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Before diving into this new chapter, it’s worth noting that we began this series with a first episode dedicated to daytime portraits and backlit scenes. If you’d like to discover how these flagship devices performed in brighter conditions, you can read the previous article here.
Building on that foundation, this new installment focuses on night photography, an area where flagship smartphones increasingly differentiate themselves. We compared five major devices: Apple iPhone 17 Pro, HONOR Magic8 Pro, OPPO Find X9 Pro, vivo X300 Pro, and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max.
Our image quality team analyzed each photo to better understand how these models handle both low-light main camera shots and telephoto night scenes, two situations that challenge even the most advanced devices.
Low-Light Performance
In this nighttime scenario, the five smartphones demonstrated noticeably different approaches to rendering the scene and presenting the subject.
The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max produced a darker overall image while still keeping the subject’s face visibly well-defined. On the opposite end of the spectrum, HONOR Magic8 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro delivered significantly brighter interpretations, giving the scene a more illuminated appearance.
Among the devices, Apple’s rendering tended to appear slightly cooler compared to the others, while OPPO introduced a warmer interpretation of the subject’s skin. These stylistic choices created subtle but noticeable differences in the overall mood of the images.
In terms of detail, the HONOR Magic8 Pro displayed a somewhat more processed look, giving the scene a style that may appeal to users who prefer a highly refined, digitally enhanced aesthetic. The iPhone 17 Pro showed a bit more visible grain across the frame due to its imaging mode choice, though its overall luminance remained balanced.
It’s worth noting that for this scene, the iPhone automatically switched to a 12MP mode designed for improved night performance rather than the higher resolution it used in other tests.
Low-Light Telephoto Comparison
The telephoto evaluation highlighted the differences in each device’s optical setup:
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- Xiaomi: 115 mm (5×)
- vivo: 85 mm (3.5×)
- OPPO: 70 mm (3×)
- HONOR: 85 mm (3.7×)
- Apple: 100 mm (4×)
Each device produced a well-rendered telephoto image, though their visual interpretations varied. HONOR and Xiaomi offered the brightest overall results, while OPPO and vivo delivered a slightly more subdued rendering of the scene.
Color presentation remained pleasant across all models, with Apple leaning slightly warmer and Xiaomi closer to a neutral balance. These differences shaped the atmosphere of each image rather than significantly altering accuracy.
In terms of clarity, vivo and HONOR produced the sharpest and most defined telephoto results in this night scene. OPPO’s output appeared softer in comparison, while Xiaomi introduced a small trace of motion softness, likely due to longer capture processing. The iPhone 17 Pro showed more visible grain, which gave its telephoto image a more textured appearance than the others.
Conclusion
Each flagship smartphone delivered capable night photography results, yet the differences remain significant enough to influence user preference. Xiaomi and Honor favored brighter interpretations, vivo provided some of the clearest telephoto detail, OPPO leaned toward a softer aesthetic, and Apple maintained its characteristic rendering style with a balance between brightness and softness. These variations reflect the unique imaging philosophies of each manufacturer, allowing users to choose the device that aligns best with their visual preferences and typical nighttime shooting habits.
We will continue to dive into the performance of these newly released flagships by testing these in additional real world scenarios. Stay tuned!