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00:00All right, what's up, MKBHD here, and if you've followed me over the past couple of weeks
00:08on Twitter or Instagram, then you've witnessed it.
00:12It's gone down again for the third straight year, the Blind Smartphone Camera Test 2020.
00:18So this originally started as an idea to sort of crown an unofficial best unbiased smartphone
00:24camera, but as we've learned from doing this, it's turned into a much more philosophical,
00:30psychological test on social media.
00:33So here's how it works.
00:34Behind the scenes, we take 16 smartphone cameras that all came out this year, and a good variety
00:38too, all the way from the favorites, the Titans, the heavy hitters, all the way down to some
00:43mid-range phones and even budget phones, and we organize them all into a sort of seated
00:48bracket style of what we think is fair, and then we let them loose.
00:52We label each one with a letter, A through P, and then we go through and take the exact
00:56same photo from the same spot with every single phone and put them side by side and have you
01:02guys vote on them on Twitter and Instagram stories, which you think is better.
01:07You don't know what phone you're voting for.
01:09You just pick a letter.
01:10And the final results are pretty much always wild and at least a little bit unexpected.
01:15Just a couple of spoilers slash examples for you.
01:18We've done this three years running.
01:20No one phone and actually no one company has ever won more than once.
01:26And actually the iPhone has never made it out of the first round, ever.
01:31Now listen, this isn't a scientific test at all.
01:33Matter of fact, it's kind of the opposite of a scientific test.
01:36A lot of people on Twitter and Instagram were wondering why we didn't do a sample control
01:40photo or something like that from a DSLR.
01:44We were just keeping it super simple, bracket style.
01:47We might be surprised by the winner, but no matter what happens, we're going to learn
01:51a lot about the way our brains work looking at pictures.
01:54So with that being said, after over 10 million votes this year, let's go over the results.
02:00So here's the initial bracket of those letters and here are the phones behind those letters.
02:07So now you can see all of the first round matchups, the way they were seated.
02:11And if you want, you can go ahead and pause the video right now and go ahead and fill
02:14out your bracket.
02:16Go ahead, make your predictions, knowing which cameras you think are the best, knowing how
02:19they'll compare to each other.
02:21Which one do you think should go all the way to the end and come out on top?
02:24Go ahead.
02:25All right.
02:26You've written that down.
02:27You didn't fast forward.
02:28You didn't cheat.
02:29Now let's go through how the actual bracket went.
02:30Spoiler alert.
02:31You're probably wrong, but okay.
02:32First photo was just a picture of me.
02:35So I'm wearing a black shirt.
02:36I'm in front of a window and there's plenty of other things to judge the photo from.
02:39So there's colors, there's skin tones, of course, the red controller, the yellow Ottoman,
02:44blue sky, blue couch, colorful pillow, green plant, and lots of dynamic range happening.
02:49But at the end of the day, the most scientific part about this was our goal was to take the
02:53type of photos that most people would normally take.
02:56So a lot of human subjects, and you'll see more of that coming up.
02:59But also we didn't tap to focus because what we actually learned from Google after our
03:04previous results is they have a lot of data suggesting most people don't tap to focus.
03:10So we didn't.
03:11Anyway, here's how the first round went.
03:14So starting off here with Moto Edge, that actually beat iPhone SE right off the bat.
03:20Then we have Mate 40 Pro getting a pretty huge win over the Poco F2.
03:24The Poco was kind of a favorite from previous years, but there goes that one.
03:28Then you have Pixel 5 scoring a huge win over the Oppo Find X2 Pro.
03:33Then you have LG Wing losing to Zenfone 7 Pro, squeaks out that win over here.
03:39Then on the other side, we have Surface Duo never really stood a chance against the Sony
03:44Xperia 1 Mark II, so that was a win we were probably all expecting.
03:49Then Mi 10 Ultra did get a win against the OnePlus 8 Pro.
03:53And iPhone 12 Pro Max got absolutely destroyed by the mid-range OnePlus 8T.
04:03And then last but not least, our defending champ, the Note 1 last year.
