Smartphones have evolved tremendously since I first got my hands on the iPhone 4S, which is why I have decided to take my iPhone 4S, which was released in 2011, and pit its camera up against the recently launched Alcatel One Touch Idol Alpha and the soon to be released BlackBerry Z3 smartphone.
The end result will see which phone takes a better still image than the other.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the specs the iPhone 4S, BlackBerry Z3 and the Alcatel One Touch Idol Alpha.
iPhone 4S
8 megapixel camera
Autofocus
Tap to focus
Face detection
Panorama
Photo geotagging
BlackBerry Z3
5 megapixel camera
Autofocus
LED flash
Image stabilisation settings
Tap to Focus
Alcatel One Touch Idol Alpha
13 megapixel camera
Autofocus
LED flash
Touch focus
Face detection
Panorama
While I have only listed a few of the features of each phone’s camera, the reason for this is because the images taken are standard, non-edited images. I have taken the exact same images with each phone in order to offer up a fair analysis. Now, let’s take a look at the image quality of each camera in the album below. Please click each image to view and then click the expand button in the right hand side top corner.
Looking at each photo, you will notice that the iPhone 4S as well as the BlackBerry Z3 images are both over exposed when it comes to the bridge on the left. However, while the Alacatel Idol Alpha seemed to get the job right when it came to exposure, the image taken does feature a fair amount of noise compared to the other two. While the iPhone 4S image does look slightly old school, I quite like the way the image looks. Granted, the Idol Alpha has done a great job overall; however, the iPhone 4S, to me, took the better photo at the end of the day.
The next comparison is of a lonely bug that decided to pose for me while i swopped between 3 different phones.
By looking at our subject you will notice that the Alcatel Idol Alpha is most definitely the clearer shot; however, once again, the amount of noise featured it the image really degrades the quality of the shot. While looking the rather over exposed BlackBerry photo I was pretty surprised that the camera pulled off the quality shot that it did of the lonely bug on the leaf. Overall, the iPhone 4S seemed to get the job done far better than the other two phones. While the subject is ever so slightly blurry, the overall image looks far more natural than the rest.
Overall, while the iPhone 4S only features an 8 megapixel camera, it still seems to take better photos than a mobile device with a 13 megapixel camera. Why not voice your opinion? If you think any of the other phones beat the iPhone 4S, in your opinion, feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
Darryl Linington
