Xiaomi Mi Note 10 was the first device on the market with a 108MP camera. For many, such a number of pixels in a photo seems to be something special, while others, on the contrary, believe that it is not their quantity that is important, but the quality of photo processing. So what's really important? This blog post compares photos taken with the Pixel 4 and Xiaomi Mi Note 10.
Are megapixels important?
On the device Xiaomi, users will not get true 108MP shots. Several pixels are programmatically combined to produce a 27MP photo, but with more detail and better lighting. Samsung plans to use this technique in the Galaxy S11, but it will go even further, combining 9 pixels into one and getting the output not 27-megapixel photo, but 16-megapixel. This will make your photos even more detailed and with better lighting.
Let's compare the photos taken on the Mi Note 10 and Pixel 4:
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
Source codes are available at this link.
You might notice that the Pixel 4 has a nicer white balance, while the Note 10 is cooler and more realistic. Surprisingly, the smartphone Xiaomi looks good even against the background of the Pixel. If before no one could have imagined that Xiaomi would be able to compare in photo quality with Pixel, today it is real.
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
Due to the higher resolution, when zooming in, the photos of the Mi Note 10 appear much sharper and more detailed, however, this is provided that we are talking about good lighting. In low light, the Mi Note 10 camera produces blurry and poorly detailed photos. In the photo below, due to the resolution, the Note 10 picture is much clearer, but you can see that the area with grass is completely black, while in the Pixel 4 the entire landscape is traced:
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
The comparison below also shows that the Pixel 4 is better at handling details, while the Mi Note 10 just smudges everything.
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
The next example is more interesting. Here, Mi Note 10 looks like a winner due to the fact that it does not try to improve the photo with artificial software sharpening. Photos on the Note 10 seem much more natural and pleasing to the eye.
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
The situation with telephoto cameras is also interesting. The Pixel 4 uses 2x optical zoom, while the Mi Note 10 has 2x and 3.7x optical zoom. In comparison, 2x zoom due to higher quality algorithms, photos on Pixel 4 seem more pleasing to the eye and does not have strong problems with increased sharpness:
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
If you compare 3x, you can immediately notice a significant difference in detail, but the picture on the Pixel 4 looks more accurate and pleasing:
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
The same goes for the 5x zoom. Photos on Mi Note 10 are much sharper, but the smartphone has obvious problems with excessive sharpness and noise.
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
Now let's take a look at some pictures taken in low light:
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
The situation here is ambiguous. On the one hand, the Pixel 4 shows more detail with HDR + and Night Sight. However, thanks to the pixel binning in the Note 10 and, as a result, their larger size on the smartphone Xiaomi, the picture appears lighter. It feels like if Xiaomi screwed on the Google camera, the result would be amazing. Plus, the Pixel 4 has a lot of noise and looks unnatural.
In the following example, in low light and direct sunlight, the Mi Note 10 performed better than the Pixel 4. The colors are more pleasant, the picture has less noise:
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
At dusk with night mode, Mi Note 10 shows more detail and a brighter picture with neat white balance:
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
The larger pixels in the Note 10 do the trick, though. I propose to discuss this in Telegram.
Mi Note 10 has a 2MP depth camera for better background blur:
Google Pixel 4
Xiaomi Mi Note 10
The edges of objects on the Note 10 are blurred more neatly, but there are obvious detail issues here.
What conclusions can be drawn?
The situation is ambiguous. The Pixel 4 does a better job at some points, but the Mi Note 10 seems to be the more interesting option in most cases. The potential of the cameras of this unit is felt. In addition, you can install Google Camera, then the result will be even more interesting:
This time I give my vote to the Pixel 4 simply because if you look at the photos in general, they always seem more interesting than in the Mi Note 10. You can look at the sources yourself and see for yourself. Which device, in your opinion, won? And is there a point in 108MP cameras? Share your opinion in the comments.