In 2014, the key word in the mobile phone industry has been "pinching", especially Meizu and Xiaomi. Meilan, the sub brand of Meizu, was more popular. When it was released, Meilan fired directly at Hongmi 2. Today, we might as well let the two enemies fight back to back, and fight each other.
However, before the start of the evaluation, it is still necessary to explain that the Meilan and Hongmi 2 mobile phones used for the evaluation this time are both engineering machines that are closer to the retail version than the real retail version. Therefore, both of them have problems in terms of hardware and software, which does not fully represent the Meilan or Hongmi 2 that each reader has bought.
Meilan rear camera specifications:
13 million pixel Samsung CMOS sensor;
Blue glass filter;
5-piece lens;
F/2.2 aperture;
Corning gorilla 3 lens protection glass.
Specifications of Hongmi 2 rear camera:
8 megapixel OmniVision CMOS sensor;
5-piece lens;
F/2.2 aperture.
From the perspective of hardware specifications, Red Rice 2 seems to have lost everything. At least for products at this price, 13 million pixels are still much more conscientious than 8 million pixels in the parameter list. However, it is never new to have fewer pixels than more pixels in the mobile phone circle. As long as you have deep efforts, 8 million pixels and 13 million pixels are not so different from each other.
Camera UI:
The photo taking interface of Meilan continues to look like Flyme, and the photo taking interface of Meilan Note There is no difference between MX4 and MX4 Pro. The left and right sliding switch mode provides manual mode and HDR mode photo taking function. The operation is intuitive enough, but because the processor is much weaker than the high-end model, the switch mode needs to wait about half a second after sliding, and the selected mode will start (of course, sliding is very smooth), Long press of the screen is also set to focus metering+press the shutter.
Press the menu key in the photographing interface of Hongmi 2 to pop up a secondary menu, where you can select the proportion and quality of the photos taken. Here we use the 4:3 ratio to shoot, and set the photo quality to high, so as to maximize all the photographing performance of Hongmi 2.
Slide left and right on the viewfinder of Red Rice 2 to jump out of the filter and mode switching interface. However, compared with the smooth and refreshing sliding of Magic Blue, Red Rice 2 is obviously stuck, and the UI is as unnatural as watching a slide. However, Red Rice 2 can easily adjust the exposure compensation after selecting the focusing light measuring point, which is not available to Magic Blue.
As far as the camera UI is concerned, I prefer Meilan, which has a smoother operation and a cleaner UI. In terms of functionality, the two are similar. As for the focusing speed, Red Rice 2 is slightly faster. This evaluation will try to use automatic mode for shooting. However, in the white background studio, due to the need to increase the exposure compensation, Therefore, both of them are switched to the manual mode, and the exposure compensation is set to+1, while the other settings remain automatic. As for the options of Red Rice 2 to adjust the image sharpness saturation, the standard is used here.
Studio proof, high ambient light:
First, as usual, it is the sample in the studio. If there is no special instructions, the sample above is Meilan, the sample below is Hongmi 2, Meilan uses 13 million pixels for shooting, and Hongmi 2 uses 8 million pixels for shooting.
The difference between the photographic effects of Meilan and Red Rice 2 is actually very obvious. First of all, when looking at the whole picture without magnification, it can be found that the white balance accuracy of Meilan is far better than that of Red Rice 2. The whole picture of Red Rice 2 is seriously warm and yellow, and the overall contrast is much lower than that of Meilan. Meilan is far better than Red Rice 2 in terms of color accuracy, saturation and picture contrast, In the sample of Hongmi 2, the doll in the middle and the doll on the right are accurately focused, but the doll on the left is out of focus, resulting in basically no usable details on the left side of the screen.
Enlarge the center of the picture to see that Meilan obviously dominates the details of the picture because it has 13 million pixels, but Meilan also continues Meizu's tradition of focusing on sharpening. There are very obvious "halo" marks around the doll, which is proof of excessive sharpening. Hongmi 2 also has sharpening marks, but it is relatively not obvious. As for noise control, Meilan also performs better, But the noise control of both is far from "good". Magic Blue can see very obvious smear marks, while Red Rice 2 is not much better.
