In a Blind "Taste Test" the iPhone 5s camera blows major competitors away

[abillybob]

Now, now lets not get so nasty everyone at the end of it all a lot of things on mobile phones are gimmicks to entice the user to buy the phone which most of the time the user actually never uses, my galaxy note 3 has this feature where you hover your hand over the screen and it will show you all your notifications without touching or picking up the phone, this is handy apart from that I never use anything else, you can hover you finger over images or videos to see a preview of them, I never use this. I could go on.... It's like personal assistants such as Google Now, Siri, S Voice, does anyone actually ever use these? I'm sure the answer will be very rarely unless you use them when driving your car, but please try to send a text using siri and your mouth in the car it's never 100% correct!

[sted]

It's like personal assistants such as Google Now, Siri, S Voice, does anyone actually ever use these? I'm sure the answer will be very rarely unless you use them when driving your car, but please try to send a text using siri and your mouth in the car it's never 100% correct!

 

only with really daft questions when im bored

[Jwzg]

App availability is overrated at this point, IMHO. However, I have a feeling that if MS buys Xamarin, app availability will no longer be a negative perception or reality.

 

Yep I love mine. Just be aware app availablility is truly awful on windows phone platform, here's an example, I got free Sky Sports Mobile included with my 1020..... only problem is sky only do a Iphone and Android app... no windows...so guess what, can't use my free subscription that was sold as a selling point for my phone contract!!

[LosOjos]

I'm slightly annoyed that the DPReview article used scanned negatives for the film comparison - they'll only ever be as good as the optics in the scanner, which are generally awful. Now, had they done a wet print and scanned that...

 

Anyway, it doesn't really matter, does it?

 

The best camera is the one you have with you.

[edutech4schools]

It's like personal assistants such as Google Now, Siri, S Voice, does anyone actually ever use these?

 

I use Google Now on Andoid 4.4 Kit Kat all the time. I find it very handy.

[Norphy]

but please try to send a text using siri and your mouth in the car it's never 100% correct!

 

That's because there's too much background noise and the microphone isn't sensitive enough to filter it out. Using a TomTom hands free kit improved things for me a little but I still don't bother using that much personally.

[abillybob]

Meh it's all gimmicks to me On another note just found a Nokia 3200 in the school cupboard!!! Haha it's so awesome!

[mac_shinobi]

Then you are doing something horribly wrong or you are an awfully slow typist. On windows, when you press CTRL+ALT+DEL on a lock screen by default the password field is highlighted and ready to type into. Also, if its your password, you type it daily, it should be second nature to speed type it in (mine is 13 digits long for work, takes me less than 1 second to type and press enter). If you are unable to answer a call from a locked machine in 5 seconds, then you have issues.

 

Now say for example you get a paper cut on your finger, depending on the sensitivity of the reader, once that cut is there, you can't use it again as the scar tissue will have altered your fingerprint. So its a gimmick that's a bit rubbish.

 

*edit*

 

Also... *your, I'm, I've, Log on/Log In, Cisco, IP, VOIP /end troll mode.

 

1) The laptops use ye olde 7,200 rpm hard drives ( 320gb ) and mine is nearly full and even after clearing temp files and de-fragmentation is very slow

2) The laptops here have a lot of old GPO's - a chunk of which are not required anymore however they do not get removed etc

3) I can type pretty quick and my password is 15 characters / digits in length ( uppercase, lower case, a symbol and a number )

 

I have tried to type the password and press enter and wait for it to show me the soft phone ( as in the notification at the bottom right or as in press F2 or by clicking answer on the soft phone itself ) so as to answer the phone and have for the majority of occasions missed the phone call in comparison to a colleague who uses the finger print scanner and it works straight away and he manages to answer the phone as just swipes a finger ( due to setting up with multiple fingers on both hands - so doesn't matter if you cut one or have grubby or dirty fingers / hand etc as when you set it up you go through the process of scanning multiple fingers on each hand repeatedly so it learns what your finger prints are like on both hands etc and as apart of the finger print scanner setup you enter your windows logon credentials so the computer authenticates and logs you in straight away as apposed to typing out X amount of characters and pressing enter, the computer will always do it faster then you can type and press enter which is why I am guessing that using orphcrack or a brute force attack on cracking passwords is quicker than manually typing out 1,000 passwords per second, dunno about you but I sure as heck can't type out 1,000 different passwords per second

Edited March 19, 2014 by mac_shinobi

[abillybob]

1) The laptops use ye olde 7,200 rpm hard drives ( 320gb ) and mine is nearly full and even after clearing temp files and de-fragmentation is very slow

 

7200RPM for a laptop hard drive is actually very good, the new acers we have just bought come with 5400rpm hard drives, a lot of budget laptops do. It was only in my Alienware did they give me a 750GB WD Black Edition Hard Drive which spins at 7200rpm

[featured_spectre]

Good point about setting up multiple fingers, however I thought iPhones could only do 1 at a time?

