POCO X2 vs Redmi Note 9 Pro Detailed Camera Comparison By TecworkZ

"Music" Hey Guys it’s Sagar from Tecworkz. And in this video, let us compare the cameras on the POCO X2 with the ones on the Redmi Note 9 Pro. POCO X2 costs more than the Redmi Note 9 Pro, and it also gets the with Sony’s IMX 686 sensor as its primary camera. While the Redmi Note 9 Pro is 1st smartphone to come with Samsung’s new GM2 sensor. It will be interesting to see, how this Samsung sensor fairs against Sony’s. We have a lot of image and video samples to go through.

So in favour of keeping this video from getting any longer than it already it, I will leave the camera specs of both these phones on the screen. You can pause the video and go through them if you want. Interface of the camera app is basically similar on both the phones, with the exception of the macro mode being hidden in the secondary menu on the Note 9 Pro. If you want a more in-depth look at the interface of the camera app on these phones, I suggest you guys check out my dedicated camera reviews of both these phones. I will leave cards to them on the top right of the screen, and also link them in the description section.

Before we get to the image and video samples, If you are new to this channel, or if you still haven’t subscribed, please make sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon next to it. That way, YouTube will make sure to notify you, as a new video goes live on this channel. Let us start with daylight images from the primary camera, as that is most likely going to be the Camera and Lighting conditions that you are guys use the most. As we look at these images, let me tell you both the phones are running on the latest version of their operating system, which was available at the time of uploading this video. Both phons seem to capture lot of details in these images.

Note 9 Pro captures brighter images, while ones from the POCO X2 have slightly more contrast in them. Most of the images form Note 9 Pro are slightly over exposed, so I had to manually pull the brightness slider down for most of the shots. As we zoom in, 16 megapixel images from the POCO X2 seems to be sharper and have more detailes, compared to the 12 megapixel images from the Note 9 Pro. This is true with all the images. That being said, if you don’t zoom in, both these images look good.

Most people I showed these images to, liked the brighter images from the Redmi Note 9 Pro, despite of them having less overall details. But the fact remains, that POCO X2’s images still have more details, so this round goes to the POCO X2. Colours from the POCO X2 appear a bit dull compared to the Note 9 Pro. There is a warm tint to the images from the POCO X2, while the Note 9 Pro makes its images appear a bit cooler. Colour is a personal choice, and which one you like, will depend on your preference.

If I had to choose, I would say the Note 9 Pro is closer to how the colours actually were. So personally, I would choose it over the POCO X2 for colours. Coming to high dynamic range situations, both these phones perform above average. In most situations, they bring up enough details from the shadows, and also try to preserve the details from brighter parts of the scene. We see the Note 9 Pro doing a better job with colours, whereas most of the images from the POCO X2 still show dull colours, and have a slight green tint in them.

In this set of image, Note 9 Pro’s image is a bit brighter, and it also brought up more details from the shadows compared to the POCO X2. Based on these images, I would say Note 9 Pro takes this round as well. These have all been 12 and 16 megapixel images from the Note 9 Pro and POCO X2 respectively, which use pixel binning to give us sharper images. You can switch to the 48 or 64 megapixel mode on these phones, if you ever need to take higher resolution images. We already saw that 16 megapixel images from POCO X2 had more details than 12 megapixel ones from the Note 9 Pro.

And we see the same thing with these higher resolution ones. When comparing images between these 2 phones, you can clearly tell which one has more details. But when you compare higher resolution images from these phones with their respective pixel binned ones, you can barely see any difference unless you zoom in 4-5 times. I am sure, most of you don’t zoom in so deep or even compare images side by side like this in real life. So I would suggest you to stick with the default 16 megapixel mode on the POCO X2, and 12 megapixel mode on the Note 9 Pro for all of your shots.

That will also help you save a lot of storage on your phone, as the higher resolution images are 3-4 times larger in size. You might have noticed that colours and dynamic range, is again much better in the higher resolution images from the Note 9 Pro. Both phones get wide lens, and here is how much more of the scene these lenses can capture. This wide camera is pretty much the same on both the phones, so any difference that we see in these images, will be purely because of the image processing that takes place in the background. Images from POCO X2 are slightly brighter, other than that, I don’t see any difference in these images.

You might know this by now, that these wide images are not as sharp as the ones from the primary camera. And there is a bit of distortion towards the edges. Despite of all this, it is still good to have the wide lens, as it give us the opportunity to capture the same scene from a different perspective. Before moving on to the close up and macro shots, here is a quick test between the focusing speed of these cameras. Neither of them is the quickest at switching the focus from a near to far object.

And the switch in focus is very sudden. This is not an issue while shooting images, but while shooting videos, it doesn’t look good. At times, the Note 9 Pro just refuses to set the focus. I hope they fix this with a future software update. If you like to take close up shots with your smartphones, you are going to enjoy taking them with either of these phones.

As you can see, the main subject is in perfect sharp focus, and background has a very nice optical blur. Now for some of these shots, on the Note 9 Pro, I had to manually tap on the object, because the phone just refused to adjust the focus by itself. That being said, end results turned out to be great from both the phones. If you don’t want to worry about the subjects in your close up shots being nice and sharp, go with the POCO X2. For the macro shots, things are a bit different.

