.

VetteDude says:

I got the same score, and I'm not a photographer at all. I just know enough that tiny sensor = garbage lighting.

voiceonly says:

The test is crap, I picked the smartphone 10 for 10 and it said I got 6 of 10.... I do wedding photography and could see differences (some very slight). But to compare 2 completely different images of different subjects/color/etc... is unfair.

spacetug says:

Bull****. Nobody can tell the difference at 364x270 (the resolution of the pictures shown.) In some cases, you can see that the Dof is greater than what can be achieved on such a small sensor, and in some the dim lighting would produce blurry, noisy pictures on anything short of a full-frame DSLR, but for the most part they are too small to see anything that would give away the smartphone. (Remember the stadium picture?)

HubyD says:

9/10, you can still see the difference

virus786 says:

I want to see the untouched source files!
Then I want to choose which is a smart phone and which is the other.

proglowdetail says:

I got 5 out of 10.

icebike says:

Me too. I suck at this, but mostly because the Camera has so many tricks up its sleeve.

Incubus123 says:

Pretty silly test when the images are like 300x300 pixels big, why not make them even smaller so that no-one can notice any difference ?

McSqueeb says:

Was going to say this myself... I expected real photos, not thumbnails. My 5mp Galaxy S photos would look the same at that resolution.

virus786 says:

Yep, marketing...meh..That's why I want to see the source files. - We will probably never see them.

n25philly says:

How are they going to trick people in to buying their phones for the camera that way?

HYNK says:

400 x 318 resolution? Might as well be thumbnails.

EeZeEpEe says:

Yeah resizing it that small definitely makes it a little more difficult. Still got 8 out of 10.

EeZeEpEe says:

Since they don't show you which is which at the end, you can check by trying to save a photo. The file name will either be smartphone or dslr.

blackbyrd says:

10 out of ten but the last one I got right by accident (it showed me before I guessed). Not a very good marketing tool HTC!

blackbyrd says:

Double post

rayln says:

7/10

Channan says:

Same.

galactic23 says:

This is stupid. Trying analyze and compare Small images and completely different pictures is silly. The pictures should be the same and in higher resolution.

None the less 7/10

303kush says:

Why is there so much hype about the one x did you dumb asses forget about the one s?

Jerry Hildenbrand says:

That's Mr. Dumbass you insolent little man.

 

prediscover says:

LOOL. +1

milominderbinde says:

They didn't forget about the One S.

They just moved it to the junior section.

Jerry Hildenbrand says:

Those of us who could have either, yet chose the One S may disagree.

To quote another AC staff member who will remain nameless:

After you use the One S, you realize every other smartphone is built like shit. It's the best phone I've ever held.

 

DavidJ726 says:

I got 9 out of 10. Still, the test could be more realistic by taking pictures of the same object or setting with both the smartphone and a stand-alone camera and then having the consumer compare the two. Comparing pictures that are close-up vs far away, or that have contrasting colors, lines, and hues, seems to be slightly deceptive...

David

iPwn says:

I was about to point out that. Why not take a picture of the same object or place for a more fair comparison? Regardless, HTC got me, I only got 4/10 right.

AndroidBlizzard says:

One S at 4.3 inches is better than the One X

kdm_2809 says:

You have to be kidding right? I have both phones. The only plus I give the one s is the aluminum body. Other than that the HTC one X is better. The white is sexy and I prefer larger screen size.

NZtechfreak says:

This reeks of shill. Shame.

ro1224 says:

It says I identified 9 out 10, but I'd argue it was 10 out of 10. That said, I'm confused. Isn't the goal to NOT be able to tell an HTC One X pic from that of a professional digital camera? In other words, shouldn't we be picking the PDC pics thinking they were taken by the HTC One X's camera? Funny that when HTC allows you to share it via social media it makes it sound like being able to identify the HTC One X pics is a good thing. Am I missing something here? LOL.

All Things Considered, I'm sure the HTC One X's camera beats the pants off of that sucky camera put into the Galaxy Nexus. I just upgraded and I'm woefully uninspired.

somerussianguy says:

This challenge is bull****! First of all, those pics are about 300X300 - you can barely see any actual details in the pictures. Second, they are comparisons of completely different things - different subjects with different colors, lighting, distance, focus, etc. Third, even with those two fails I still got 6/10 - slightly better than chance! And others guessed even more pics taken with a One X; which means it's kind of obvious which pics were taken with a One X if you have good eye sight and attention to detail, or know something about photography.

One X is nice and all, but this challenge is an epic fail!

EvilMonkey says:

7 of 10 but I'm viewing on an iPad 2 (not the best display). Would be better if they were the same shots or at least composed similarly.

Geikamir says:

Let me see those pictures in a large size and then I'll take the test.

azetoh says:

The first time I did this, I thought "they are probably going to pick a whole bunch of really good smartphone photos and a bunch of really bad camera photos, so I picked all of the really good looking ones as smartphone and I got 2 out of 10. Then I went back and took it again (they give you mostly different photos) and picked all of the really bad ones as smartphone and I got 9 out of 10. Fail

aledelcastle says:

Big FAIL! I did the same thing, meaning the best pictures are those done with a "professional camera". What's the point of this test? Come see how our new camera takes crappier pics than a professional camera?

sparkomatic says:

7/10

Suntan says:

I would just like to see a very compelling portfolio of larger res pictures taken by the new HTC phones offered online.