 

As for the laptop you've described, you've not kept it well. My old laptop had a 120GB drive at 5400RPM, was 5 years old, and from lock screen, was into windows in around 3 seconds. This is with lots of group policies etc on the laptop also.

 

Also, 7200RPM for a laptop is fast (not SSD fast, but still fast)

[mac_shinobi]

7200RPM for a laptop hard drive is actually very good, the new acers we have just bought come with 5400rpm hard drives, a lot of budget laptops do. It was only in my Alienware did they give me a 750GB WD Black Edition Hard Drive which spins at 7200rpm

 

In comparison to an SSHD or an SSD - which I think the laptops here could really use with all the GPO's that are not required

[featured_spectre]

You wouldn't notice an SSHD improvement that much on a laptop (or even on a PC), the boost is like going to a new HDD which lasts a bit longer.

[mac_shinobi]

7200RPM for a laptop hard drive is actually very good, the new acers we have just bought come with 5400rpm hard drives, a lot of budget laptops do. It was only in my Alienware did they give me a 750GB WD Black Edition Hard Drive which spins at 7200rpm

 

I was comparing it to an SSHD or an SSD - which I think the laptops here could really use with all the GPO's that are not required. On this laptop I only have 30gb free and just tried it now and excluding me typing the password and pressing enter took 3 seconds to go from locked screen to being un-locked, if we say 2 or 3 seconds to type and press enter, that is 6 seconds without me even pressing F2 or clicking on the notification to actually answer the call, that is assuming that they haven't or aren't already in the process of hanging up the phone call there end, as I may have gone to make a cuppa ( tea / coffee or whatever ), gotten back to my desk and heard the phone ringing, tried to logon and by the time I try to click on answer I either just miss clicking the icon / pressing F2 or they have already hung up so all I get is a dead line

Edited March 19, 2014 by mac_shinobi

[abillybob]

You keep saying GPO's that aren't needed. Why don't you just get rid of the GPO's you no longer need if you think they are clogging up the systems?

[mac_shinobi]

You wouldn't notice an SSHD improvement that much on a laptop (or even on a PC), the boost is like going to a new HDD which lasts a bit longer.

 

Presume an SSHD only come in the 5,400 rpm variants, you can't get a 7,200 RPM 2.5" SSHD

 

Presumed it would only cache frequently used data which should speed it up and the cache's on those drives tend to be 8 or 16gb ( something to that effect ) and obviously the flash side will be a lot faster than the actual drive itself.

[mac_shinobi]

You keep saying GPO's that aren't needed. Why don't you just get rid of the GPO's you no longer need if you think they are clogging up the systems?

 

Working in the private sector, It is not me that manages or deals with GPO's / servers etc and thus I do not have access rights etc, if it was that Easy I would have either done it or posted a question on here for help on what I can / can't remove etc, not being argumentative or off etc just generally saying

Edited March 19, 2014 by mac_shinobi

[mac_shinobi]

Good point about setting up multiple fingers, however I thought iPhones could only do 1 at a time?

 

As for the laptop you've described, you've not kept it well. My old laptop had a 120GB drive at 5400RPM, was 5 years old, and from lock screen, was into windows in around 3 seconds. This is with lots of group policies etc on the laptop also.

 

Also, 7200RPM for a laptop is fast (not SSD fast, but still fast)

 

I think the max on the iPhone 5S is 5 different fingers : How many finger prints can the 5s iphone Touch ID new fingerprint identity sensor handle? What If I wanted my kids to be able to unlock my phone? - Apple Store (UK)

[abillybob]

I just can't believe this thread has 5 pages of comments... more please!

[mac_shinobi]

I don't have a DSLR camera , other half has got a bridge camera but as mentioned previously the best camera is the one you have to hand to take the photo there and then, not several hours later when you can manage to get home, pick up the camera, drive back etc as you would have most likely missed the opportunities or the thing(s) you wanted to get a photo of would have already happened / been and gone etc, so having it on a mobile phone ( which most people carry with them ) is more convenient and you are more likely to have that with you at the time of said event(s) happening

[LosOjos]

I don't have a DSLR camera , other half has got a bridge camera but as mentioned previously the best camera is the one you have to hand to take the photo there and then, not several hours later when you can manage to get home, pick up the camera, drive back etc as you would have most likely missed the opportunities or the thing(s) you wanted to get a photo of would have already happened / been and gone etc, so having it on a mobile phone ( which most people carry with them ) is more convenient and you are more likely to have that with you at the time of said event(s) happening

 

I combat this by always having an SLR/dSLR with me, or at least a decent P&S - but even then there is still the odd occasion it's easier to just whip out my phone!

