Do more pixels matter in smartphone photography? That’s what we wanted to find out when we pit two phones with 108-megapixel and 200-megapixel cameras to a simple test. Here’s what happened.

Photography has become an essential part of having a smartphone. It’s that moment when you can take photos of those precious moments and share them with your loved ones online or offline. 

Phone manufacturers, on the other hand, make tons of configurations in rear cameras and some opt to put more megapixels. We take a look at two of the biggest megapixels you can find in phones today, 200 and 108 megapixels.

For this story, we took two phones from the same brand: the HONOR 90 with a 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP3 sensor, which offers a Tetra pixel arrangement, 0.56 µm pixels, and a 1/1.4″ sensor size. It has a powerful QPD PDAF and has a f/1.9 aperture. We pit it against the more recent HONOR X9b with a 108-megapixel ISOCELL HM6 with 1.00 µm pixels, a 1/1.67″ sensor, and an f/1.75 aperture.

Accessing hi-resolution modes can be a chore. By default, you’re bound to shoot smaller photos that are sized below 8MB. We took the phones with a friend to the beach to test the maximum resolutions out, starting with accessing the hi-res mode on the “more” section of the camera and started taking photos of the same scenarios with both phones at the same time.

Take this photo of the beachfront:

And then this cactus plant:

Then this home property overlooking some grass:

And lastly, this beautiful foliage:

At first glance, these photos do not have much difference, save for saturation which could be the configuration of the smartphone camera sensor, along with different optimization processes and camera algorithms from both phones.

 

The difference, though, is when you look closely:

 

The 200-megapixel photo from the HONOR 90 (left) has more details compared to the 108-megapixel camera from the HONOR X9b (right) when zoomed in. The increase in detail brings in more accurate colors with the HONOR 90. The bigger pixels also mean less noise and better contrast, as the images appear more natural when seen up close.

Do you really need the higher megapixels? Yes, if you care about more details and the fact that you will publish something in large format. Otherwise, 108-megapixel cameras can do just fine if you’re just posting for social media, Facebook will harshly optimize the photo and lose many details anyway, if you know what we mean.

It’s exciting to see the possibilities that lie ahead with smartphone photography, knowing that manufacturers are keeping abreast of new technologies and implementing them with their new releases. Gone were the days when we had to put up with measly 16-megapixel shooters, it’s now time for memories to be seen with better detail.