Huawei Nova 5T Camera Review: Quad Camera Magic

What’s the most important feature in a smartphone? Performance? Camera? Well, both of these are important but people tend to lean towards a phone with the good camera performance. Smartphone these days have multiple cameras, the dual camera was a thing a year back but it’s been replaced with triple camera and quad-camera setup as of now.

Keeping up with this trend Huawei launched Huawei Nova 5T. It features 4 cameras on the rear but how well do they perform?

Huawei Nova 5T is a lite-flagship phone that features a flagship chipset Kirin 980, 6GB RAM, 128GB internal storage, and an impressive quad camera setup. It has a 48MP IMX 586 main sensor, 16MP Ultrawide angle camera, 2MP macro lens, and 2MP depth sensor.

48MP Main Sensor

Let’s start with its main sensor. The 48MP main sensor captures 12MP images due to its Quad Bayer arrangement. These normal 12MP images turn out nice with a good amount of detail, saturated color, and wide dynamic range.

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You’ll have to change the resolution settings to capture the images in full 48 megapixels. There’s a definite improvement in the level of detail and the good thing is its color profile is consistent with the normal 12MP images. Comparing the 48MP and 12MP images, you will see the difference in terms of the level of detail when you zoom in. However, the dynamic range of the 48MP mode is not as good as the normal 12MP images. The normal 12MP images maintain good exposure in both dark areas and bright areas but 48MP images are not always exposed properly.

You will notice these things if you really dig in but it won’t be a problem for social media needs. Well, it’s better to use 12MP images for social media because of it’s better dynamic range. but, it’s impressive that there’s no extra waiting time for capturing 48MP images.

Ultrawide Angle Camera

Next up let’s see how good is its 16MP ultrawide angle camera. The ultrawide angle camera has a 117-degree FOV. One of the things that I really liked about its ultrawide angle is its sharpness. I always have complaints regarding the level of detail with most of the ultrawide angle camera but I was impressed with the Nova 5T’s ultrawide angle camera.

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Colors appear really nice and the dynamic range is quite good as well. Plus, it’s profile is consistent with the main sensor.

2X Zoom

Huawei Nova 5T doesn’t have a telephoto lens but it does have 2x zoom feature. 2x zoom works quite good, the image is consistent with the main sensor and detail is quite nice. However, you can get much better results by cropping the 48MP images rather than using 2x Zoom.

Macro Photos

One of the sensors among 4 sensors is a 2MP macro camera. Nova 5T’s macro camera focusing distance is 4cm and the photos turn out nice if captured withing optimal distance. The detail isn’t that great since its only a 2MP sensor but the photos are pretty much usable for social media.

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Portrait Mode

Nova 5T has a 2MP depth sensor that helps to capture portraits. Portraits from the Huawei Nova 5T turn out quite impressive. The edge detection is quite good and the background blur is subtle. Also, it’s color profile is consistent with the normal sensor.

Night Mode

Huawei was one of the first to emphasize night mode in their smartphones. And, Huawei has incorporated the night mode in Nova 5T as well.

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Night shots are decent even when shot in normal mode. Well, there will be noise but images generally have good detail. With night mode turned on, low-light images have more detail and the lights are exposed really well.

We can use the night mode in 2X Zoom and ultrawide angle as well.

Videos

Huawei Nova 5T can capture videos up to 4k 30fps. 4K videos are really nice with lots of detail and a wide dynamic range. The video seems sharp and the color looks nice as well. And, surprisingly, I was impressed with stabilization too.

The sharpness is reduced as we drop from 4k to 1080p. Also, we will start to see noise even in daylight in 1080p. But stabilization is really good at 1080p.

Selfie

Now, let’s talk about the 32MP front camera. In general, the front camera of the Huawei Nova 5T is good. We get good details, nice color and wide dynamic range in daylight photos. During optimal lighting, the photos look clean and detailed.

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It also has the option for portrait selfies but it isn’t as impressive as the normal mode. However, it’s quite decent. The background blur is quite good and edge detection is decent as well.

Conclusion

I’m impressed with the Huawei Nova 5T’s camera performance. I took Nova 5T when I went to Ghandruk on my trip and I was really glad. With its versatility, I was able to capture different kinds of scenarios and especially the ultra wide angle camera was very helpful.

Overall, Nova 5T’s camera is very good. Not only photos but it cap capture good videos as well.