Mi 11X vs iPhone 12 Detailed Camera Comparison By TecworkZ

Hey guys it’s Sagar and in this video I am going to put the triple cameras on the Mi 11X against the dual camera on the iPhone 12. Ya I know there is a big price gap between these 2 phones, but many of you guys asked for this video in the comments, so here it is. iPhone 12 costs more than twice as much as the Mi 11X, so does that mean its cameras are 2 times better, let’s find out. For starters, you get dual cameras at the back of the iPhone 12 whereas the Mi 11X comes with triple cameras on its back. So you get a more versatile camera setup for less price on the Mi 11X. We have over 160 image and video samples from both these phones combined to go through, so to keep this video from getting any longer than it already is, instead of going through all the cameras specs, I will leave them in this slide.

You can pause the video and go through them if you want. For a better look at the camera interface on these phones, I suggest you check out their individual camera reviews. I will leave cards to them on the top right corner of your screen, and also link them in the description section. For this camera comparison, Let us check out the videos first. Mi 11X can shoot 4K videos at 30fps whereas iPhone 12 can shoot 4K videos at 60fps.

This is a 4K 30fps video sample from both. I said this in its dedicated camera review as well, that the videos from the Mi 11X look really good. It manages the exposure and colours really well, and you don’t see any dropped frames even if you shoot 4K video for long time. iPhone 12 gets OIS on the main sensor, so its videos are very stable. Mi 11X doesn’t have OIS but the electronic stabilisation seems to be doing a fine job keeping the video look stable.

It is not too aggressive, so you won’t feel like the phone is on a gimbal, so it looks natural and like this look. Both can shoot 1080p videos at 60fps, but you loose out on a lot of details and sharpness if you shoot at this resolution on either of these phones. Now because the electronic stabilisation is so good, I shot most of my videos on the Mi 11X in 4K resolution and I am happy with how they turned out. It is not too often that we see an Android phone which is so good at shooting videos, specially in this price range. So a big thumbs up to Xiaomi for that.

For slow motion, both max out at shooting 240fps videos at 1080p resolution. You can shoot 4K 60fps videos on the iPhone 12 and slow it down later on, but for this video comparison I stuck to shooting 1080p 240fps slow motion shots. Again you can see the Mi 11X doing really well here. Now you need to be very careful while shooting slow motion videos. There should be lot of light around, so it is best if you shoot them outdoors in bright sunlight.

If you shoot these videos in anything less than ideal light, you will see a lot of grains or noise in your slow motion footage. Also be aware about the lights that you are shooting these videos under. If the lights are not of the best quality, they will interfere with the frame rate of the videos, and you will see flickering in your slow motion video. So be aware about that. For the images, Let us begin with the daytime shots.

Now the Mi 11X gets a 48 megapixel primary sensor, but these are 12 megapixel pixel binned shots from it. These daytime shots seem to be detailed from both, at least from this far. There seems to be much more contrast in Mi 11X’s images making the shadows in its images appear a lot darker. iPhone 12 on the other hand is capturing a ton of details in the shadows as well. As I said these images look detailed from so far, and as we zoom in, we see both of them capturing similar details, which is surprising given iPhone’s sensor size.

Mi 11X is also capturing lot of noise in the darker areas. While the iPhone’s ISP is doing great to keep that noise level down. Mi 11X is adding a bit of artificial sharpening, which you can see if we zoom in so much. If we dont zoom in, we see similar details in both the shots, but the difference in the contrast levels is very apparent. We see this in all of the images.

But overall images from the Mi 11X are still looking good, at least when there is bright light around, like in these images. iPhone’s images are as always looking amazing, and because you have so much more details in the shadows and the highlights, these images are easier to edit. I mean there is lot more information in these shots which you can manipulate and push a lot further than images from any other phones. In diffused light, or in slightly overcast conditions, Mi 11X starts capturing a lot of noise. iPhone 12 on the other hand does really well to keep that noise level down.

iPhone’s image also look richer overall. You can see the artificial sharpening in on the mi 11X at play here. If I zoom in so far, we feel like the images from Mi 11X are sharper, but that is actually not the case. We feel so because of the artificial sharpening and the extra bit of contrast that its images have. But look at the clouds in the sky, they clearly look pixelated and filled with noise in the image form the Mi 11X, where it still looks smooth and mostly noise free in the iPhone’s image.

For this shot, there was a lot of fog around, so the Mi 11X even had hard time setting the focus, but the iPhone 12 didi a good job. There is no point of zooming in for details in this shot, because image from the Mi 11X is not even in focus. It took me over 2 days to gather these amazing image and video samples for you guys. But it takes you less than 5 seconds to hit the like button and show your appreciation towards the work that goes behind the camera to bring these videos in front of you. And while you are at it, please take another 10 seconds and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already, and turn on all the notifications.

