2018 "China's Good Phones for Taking Photos" Hengping Review: Portrait Photography Chapter

IT168 Review It feels like 2018 has passed very quickly, and it’s time for our annual review of “China’s Best Camera Phones” again. Still the same formula or the same taste, we selected the most representative mobile phones from major Chinese mobile phone brands to conduct a horizontal comparison in terms of selfie experience. The comparison method is simple and direct, that is, using actual selfie photos taken in normal light, backlight, low light, etc. to judge the level.

Portrait Photography - Selfie Comparison

Let’s first take a look at the mobile phones in this selfie review, in no particular order. It can be seen that the overall hardware parameters of the camera are much improved compared to last year. Except for HTC U12, most of them are above the 10-megapixel level, and all support the latest AI beauty technology, and the aperture of the front camera has also been further improved. In addition, you can note that two dual-screen mobile phones, such as vivo NEX dual-screen version and Nubia X, also use the main camera as the front camera.

Model number

Front camera pixels

Light front

AI beauty

HTC U12

8MP dual camera

F/2.0

No

OPPO R17 Pro

25MP

F2.0

Support

vivo NEX dual-screen version

12 million dual-core pixels 2 million pixels night vision TOF 3D

F/1.79, F/1.8, F/1.3

Support

Huawei Mate20 Pro

24 million pixels

F2. 0

Supported

Meizu 16th Plus

20 million pixels

F2.0

Supported

Nubian X

24 million 16 million pixels

F1.8, F1.7

Support

Honor Magic2

16 million 2 million pixels 2 million pixels

F2.0, F2.4, F2.4

Support

Xiaomi MIX 3

24 million 2 million pixels

F/1.8

Supports

OnePlus 6T

1600 Megapixel

F2.0

Support

Daily selfies with ample lighting

On a nice winter afternoon, we and my girl A group came together outdoors in a well-lit area. In order to maximize the beauty algorithm advantages of mobile phones, the location where we took selfies was not exposed to direct sunlight. As the saying goes, there is no harm without contrast. Although we are outdoors in a cool place with good light, we can still easily judge the difference.

First, let’s talk about the poor overall temperament performance. The main manifestations here are that the brightness is darker (OnePlus 6T), the face is grayer (Honor Magic 2), and the face is blue (Nubi). Asian X), the beauty is unnatural (Xiaomi MIX 3), and there is no beauty (HTC U12). Among them, the performance of HTC U12 is the most disappointing. This was also the case in the 2017 Hengping Review. It seems that HTC should really work hard on selfies.

Among the other four mobile phones, the vivo NEX dual-screen version has the most stunning selfie effect, taking full advantage of the high-definition main camera. In terms of beauty, the skin will look white and rosy, and the lip color is rarely optimized, making the lady feel full of energy. The OPPO R17 Por maintains the tradition of always being white and tender, but the overall color is lighter, but the lip color is also reflected. In fact, the girl is wearing lipstick, so the mobile phone with darker lips still has room for optimization in taking selfies.

Backlit selfies with normal lighting

Compared to a well-lit environment, when the indoor lighting is normal with a little backlighting, the watershed immediately becomes obvious. This tests the phone's ability to accurately identify faces and compensate for the current skin type in an environment with complex lighting, while also handling the natural transition between background light and subject portrait.

You can find that in this comparison, except for the vivo NEX dual-screen version, other phones are darker (HTC U12), grayer (Meizu 16th Plus/OnePlus 6T/Honor Magic 2/Xiaomi MIX 3), whitening (OPPO R17 Pro/Nubian X), out of focus (Nubian X), facial deformation (Xiaomi MIX 3) and other unideal situations. Among them, HTC U12 and Nubia

↑100 screenshots

The performance of the vivo NEX dual-screen version here is a textbook. First of all, it ensures that the skin is not excessively whitened, and makes people feel white and healthy. breath. Secondly, the advantage of the main camera for selfies is fully utilized, and the hair strands are clear and layered. The backlight performance is also very good, and the details of the scenery outside the window are preserved, but the overall picture is not whitened. The last thing is lip color. Say important things three times. Even if the optimization is not in place, don’t let the girl have a “poisoned” effect in the photo.

Selfies in a low-light darkroom

It can be seen that when taking selfies in a darker environment, compared to a backlight environment, the overall beauty of various mobile phones is lower due to the absence of the influence of backlight. Relatively "stable". However, only OPPO R17 Pro, vivo NEX dual-screen version, and Meizu 16th Plus have won the favor of girls. Girls are still shocked by the "negative optimization" beauty of HTC U12, Nubia X, and Xiaomi MIX 3.

