Poco X2(IMX 686) vs Oneplus 8 Pro(IMX 689) Camera – you’d be Surprised!

I swear this time I am not going to make a Oneplus 8 joke.

It’s 9 by the way. Just saying.

So obviously you get better camera sensors and setup on the Oneplus 8 Pro. But I was really impressed with the kind of pictures Poco X2 takes too. The Poco x2 or Redmi K30 are the same phones. So I am going to refer it as Poco x2 here.

So when a friend recently bought the 8 Pro, I poked him till he gave up and let me compare the X2 with his 8 Pro. And some shocking discoveries were made during the rigorous testing we did together in fear of corona getting into the sensors, of our eyes. 

Most of the pictures below are cropped versions of full-resolution pictures to make the differentiation clear. You can save these images on your device to have a larger view of them.

Wow, we have a biotech expert right here. 

Let’s start with day time shots first. The X2 is crushing shadows way more than the 8 Pro. But that is making the 8 Pro look brighter. The details are absolutely the same on both. 

The impressive ultra-wide of 8 Pro proves its worth in these shots. Just no comparison when it comes to details. The 8 Pro’s ultra-wide sensor is the main sensor of Oneplus 8 and Nord so no surprises here. 

The 2x zoom on the X2 was actually as good as the 8 Pro’s 3x zoom. Yes, the X2 has over sharpened the image more but it won’t look bad to most. So again similar results here. And yes you are going to see a lot of that water tank here.

In these next shots too you can see how better the 8 Pro’s shot looks overall. That sweet 8 Pro’s sensor surely behaves excellently in challenging dynamic range situations. But you can notice how well the X2 preserves the details on its shots. There is noise but it is definitely impressive. Like this cat threatening the dog here. 

In these 2x and 3x shots respectively, the 8 pro’s picture and details looks better but the X2 isn’t doing badly too considering its 1/3rd the price. 

The color science of both phones is totally different. I am not commenting on that as this can be a personal choice. But in my experience, the white balance of X2 was accurate in some cases and then the 8 Pro’s in some cases. Weird but true. We have anyway not discovered aliens yet so don’t expect camera tech to be this damn perfect anyway. 

The portrait mode was over-sharpened on the X2 but no matter what it wasn’t full of details on the 8 Pro either. But clearly, the details on X2 were better. And let’s not comment on the edge detection for the bokeh here. It was really ok on both of them. 

The macros captured on X2 are lower in resolution. Guess it tries to crop a picture more in an attempt of stabilizing the shot. But the 8 Pro’s shot had a more natural look to it. In my opinion, both shots are good if you don’t zoom and crop the X2 shots. 

The front shots were quite similar on both of them if the X2 just stops its over sharpen processing on the pictures. 

The results were quite similar on the portrait front shots too. So yeah, good competition by the X2 here in daytime shots. 

You can watch the video samples of both day and night time in the full video below:

The X2 has a way weaker processor, but even then the video didn’t look as if you are paying 1/3rd for this phone. Even the dynamic range was fine on both. The stabilization was just a tad better on the 8 Pro. The mic on the X2 isn’t bad but the 8 Pro captures more punch to the voice. 

The stabilization on the 8 Pro was definitely better in the front cameras but I don’t understand why the X2 has this weird habit of crushing the shadows. I mean a little post-processing can fix all of this but who has the time for that in this world where you get chicken biryanis in a box that can be cooked under 3 minutes. Just not legit. 

The slow-mo at 240 fps was also better on the 8 Pro. Strangely I couldn’t find a 960 fps on the 8 Pro for slow-mo. Which is weird as I have now seen many phones do that. Yeah with crappy details on the video but hey, if you can put many useless camera sensors on a phone just for marketing, you can add features like these too. 

Now before I begin the night shots, on paper the IMX 689 should just crush the IMX 686. But the universe and its coded processing had some other plans. 

This shot is without the night mode and wow the X2 doesn’t look terrible at all except for that tiny noise in the shot. The shot on the X2 looks a little more stabilized too. But I did notice something whilst taking the shots on the 8 Pro in low lit scenarios. 8 pro in low light does take some time in processing the shot, even when it’s not taken in nightscape mode. So it definitely does some extra processing or just opens up that aperture for more than a few seconds to capture all that light and fails to hide it from the user. From a user. Not me though.

And once I switch on the night mode, everything just pop-ups. The 8 pro’s processing is definitely more natural but damn the X2 shot isn’t bad too. I mean, if I was not even comparing it with the 8 Pro here I would have almost no complaints about the phone’s camera at its price.

But yeah, forget the ultra-wide performance. This wasn’t even the night mode on the 8 Pro. You are just lucky that you are able to get that good and comparable pictures from the primary sensor itself. Don’t be so greedy maaan.

But in night mode the pictures came out comparable even though they were just a little better on the 8 Pro.

Yeah, summers and heat do all that to me. Clearly the shot here is better on 8 Pro. The IMX 689 definitely proved its worth here. So human subjects from the rear cameras are processed better on the 8 Pro. But really, who cares for humans? Nobody takes pictures of people now anyway. No, I don’t know what Instagram is. 

But just look at the portrait. The 8 pro just fails to capture details and more light on the shot. X2 isn’t winning any awards here too but at least you can see stuff. I hope Oneplus definitely fixes this in the future. 

The front picture is definitely noise-free on the 8 Pro. But the X2 does a decent job too. The details are quite comparable. 

However, the screen flash was processed much much better on the X2. Even though the background is more visible on the 8 Pro – the point of using the screen flash was illuminating your frigging face and not those trees. 

Night video samples in the video above.

Notice how jittery the X2 video was. Blame the processor. The details on the 8 Pro were better too. But notice how the X2 managed to capture the extremely dim sky in the background like how the 8 Pro did. 

The ultra-wide had a similar story minus a little less visibility of the far off subjects. 

And surprisingly the X2’s front camera in low light was actually able to capture a brighter face with more details. Vloggers, REJOICE. 

So there you have it. If you own an X2 right now or are planning to buy a phone in that budget, things are quite clear that how much of a capable camera you are about to own. I didn’t actually think they’d be so close in a few of the cases. But all this really makes me wonder if the IMX689 will eventually get even better with the updates in the future. I mean, it has to. Otherwise, if you spent all that money for the greatest camera setup on a Oneplus flagship right now, and the results are this close to a device which is 1/3rd the price, then I’d say fuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaa…..

But yeah other features definitely get you more worth from the 8 Pro. But why should I care about it? This was a camera comparison. HA! 

I’d be making a long term review of the Poco x2 soon. It’s been long since I have been using the phone on and off for the past 2 months or more. 

MuBot out.