It is free, but goes a long way towards helping my channel grow. Other than the obvious change in the contrast level between these cameras, we also see a distinct difference in the way they capture colours. Mi 11X tries and does well to capture natural looking colours, and its images don’t have a warm or cool look to them. Sometimes these images appear a bit too dull. iPhone 12 on the other hand is adding slight saturation to these images, and its colours are also slightly on the warmer side.

Normally I like natural looking colours, but I feel the Mi 11X’s images could look much better with a little bit of saturation and brightness added to them. Don’t get me wrong, Mi 11X’s images are definitely capturing the colours as they were in real life, but for some reason all its images are a bit under exposed, which makes them look dull in comparison to images from other phones. Everyone perceives colours in a different way, so which of these images you like, will depend on your colour preference. When it comes to capturing higher dynamic range, for scenes like these where the conditions are not too harsh, Mi 11X does a fairly good of bringing up the shadows and keeping the highlights in check. But in harsher or tougher conditions like these, it only manages to bring up the shadows while blowing up the highlights.

iPhone 12 on the other hand does a wonderful job in most situations which demand higher dynamic range. You might not make out how well the iPhone 12 did in this shot straight away, but as you look at it for some more time, you realise it brought back more details from the darker shadows, and it also managed the highlights in the clouds so well that you see different layers of clouds on top of one another. Where as on in image from the Mi 11X, it just looks like 1 grey cloud. Coming to close up shots, both phones don’t take too long to set the focus on any particular object. This depends on lighting conditions, but in 8/10 times, iPhone is a few milliseconds faster.

This won’t matter a lot if you just occasionally take close up shots, but if you take a lot of closeups that too back to back, then that time adds up, and you do notice the speed difference. Main subject is perfectly sharp in close up shots from both, and thanks to wide aperture background gets a very nice optical blur. iPhone has a wider aperture, so its plain of focus is narrower, and the background in its images is blurred out a bit more. Wider aperture and OIS also means that iPhones close up shots are slightly brighter because they capture light for slightly longer time. Close ups might look better from the iPhone 12, but it can’t get any more closer to the main subject than this.

Mi 11X on the other hand has a dedicated macro lens, and it will let you get incredibly close to your subject. This lens has a 5 megapixel sensor behind it, so the main subject in these shots have enough details in them. Android phones have had the Macro lens for a few years now, and I think it is time Apple starts including this on their phones as well. With companies prioritising Macro cameras over the telephoto lens, how often do you guys use it on your phone? Let me know in the comments. At times you might find yourself in the situations where you wanted to capture something, but you can’t get it completely in the frame, and you might not even have more space to move back.

In these situations, the wide lens on both these phones comes in very handy. It will let you capture a much wider field of view without you having to move back. iPhone’s wide lens has a wider field of view compared to the one on the Mi 11X, so you can get more things in its wide shot. It also gets a 12 megapixel sensor behind this lens compared to the 8 megapixel one on the Mi 11X, so the wide shots from iPhone 12 are look noticeably sharper and capture less noise. These images are not as detailed as the ones from main cameras on either of these phones, we also see some distortion and at times even a bit of artifacting towards the edges in these wide shots.

iPhone’s wide shots show the same amazing dynamic range as its main camera, and the one on the Mi 11X again struggles with the highlights, as its main camera. Since these wide cameras don’t take the cleanest or sharpest images, please don’t take most of your images with these ones. They are there just so you can occasionally capture a different perspective or switch to them when the main camera just won’t be able to get your subject in the shot. For anything else, I would stick to the main camera for almost all my shots, specially in conditions where there is less than ideal light around. If you insist on taking wide shots, consider going with the iPhone 12, as its wide camera is clearly better in terms of details and dynamic range.

Before we start comparing the portrait shots from both of them, you should know that you need to do a bit of extra work while clicking portraits with the Mi 11X. If the background in your shot is even slightly brighter than your subject, Mi 11X will completely blow up the highlights in the shot. You will have to manually tap on your subject on the phones screen, or lower the exposure manually for the portrait shot to look much better. So just keep this thing in mind while taking portraits with this phone. Now coming back to comparing the portrait shots from both these phones.

Edge detection for portrait shots has never been iPhone’s strong suit, but it still manages to make the overall shot look much better. While most phones try to cut out and keep the entire subject in focus, iPhones tend to only keep the part of the subject closest to the phone or the part that you tap on in focus, and gradually blurs everything in front of and behind it, as a real DSLR camera would do. Colours in its portraits look much better, skin tone is natural, and the background gets a very natural looking blur, while it looks a lot busyier in the portrait form the Mi 11X. I feel skin tones appear a bit dull in the portraits from the Mi 11X. iPhone also handles the dynamic range in a much better way.

