14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Lumia 950 XL is said to come with as astonishing camera that's supposed to be not only better than the one on the previous Lumia devices, but also superior when compared to those on rival devices.
To achieve this, Microsoft decided to go for a 20-megapixel main camera that can shoot photos with a resolution of 4992x3744 pixels and features Carl Zeiss optics with optical image stabilization, autofocus, triple-LED RGB flash, 1/2.4' sensor size, and HDR support.
For selfies and video calls, Microsoft used a 5-megapixel camera with 1080p support, so at least on paper, this camera should be good enough for the majority of buyers.
Performance in real life
As we've told you in our Microsoft Lumia 950 XL first impressions, the camera feels a bit slow when it comes to post-processing, with the device needing at least 3 to 4 seconds to apply the finishing touches after shooting the photo.
Basically, you take the photo and then post processing takes several seconds, a thing that's not happening on rival devices currently on the market. What's more, you can literally see the changes being made to the phone, so if you shoot more photos at the same time, you have to wait between 10 to 20 seconds to get the adjustments on all pictures.
Otherwise, the camera offers decent photo quality, but it's hard to be amazed by the final result. Colors are vivid in 9 out of 10 cases, but sometimes the adjustments that the device makes to the original photo aren't quite the best ones. We've found the RGB flash to be particularly useful because it helps shoot in low-light conditions without an impact on colors, although the saturation level that the OS automatically applies during post-processing could be a little bit too high.
Overall, the Lumia 950 XL has an above-the-average camera, but it's hard to be impress, especially when looking at competition. And as mentioned, it's not necessarily the hardware that's at fault here, but the software, as Windows 10 Mobile still feels like it's not yet ready for prime time.
As mentioned yesterday, we'll have a closer look at the phone's camera in our Lumia 950 XL review coming next Saturday, so take these samples as an early preview of what's to come in one week.
Note: these are unedited photos with the Lumia 950 XL and default camera settings. No filters have been applied and what you see here are the full-size versions. We've made no changes, so we just copied photos from the phones and uploaded them here. They are shot in different light conditions to test the way the device auto-adjusts in different circumstances.