At the edge of the same picture, Meilan has maintained a good analytical power. In contrast, Hongmi 2's image edge analytical power has declined significantly. Meilan continues to crush Hongmi 2 in terms of detail performance and image contrast. It's not interesting to say too much. Anyway, we know that Meilan is much better than Hongmi 2 in terms of overall perception, central image quality and edge image quality.
Studio proof, in ambient light:
The upper sample is Magic Blue, and the lower sample is Red Rice 2.
When the light is medium, the appearance of the samples of Miracle Blue and Red Rice 2 is similar to that of Red Rice 2 when the light is bright. The white balance and contrast of Miracle Blue continue to crush Red Rice 2. The whole picture also looks "normal", but there are obvious noises in both pictures, but relatively speaking, the appearance of noise does not have a serious impact on the picture, The overall appearance is pretty good.
Enlarge the center of the picture to see that Red Rice 2 has less noise than Magic Blue, especially in the solid color part of the doll. Red Rice 2's picture is cleaner than Magic Blue, and the control of noise is more natural than Magic Blue. However, because Red Rice 2's photos lack sufficient contrast and the white balance deviates, the overall sense of hierarchy is still not as good as Magic Blue, And because of the low number of pixels, the details are also below the magic blue. However, the magic blue is very dissatisfied with the strange "halo" at the intersection of the doll's edge and the white background, while the red rice 2 has no such phenomenon.
At the edge of the same picture, Meilan continues to use its high pixel advantage to crush Red Rice 2. Other situations are similar to the center of the picture. Meilan's own "halo" filter is still a bit uncomfortable.
In fact, in this group of samples, Red Rice 2 could actually win the Magic Blue without white balance deviation and insufficient picture contrast. Despite the difference in the amount of picture information caused by the difference in the number of pixels, Red Rice 2 has better control over the noise in the solid color part, the overall noise reduction and sharpening are more natural, and it will not have the weird "halo" effect like Magic Blue.
Studio proof, low ambient light:
The upper sample is Magic Blue, and the lower sample is Red Rice 2, where Red Rice 2 turns on night view mode.
Not surprisingly, there were a lot of noise with Meizu characteristics in Meilan's samples, and the color saturation of the samples dropped significantly. Due to the noise, the details of the picture naturally dropped a lot. As for Red Rice 2, I don't know whether the noise smearing method was secretly turned on, so the noise of the picture is relatively small. As for white balance, Instead, Red Rice 2 is relatively normal. This time, the white balance of Magic Blue is yellow, but the contrast and brightness of the picture are still higher.
Enlarge the center of the proof sheet, and the noise reduction painting of Red Rice 2 is quite obvious. However, the noise reduction painting technique of Red Rice 2 is not as radical as that of some other mobile phones. The overall picture still retains OK details, and there is no obvious sense of oil painting. In addition, there are even a large number of cross color noise spots in the Meilan picture, For example, the red part of the doll's red clothes has been rendered into orange, and the details of the picture are not good, but at least the color saturation and contrast of the magic blue are still there.
As for the edge of the picture, the color is still the same. Magic Blue continues to have a "halo" effect, and there is little detail in the picture due to too much noise. Red Rice 2 has eliminated a lot of noise by smearing, but also the details of the picture.
Strictly speaking, the performance of both of them in this link is not good, and both of them have poor retention of details. In terms of white balance, Red Rice 2 is slightly more accurate, but it lacks color saturation and contrast. Although the color saturation and contrast of Magic Blue are better, too many noise points and the white balance of deviation are unavoidable problems, but... after all, two 699 yuan machines, Don't be too demanding, right? Attitude is very important.
Comparison of live photos:
In this link, both mobile phones use the automatic mode. Without special instructions, the first sample of each group is taken by Meilan, and the second sample is taken by Hongmi 2.
Today, the weather in Shenzhen is gloomy, and the light conditions are not ideal. In the first two groups of samples, the photos taken by the 70D SLR camera in the automatic mode are added for reference, which can roughly represent the outdoor light environment at that time.
Scenario 1: The order of the sample is 70D, Magic Blue, Red Rice 2.
Scene 2: The order of the sample is 70D, Magic Blue, Red Rice 2.
Comparison of samples in other automatic modes:
The sample above was shot by Meilan, and the sample below was shot by Hongmi 2.
