The best portrait camera connected to a weird smartphone

It shouldn’t surprise you that we at GSMArena are big fans of photography. Most of us had a dedicated camera with a so-called portrait lens attached that we toted around on trips. But as smartphone cameras got better and their photos got better, those dedicated cameras slowly faded into the background and we stopped carrying them around.

Then, around 2016, Apple iphone 7 plus And suddenly every phone was now taking portrait photos with software-assisted bokeh. That was six years ago, and those portrait mode shots have gotten better, and unsurprisingly, the camera hardware has gotten better too (we even ventured to find best phone camera for natural bokeh,

But today, we decided to see if the retractable portrait camera on a tecno smartphone is the best portrait camera we’ve seen so far.

This is not a sponsored article. Like all smartphones, the Tecno Phantom X2 Pro has both positive and negative sides, and we invite you to check out our smartphone. full review to read about them. Here, we’re focusing on a small but very interesting aspect of the phone’s camera system.

You may have heard of Techno, especially if you are a GSM Arena regular, but chances are you have never seen one in the flesh or had the opportunity to obtain one in your home market as they are largely a There are regional players – large in Africa, substantial in the Middle East and Russia, but much less active in Western or Far Eastern markets. That’s about to change as Tecno aims to release Phantom X2 Pro more widely.

Phantom X2 Pro capable flagship phone With Dimensity 9000 chipset, 6.78-inch 120Hz AMOLED and premium design. It features a triple camera system with a unique retractable portrait lens.

It is the world’s first such camera on a production phone (Opposition, XiaomiAnd techno own prototypes), and it’s powerful. It is a 50MP type 1/2.7-inch sensor with 0.64µm pre-binned pixels that shoots down to 1.2µm after binning at 12MP. The lens is a high-end 7P element optic with 65mm equivalent focal length and a wide f/1.49 aperture. This is an ideal focal length for both portraits and zoom shots.

When you open the Camera app and select the 2.5x lens option, the lens physically pops out of the camera module. You can feel movement through both phones and get a softer sound. It evokes a sense of nostalgia for a time when phones had moving parts.

When you combine the relatively large sensor size with the bright lens and 65mm focal length, you have a camera that has some naturally-shallow depth of field and blurs the background (and foreground) without software-based portrait mode. Can separate subjects. At 65mm, or about 2.5x, it’s also a reasonable zoom camera for non-human subjects.

To show you how good the Phantom X2 Pro’s portrait camera is, we’ve taken some sample photos and compared it. Galaxy S22 Ultra 3x camera and ZTE Axon 40 Ultra main camera. We chose to use the Galaxy because at about 70mm, its mid-zoom is comparable to the Phantom’s 65mm camera. Axon has unique 35mm Main Camera that brings a bigger sensor than the portrait camera on the Phantom X2 Pro. But because it’s a smaller lens, it’s clear that it lacks the background compression of the Tecno. But before we get too technical, let’s look at the pictures.

The 65mm portrait camera on the Tecno Phantom X2 Pro and the 70mm zoom lens on the Galaxy S22 Ultra have nearly identical fields of view, but the Phantom can better isolate the subject thanks to its bigger sensor and brighter lens.

The larger sensor naturally brings advantages such as better details and well-defined textures. Also, the background is blurred and the quality of the Bokeh is better.

Phantom X2 Pro 2.5x vs Galaxy S22 Ultra 3x

Moving on to an outdoor portrait sample where the trend continues. The better isolation of the portrait camera makes our subjects stand out. The Axon’s wide camera has the edge in fine detail (it Is a larger sensor), but at 35mm, it’s too wide to deliver the same portrait look. The features of our subject are distorted, and the background appears to be more in focus.

Phantom X2 2.5x vs Galaxy S22 Ultra 3x vs Axon 40 Ultra 1x

All three cameras benefit from the close combination. Our subject is even more distinguishable from the background. The Tecno has a textbook portrait look – facial features aren’t distorted like in the Axon shot, and the background is distant and blurry.

Phantom X2 2.5x vs Galaxy S22 Ultra 3x vs Axon 40 Ultra 1x

Foreground separation is also better on the Tecno than on the two other phone cameras. Just look at the yellow triangle at the bottom of the images below and the texture on the floor.

Phantom X2 2.5x vs Galaxy S22 Ultra 3x vs Axon 40 Ultra 1x

But Tecno’s retractable camera can do more than just portrait shots – it’s a close-focusing zoom. The benefits of the camera’s large sensor and long focal reach are emphasized in close-up shots or macro. In this instance, the lens and sensor combine to capture a “dedicated camera look” with ample foreground and background defocusing, which neither the Galaxy nor the Axon can match.

Phantom X2 2.5x vs Galaxy S22 Ultra 3x vs Axon 40 Ultra 1x

That dedicated camera look is noticeable in other instances. Tecno has tuned the 2.5x camera to be a bit heavy-handed with sharpening, but the fact remains that it can achieve better texture detail than larger sensor cameras like the main sensor of the Axon 40 Ultra. See description in beer glass below.

Phantom X2 2.5X vs Axon 40 Ultra 1X

Tecno chose a decent focal length to pair with a large sensor. The 65mm field of view is ideal for human faces, objects, landscapes, and anything else you can think of. This focal length doesn’t suffer from distortion and can produce beautiful images with naturally blurred backgrounds when paired with the large imager. It’s a good base for the software-assisted Portrait Mode, which the Phantom X2 Pro also offers. It takes the already good bokeh to another level.

Let’s see if a large-sensor zoom camera is added to more phones. Maybe he’ll be the next big thing. we hope so!