Camera battle: $300 phone knocks out $1,870 phone and Samsung wins
The tests involved 12 phones — 11 flagship smartphones and 1 entry-level device: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Honor Magic 7 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, OnePlus 13, Oppo Find X8 Ultra, Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra, Vivo X200 Ultra, Xiaomi 15 Ultra, Motorola Edge 60 Pro, Sony Xperia 1 VII, and Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro.
For the first test, the Galaxy S25 Ultra beat the Magic 7 Pro by a landslide, sweeping up 77% of the votes. In the second test, the iPhone 16 Pro Max landed a headshot by recording the highest margin of all tests — 85% — sending the OnePlus 13 back to the lobby. In the third test, the Find X8 Ultra gracefully swayed 74% of the voters, knocking out the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL.
The real shocker came in the sixth test of the first round, where the $300 Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro managed to pull 59% of the voters to its side, sending home the ∼$1,870 Sony Xperia 1 VII. Three days ago, we reported on a 'Nothing camera test' where the CMF Phone 2 Pro (curr. $300 on Amazon) also put up a surprising performance against higher-end opponents.
In the second round of tests, Samsung sent Apple home with 64% of the votes, Vivo sent Oppo packing with 83% of the votes, and Xiaomi crushed Nothing's ego with 62% of the votes.
The final round was divided into two sections: daylight and nighttime. In the daylight test, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra bagged 54% of the votes, leaving the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Vivo X200 Ultra with 4% and 42%, respectively. In nighttime photography, however, the tables turned — the Xiaomi 15 Ultra won with 73% of the votes, with the Samsung and Vivo devices recording 22% and 4%, respectively.
Xiaomi's victory in the nighttime test wasn't an accident. Though its telephoto and ultrawide lenses struggled with low-light shots in our tests, the main camera thrives in the low-light conditions as revealed in our review. This is largely due to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s large 1/0.98" LYT-900 sensor, which is bigger than the 1/1.28" LYT-818 and the 1/1.3" ISOCELL HP2 sensors in the Vivo X200 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Here is how the devices ranked in the end:
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (44% of votes)
- Vivo X200 Ultra (29% of the votes)
- Xiaomi 15 Ultra (27% of votes)
NB: These blind tests involved the Versus community — not professional photographers. They were also very limited — involving only the main camera and, for the most part, daylight photos. For a more grounded comparison, refer to detailed analyses like the one we made comparing the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, Oppo Find X8 Ultra, Vivo X200 Ultra, and Galaxy S25 Ultra.
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