Sample Camera shots by HTC One shown off – Is ImageSense really up against PureView?

It’s true that at MWC 2012, PureView actually stole the show but there wasn’t only the 41 megapixels smartphone stood up in the event. Along with other products from other manufacturers, HTC also brought its new line up of Android based smartphones called HTC One.

Dual Cores and Quad Cores are not new in the Android powering smartphones but this new “One” series from HTC including HTC One S and HTC One X have been equipped with improved camera hardware and software.

HTC officially has released the sample camera shots taken by HTC One at their facebook fan page, not exactly like Nokia who released PureView sample photos without touching them (as they claim) and putting them live. Whatever but sample shots taken by HTC One are pretty good specially the ones with moving action. — we have some reservations after the break—

Despite the resolution of the images, as they are not at their full resolution (probably at 2.5MPix), let’s talk about some inner things of HTC One series what took them to bring the above shots. It’s new ImageSense technology HTC introduced at MWC and reads as follows:

With ImageSense HTC One rivals traditional digital cameras with improvements to every part of the camera, including the lens, the sensor, the software, and even integrating a new custom HTC ImageChip.

Well yes HTC has gone far to improve its camera hardware including the lens and adding a dedicated HTC ImageChip. However it’s not 41 megapixels sensor but the lens does have pretty large aperture as f/2.0 and focal length of 28mm. BSI sensor for low-light shots and also a term “Smart” added to LED flash. We are really not sure what this “Smart” means but it might be some kind of brighter LED flash.

Undoubtedly it’s a long jump of HTC putting that larger aperture f/2.0 in HTC One. It really should take moving shots easily just like the “skateboard” and “football” ones in sample shots (samples after the break). But HTC hasn’t shared any technical detail about their new “ImageSense” thing and other elements in the lens. Sure there has to be such a detail to explain if there comes the comparison.

Even though Nokia has mentioned about the ability of the faster shutter speeds with f/2.4 in Nokia 808, we’ve seen their PureView Sample Shots but nothing, in those pictures, is something to take as an example shot of moving subjects as we just have seen in the shots delivered by HTC One.

Logically it can be believed that the sensor in Nokia 808 should be able to capture with faster shutter speeds but we really would want to see the sample shots from Nokia as they did to show other major elements and extremely detailed images taken by the PureView. On the other hand HTC should have provided those pictures with detailed resolution at its maximum as the blurry effect is surely reduced and even sometimes can be invisible in smaller resolutions.

Acknowledging  the nice moving shots taken with HTC One(s) also adding the good image detail, there are other elements in the photos which left us unimpressed. For example over saturation of colors and high contrast of the same. There is no doubt that f/2.0 has done its job to reduce the blurry effect.

— See all sample shots taken by HTC One smartphones—

The question still remains intact – Is ImageSense from HTC something really like PureView from Nokia?

According to the current details about ImageSense, it can not be compared to PureView. But if talking straight with the major elements then

• PureView is supposed to play with megapixels and bigger sensor to result extremely unique pictures and videos in the same resolution as from other competitors. And it did in sample shots by Nokia.
• Without knowing any inner specifics about ImageSense, what we know in HTC One is f/2.0 aperture and BSI sensor. On its part the sample shots by HTC also prove the faster shutter speed along with capability of the larger aperture on the pictures like “skateboard”.

Technically PureView is more than “just improvement” in the optical elements. There is whole “idea” running behind those improvements. While HTC’s implementation of larger aperture has not proved any thing more than the faster shutter speed (which is appreciated if we see the blur-free pictures with fast moving subjects.) Also adding the dedicated ImageChip which will surely be deployed for dedicated image processing which is good.

[HTC One sample shots via HTC Facebook]