 

EDIT: To be fair, I take quite a lot of photos [/shamelessPlug]

Edited March 19, 2014 by LosOjos

[mac_shinobi]

I combat this by always having an SLR/dSLR with me, or at least a decent P&S - but even then there is still the odd occasion it's easier to just whip out my phone!

EDIT: To be fair, I take quite a lot of photos [/shamelessPlug]

 

Key words high lighted in red - so back to convenience and quickness and possibly other reasons

[ZeroHour]

I am pretty surprised they didnt include the best cameraphones on the market and not the selective choice. The lack of low light too is a mistake and really leaves out one of the most common uses of smartphone cameras.

LG G2 is a £340 phone, HTC One £438, Galaxy S4 £319, Xperia Z1 £438, Z1 Compact £399 and then the iphone 5s £549. Its pretty much not a like for like comparison based on sim free price (clove, amazon and Expansys). If the iphone couldnt beat phones half the price it would be a bit of a joke tbh and even then they selected some pretty *ideal* shots for it, I could buy a G2 AND a Cannon compact for the price of the iPhone 5S. Did they compare the comparatively priced 5C (although its still £479) against those models?

[seawolf]

I am pretty surprised they didnt include the best cameraphones on the market and not the selective choice. The lack of low light too is a mistake and really leaves out one of the most common uses of smartphone cameras.

LG G2 is a £340 phone, HTC One £438, Galaxy S4 £319, Xperia Z1 £438, Z1 Compact £399 and then the iphone 5s £549. Its pretty much not a like for like comparison based on sim free price (clove, amazon and Expansys). If the iphone couldnt beat phones half the price it would be a bit of a joke tbh and even then they selected some pretty *ideal* shots for it, I could buy a G2 AND a Cannon compact for the price of the iPhone 5S. Did they compare the comparatively priced 5C (although its still £479) against those models?

 

The comparison was of some of the most popular smartphones. That's why it was prefaced with the "major competitors" description. They did a comparison of the best camera phones previously and the Lumia came out on top by a mile as one would expect since that phone is more akin to a phone built around a camera body than a camera built into a phone.

 

The shots were somewhat random and there were no low light shots, but it was again more of a comparison of the general perceived quality of the pictures taken with some of the more popular smartphones.

[ZeroHour]

The comparison was of some of the most popular smartphones. That's why it was prefaced with the "major competitors" description. They did a comparison of the best camera phones previously and the Lumia came out on top by a mile as one would expect since that phone is more akin to a phone built around a camera body than a camera built into a phone.

 

The shots were somewhat random and there were no low light shots, but it was again more of a comparison of the general perceived quality of the pictures taken with some of the more popular smartphones.

 

The point is its really too selective to have any real merit, if they had done more than 3 shots so it covered more scenarios (scenarios where iPhones dont generally do so well)... similar priced phones etc... things could be very different and really the 5c should have been used. If we went by popularity alone where are the feature phones or really cheap androids that sell in droves.

Did they require at least registration to vote or could you vote from a mobile hoping ip and cookies each time?

Maybe even comparing iPhone improvements over the years would have been useful but a straw poll with selective shots and not like for like phones really is simply worthless in value.

Does the iPhone 5S at least provide RAW files now (no idea tbh)?

[seawolf]

The point is its really too selective to have any real merit, if they had done more than 3 shots so it covered more scenarios (scenarios where iPhones dont generally do so well)... similar priced phones etc... things could be very different and really the 5c should have been used. If we went by popularity alone where are the feature phones or really cheap androids that sell in droves.

 

Yes, they were being quite selective, but that was the point I think. They looked at several of the most popular smartphones that people frequently take photos with, likely based off of data from Flickr (Top 6 Best Smartphones of 2013 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!). As for the cheap android phones selling in droves, there is no single cheap android phone that rises to the top 10 in sales figures. There are so many different cheap phones that make up the volume. It's generally not the individual cheap android phones (single model) that sell in large volumes.

 

Did they require at least registration to vote or could you vote from a mobile hoping ip and cookies each time?

Maybe even comparing iPhone improvements over the years would have been useful but a straw poll with selective shots and not like for like phones really is simply worthless in value.

 

I can't say for sure about registration to vote, but I think this would have been somewhat pointless to do this anyway as they had stripped ALL of the metadata out of the photos so that no one could know what photo was taken by what phone. That's why they called it a "blind taste test".

 

Does the iPhone 5S at least provide RAW files now (no idea tbh)?

 

No, it doesn't. I can't see what the point of this is in a smartphone camera anyway. It would just take up much more storage space on the phone and 99.99% of the people buying the phone would probably never use this feature. I would bet that very few people buying the less expensive DSLRs even use RAW (or even know what it means). Professional photographers and hobbyists would, but most others wouldn't.

 

I think this rush to add features such as this that are pretty much pointless to 99.9% of users only adds to the bloat of systems, makes them more complicated and less reliable. That's my opinion, but others mileage may vary...

Edited March 20, 2014 by seawolf