Preface
The introduction of the Huawei P10 in March 2017 was a turning point in the smartphone world with a focus on the camera features and capabilities. The fascinating thing about the P10 is its dual-lens technology that has been co-engineered with Leica and promised quality capture and life-like photography. Here is a review of the in-depth study on the Huawei P10 captured under-the-hood photography features along with the design, features, and performance compared to other devices at the time and also with some new devices.
Camera Specification
Dual Camera
On the rear, the Huawei P10 possesses one dual camera set, which is:
12 MP RGB Sensor: Color images from this sensor. It has been designed to produce very bright and rich photographs detailed.
20 MP Monochrome Sensor: It will simply capture black-and-white pictures to give very high detail and contrast. Its beauty is in the combination with the RGB sensor, which makes the images richer and gives them more depth and detail.
The front camera is an 8 MP sensor that takes beautiful selfies with various beautification options.
Aperture and Optical Image Stabilization
Both cameras at the back open to an aperture of f/2.2 that should give solid low-light performance. While the aperture is not as big as that of other flagship devices, they do a good job of balancing light and clarity. Both the cameras have Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) that reduces blurriness from shaking the camera, which can also come in handy while taking shots in poor lighting and also while shooting a video.
Camera Performance.
Daylight performance
In broad daylight, the dual-lens system of the Huawei P10 excels at capturing the images in bright detail and color. The 12 MP RGB sensor and 20 MP monochrome lens generate high-quality photographs having superb color correctness and great detail. The scene’s clarity and sharpness are further improved because the monochrome sensor is meant to capture greater amounts of light and detail.
Color Accuracy: With the following attributes, colours are purely vibrant and realistic, imbibed very well into the photograph to capture the inherent vibrancy of the original scene.
Detail: An impressive amount of detail captured in pictures shot during the day can be seen due to great sharpness and clearness; all intricate patterns and fine details are captured.
Dynamic Range: This phone has a good performance in managing highlights and shadows so that it allows balanced exposure and minimizes the risk of overexposed highlights and underexposed shadows.
Low Light Performance
The performances of the P10 in low-light situations, as it were, proved highly uneven. While the aperture of f/2.2 is certainly good, it does not enable the same amount of light capture as in older or better aperture devices.
Image Quality: Images usually show some noise and grain but the OIS helps in reducing blur. The monochrome sensor does help in enhancing details in low-light conditions but the quality does not anywhere match that of new devices with larger apertures and advanced noise reduction algorithms.
Night Mode Restricted by lack of a dedicated night mode, like some newer smartphones, the P10 fairly limits its low-light capability in comparison to devices that have special night photography features.
Mode: Portrait
This feature immerses a viewer in the dual-lens system of Huawei P10 to create pictures under shallow depth of field. It coins a background blur effect in making a creative portrait focusing on the subject much like the bokeh seen in professional photographs.
Depth of Field: Portrait mode produces a very early bokeh effect in creating a gorgeous separation of subject and background in modeling a shot that can pass for a professional photo.
Edge Detection: Edge detection by the camera is more accurate, but may misdetect for some occasions, either having a challenge with fine details or complicated backgrounds.
Macro Photography
It beats bringing out very detailed macro shots without losing performance because there are devices with dedicated macro lenses that leave Huawei P10 behind. Despite coming with a dual-lens system, the close-ups pack some really terrific details. The only thing the users suffer from is that at sometimes, focused images lose sharpness when getting much closer to the subject.
Detail: It is quite good in macro pictures, but it isn’t going to compare with the finest of smartphone macro hardware.
Focus: Fairly good with the auto focus for macro shots, but the user may need to be careful regarding focus being dead on for a very sharp image.
Video Recording
The Huawei P10 provides the users with the capability to record in 4K video, offering high-quality video capture. The OIS will further contribute to stabilizing the footage and make it suitable for creating smooth videos even while in motion.
Resolution and Quality: 4K video resolution gives clear and abridged footage, but the color accuracy and dynamic range may not match the levels found in more recent devices.
Stabilization: The OIS is capable of reducing shake and blurriness for smoother video recordings. However, while it may not keep pace with the latest devices that feature improved video stabilization technology.
Audio Recording: Even though the audio recording quality is usually very clear, it may not be as rich or two-dimensional as a more recent flagship model with advanced audio recording capabilities.
