ONEPLUS NORD VS ONE PLUS 8 DETAILED CAMERA COMPARISON

  Hey guys, it’s Sagar from Tecworkz, and in this video let us compare the cameras on the OnePlus Nord with the ones on its bigger brother, the OnePlus 8. OnePlus made a very big fuss about the main camera on the Nord being the same one from the OnePlus 8. But does that mean that both these phones take similar images. Or does the image signal processor on the flagship Snapdragon 865 processor inside the OnePlus 8, makes its images look better. Let’s find out. Now it’s true that the primary cameras on both these phones use the same Sony IMX586 sensor. But these are not the 1st OnePlus phones touse this sensor and and the sensor itself is also almost 1 and a half year old. 

We have also seen countless other manufacturers use this sensor in their budget smartphones. It will be interesting to see, how the processors on these phones handle the data that the sensor captures. We have well over 90 image and video samples from both these phones to look at. So without wasting any time, let us checkout the cameras that we are working with. OnePlus 8 gets a triple camera setup. Primary camera gets a 48 megapixel sensor with F/1.75 aperture and optical image stabilisation. Then there is a 16 megapixel sensor with F/2.2 aperture and an ultra wide lens. And finally it gets a 2 megapixel macro camera with F/2.4 aperture. OnePlus Nord gets a quad camera setup on itsback. Primary camera is the same 48 megapixel sensorwith F/1.75 aperture and OIS as the OnePlus 8. Second camera gets an 8 megapixel sensor withF/2.25 aperture and an ultra wide lens.

 Then there is a 5 megapixel depth sensor with F/2.4 aperture and a 2 megapixel macro camera again with F/2.4 aperture. Macro cameras on both the phone are pretty much useless. No battery how much light you give them, theyjust won’t take good images. And this is with the latest update on the Nord, which was supposed to improve the Macro performance. Depth sensor on the Nord is also pretty much useless, because the phone can take just as good portrait shots, even if you cover this sensor. So when we really look at it, both these phones just 2 good usable cameras at the back. At the front, OnePlus 8 gets the same 16 megapixel Sony IMX471 sensor with F/2.45 aperture, that OnePlus has been using since a few years. Nord gets 2 cameras at the front. 

The primary camera finally gets an upgraded 32 megapixel Sony IMX616 sensor with F/2.45 aperture. Secondary camera gets an 8 megapixel sensor with F/2.45 aperture and a wide angle lens. Interface of the camera app is similar on both the phones. If you want a closer look at it, I suggest you guys check out my dedicated camera reviews of both these phones. I will leave cards to both those videos on the top right corner of the screen and also link them in the description section. Now before we head over to the image and video samples, if you are new to this channel. Please make sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon next to it. 

That way, you won’t miss out any of the amazing videos on this channel. Let us start with the daytime images. Although it is monsoon season. I managed to get some images in bright lighting conditions for this comparison video. Both the phones are using the same sensor,so we don’t really see a difference in the level of details in these images. If anything, you can see a slight difference in the way both of them capture colours. OnePlus 8 is also bit more aggressive with the UltraShot HDR. it triggers more often on the OnePlus 8 compared to the Oneplus Nord. 

Basically, 9 out of 10 times, looking at these well lit daylight images, you won’t be able to point out that one image is better than the other. And this is a huge win for the OnePlus Nord,because right now, there is a 14K Rs. difference between the price of both these phones. And this difference will be even bigger when the 25K Rs. variant of the Nord goes on sale, sometime in September. As I said, there is a slight difference i n he way both of them capture colours. The difference is very subtle but the Nord captures more saturated colours. Few of its images are also much brighter,so you might have to pull the brightness slider down manually, to get back some of the details from the brighter parts. Overall, both are not showing the most natural colours, or how the scene actually was. On occasion Nord captures cooler colours,and the OnePus 8 captures warmer tones. And in very next image we see the other way around. So both of them are not very consistent. That being said, when you look at these imageson your smartphone, both of them look very good. If you saw my dedicated camera reviews ofthese 2 phones, you know that both of them can take very good HDR shots.

