The same photos, four ways: How Android brands see the world differently

It’s the perfect time of the year to take snaps of pretty, colorful things. But as we know, not every camera captures the same scene in quite the same way. Often, the differences are small, but when it comes to color science, every brand has its own take on what the perfect picture looks like. Despite years of innovation and brand partnerships, it seems impossible to please everyone. Whether it’s Samsung’s historic oversaturation or more modern issues with bland photos from the Pixel 9 Pro, it just goes to show that taking the best photo every time remains a dark art.

So, for today’s camera shootout, let’s look at how this year’s best smartphone cameras see the world — not to declare a winner but out of simple curiosity. To test, I grabbed the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, OnePlus 13, and Xiaomi 15 Ultra. If you want, you can follow along with the full-res pictures in this Google Drive folder.

Let’s start by looking at the main cameras, which are usually our best bet for image quality and color consistency.

The first thing to note is that none of these phones are widely different in terms of quality. Exposure, white balance, and even levels of detail are all reasonably similar, especially when looking at the full-frame picture. Still, the Pixel 9 Pro XL and OnePlus 13 are the most conservative in terms of color when it comes to landscapes, though the latter leans into a slightly brighter exposure. By comparison, Samsung adds a bit more vibrancy to the first scene, and the postbox shot is definitely a bit cooler than the others. Xiaomi is clearly the odd one out, adding considerably more saturation to the sunflower’s yellows, but is then more subdued with deeper shadows and more contrast in the second picture — let’s call it a more dynamic approach to color science.

When it comes to the brighter flowers, these themes remain, only more exaggerated. The Pixel 9 Pro XL is certainly the blandest in terms of saturation. The Galaxy is more colorful but is also rather dull in terms of exposure. The OnePlus 13 is considerably brighter and more vivid than the other two. While the colors are bright, they aren’t skewed too heavily, and it arguably captures the feel of the scene best of all. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra, by comparison, is too saturated, too heavy on the contrast, and verges on blown out.

Already we have three sets of pictures with quite different approaches to color science, but what about some trickier lighting with dark foregrounds and bright backgrounds?

Again, there are some very similar-looking pictures here, but there are some obvious differences as well. The Pixel tries its hardest to ensure a consistent exposure across foreground and background, while others are happy to allow for some slight underexposure. The OnePlus 13’s results vary widely: the first picture is underexposed, while the second is brighter than the competition. Xiaomi and Samsung are pretty consistent and sit very close together regarding exposure. It just goes to show that even though all of today’s flagships offer brilliant HDR capabilities, the results can still look different.

When it comes to zooming in, matching color profiles between lenses is surprisingly hard to achieve. Phones have to accommodate the different light capture capabilities of unique lens and sensor pairings, and then process the RAW image to produce a similar look, no matter which camera you’re shooting with. Still, as you can see below, some scenes can end up looking rather similar even across brands; only Samsung adds a meaningful level of saturation to the ultrawide shot below.

Some pictures look very different when using the phones’ zoom capabilities, partly because we’re really honing in on individual elements. Despite its seemingly warm and vibrant colors mixed with a bright exposure, the OnePlus 13 most closely captures how I recall these scenes: a warm sunny day and bright light streaming in through the window. OnePlus’ color palette blends accuracy with just a hint of vibrancy that’s a mix of realism and pop.

Google and Xiaomi are on the other side of the scale. Google is overly conservative, washing out the depth and color from the two flower shots while punching up the guitar pedal’s deep orange. Xiaomi tends to lean toward higher contrast, which adds depth and mood. The sunflower picture is particularly phenomenal in terms of detail and colors — it looks like a shot I’d grab from my mirrorless.

This leaves Samsung meandering between all three. Its ultrawide and 2x flower snaps are overly saturated, but its 3x and 10x snaps are rather more neutral. Despite their history of oversaturation, modern Samsung flagships are less clear-cut. Sometimes, the saturation is there, but other times Samsung’s color science can be as conservative as Google’s — and occasionally even more so, as with the more accurate guitar pedal snap.

Well, that was interesting — it’s amazing what a bit of color processing can do. I’m not going to declare a winner here because a lot of color science comes down to personal preference, and I honestly like quite a few of these different approaches depending on the shot. I’m a big fan of Xiaomi’s moody exposure for portraits and macro shots, while OnePlus’ added pop and exposure help capture the feel of a scene as well as just the detail.

Google’s conservative approach has merits, too, particularly if you’re after a consistent look regardless of the lighting. Even Samsung leaning into boosted colors where it sees fit could be good if you want to balance occasional saturation with an otherwise conservative palette.

In any case, this leads me to an interesting observation from all the brilliant smartphone cameras I’ve tested this year. We’re at yet another crossroad between realistic and enhanced colors, but unlike a decade ago, I think the enhanced options are winning. Heavy-handed use of saturation has given way to more refined color palettes, leveraging scene detection and object segmentation to introduce more color when it works and ease off the throttle when it doesn’t. Personally, I think brands from China that have partnered with some of the biggest names in photography are doing this a little better than household names in the US. Of course, there’s even more we could discuss here — portraits especially vary greatly depending on focal length, aperture, and color science. Perhaps another time.