HTC One UltraPixel Camera Versus the Competition

When HTC first showed the world the One last month, it touted the merits of the camera's larger "UltraPixels". Theory says that larger pixels could produce better images than the competition. In practice? We're pretty damned impressed.

We compared the HTC One's camera to the cameras on the Nokia Lumia 920 and Apple iPhone 5, which were the top cameras in our recent smartphone camera battlemodo. We tested the camera in low-light both with and without flash, as well as in daylight. The photos in this test are taken from identical spots in every case, so any differences in the framing of the images is because of slight differences each camera's field-of-view. In almost every situation the HTC One's camera performed above our expectations—and above its competitors.

In the image above, you begin to see what we're talking about. The camera's color rendition and dynamic range is spectacular. The HTC One image is sharp and captures deep red in the roses as well as the correct green color on the leaves in the background. Whereas the roses in both the iPhone and Lumia 920 images look plastic and over-processed, the HTC One looks like reality.