Smartphone photography has come a long way since its inception. Image quality which was considered state-of-the-class just a decade ago is now bested by even entry-level devices. The induction of AI and computational image processing has catapulted smartphone imagery to a whole new level. In 2022, the competition between camera phones is heated in every price bracket. Every OEM is trying to incorporate cutting-edge camera and videography features into their camera phones to set them apart from the rest.
Recently, three phones launched in the sub-50K price segment – two of which have a camera-first focus. These phones are the Google Pixel 6a (review), Oppo Reno8 Pro (review), and Nothing Phone (1) (review). While the Nothing Phone (1) has gained mass recognition due to its unique design, the Pixel 6a and Reno8 Pro are marketed as camera-focused devices. All of these phones are priced under ₹50K, but the Nothing Phone (1) is actually cheaper than the other two and can be purchased for under ₹40K. If you’re a smartphone camera enthusiast and you’re scouring the market for a good camera phone under ₹50K, these are some of the best options out there.
We spent a considerable amount of time with these phones, testing all their camera modes and features for hours on end. So, if you’re confused about which of these phones to pick up for its camera, this camera comparison should alleviate some of that confusion.
Note: This article contains compressed photo samples for the purposes of a web upload. Also, to see all the shots clicked from these phones, scroll down and watch our full comparison video.
The Oppo Reno8 Pro houses a triple rear camera stack with a 50 MP Sony IMX766 primary sensor, an 8 MP ultrawide shooter, and a 2 MP macro lens. For selfies, it uses a 32 MP Sony IMX709 shooter. The phone shoots video at up to 4K@30 fps from the rear camera, and 1080p@30 fps from the selfie camera. Unfortunately, there’s no Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The Reno8 Pro also comes packing the MariSilicon X NPU that is supposed to produce enhanced low-light videos.
Moving on to the Nothing Phone (1), it houses a dual-camera stack with a 50 MP Sony IMX766 primary lens and a 50 MP Samsung JN1 ultrawide shooter. For selfies, the phone features a 16 MP Sony IMX471 shooter. The phone shoots video at up to 4K@30 fps from the rear camera and 1080p@30 fps from the front camera. There is EIS and OIS support as well.
Finally, the Google Pixel 6a houses a dual rear camera setup comprising of a 12.2 MP Sony IMX363 lens, which was also used on previous Pixel phones, and a 12 MP ultrawide shooter. The phone houses an 8 MP selfie camera as well. The Pixel 6a shoots video at up to 4K@60 fps from the rear camera and 1080p@30 fps from the selfie camera. Like the Nothing Phone (1), you get OIS and EIS support.
With the specifications out of the way, let’s get started with the comparison. Images taken in the daylight come out pretty crisp and detailed on all three phones in well-lit conditions. The Pixel 6a’s colours, however, look the most natural and true-to-life. Nothing’s photos have a cool tone while Oppo’s colours are extremely saturated.
Pixel 6a (left), Nothing Phone (1) (centre), Oppo Reno8 Pro (right)
In close-up photos, all three phones blur the background without portrait mode turned on, but the blur is more apparent on Oppo and Nothing due to larger sensors. We found that there was some softness in Oppo’s close-up photos, especially if you zoom into the photo, which is not the case with Nothing and Pixel. There’s also occasional lens flare in Oppo’s close-up shots.
Moving on to the dynamic range, Oppo tends to crush shadows and blow out highlights in many shots. Also, Oppo and Nothing try to oversharpen the photo a tad too much which sometimes, negatively impacts the dynamic range. Nothing performs pretty well, with good detail in shadows and highlights, but the Pixel 6a performs the best with the most detail captured, even in tricky lighting conditions.
Pixel 6a (left), Nothing Phone (1) (centre), Oppo Reno8 Pro (right)
Pixel’s computational photography game is extremely strong – photos come out looking sharp and crisp even if the viewfinder doesn’t show as sharp of a result when you’re clicking the photo. Moving objects are captured well on the Nothing and Pixel, but Oppo’s moving shots are often soft or blurry due to the lack of OIS. You also get HDR support on all three phones, and the results are pretty great in daylight. Nothing and Oppo also come with a dedicated 50 MP mode that captures more detailed shots, which is apparent when you pixel peep.
Moving on to portrait images, by default, Pixel’s portrait images have a more cropped frame than that of the Oppo and Nothing. To get a similar effect, we moved closer to the object when clicking portrait photos from the Oppo and Nothing. Skin tones are the most natural on the Pixel 6a. Skin tones look way too cool and unnatural on the Nothing Phone (1) and the Oppo Reno8 Pro smoothens out the skin textures a bit too much (even with Beauty mode turned off). In daylight, all three cameras have decent edge detection but, at times, they do miss out on a stray hair or a part of your sunglasses.
Nothing’s ultrawide camera imitates the cool colour tone present on its primary camera, which is a good thing. The Oppo and Pixel also do a good job of keeping the colour tone consistent across lenses. We tested out these ultrawide lenses under various situations, and we found that Oppo’s ultrawide shooter is the weakest at bringing details out. The shadows are crushed, more often than not, and the corners are somewhat noisy.