 So foe all these shots, I have kept the UltraShotHDRon auto on both the phones. As you can see, both are doing a good jobwith these images. They bring up enough details from the shadows,and preserve the details in the highlights of the sky really well. This would be a very difficult shot for anycamera, but both these phones managed to pull it off. Most other phones would just capture a darksilhouette in this case, but these 2 managed to bring up the shadows, making the imagelook so good. So the main camera on the OnePlus Nord isstill neck to neck with the one on the OnePlus 8. Coming to the close up shots, since both havea big sensor and a wide aperture, background in their images get a very nice optical blur. The subject closest to the camera, or theones that you tap on is in perfect sharp focus. OnePlus 8 is a faster at setting the focuson any object compared to the Nord.

 Big sensors make these close up shots lookvery good, but they also pose a different issue. The plane of focus becomes very shallow, sothe closer you get to any object, the area in focus becomes smaller. This doesn’t look very good, if you havetext next to your main subject, it might look distorted, like you see in these images. If you want to get even close to your subject,both phones get dedicated macro cameras. While capturing a subject from up close and being able to see more details sounds cool. But the actual macro sensors are of very low resolution and the aperture is also not very wide, making these macro shots look reallybad.

 You can take better close up shots by zoomingin 2-3 times with the main camera. Here are the macro shots, and now the same scene captured with 2 or 3x digital zoom by the main camera. I have started using this trick, whoever Ineed to capture macro or tight close up shots. Both also get a wide lens on their back, and here is how much more of the scene these wide lenses let you capture, compared to the primarylens. Wide camera on the OnePlus 8 has a higher resolution sensor, and it shows when we zoom in on these wide images. OnePlus 8’s images are sharper and shows so much more details compared to the Nords wide images. Although the wide images from the Nord are not as good, they still look usable when we look at them alone. And I am still glad that we get this camera on both, as it lets us capture a different perspective of the scene by standing at the same exact spot. It specially comes in handy when you are trying to capture a huge architecture like this, and there is no more space to move back. These phones don’t have a 2x telephoto lens,but they still get a 2x button on the viewfinder. Tapping this button on both the phones, captures 2x digitally zoomed in images. If you take lot of wide images with your phone,you should go with the OnePlus 8. So far, images that we saw from the main cameras  on both these phones, were 12 megapixel pixel binned ones. 

But if you want, they also let you capture 48 megapixel images. These images are identical from both the phone,which is not a surprise as they have the same sensor. These images do capture more details than the 12 megapixel ones, when there is bright light around. But you will have to zoom in 4-5 times to see the difference, which we don’t usually do on our phones. And these images also take 2-3 times more storage space then the 12 megapixel ones. So my suggestion is, you guys should stick to the default 12 megapixel mode for most of your shots. Now moving on to the portrait mode. Recently I got an update on the Nord which had improved the edge detection for these portrait shots. Looking at these shots side by side, it is hard to say which one did better. 

The depth sensor on the Nord is useless, because I took 4 of these images with that lens covered and the images still turned out to be this good. Subjects are a bit sharper in the portraits from the OnePlus 8, and it also shows slight better colours, but the difference is barely visible, if you don’t know what you are looking for. You can also take 2x zoomed in portraits with both, but I feel they are too soft for my liking, so I stick to the normal wide portrait shots. There is a slight difference in the way both capture the skin tones, one is not necessarily better than the other. You can look at all these portrait shots,and decide for yourself, which ones look better to you. 

For me, I will go with the OnePlus 8 because of the slightly better colours and more details in the subject, but the difference is so little,that it really doesn’t matter which one you pick to take portrait shots. Both can take portraits of objects. While both are equally good at detecting the edges, and making these portraits of objects look good. Nord takes noticeably longer to detect the edges. Resulting images are again almost identicalfrom both, except for the very minute difference in colour. No matter how complex the objects are, both are doing very good with these portrait shots. Now let us move on to the images that I tookin indoors, artificial and lower lighting situations. 