The fact remains that these new phones take great pictures compared to general cam phone fair, yet everybody is just whingeing about the technicalities of the test method used.

-Suntan

tanson1011 says:

Bunch of nerdy babies on here. Camera is awesome.

morphoeic says:

10/10. You can tell the difference in a lot of the photos by a couple of things. The One X's camera doesn't handle HDR situations all that well, so if it's a contrasty photo, and the lowlights are underexposed, it's the One X. Also, anything with a depth of field effect is clearly not the One X, since the sensor size isn't big enough to get decent DoF, even at f2.0. Having said that, this is a *phone*, not a professional DSLR, and it does perform very well, all things considered. We could wish for a camera setup like on the Nokia N8 (large sensor, Carl Zeiss glass), but the phone would be a lot more expensive then.

disgustipated says:

nice input from what sounds like a fellow photographer :) i however got a 9/10. I agree on all your points. it would have been nice to see the actual images, this would have been a definitive factor. when a phone is able to generate raw files then i'll stop carrying around my dslr.

Saneless says:

3/10. They both look like standard cell phone pics to me.

But what do I know, I have an EVO 3D, which has a worse camera than a $20 Dora The Explorer camera you can win in a crane game.

neoenigma says:

I'm kinda surprised Android Central posted this garbage. It's a ridiculous comparison. First of all, the image are made REALLY, REALLY tiny so you can't see the artifacts from the cell phone pictures. Also, the pictures aren't even of the same scene. They often have different lighting in order to play on the strengths of one X camera.

It's still an impressive camera on a cell phone... but there are still other cell phone cameras out there that are better (iPhone 4S comes to mind).

Darius_nyc says:

I got out 8 of 10, it's an nice camera on the One X but you can tell the difference especially in low light pictures, I am bit impress by it. if I was to get this phone I would use the camera for outdoor and bright pictures settings. I am looking forward to see what the Galaxy S III Camera can do now.

Bobman says:

Just look for HDR effects and you'll know which one is the One X. . .

SamOliver says:

The pictures are too small to tell the difference. Everything looks the same in thumbnail size.

janesa13 says:

8/10
The easiest way to spot for me is to compare the white balance.
The white balance on smartphone is never good enough.

edr1983 says:

10 out of 10... Easiest thing I've ever done.

DrDoppio says:

Look, y'all confused that the pictures should be compared with each other -- the idea is to pick from a random set! That being said, they shouldn't have rescaled them.

I only guessed 6 out of ten, but I wasn't looking as much at the pictures as trying to guess what would HTC have done to fool me...

joshjoshajosh says:

7/10, agree with all "too small" comments

julianz says:

Hmm 10/10 even at that small size. Am I being too picky? That said, the camera is pretty good and I would use it as a daily snapper. But it's no DSLR.

SiliconAddict says:

7 of 10. HTC also cherry picked the scenes to make the most out of a smart phone's weaknesses. What a joke.

chief113 says:

Man you guys a are picky. It's still the best cell phone camera out there.

SiliconAddict says:

And yet in low light its complete and total junk.

EeZeEpEe says:

I wonder if it's just cause most of us are electronically savy or is it that obvious? It should have been a comparison it a decent point-and-shoot rather than a DSLR and pics that full screen most monitors.

prometheusjp says:

I got 8 right but really aren't we being a little too picky. This is a cell phone vs a dslr. It is always going to be hard to compete with physical lens size

steve0617 says:

I'm not a photographer or have a real eye for this stuff *at all.*. Yet I got 7 out of 10 as the phone.

Hmmmmmm.

Quills#WP says:

Some days I'm good, but today I am great: 10 of 10...BHL batting 1.000.

joaorenato says:

Where is the link? Where are the pics?

EeZeEpEe says:

Links are where they always put them. Look after "Source" in the article.

tech_head says:

I got 8 out of 10.
Not difficult. A lot has to do with what you think about the focal length of a smartphone.
The issue I have with the test is that the images are small. Let me see a 6MP comparison not the processed pics they gave us to compare.

I'm a semi-pro photographer.

I have a Canon 7D and there is NO POSSIBLE WAY, any smartphone or point and shoot outperforms it.
It might be a good phone camera but don't throw away your DSLR.

F4tB4st4rd says:

You have to click the Source: HTC link.

I got 9 of 10 I just picked the ones that looked like cell phone pics.
Easy Peezy!

JeremySVilla says:

The gap is shrinking, but differences still exist where buying a digi cam still makes sense.

BudgeieBoy says:

Very Very easy, 9 out of 10 even with those very small images, when will phone companies learn that its not the sensor but the glass and skill that makes a good picture!

Owner of a 7D and several L series lenses and I have a One X, the One X is OK for a simple point and click but has not even replaced my digital compact as the digital ZOOM is horrid.

heyyu says:

9 out of 10. Marketing fail.

jeff275 says:

I, too got 10 out of 10 and was told I got 6 out of 10. Has anyone compared this camera to the HTC Amaze Camera?