Camera HW Scores #9: Oppo, Samsung

Samsung and Oppo find themselves in opposite sections of the mobile camera market in this update as we look at Oppo’s high-end and premium phones alongside Samsung’s mid-range and budget mobile cameras.

At the high-end, the Oppo Find X3 Pro is going neck to neck against the OnePlus 9, but we have yet to see an Oppo score cross the 200 threshold, something that Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Samsung have. However, it is undeniable that Oppo has ramped up its camera hardware value-proposition, especially if you compare that to 2019 and 2020.

We rank these mobile camera systems based on our mobile camera HardWare benchmark called Camera HW. It ranks the hardware strength of an unprecedented number of mobile camera systems (189 today) with a proprietary algorithm that analyzes the cameras’ hardware.

For more details about this benchmark, check the Camera HW FAQ. The complete list of cameras is at the bottom of the page. The algorithm is tuned and adjusted with real-world image analysis from our image-based Camera IQ benchmark (IQ = Image Quality).

Between the Oppo Find X3 Pro and the Oppo Find X3 Neo, there is a nearly linear value-proposition, and you truly get what you’re paying for with these two, so it comes down to which Find X3 you can afford.

The main issue with the Oppo Find X3 Pro is its launch price of $1499. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, the OnePlus 9 Pro, and the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra all have better camera hardware at lower prices. The street prices might tell a different story, but the value score is without appeal.

We are always looking for more accurate data points and are applying the same evaluation algorithm across all mobile cameras. For more scores, head to the Camera HW benchmark page.

In the sub-$200 market, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 and Samsung Galaxy M31 look attractive as they both offer excellent technical value. If that’s your budget, you should consider these two because it doesn’t get much better than that below $200.

Finally, there is the ASUS ROG Phone 5, and you can tell that the budget went into Gaming features rather than the camera system, but you know where it stands now.

Finally, we looked at the Galaxy A32 and Galaxy A32 5G (launched in the USA last month), which have slightly different camera systems, perhaps to make up for the additional 5G hardware cost. In any case, they are nearly identical, with a slight camera advantage for the non-5G version as it gets a slightly better primary sensor. Other than that, Samsung did a great job of keeping the experience quasi-identical.

For reference, here are the popular U.S phones below:

We’re going to rank more 2021 mobile cameras recently announced, so stay tuned and keep in touch on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. To get notifications in your browser, click on the orange subscribe button.

Filed in Cellphones >Photo-Video. Read more about Asus, Camera Benchmarks, Camera HW, Oppo, Realme, Samsung and Xiaomi.