HTC EVO 4G LTE vs HTC One, round 2: Low light camera
My last camera comparison of the HTC EVO 4G LTE vs the HTC One involved photos taken on an overcast and dreary day. Overall, the One came out a little ahead of the EVO 4G LTE, but it was not very clear-cut – some of the tiny detail was lost on the One due to either software algorithms to make the pictures better, or perhaps the lower resolution. This article is the same concept as before: two phones, my EVO 4G LTE and the One, go head to head. The subject photos are much the same as last time, but taken at 11:00 p.m. at night on a somewhat lit street in light conditions in which the human eye can see pretty well, but cameras generally fail. It’s the kind of lighting that, if you dropped your keys, you’d have a problem finding them.
The first set is taken without flash, and using HTC camera software on both. The phones were placed right next to each other, and most photos were taken within a few seconds of each other. The second set are with flash. The left-hand photos are taken with the EVO 4G LTE, while the right-hand pictures are with the One.
HTC EVO 4G LTE vs HTC One: Night shots, no flash.
While neither camera was particularly awesome in this shot, it’s pretty hard,, as it’s a very dark surrounding and an intense center lighting situation. It’s basically almost everything that causes a shot to fail. The One managed to capture more low light detail, with the EVO 4G LTE losing the little white picket fence.
Here the One shines. I had to take the picture with the EVO twice to make sure that it had even registered anything, as it was not visible on screen. While a lot of detail is gone, you know that the right picture is a red chair at night, while the left (for all I can tell) is a grill.
Backlit shrubs. On the EVO, it’s pretty much a lost cause trying to figure out what you’re looking at. The One let’s you know that it’s a plant of some sort.
Here’s another shot showing that the EVO 4G LTE can’t see anything, and the One can.
Neither are particularly good, and they both actually failed a lot worse than I would have expected either here, as this was pretty well lit by the porch light.
So, at this point, the HTC One was the hands-down no flash low light winner – that was even evident from the preview screens. I then decided it was time to enable flash and get to flashing, even if it wasn’t a ROM.
HTC EVO 4G LTE vs HTC One: Flash enabled
This one surprised me, as the EVO 4G LTE came out with a brighter, friendlier picture, although the One looks like it has more detail in it. This picture was taken at about six feet away with flash enabled. I’m giving this to the EVO, as that’s more what the chair looks like.
This one came through with great camera failures on both, but I dug the One’s detail.
While I had no hope of the flash reaching the house, which was about 20 feet away from where I was standing, the One’s flash managed to light up about six feet of grass in its picture. I can’t really tell that the EVO 4G LTE did much, but it did get a recognizable picture.
Both of these pictures are wrong, but the One looks significantly crisper, while the EVO 4G LTE looks smudged.
So for flash photos at night, the One won every shot I did, except for the red chair (which is subjective). I did that photo multiple times, as I was underwhelmed initially and expected better. I do not know what was causing the One to not look particularly great in that shot, but to me it didn’t, which prevented the One from being an all-out night shot winner. But it was close.
One more no-light comparison
This was in a dark room with a sleeping baby, a light on in another room, and no flash. The EVO 4G LTE has no visual that I can tell. Even taking the photo and brightening it up gets little more than a dim, badly pixelated baby head.
As a proud EVO owner, I’ll grudgingly admit near total defeat in the nighttime camera operations, and a near tie in overcast, with the One slightly edging out the EVO. Stay tuned to see what normal lighting brings.