04:06Note 20 Ultra does get a win over Pixel 4a.
04:10So go ahead, check your brackets.
04:14If you still have a perfect bracket, you're probably lying.
04:17But that's a lot in one round.
04:19So next photo was a dimly lit top down, kind of replicating more like bar lighting with
04:24a warm Edison bulb off camera, mixing with far away window light.
04:28So again, lots of colors and lots of textures again.
04:31We made this whole setup.
04:33Not quite dark enough for any of these phones to kick on night mode.
04:36And you even get a little dynamic range test with the candle in there.
04:39So with this next round, with a lot of narrowing down happening already, we have Mate 40 Pro
04:45taking the win over the Edge Plus.
04:48Maybe not the biggest upset ever, but those phones are close in price.
04:51That's a win for the Mate.
04:53Then you have the Zenfone 7 Pro squeaking out a win over the Pixel 5.
04:58That I think a lot of people would consider an upset, considering how much we like Pixel
05:025's camera.
05:03Then over here, Mi 10 Ultra gets the win over Sony Xperia 1 Mark II.
05:09That's a dub.
05:10And then the Note 20 Ultra scored, I'm going to double check this, but I believe the biggest
05:16ever win in the history of this competition, scoring 95% of the votes against OnePlus 8T.
05:23So that's a pretty huge win.
05:25So now, maybe not so many upsets this round, except maybe Pixel losing, but again, learning
05:31a lot of interesting stuff, but we'll get to that in a second.
05:34Next round.
05:35So the semifinals photo was a good one.
05:36It's me holding up my R5, which is all black, in front of a couple different colors, yellow
05:41cement barrier, red wall, black asphalt, and then blue sky behind it.
05:46And in this one, all the photos by themselves had to focus on the red ring, so you get a
05:49nice little depth of field comparison too.
05:52So in this round, we have Zenfone 7 Pro squeaking out a win over the Mate 40 Pro, impressively.
05:59So that was a close race, a lot of votes on both Twitter and Instagram, but that was
06:04decided narrowly.
06:06And then over here, we have Mi 10 Ultra getting the win over Note 20 Ultra in the battle of
06:11the ultras.
06:13So at this point, we're going to have a new winner because we had a Huawei Mate series
06:18win the first year, and we had the two Samsungs colliding in the finals last year.
06:23So this time, they've all been eliminated for various reasons.
06:27And one of these two is going to be the champ.
06:30So the last round, the pumpkin photo, and I think this one, it might just look again
06:34like a simple subject in broad daylight, but it has a lot of stuff here that's taken in
06:39mind, stuff we found through the whole contest.
06:41There's a method to the madness.
06:42But either way, when it came down to it, the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro did squeak out a very narrow
06:50win over the Mi 10 Ultra in the finals, therefore crowning it your new People's Choice Award
06:582020 Blind Smartphone Camera Test Champion.
07:01It's December madness.
07:03Now, okay, there's a lot to take in about how we ended up here.
07:13But first of all, from the last two years, the main thing we really got from that that
07:17we learned is that when you put two photos side by side, it brings out a very specific
07:22reaction from people's brains, which is hold everything else the same.
07:27To an extent, people will just pick the brighter photo.
07:31Makes sense.
07:32But this year, we definitely got some more nuanced information that's really important,
07:37actually.
07:37Now, first, let me just say, if you were clicking through the photos and thinking, oh, this
07:41is just a bunch of pretty simple random photos without much care put into them, it was kind
07:47of designed to look that way.
07:48But there's a lot of variables in each photo that have a lot to do with the way your brain
07:53perceives that photo.
07:54A lot of different colors, a lot of different focal lengths, backgrounds, style of photo.
08:00We didn't get to do action photos or night photos, but there's some really good stuff
08:03in here.
08:04So from all this, I think there's three main things that we picked up.
08:08One, we have a new winner.
08:10Two, white balance is underrated.
08:14And three, Twitter versus Instagram.
08:17So first of all, yes, the new winner is the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro.
08:23Probably pretty surprising winner for most people.