Overall ↑: OPPO R17 Pro, vivo NEX dual-screen version, Meizu 16th Plus

Overall ↓: HTC U12 (dark skin), OnePlus 6T (dark skin), Nubi Asia The skin of the selfie model is very fair, but the only ones that can clearly show the texture of the skin are OPPO R17 Pro, vivo NEX dual-screen version, and Meizu 16th Plus. OPPO R17 Pro's consistent delicate style is believed to be more palatable to young girls; the vivo NEX dual-screen version has a more distinct layering and optimized ruddy and smooth skin, which will tend to favor the aesthetics of white-collar ladies; Meizu 16th Plus is generally good, but the details are a bit Gelatinized, slightly lacking in natural dryness.

2018 "China's Good Camera Phones" Hengping Review: Summary of Selfies

First Echelon: vivo NEX dual-screen version, OPPO R17 Pro, Meizu 16th Plus

Stands for improvement:

HTC U12, Nubia X, Xiaomi MIX 3

As vivo and OPPO mobile phones have always been strong projects, vivo NEX dual-screen version, OPPO R17 Pro Maintaining the industry-leading selfie experience. In particular, the vivo NEX dual-screen version, which gives full play to the main camera performance, optimizes the beauty of the original fair and tender tendency, giving selfies a better temperament. As for the most obvious improvement brought by Meizu 16th Plus, you must know that the 2017 Meizu Pro 7 Plus did not perform satisfactorily in the Hengping comparison.

Somewhat surprisingly, HTC, Nubia, and Xiaomi once again appeared together in the echelon that needs improvement.

The first is HTC U12. Although it is not as scary as its predecessor U11, it still cannot feel the obvious improvement in selfie beauty. Nubia X uses the main camera to take selfies, but the clarity is not significantly improved. The key is that the face looks blue Obviously; Xiaomi MIX 3 takes unnatural faces when taking selfies, and there are obvious deformations at some angles.

Portrait Photography - Daily Photography

After entering 2018, the large aperture blur mode on many mobile phones has become the portrait mode. The portrait mode is based on the large aperture of dual cameras. Blurring plus beautification effect. Of course, this beautification effect is not as strong as in the beauty mode, but it can and guarantees a better effect. Mobile phones participating in the test include HTC U12, OPPO R17 Pro, vivo NEX dual-screen version, Huawei Mate20 Pro, Meizu 16th Plus, Nubia X, Honor Magic 2, Xiaomi MIX 3, OnePlus 6T, and One*** 9 flagships cell phone.

How to test:

Test taking two sets of sample photos in Portrait mode, each set takes 3 photos, select the best one, and compare the two main parts of the shot. The first part is out of focus. The second part compares the effect of blurring and cutting out the portrait, and compares the details by enlarging the proofs.

Portrait mode: background blur

We used a very harsh shooting environment for this test. A person stood in front of a willow tree, and the blur of the willow leaves often tested the algorithm of the mobile phone. , you can see that some willow leaves on the screens of Huawei Mate20 Pro and Honor Magic 2 cannot be blurred, but this does not happen on other phones. After zooming in on the picture, you can see that HTC U12, Meizu 16th Plus, Honor Mgaic 2 and OnePlus 6T have a spot effect similar to the camera's large aperture in the background blur, bringing a more natural blur. From the enlarged picture, you can see that the background blur of the Nubia

Portrait mode: face beautification

In terms of portrait performance, I have to say that the vivo NEX dual-screen version is the best. The brightness of the entire face is improved, making skin color look better. It is more rosy, and at the same time the brightness of the entire picture is also improved, with a clear sense of layering. Followed by OPPO R17 and Meizu 16th Plus, the facial effects are also guaranteed. The effect of Huawei Mate 20 Pro is also unsatisfactory. The brightness of the entire picture is insufficient, and the face appears darker, while the face captured by Nubia X is white.

Portrait Photography - Night Scene Photography

Night scene portrait is also one of the most commonly used functions by many users in night scene photography. In order to restore the scenes of daily users, we will use the following Set up the lens and take relevant sample shots in portrait mode to see if they can properly brighten faces while optimizing for nighttime light needs.

▲Night scene portrait (click to view the original image)

Everyone should note that this scene is a quite extreme low-light scene, and there is almost no obvious light source in the direction of the face.

▲Night scene portrait (portrait part)

In this set of samples, let’s first look at the brightness control of the background of the picture. First of all, the entire picture of HTC U12 is overexposed. , while the Nubia X's picture is seriously underexposed, and the performance of other brands is not much different. In terms of faces, the author believes that the best overall performance is the vivo NEX dual-screen version and OPPO R17 Pro. In such a complex lighting environment, the outline and complexion of the face in the picture have been corrected to a certain extent. Nubia X, Honor Magic2, Xiaomi MIX3 and OnePlus 6T still need more efforts in this aspect.

Summary of portrait photography

Products in the first echelon: vivo NEX dual-screen version

Products that still need to be improved: Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Nubi Asia

The most obvious advantage in portrait photography is the vivo NEX dual-screen version, which is specially optimized for human faces. Huawei Mate20 Pro and Nubia