In the automatic mode, it is obvious that Meilan can provide a relatively more accurate white balance, while the picture of Hongmi 2 is "very yellow and very violent". However, it is undeniable that Hongmi 2's "very yellow and very violent" white balance can indeed take a more beautiful picture in some cases, such as the one of flowers taken in a macro shot.
During the shooting process, we found that the metering of Red Rice 2 is very poor. Selecting a slightly darker metering point often leads to overall overexposure of the picture. You must manually adjust the exposure value to obtain a relatively normal picture. The metering of Magic Blue is relatively good, but it is also suspected of being too sensitive, and it is troublesome to adjust the exposure value, Sometimes taking a picture requires multiple focusing and metering, and the experience is also bad.
As for the performance of CMOS itself, the tolerance of both Meilan and Hongmi 2's CMOS is very poor, and it is difficult to take into account the whole picture when facing a slightly larger contrast in a single image. Of course, this is not new for a cheap smart phone. The quality of the photosensitive components used by Meilan and Hongmi 2 is limited, To solve this problem, we can only rely on HDR. As for the effect of HDR... see below.
HDR sample comparison:
The sample above was shot by Meilan, and the sample below was shot by Hongmi 2.
Well, I don't know whether it is the engineering machine. The HDR function of this Meilan is basically disabled. We have taken many pictures in succession, which is the virtue in the figure, and it is still the same after using the tripod to fix the mobile phone. Compared with the HDR function of Hongmi 2, it is slightly useful, effectively brightens the dark part, and the brightness and contrast of the overall picture are OK, The compositing effect is also good, and it also alleviates the previously mentioned phenomenon that "the left is focused on the top and the right is not focused on the top" to some extent. However, the highlighted parts in the lower left corner are still not taken into account, and the overall details of the picture are also very poor.
Comparison of indoor samples:
The sample above was shot by Meilan, and the sample below was shot by Hongmi 2.
In this group of samples, the indoor light is relatively dim, but the photos taken by both Mystery Blue and Red Rice 2 are very bright. On Red Rice 2, we again found the problem of out of focus. When taking photos, the mobile phone prompts that the focus was successful, After taking several pictures in succession, we found that the problem of Hongmi 2 did not happen by accident, so we had to give up.
Despite the focus problem, the biggest problem of Red Rice 2 is the white balance. Although the overall color restoration of the picture is OK, the samples taken by Red Rice 2 on the right window and ceiling are seriously blue, and the performance of Magic Blue is relatively good.
In terms of details, the performance of the two is basically the same as that of the low light proof in the studio. The details of both are not good, and the pictures taken can only be seen roughly. However, due to the out of focus problem of Red Rice 2, combined with color and other factors, there is no problem for Magic Blue to win in this scene.
Summary:
In the face of these two machines, which cost 699 yuan, to be honest, our requirements cannot be too high, as long as we can take clearer pictures in good light. As for taking excellent night pictures, it is better to hand them over to higher level mobile phones or cameras.
Meizu and Xiaomi, two of the most powerful manufacturers in the field of thousand yuan machines, are too lazy to use the word "imaginary enemy" this time. From pricing to specification to marketing, Meizu is determined to compete with Xiaomi, and Meizu has also embarked on the road Xiaomi used to make a fortune, That is, the price performance ratio: "I sell at the same price as you, but my performance is better. The screen is bigger and the camera pixel is higher." So Meilan undoubtedly won in the parameter list this time, provided that it is bought at the original price.
However, in the last part, I will repeat that the Hongmi 2 and Meilan are both engineering machines, so they will inevitably have problems, and the machines we test will certainly have hardware or software differences from the machines that consumers buy (for example, the battery capacity of our Meilan is 2610 mA, while the official Meilan is 2500 mA battery), As for the focus problem, white balance problem and Meilan's Disability HDR， We hope that Xiaomi and Meizu can repair it in the form of software updates. After all, taking photos is an aspect that consumers attach great importance to when buying mobile phones.
So who won the match this time?
This question is easy to answer. The winner is Meilan, because Meilan has better picture detail performance, more accurate white balance, more accurate exposure, better contrast performance and higher production rate.
Of course, the above is relatively better.