The Pixel carries out its true-to-life colour tone here as well and it also does a great job at bringing out details in shots. Nothing’s ultrawide shots are also packed with detail, but we did notice some rare occasions when the corners had a fair amount of graininess. Barrelling is similar on all three phones, objects in the corners do appear slightly warped but that’s to be expected from most ultrawide cameras. Overall, we found Pixel’s ultrawide camera performance in daylight to be the most consistent, colour-accurate, and detailed.
The Pixel 6a doesn’t boast macro functionality but the Oppo Reno8 Pro and Nothing Phone (1) do. The Reno8 Pro features a 2 MP macro shooter while the Nothing Phone (1) utilises its ultrawide lens to extract macro shots. Honestly, Oppo’s macro lens is just to bump up the lens count. It doesn’t really output usable shots in most instances. The shots are often blurry or soft since there’s no OIS present.
Nothing isn’t too impressive in the macro department as well. The shots were nothing to write home about, with bleak colours, softness and blurring here as well. But they are slightly more usable than the shots we got out of the Reno8 Pro’s macro camera.
Now, we’ve reached the section where many smartphone cameras show their weaknesses – low light photography. In low-lit conditions, all three phones automatically defer to long-exposure shots to let in more light. You get Pixel’s famous Night Sight Mode and the Oppo and Nothing also have dedicated Night Modes.
In medium low light, all three phones do a good job at clicking well-lit, crisp photos with quite a bit of detail. Oppo crushes the details in the shadows at times, but this has consistently been an issue with the Reno8 Pro’s camera. In some photos, Nothing also fails to maintain the integrity of the photo in the shadows but Pixel does a great job in medium low light.
Pixel 6a (left), Nothing Phone (1) (centre), Oppo Reno8 Pro (right)
All three phones fall victim to lens flare in nighttime photos, but Oppo does the best job at curtailing the lens flare. For portrait shots, Nothing has a trick up its sleeve using the Glyph interface. You can use the LEDs on the Glyph interface as a studio light to light up subjects in low light, and it works quite well. We liked using this better than the flash which makes the photos look a bit too harsh.
However, in low light, Nothing messes up the skin tone of subjects quite a bit. Human subjects look quite unnatural on the Nothing Phone (1) in low light and comparatively the Pixel does the best at replicating skin tone in low-light conditions. Oppo also takes bright and clear night shots with human subjects, but the skin textures are smoothened once again.
In ultra-low light, the Pixel 6a’s camera fails to impress. There’s extreme amounts of noise and softness in the Pixel’s photos in extremely low-lit conditions. In comparison, the Nothing does a better job at minimising noise; but the Oppo captures the most detail in these conditions with minimal noise. By extreme low light, we mean indoor rooms with no lights turned on. This is where we see the Pixel falter the most when it comes to photography.
In low light, the ultrawide camera that performed the worst was the Oppo Reno8 Pro’s camera. The 8 MP lens struggled considerably at clicking good photos in low light; its photos had a lot of softness and noise. Nothing brings out the best low-light ultrawide photos, but you can still see some noise creep in here as well.
In daylight, all three phones click good selfies with good detail retention. Colours, once again, look the most natural on the Pixel 6a. Oppo clicks pretty good selfies as well, but the Nothing Phone (1)’s selfie camera smoothens the skin a lot even without Beauty Mode turned on. Nothing also sometimes over-exposes highlights in selfies. Portrait selfies look good on all three phones with good edge detection, but you’ll find that Nothing tampers with the skin textures too much again.
Low light selfies are the softest and most noisy on Nothing since Night Mode doesn’t activate when clicking selfies on the Nothing Phone (1). Pixel and Oppo can click good selfies even without flash turned on, since they have Night Mode for the selfie cameras as well. With flash, all three phones click detailed selfies with the best being on the Oppo.
All three phones can shoot 4K video but the Nothing and Oppo top out at 30 fps while the Pixel can shoot 4K at 60 fps. We found the Nothing Phone (1)’s video footage to be the most colour accurate. Pixel’s footage is a bit too bright and over-exposed while Oppo’s footage has too much contrast. AI mode on the Oppo increases the contrast even more, so we suggest turning it on only in Night Time videos since AI mode leverages Oppo’s MariSilicon X NPU. This does allow you to take brighter videos at night, but during the day, it messes with the colour too much.
For selfie videos, you can record footage at 1080p at 30 fps on all three phones. We found the Pixel 6a’s footage to be the most natural with good detail and dynamic range. In both Nothing and Oppo’s selfie videos, the highlights would get blown out of proportion at times.
This neatly brings us to the verdict – so does the Oppo Reno8 Pro’s feature-packed camera beat the others? Or is the Pixel’s computational photography game strong enough to beat its competitors? Or does the cheaper Nothing Phone (1) pull a fast one on the others and take the crown? While all three cameras have their weaknesses, we felt that in the area of utmost importance – clicking consistent pictures in daylight – the Pixel 6a is the most reliable. You get crisp and detailed photos with great dynamic range and accurate colour reproduction. The Oppo Reno8 Pro consistently disappointed us with its lacklustre dynamic range while the Nothing Phone (1) just sat in the middle of the pack in most instances. In low light though, all three phones don’t provide the best experience. If you can extend your budget to ₹55,000, the Vivo X80 (review) does a much better job in low light photography. If not, then the Pixel 6a is your best option, followed by the Nothing Phone (1) and then the Oppo Reno8 Pro.