Note that most camera reviews of the M9 on other sites were using inferior/earlier firmware. For the HTC One M9, I used the very latest firmware and application updates. For the Lumia 930, I used the new Lumia Camera 5 capture software, which proves almost as fast as HTC's offering and with more after-the-fact bells and whistles, especially if you turn on the Rich Capture.

Yes, having more megapixels does give room for cropping, but given the choice, I think more people would say yes to the PureView idea of using all that data to produce a cleaner, 'purer' low megapixel version, and 5MP seems about right.Īnyway, on with the tests.

It does surprise me that few other manufacturers have attempted oversampling from these high megapixel sensors - what IS the point in 16 or 20MP images? Most people will be viewing the photos on something at 1080p, or perhaps at the VERY most, a 4K video display, and even that can't get close to reproducing every pixel in a 16/20MP photo. For the comparison here, I've eschewed this and looked at the bare 16MP output, so that I can compare 'like with like' in the AAWP interactive comparator.

It should be noted, in fact, that the Lumia 9 output from their main camera sensor, by default, at 5MP, using oversampling to reduce noise and improve quality. The sensor sizes are similar, 1/2.5' versus 1/2.3', but the former does have OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation), which is a significant advantage.

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