These indoor images with lot of ambient light look good from both the phones, but when we zoom in, image from the Nord shows more noise,while the ISP on the OnePlus 8 helps keep the noise level down. Both of them have OIS on the main camera,and a wide aperture, which lets them capture more light for longer time, resulting in better images in lower light. In even lower light, Nord tries to increase the ISO to make the images brighter. As you can see, it works, but it also introduces a lot of noise in its image. Oneplus 8’s image is not as bright, but there is a bit less noise and slightly more details in its images. Both phones get night scape mode, and using it indoors results in even better images with more details. When you take images outdoors, whenever there is some ambient light, both these phones do very well and capture a lot of details. When the light is very low like in this shot,you can switch to the Night Scape mode, and look at the difference it makes. With this mode turned on, OnePlus 8 captures less noise compared to the Nord.

 Even without the NightScape mode, OnePlus8 takes brighter images in some cases. Again with the night mode, both phones make the images look so much better. While the images from the OnePlus 8 are better in most lower lighting conditions, the difference is not much, which is a very big complement for the OnePlus Nord. Most of the differences we see are because we are comparing these images side by side, on their own, Nord’s images look just as good. That brings us to the front facing cameras. Nord gets a higher resolution selfie camera,and as we zoom in these selfies, we see it capturing more details, where as the OnePlus8’s image have a bit of noise in it. Nord also gets a secondary wide lens at the front, which lets you get more of your friends in the shot. This wide lens is a bit soft, but it is still nice to have this on your phone. When you take selfies outside, there isn’t big difference in the selfies from both these phones. Nord however has a slightly wider field ofview on its main selfie camera. Edge detection is pretty much same in the portrait selfies from both the phones. I think skin tones are more natural in the portrait selfies from the OnePlus 8. Both do a good job with edge detection evenif you have multiple faces in your selfies.

 Overall selfies are more detailed from the OnePlus Nord, but even if you choose the OnePlus 8, you won’t notice a huge difference. Here is a video from the front facing camera of the OnePlus Nord and the OnePlus 8. You can see how both these phones handle the overall colours of the scene, exposure and stabilisation when I am walking round withthem. When it comes to video, OnePlus 8 can shoot4k videos at 60fps, but for some reason the Nord can only capture 4K 30fps videos. Electronic stabilisation at work on both the phones, and it does an amazing job at keeping these videos smooth. Here is a short montage of videos from both the phones. One from the OnePlus 8 has been shot in 4Kat 60fps, and the Nords video has been shot at 1080p resolution in 60fps. 

If you want the highest resolution video then go with the OnePlus 8, else the 4K and 1080p videos from the Nord are also very good. So we just saw over 90 image and video samples from both these phones. I made sure to include these samples in as many lighting conditions as possible. Other than the images from the OnePlus 8 beingslightly better in lower light, I think it is safe to say that there is barely any deference between the camera performance of both these phones. I mean, you will fine a few differences if you have a very keen eye, but these differences are defiantly not worth the extra 14K Rs.in my opinion. If you want an overall better phone with flagship specs and if you don’t mind sending more money, then definitely go for the OnePlus8. 

But if your budget is limited to under Rs.30,000then you can go with the Oneplus Nord, actually be proud of the fact that the cameras on your phone can go neck to neck with the ones on the OnePlus 8. You guys saw the images too, which one do you think did better. Let me know in the comments. If you like any one of these phones, and are going to purchase them, I will really appreciate if you get them from the affiliate links in the description section. That is it for this video guys. Please hit the like button if you enjoyed this video, and subscribe to the channel for more quality tech posts like this. You can also check out some of the other posts from this blogger website. This has been Sagar, and I will catch you guys in the next post. Take care.