Selfies and Front Camera
The 8 MP front quality camera built into Huawei P10 is designed to deliver selfies of almost high quality without need for external edits but carries many beautification modes or filters to enhance the image.
Image Quality: Selfies are sharp, highly detailed, and have excellent color accuracy and skin tone representation. The resulting images are quite clear and vibrant, thanks to the 8 MP available sensor resolution.
Beautification Features: The camera has several beautification features through which a user can either smooth his or her skin, brighten up his or her eyes or apply a different filter to improve the quality of the selfies being taken.
Group selfies: Though the field of view is not as wide compared to ultra-wide front cameras of some of the latest devices, the wide-angle lens of the front camera enables group selfies.
Comparison with Competitors
When launched in the market, the Huawei P10 faced stern competition from several flagship smartphones, each brand showcasing some unique strength or weakness over other brands using its camera technology. Here’s how things will look at the P10 in comparison with some of its contemporaries:
Samsung Galaxy S8
The Samsung Galaxy S8 also came into being sometime then, with a rear-facing camera of single sensor 12 MP with a bigger f/1.7 aperture. Such wider aperture helps in lower lighting conditions as compared to P10. Additionally, the Galaxy S8 has some features like super-speed dual-pixel autofocus, which help in speeding and precision focusing.
Strengths: Super low-light performance, faster in-focus action, and added features of the camera.
Weaknesses: A single lens system has limited versatility compared with the P10’s dual-lens set-up.
iPhone 7 Plus
Another dual-lens system with a 12MP wide and a 12MP telephoto for optical zoom is not even the worst part of the iPhone 7 Plus. Of course, because of the advanced image processing techniques, the cells can produce stunning effects in the photographs.
Strengths: Potent optical zoom capabilities, advanced image processing, and an efficient portrait mode.
Weaknesses: Not quite there in low light, as a dual-lens setup compared to newer models, but quite good in most cases.
Google Pixel
Launched in 2016, it boasts an outstanding camera, mainly because of the way it processes pictures through software rather than the hardware alone. The single rear 12.3MP camera isn’t that bright on its own, but in low-light conditions, it’s able to hold its own against the light with Google’s computational photography algorithms.
Strengths: Excellent low-light performance, advanced software processing, and crisp images.
Weaknesses: No dual-lens or optical zoom.
Strength and Weaknesses
Strengths
Association with Leica : That Leica partnership gives a hallowed note to the camera system and thus makes much more towards its apparent quality and prestige of the whole camera system of P10.
Detail and Color Precision: The lens arrangement indeed created detailed and rich images under well-lit conditions.
Portrait Mode: The P10 has an amazing shooting mode during portraits, which creates an excellent bokeh effect.
Build Quality: The system is quite robust in physical design, and OIS helps in making both photo and video capture stable.
Weaknesses
Performance in Low Light: The aperture of f/2.2 is inadequate for low-light performance in a layout like P10, where images end up being very noisy and grainy.
Absence of Features: It has not designed advanced camera features that could have put it on par with other latest devices, like specific functionality dedicated to night modes and ultra-wide lenses.
Limited Video Stabilization: OIS may aid in stabilization but does not compare with new devices that offer advanced video stabilization methods.
There is No Wireless Charging: It is apparent that it cannot be termed as the feature that relates weightily to the camera quality, but then absence of wireless charging can also be termed as a demerit when placed alongside devices of the present day.
Conclusion
Huawei P10, in its dual-lens camera system, with an engineered association with Leica, is supposed to be a large step toward making such devices for smartphone photography. The 12-MP RGB sensor in conjunction with the 20-MP monochrome sensor is capable of producing the most powerful detail, dynamic colors, and versatility across a range of shooting conditions. Even though the P10 has restricted performance in terms of darkness and lack of some advanced tools including newer devices, it still carries good competition in the landscapes of smartphone cameras.
In short, the Huawei P10 carries high above its top mark in being a high-quality experience in imaging for its users. As far as realism is concerned, the W holding has, to some extent, a full-day performance with a good portrait and macro feel. Holding this in view, P10’s camera utility would undoubtedly catch many users who stand to benefit from a smartphone that most reliably provides a superior photography tool within.