Xiaomi MIX 2S is the strongest camera phone in Xiaomi's history, whether from DxOMark score or reputation. In just one and a half years, the camera of Xiaomi MIX series mobile phones has leapt, even larger than the average increase of the mobile phone industry in the past eight years. Now let's see what the camera of Xiaomi MIX 2S can achieve.

The competitors this time include the previous generation of Xiaomi MIX 2, the classic photography benchmark iPhone X and the Samsung Galaxy S9+(G965N, Korean version, S5K2L3）。 The full text has put together 33 scenes of 4 machines, with a total of 67 comparison samples, hoping to help you understand the actual ranking of Xiaomi MIX 2S.

The samples are arranged according to five parts: "HDR and sub photography characteristics, daytime, light, weak light/extremely weak light, sub photography". Each part has 3-4 groups of samples, and the rest are at the end of the article.

Background and parameters

1. The early generation Xiaomi MIX was a "mass production concept machine". The camera made a choice for thickness control, using an OV16880 sensor, 16 million pixels, 1/3.06 inch, 1 μ m unit pixel, F2.0 aperture and no optical anti shake. The book parameters of this CMOS chip are consistent with that of Samsung's first S5K3P3 with 1 μ m unit pixel (the one on Hongmi Note3 All Netcom), which leads to the fact that the actual imaging level of the original MIX is very close to that of many thousand yuan computers.

2. At Xiaomi MIX 2, Xiaomi has used Sony IMX38612.2 million pixels, 1/2.9 inch, 1.25 μ m, which is still F2.0 aperture, but it has four axis optical anti shake, and the parameters are already at the standard of normal flagship computers. At the beginning of this year, after Xiaomi updated its firmware, it significantly improved the ISO and exposure of weak light.

3. The Xiaomi MIX 2S is the first IMX363 (with optical anti shake) in China, maintaining 1.4 μ m unit pixels, 1/2.55 inch, 12.2 million pixels, F1.8 aperture and optical anti shake consistent with the IMX362. Although the PPT of the IMX363 sensor was launched for the first time and was robbed by Asus ZenFone 5, the Xiaomi MIX 2S is the first IMX363 model that most of our domestic users contact.

4. From the first IMX260/S5K2L1 (Samsung S7 series) with full pixel dual core focusing, to the later IMX345/333, S5K2L2 (Samsung flagship), to the very familiar IMX362/S5K2L7 (Pixel series changed from 1.55 μ m IMX378 to 362). This series of programs is the most widely used flagship photography hardware after IMX214 and IMX298.

Investigation items and scales

The core of mobile phone photographing is the photographing experience and imaging effect. The main factors that affect the experience are:

1. Smoothness of shooting and film consistency: Whether the viewfinder has problems such as delay/shadow dragging/frame dropping/noise full screen;

2. speed : including focusing speed, shutter response and imaging speed;

3. Film rate : The probability of destroying the tablet by shaking hands;

4. Intelligence : Whether the scene with large light difference and weak light can be identified, and HDR and night view mode can be automatically triggered;

The imaging effects mainly include:

1. White balance and photometry : In many scenes such as sunlight/light/weak light and extremely weak light, whether the white balance (picture color and wind direction) and brightness can be close to the naked eye;

2. Tolerance : That is, the ability to show the details of light and dark at the same time. For mobile phones, this is basically equivalent to the HDR effect, including the strength of processing, whether the processing is natural and harmonious, whether there is ghost after synthesis, white balance deviation and the decline of discrimination;

3. Discriminative power : Roughness can be understood as clarity, and the sharpness, detail and naturalness of the picture must be taken into account at the same time;

4. The remaining assessment contents include noise control, color saturation (the industry trend is changing from "realistic" to "eye pleasing"), lens quality (including edge degradation control, anti glare, fog control, wide-angle and pillow distortion control, etc.), and many other contents.

For different users, the proportion of different projects is completely different. The Maoist Party, which likes to zoom in and scan, will definitely put discrimination first, and the proportion is very high; The party in the circle of friends attaches great importance to tolerance, white balance, saturation and other items, but the requirement of discrimination is not high. It would be better for everyone to focus on what they care about.

summary

According to the practice, focus on the key points directly: Weak light crushes MIX 2. Extremely weak light can also beat iPhone X. Overall, there is still a gap between iPhone X and S9, but it must be Xiaomi is the best photographer and has become the top position of domestic photography. However, the daytime and lighting scenes cannot be separated from Xiaomi MIX 2, and there are many small details to be handled, such as white balance and unstable metering.