08:25Guessing most of you didn't have this winning the bracket.
08:27Although, if you were paying attention last year, this one took some great photos and
08:31only lost by a slim margin.
08:33But it's got an improved triple camera system this time, the 64 megapixel main camera that
08:37bends down to 16 megapixel photos.
08:40And there's also, they toss in a 3x telephoto and an ultra wide.
08:44Nothing too crazy, except for the fact that the cameras flip around and become probably
08:48the best selfie camera in any phone, which is sick.
08:51So it's not the most extreme, crazy 100 megapixel camera or anything like that.
08:56But if you go back through the rounds, while some had random white balance misses or some
09:02artifacting or would just blow out a photo dynamic range, something would go wrong once
09:06in a while.
09:07You know, this phone just kind of had a clean consistency.
09:11exposure each time, just didn't miss.
09:13This mother don't miss.
09:15No, he's good.
09:16That mother don't miss, man.
09:18He's good in the heat of battle.
09:21He don't miss.
09:22No.
09:25Okay.
09:25So white balance has been a major key new factor from our understanding from the smartphone
09:30bracket this year.
09:31And I'd go so far as to say that it looks like this has been the reason that the iPhone
09:36has lost in the first round.
09:38See, the other thing we learned putting photos side by side is if you have brightness the
09:43same and all of the things the same, people will choose the photo that's a little bit
09:47more saturated, a little bit more vibrant looking, which also makes sense.
09:52But it's to an extent, you can't just crank saturation all the way through the roof.
09:56But generally, if you have two photos that are almost the same, and one of them looks
09:59a little more pale, it'll lose.
10:01So we know what white balance is, right?
10:06It's generally how warm or how cool a photo or video will look.
10:11And a good white balance has pure white looking like pure white.
10:15Now, the nuance with white balance is this.
10:19In photos that have more warm colors, more reds, orange, yellow, that type of thing,
10:25the warmer the white balance, the more saturated it will actually make those warm colors feel.
10:32And the less saturated it will actually make those cool colors feel.
10:37And the opposite is also true.
10:38So in a photo with lots of cool colored things, a cooler overall white balance will make those
10:44things look more saturated by a bit.
10:47And those warm things will look less saturated.
10:51So stay with me.
10:52So in this first photo, white balance was a major deciding factor because many of the
10:56colors in the frame are warm.
10:59You have my warmer skin tone, the yellow ottoman, the red piece here, the red controller, and
11:05even the sunlight streaming in onto the wall behind me.
11:08And a lot of smartphones are all over the place with white balance, even from shot to
11:13shot.
11:13But when they go too cool, my black shirt starts to go blue, my skin looks less saturated,
11:20a little bit more pale, and the whole photo shifts.
11:24This is the iPhone 12 Pro Max's first round shot.
11:28And you know, there is a lot of detail and sharpness, sure.
11:32But it's by far the coolest temperature.
11:34And plus, the whole boosted exposure is so bright that it also blows out the sky behind
11:39me, which would have looked even more blue if you could see it because of the cooler
11:43temperature.
11:44That is, of course, very different from the OnePlus photo that beat it.
11:48So really, the question is, why does the iPhone and why do some phones so consistently have
11:53such a cool hue, a blue tint to the white balance?
11:57And obviously, I'm not behind the scenes.
11:59Your guess is probably as good as mine.
12:00But my theory would be that on photos of people with fairer skin tones, which is most people,
12:07it doesn't affect the skin tone look quite as much.
12:10You can get away with it.
12:11And also, blue skies will look more blue than it would if you were biasing warm.
12:16Second round, there was a lot happening.
12:18And I think the number one factor most people settled on was just how much of the candle
12:21they could see in that photo.
12:23And that's just a straight up dynamic range test.
12:25And in every matchup, the photo with more dynamic range won.
12:28But also, everything in the photo is pretty warm.
12:31The candle is orange.
12:32The salad has some reds in it, the yellow lemon, and even, of course, the wood table,
12:36everything is sitting on.
12:38Lots of good little details in the bread and the lettuce and the placemat to pick up on
12:42here.