You can adjust the amount of blur to the background while you are taking these shots, or even later on, on both these phones. Edge detection is equally good or maybe gets slightly better on both, while taking portraits of objects. Both are isolating and separating the subject form the background accurately, and since there are no skin tones in these portrait shots, colours from the Mi 11X don’t seem so dull or off. I ask about this many times and I just don’t get enough responses in the comments. So I ask again, do you guys take portraits of objects or ok let me make this an even wider question.

Do you guys use the Portrait mode on your phone very often, wethere is it for taking portraits of humans or pets or other objects? If you do let me know in the comments. Coming to Artificial and low light images. I took these images just as the sun was about to set, and sky was painted with these amazing colours. iPhone 12 is showing how the sky looked in real life, whereas the Mi 11X just desaturated the whole image and dulled everything down. iPhone has a wider aperture on the main camera and it also gets optical image stabilisation, both of which are very helpful while taking low light images.

Bigger aperture lens in more light, and OIS helps the sensor gather this more light for slightly longer time, while compensating for any movement from shaky hands. What this means is, the main camera on the iPhone gather much more details compared to the Mi 11X in these lighting conditions. As I zoom in on this image, you can see that the iPhone’s image is much sharper, and it also has much less noise overall. Mi 11X starts at 30k Rs. and at that price point, Xiaomi should have given us OIS.

They achieved smooth videos via electronic stabilisation, but that doesn’t work while taking images, so there is no substitute to OIS while shooting images in lower light. These were low light shots without the night mode, on both the phones. You can switch to night mode on both, and the you will see some subtle improvements. Neither of them try to make the night look day with this mode, which is nice. This mode just introduces a bit more light in the darker parts, and tries to make everything appear sharper.

iPhone is clearly having sharper images here as well. In the process of bringing up details in darker areas, Mi 11X introduces even more noise in its shots, whereas the iPhone 12 does really well to keep the noise levels to minimum. You should be aware that the night mode images take much longer to capture, so you will have to hold both the phones steady for a good 2 to 5 seconds. If you are taking images of people, you will have to ask them to be still for that time as well, because any movement during that time, will result in a blurry shot. Night mode will give you good images, but only if you can keep the phone steady.

I have seen many people not holding the phone steady for long enough, and their resulting images were just not that sharp. So keep this in mind. Here is how much light the wide lenses can capture on both phones. I have mentioned it before, that the wide cameras are not as good as the primary ones, and they also get a very narrow aperture. SO these cameras are not able to gather lot of information in these lighting conditions.

Fortunately both the phones have night mode for these lenses as well. And again we see images from the iPhone having more details, whereas the Mi 11X’s image just looks muddy. Turning on night mode, does help both the phones handle the exposure from bright lights in a much better way. iPhone was already doing a bette job with it, even without the night mode, but the difference in the handling the highlights improves a lot on the Mi 11X, when it clicks images with night mode on. This is true for its wide and the main camera as well.

So while the low light performance of the Mi 11X improves a bit with the night mode, iPhone 12 is definitely a lot better at low light photography, both with and without get night mode. That brings us to the front facing cameras. Mi 11X has a 20 megapixel selfie cameras as opposed to the 12 megapixel one on the iPhone 12. But honestly, I don’t see the selfies on the Mi 11X being any more sharper or detailed than the ones from the iPhone 12. There is a difference in the way both capture colours and contrast, but not so much of a difference in the details.

I don’t like the way iPhone makes the skin tones appear yellowish or pale in its selfies. It also capture much less contrast making its selfies look faded when compared side by side with the ones from Mi 11X. Portrait selfies are definitely better from the iPhone 12, not only in terms of edge detection, but also at capturing better details and dynamic range. Again if apple could do something about the yellowish tint in these selfies, that would be just great. Here is a video from the front facing camera on the Mi 11X and the iPhone 12.

You can see how both of these phones are handling the overall colours of the scene, exposure and stabilisation when I am walking around with them. You can also let me know in the comments, which one of these 2 do you think is picking my voice better. So with that we have seen over 165 image and videos from both these phones combined. While the iPhone 12 is clearly the winner in low light, during daytime, You won’t find that big of a difference between the images from both of them. Now yes, the difference is there and images from the iPhone 12 are definitely better, but I really don’t think they are 2 times as better.

I feel if Xiaomi would have given us OIS on the main camera, the difference between these 2 would have been even less. If you are into macro photography, Mi 11X also has a dedicated lens for it, which the iPhone 12 doesn’t. If you plan on getting the Mi 11X and are worried about its camera, don’t be. Altought its megapixel count is not as high as some of the other phones, but the ISP on its snapdragon 870 processor helps it deliver good images. These were my thoughts about the cameras on these phones, but you guys saw the images too, so what do you guys think about them? Let me know in the comments.

That is it for this video guys. Please hit the like button if you enjoyed this video, and subscribe to the channel for more quality tech videos like these. You can also check out some of the other videos from this channel. This has been Sagar and I will catch you guys in the next video. Take Care.

Source : TecworkZ