Note 9 Pro gets a 5 megapixel sensor, as opposed to the 2 megapixel one on the POCO X2. And this shows in their macro shots. You can see much more details in the macro shots from the Note 9 Pro. It also captures less noise compared to the POCO X2. And overall macro shots from Redmi are just more pleasing to look at.

If you have been following my channel, and these camera reviews for a while, you might know that I love taking portrait shots with my smartphones. Xiaomi’s phones have been the best at detecting the edges and separating the subject from their background, for these portrait shots. And since both these phones share their resources with Xiaomi, I am sure they are using the same algorithm for this, as both are doing an excellent job. If anything, there is only a small difference in how both these handle colours of the skin tones and the overall dynamic range. There is also slightly more contrast in portraits from the POCO X2, while the ones from the Note 9 Pro are slightly brighter.

I like these shots from both the phones, but if I had to choose, I will go with the Note 9 Pro, as it shows more natural looking colours, and the background in its shots show much better dynamic range. Movie mode on these phones is my new favourite mode, and I have started using it just as often as the portrait mode. These 21:9 images with black bars at the top and bottom, really make you images appear more cinematic. I still prefer the dynamic range in these shots from the Note 9 Pro. But overall I would prefer to take these shots from the POCO X2, as the subject is a lot softer in shots from the Note 9 Pro.

While taking portraits of objects, again the dynamic range is better from the Note 9 Pro. But the subject is much sharper from the POCO X2. No matter how complex the edges are, or how busy the background is, edge detection is near perfect for both these phones. In some of these shots, POCO actually showed better colours then the Note 9 Pro, and I wish it did so more often. I like having better details in my subjects, so I prefer taking these shots with the POCO X2.

But if you prefer better dynamic range in the background of your portrait shots, you should choose the Note 9 Pro. Moving to the images shot in indoor, artificial and lower lighting conditions. This is where see the gap between these phones getting wider. As we zoom in on this shot, note 9 pro barely seems to have any details, making poco x2’s image look so much better. In this next shot, look at the amount of noise that Note 9 Pro captured.

While the POCO X2 again did really well, and kept that noise to a minimum. As we move to even lower lighting conditions, things become even worse for the Note 9 Pro. As I said in its dedicated camera review, I don’t know if the new GM2 sensor needs more tuning, or if there is any other issue, but Redmi really needs to fix this with a software update. POCO X2 does well in these situations, and while its low light performance is not the best in its class, compared to the images from the Note 9 Pro, it certainly comes out to be victorious. Both phones get night mode, so they can take better images in lower light, but even that could not save the Note 9 Pro.

While this mode isn’t doing too many favours to the Note 9 Pro, it does help it handle exposure from light in a better way. But even with the night mode, POCO X2 is miles ahead of the Note 9 Pro. In some situations like this, I feel a smartphone which is even an year or two older than the Note 9 Pro, would perform better. So when it comes to indoor or low light photography, POCO X2 wins by a huge margin. That brings us to the front facing cameras.

POCO X2 shows slightly more details in its selfies. It is also showing more accurate colours of the 2, while the Note 9 Pro is adding a slight yellow tint to its selfies. As I zoom in, you can clearly see more details and less noise in the selfies of the POCO X2. The beauty mode is on by default on both of them, so if you don’t want soft images, you will have to disable it everything you switch to the front facing camera. POCO X2 gets a secondary depth sensor at the front for helping it take better portrait shots.

I am not too sure if this makes any difference or not, because even without the secondary depth sensor, edge section is pretty accurate in the portrait from the Note 9 Pro. However like with the portraits from the rear camera, faces are again sharper in the portrait selfies from the POCO X2. Dynamic range is tossed out of the picture while taking portrait selfies. Look at how badly both of them handled the bright background in this shot. For the selfies, I would choose the POCO X2.

It is also better at rejecting the unwanted sound in the background, while you take videos with this front camera. Here is a video from the front facing camera of the POCO X2 and the Redmi Note 9 Pro. You can see how these phones handle 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 is picking my voice better.4K 30fps videos get electronic stabilisation on the POCO X2. And its video is not as oversaturated as the 4k 30fps video from the Note 9 Pro.1080p 30fps videos get electronic stabilisation on both these phones, and I think they look very identical. If I had to choose, I would again choose the POCO X2 since it is showing more natural colours and better dynamic range.

After looking at all these image and video samples, we will have to agree that the Note 9 Pro, despite of being priced much lower, can go head to head and sometimes perform even better than the POCO X2 in daylight. POCO X2 definitely captures more details in any lighting conditions, and while it is just marginally better at taking portrait shots, when it comes to lower lighting situations, it blows the Redmi Note 9 Pro out of the competition. It has also got a better front facing camera, and is better at shooting videos. So the POCO X2 is a clear winner in this comparison. With that said, other than in lower light, overall performance of the Note 9 Pro was not too bad.

And if you look only at its images, they look good on their own. I just hope Redmi is working on fixing its low light performance. You guys saw close to 90 image and video samples, who do you think performed better? And what are your thoughts about cameras on these phones? Please let me know in the comments. If you are planning on getting any of these phones, I will really appreciate if you get them from the affiliate links in the description section. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it goes a long way in helping me make these detailed videos.

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

Source : TecworkZ