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Pocophone F1 vs OnePlus 6 camera test: a surprise underdog victory

pocoohone f1 vs oneplus 6
© nextpit

Last week we conducted a camera blind test comparing photos taken with the OnePlus 6 and Xiaomi's Pocophone F1. The two champions of the price/performance ratio clashed in 4 different shots and, in your opinion, there is an undisputed winner. Curious?

A decisive victory

The first shot we showed you is of Jessica on our beautiful office balcony. In addition to the difficulty of backlighting, we used the portrait mode on both smartphones, including an artificial bokeh created automatically by the respective camera apps.

At 76% of the vote, the Pocophone takes home the victory effortlessly. This is probably due to the lower contrast and faded colors of the OnePlus 6 photo. Pocophone, on the other hand, managed to preserve the real colors of the scene better and to better separate the subject in the foreground from the background. I should also add that on Pocophone you can adjust the intensity of the bokeh effect later, which is impossible on OnePlus 6.

The second shot is set in the same place and at the same time of the day, but we only used the automatic mode of smartphones. Here, the OnePlus 6 is able to illuminate the face better, but unfortunately the image once again looks unnatural. The Pocophone F1 keeps Jessica's summer tan intact and represents the colors with higher accuracy. This can be seen clearly when observing the blue Berlin sky.

AndroidPIT xiaomi pocophone f1 9778
Pocophone shows you what it's made of! / © NextPit

The third shot brings the two rivals closer together: with a 60% result, the Pocophone takes home the victory again against the 40% of users who preferred the OnePlus 6. The OnePlus 6 photo reproduces strong light and shadow areas better (forced through a more aggressive HDR mode) but Pocophone retains a more natural look through warmer white balance and a better portrayal of our office shadow on the construction site.

The TV tower photo sees yet another victory for the Xiaomi smartphone. In this case 63% of you preferred the Pocophone, which shows a better dynamic range overall. The OnePlus 6 can't represent the Berlin sunset in the same precise way without burning the high light areas.

In the last shot OnePlus manages to take home at least one point. The OnePlus 6 captures the details of the flower petals better, while the Pocophone F1 preferred to blunt the details giving the subject an almost 'plastic' look. It must be admitted that Pocophone once again does better in terms of color representation (the flower looks more orange, rather than yellow as in the photo of OnePlus 6) but the overall result sees the flagship killer win with 67% of the vote.

AndroidPIT oneplus 6 hero1
OnePlus 6 doesn't have the best cameras but it looks much more premium. / © NextPit

How did Pocophone get such good results with its first smartphone?

Pocophone F1 demonstrates that it has a great photographic sector - it is no coincidence that it uses the same sensor and the same software as Xiaomi Mi 8 and MIX 2S, despite the excellent and so far unbeatable value for money.

At the launch event in Paris, the Chinese company team explained to us that they do not have the necessary resources to create a great photographic sector from scratch, since the Pocophone team is simply too small. Xiaomi's sub-brand has therefore gone the easy way - taking advantage of the sensors and software already available to the parent company, thus achieving excellent results with minimal effort.

No shame in OnePlus' loss, however. The OnePlus 6 smartphone still manages to be competitive by offering an elegant, premium and fast device at an affordable price. In the end it's a matter of preference: there are those who will opt for OnePlus 6, its premium feeling and almost stock Android software, while others will opt for the more Spartan but economical Pocophone F1.

Did you expect this result? What are your thoughts?

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5 comments
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  • 16
    Deactivated Account Oct 29, 2018 Link to comment

    article poorly written. links are out of order and take forever to load. half-assed.


    • Bastian Siewers 66
      Bastian Siewers Oct 29, 2018 Link to comment

      Hi, not sure what you mean, but the links are loading just fine. They simply link to a file uploaded to Dropbox.


  • 1
    external-gaming Oct 29, 2018 Link to comment

    samsung is unique, no match of it though.


  • 3
    Joe Smart Oct 23, 2018 Link to comment

    This shouldn't surprise anybody who owned a One Plus 5 or 5T. The camera software was so inept on those phones that the only way to take decent pictures was to download the Google Pixel Camera port. My old $150 Samsung Galaxy J3 took better pictures than either One Plus phone.


  • 49
    storm Oct 22, 2018 Link to comment

    Just goes to show the shallow engineering of OnePlus. They can put pieces together but really don't understand the nuance of design and the possible synergies. Yeah, buzzword compliant there, makes me sound like OnePlus.

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