The following is the analysis of small projects:

1. Photo experience: Even if the light is not bad, the camera of Xiaomi MIX 2S The viewfinder has a certain delay and dragging , which is the main deduction item in the experience. The second is the shutter response of Xiaomi MIX 2S, which is much slower than Xiaomi's previous shutter, which is like a machine gun (when the light is good). The naming suffixes of HDR and night view samples are cancelled, which is not convenient for analysis, but has little impact on use. Finally, there is automatic HDR, and the trigger rate is good. HDR and night scene can be completed in the background, without causing the frame to get stuck. It is completely OK;

2. Focusing and film forming: focusing is fast and accurate, which is much better than the Xiaomi MIX 2 with the bellows pulled down by weak light. The main safety shutter is 1/13 second, which is faster than MIX 2 (1/12 second). The sub camera safety shutter is 1/33 second, but after all, there is no optical anti shake, and the low light film rate is average;

3. White balance and metering: The metering of Xiaomi MIX 2S is not stable enough, Many scenes are dark The weak light scene is fully exposed and close to the naked eye. The white balance and the ancestral green millet MIX 2 are totally different styles, but there are still many problems to be solved. The white balance base There is obvious tendency of redness and yellowness , facing the blue sky, the car occasionally rolls over, and the white balance of the main and deputy photographers sometimes falls far behind;

4. Tolerance: the background tolerance of the sensor is OK, but the HDR force is very light In addition, the light measurement is more likely to be dark, which makes the dark details a little difficult. The contrast in extremely weak light also decreases significantly, which is close to the level of iPhone X, and is still far from the poor light contrast of the abnormal level of S9+;

5. Discrimination: In daytime and most lighting scenes, the analytical power cannot be separated from MIX 2, which is a bit unexpected. The main advantages are reflected in the weak light and extremely weak light scenes, In addition to crushing MIX 2, some scenes have been slightly better than iPhone X, completely overturning our impression of Xiaomi's weak light imaging ， DxOMark's score is really not for nothing. It should be noted that the automatic HDR cannot be turned on under the weak light of MIX 2S, and once triggered, there will be side effects;

6. Noise control, color saturation: The noise reduction smear is lighter than MIX 2, the noise reduction performance is slightly better than that of iPhone X (except for extremely weak light scenes), and the color saturation is slightly higher than that seen by the naked eye, but compared with the competitors who run in the same direction, it seems more "elegant".

PS： The focus of all samples below is in the center Love to play computer games For PC version official website browsing, you can click the picture to view the large picture.

HDR and sub camera characteristics

Default vs. HDR mode

Default vs. HDR mode

Comparison between automatic night view and HDR mode

Comparison between automatic night view and HDR mode The HDR effect is OK, but it will still trigger and produce side effects in the night scene:

1. On Xiaomi MIX 2S, the automatic HDR finally returns, the trigger sensitivity is below S9, and on iPhone X, most scenes can be automatically triggered (in the exif information of the HDR sample, the equivalent focal length data has become 0mm);

2. HDR is very light, and the effect is natural, but if it is too light, some dark details cannot be saved. There is smearing and sharpening under HDR, The overall effect is better than the default mode, and it is worth using.

3. But the main problem is that it will automatically trigger even in the night scene. but In low light scenes, HDR performance is far inferior to the default multi frame synthesis.

Comparison of main and secondary lighting scenes

Comparison of main and secondary camera lighting scenes (the same scene ISO is about 10 times higher, and may not win the main camera)

Long focus sub camera, when zooming, the light will be forced to enable the long focus sub camera even if the light is weak:

1. The sub camera of the Xiaomi MIX 2S is very special. As long as the zoom is 2x, the sub camera is used even if the light is weak. The normal long focus sub camera does not work when the light is weak, and will use the main camera direct digital zoom output (the imaging effect of the sub camera is not as good as the main camera direct cropping under weak light). This may be because the Xiaomi algorithm has not been done well, and the ability to automatically switch the main camera and sub camera according to the light is not available, or it may be that the control right is reserved for the user.

2. As a result, The user has to remember not to use the zoom when the light is weak (If the light is weaker than the office light, don't use it. It's probably not as good as the main camera.) On the contrary, it's a bit inconvenient to use it.

Daytime scene

Day Scene 1

Daytime scene 1 central magnification

Day Scene 2

Daytime scene 2 central magnification

Day Scene 3

Daytime scene 3 central magnification

Daytime scenario 4

Light scene

Light Scene 1

Light Scene 1 Center Enlarged

Light Scene 2

Light Scene 3

Light Scene 3 Center Enlarged

Light Scene 4

Light Scene 4 Center Enlarged

Weak light/extremely weak light scene

Weak light scene 1

Weak light scene 1 central amplification

Weak light scene 2

Weak light scene 2 central amplification

Weak light scene 3

Weak light scene 3 central amplification

Weak light scene 4

Weak light scene 4 central amplification

Extremely weak light scene 5

Extremely weak light scene 5 is magnified in the center (I believe many people have never thought that this is the performance of Xiaomi MIX 2S)

Subphoto contrast

Paraphotomization

Subphoto contrast 1

Sub camera contrast 1 central amplification

Subphoto contrast 2

Subimage contrast 2 central amplification

Subphoto contrast 2

Subimage contrast 2 central amplification

More proofs

Daytime scene

Daytime scene

Daytime proof

Daytime proof

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Light/Dim Scene

Daytime proof

Daytime proof

HDR Comparison

Subphoto contrast

Subphoto contrast

Subphoto contrast

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