Photo comparison: We explored the Bamberg World Heritage Site with two high-quality mid-range cell phones

Our two test candidates are slightly expensive devices, officially priced between $US550 and $US750, but currently much cheaper online.

• The OnePlus Nord 4 has a sleek aluminum unibody that would look perfect on a much higher-end phone. It has a solid 50-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization and 4K video recording at 60 fps. However, its wide-angle lens shooter has a lower resolution of just 8 megapixels.
  
  
• Our second test device, the Honor 200 Pro, offers an additional 50-megapixel telephoto lens, giving it better zoom capabilities. However, its main camera is slightly less bright compared to the OnePlus Nord 4 and can only record 4K videos at 30 fps. While the manufacturer touts it as a portrait specialist, we were curious to see how the Honor 200 Pro would handle photos of buildings and landscapes.
  

The first shot we took is of the sunrise viewed from our hotel window in Franconian Switzerland.

Our Honor 200 Pro captures a much brighter image of the houses in the foreground, and the various shades of orange in the sunrise are rendered more vividly.

The sunrise picture taken with the OnePlus Nord 4 also appears coherent, but it almost seems as if it were captured much earlier, even though the two photos were taken just a few seconds apart.

We make our way to the World Heritage city of Bamberg, renowned for its old imperial cathedral, medieval old town, the picturesque houses along the river known as “Little Venice,” and traditional market gardens located in the heart of the city.

Soon, we find ourselves standing on a bridge over the River Regnitz, gazing at the medieval old town hall, which has been perched in the middle of the river since 1467. The colorfully painted building serves as an excellent photo subject, prompting us to closely examine the performance of the two mid-range smartphone cameras.

The first picture, featuring a side view of the town hall alongside the houses opposite, reveals a strong contrast: while the Honor 200 Pro has a distinctly reddish white balance and more vibrant colors, the photo from the OnePlus Nord 4 appears somewhat flatter overall, with the foundation of the town hall nearly overexposed.

The Honor 200 Pro does a better job of brightening the town hall tower with its baroque decorative elements, and the detail sharpness is significantly higher when enlarged.

We moved to the left bank of the river to admire the small, ancient fishermen's houses known as “Little Venice.” The sunlit façades appeared somewhat overexposed in the picture taken with the Honor 200 Pro, whereas this effect is less noticeable in the OnePlus Nord 4 image.

However, the OnePlus photo looks a bit dull overall, and upon enlargement, it reveals significantly blurrier details compared to the Honor phone.

We climbed up to Domberg, where not only the venerable imperial cathedral of St. Peter and St. George stood, but also numerous other historic buildings that we were eager to explore.

Initially, we wanted to compare the RAW images of the cathedral façade from both smartphones, but we quickly realized that the OnePlus Nord 4, with its pre-installed photo app, does not support RAW file output.

The Honor 200 Pro provides better exposure and detail in the JPEG photograph of the façade. While the colors are brighter, they can sometimes appear slightly unnatural.

Inside the cathedral, there was an art installation made of cords, which enhanced the play of light even further. The OnePlus smartphone captured the hundreds of thin ropes more clearly, while the fine structures appeared less defined on the Honor phone.

The wall painting behind the installation was also depicted more realistically by the OnePlus device.

As we stepped outside the cathedral, we noticed a statue on the roof of the New Residence across the way. To test which mid-range phone handled zoom better, we zoomed in on this small detail.

The result: on the OnePlus Nord 4, the statue appeared quite blurry and lacking detail, whereas the Honor 200 Pro delivered a more convincing image. The details were much clearer, and the overall sharpness was noticeably higher.

From 1604, the New Residence served as the seat of the prince-bishops of Bamberg, who held both secular and spiritual power. Today, it houses the State Library and State Gallery. From the rose garden, there was a stunning view over Bamberg's old town below, which we certainly didn't want to miss.

Even though the majority of the roses had already faded by early September, the garden—with its statues, rows of trees, and various rose blossoms—was still quite lovely to look at. However, the Honor 200 Pro exaggerated the color saturation, slightly overexposing the sunlit flowers. The OnePlus Nord 4 produced a less saturated, and while less stunning, more balanced image quality.

The old town by the river now lies at our feet, ideal on this sunny day, as viewed from the shadow of the tree line. However, this is a challenging shot for smartphone cameras: the high contrast between the bright sky and the shaded areas demands a strong HDR system.

And indeed, the OnePlus Nord 4 excels here, producing a much balanced image with greater detail in both the sky and the rooftops, as well as a better-exposed canopy of leaves.

Both phones can record videos in 4K, but the OnePlus Nord 4 has an edge: it can record up to 60 fps in 4K, while the Honor 200 Pro is limited to 30 fps. We tested both phones with a video overlooking the old town.

Using the Honor phone, we noticed more fluctuations in brightness, as it frequently adjusted when transitioning from the shade of the trees to the sunlit buildings. However, both phones maintain high image sharpness, and you could capture beautiful travel videos with either the OnePlus Nord 4 or the Honor 200 Pro.

We left Bamberg and drove into the surrounding countryside, specifically Franconian Switzerland, known for its bizarre rock formations, narrow river valleys, and numerous castles. One of these was the small yet beautiful medieval Zwernitz Castle, from the keep of which we started our zoom series.

Neither the Honor 200 Pro nor the OnePlus Nord 4 were true zoom experts, as neither feature a periscope zoom camera. With the Honor phone, we could zoom up to 50x and get much closer to objects. However, since this was mostly digital zoom, the images started to lose sharpness at higher levels. At 5x or 10x zoom, though, many details remained visible.

The OnePlus Nord 4 offered a maximum zoom of 20x, lacking its own telephoto lens like the Honor phone. This was noticeably evident, as even at 5x zoom, the image appeared much blurrier with far fewer visible details.

There were still some interesting photo opportunities around the historic castle, including the now somewhat dilapidated but still impressive baroque rock garden Sanspareil (incomparable), which the Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth had laid out in 1744.

As night fell, we went for a walk through one of Germany's smallest towns: Betzenstein in Franconian Switzerland.

At first sight, both phones accurately captured the nocturnal atmosphere of the houses and church. The Honor 200 Pro brightened up a little more, so we could see greater detail in the church tower, but the streetlights were too bright. The OnePlus Nord 4 chose a slightly lower level of brightness, so objects didn’t stand out as clearly against the evening sky, but the streets with their lanterns appeared more naturally lit.

Honor had overdone the color scheme; the house appeared extremely orange in the photo taken in the dim light of the street lighting. In this instance, OnePlus opted for a more restrained color scheme.

On the other hand, other parts of the Nord 4's image appeared somewhat greenish, such as the plant in the foreground. Despite the vibrant colors, the picture from the Honor 200 Pro looked more realistic overall.