12:42Then in the third round, we have a lot of, again, neutral and warmer colors.
12:48We have my hand with the skin tone.
12:49We have the black camera with the red ring.
12:52We have the asphalt in the background.
12:54So we have the four remaining phones.
12:55But I took a reference photo on the iPhone just for fun.
12:58And it was blue, man.
13:00I feel like it would have lost in this round again if it got this far in the first place
13:04because it was so blue.
13:05Now, a photographer looking through a lot of these, I had some photographer friends messaging
13:09me as this was going on.
13:11A photographer looking at this would probably not be so concerned about white balance because
13:15at the end of the day, that's just a slider you can fix.
13:18And even exposure, as long as it's somewhat accurate, that's a slider you can fix.
13:22What we really want is as much information as possible, as much detail and dynamic range
13:27so that you can make the photo you want in the edit.
13:31And that's one way of thinking about the photo.
13:33I think the other way is just, hey, this is a compressed photo on social media.
13:38Just do the best you can with it.
13:40And speaking of compression.
13:42So this blind test was held on both Instagram stories and Twitter where you could do votes.
13:54And it turns out what we learned is Instagram stories and Twitter compress and show your
14:00photos in very different ways.
14:02So this was the final round photo comparison.
14:04It's a photo of an orange pumpkin.
14:06It's like the perfect finale photo given everything we've been learning about white balance and
14:10warmth through this whole time.
14:12But here I'm waiting to see if the photo with the warmer white balance looks more saturated
14:17with the pumpkins and wins.
14:19And sure enough, the bottom photo by the Mi 10 Ultra is looking more saturated in that
14:24side by side.
14:24So as we post it, I'm expecting more people to vote for that.
14:28And on Instagram, it won.
14:31But on Twitter, it got crushed.
14:35And that was a weird moment where I was trying to figure out why that would happen in my
14:42head.
14:42Maybe I thought because everyone on Twitter has been sort of hyper analyzing this and
14:46commenting and replying for so long that by the time you get to the finals, people are
14:50scrolling down to the comments and looking at people's talk before they vote.
14:54And I guess Instagram stories is just a pure vote.
14:57No comments.
14:59But it was just such a big difference.
15:00This guy won by about 30,000 votes on Instagram and the Zen phone won by about 90,000 votes
15:08on Twitter.
15:09So that means overall, the Zen phone did win the finals.
15:13But that was that was a big swing.
15:15So it turns out and shout out to the people who are voting on both that sent this to me.
15:19Instagram stories looks different from Twitter images.
15:24See, the images uploaded to Twitter actually look like they both got a boost to saturation
15:29to the point where the bottom photo actually looked oversaturated and people overwhelmingly
15:35voted for the Zen phone for staying realistic while it looked like the Mi Ultra was way
15:40over the top.
15:41Then on Instagram, it actually made both photos a little bit more pale.
15:46So the top Zen phone actually looked too pale and the bottom photo, which looked closer
15:51to realistic, got more votes.
15:54Really fascinating stuff, which again, dumps more gasoline on my fire theory that it doesn't
16:01really matter exactly what your photo looks like when you take it and when you edit it.
16:06As long as you like it, post that.
16:12So moral of the story, am I going to go running out and telling people Zen phone 7 Pro is
16:16the new king of smartphone cameras?
16:19No, but it is very consistent.
16:21So I'll give it that.
16:22And if you care about that in a smartphone camera, you won't be disappointed with that
16:26phone.
16:26But generally, the point is everywhere on the internet, you post a photo, it's just
16:32going to look different.
16:33This is even true with videos.
16:34Actually, when I post a video on YouTube, it looks different on my computer versus by
16:38the time it gets chewed up and spit out through YouTube on your monitor or someone else's
16:43phone or someone else's laptop.
16:45And this is also true about all our photos and different social media platforms.
16:49So at the end of the day, just make what you want to make, post it and be happy with that.
16:55Don't worry too much about the tools themselves.
16:57Do the best you can with what you've got, because that's what we're all doing at the
17:01end of the day.