I don't know why i did this, but i was curious about how the best Android device on the planet will perform against the king of camera phones on the planet, namely (respectively), the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the one year old Nokia N8 !

Note : As usual i kept all settings on their default state, just pick the phone, point, shoot and upload !

So, enjoy the show ! Samsung Galaxy S2 followed by the Nokia N8

Exposition time : 1/867sec, ISO : 40

Exposition time : 1/206sec, ISO : 105

Well, i didn't know the sky was white, thanks Samsung for teaching me that ! Seriously, the Samsung has some issues to manage the exposition of the background, plus the color are more vivid but not necessarily naturals, this is the job of the N8, especially if we look at the right side on the palm tree, plus with the N8, there is no huge issue to tell that the background (sky) is actually blue ^^ however i must say that the results of the GS2 are more sharp (but don't be easily fooled as you'll see later on this test)

Exposition time : 1/699sec, ISO : 40

Exposition time : 1/127sec, ISO : 100

The same conclusion as above and i must say that this is the situation when all cameras fails and shows how good the exposition is tweaked for complex situations like this ^^

Exposition time : 1/113sec, ISO : 64

Exposition time : 1/100sec, ISO : 113

Now, you may say that results are the same between the two examples, i'll say yes and no, despite natural rendering on the N8, it manages brilliantly the low light condition seen on the left side of the picture, thanks to its large sensor, on the other side, the GS2 did a good job too ^^

But what if we crop the picture at 1:1 (100%)? Ha !!

Have i really to comment on that one? ;)

Exposition time : 1/100sec, ISO : 80

Exposition time : 1/149sec, ISO : 105

Not only great exposition of the foreground and the background, but also a great depth of field ! Of course i'm talking about the N8 !

Exposition time : 1/33sec, ISO : 100

Exposition time : 1/50sec, ISO : 120

What's really happened on that one? Ask Samsung engineers !

And what about flash on short distances?

Exposition time : 1/20sec, ISO : 125

Exposition time : 1/50sec, ISO : 200

The same results ! Samsung love to overexpose the rendering !

For distances further than 3-4 meters i'll let the Nokia N73 from 2006 handle that, better for everyone, right? ;)

Note : portrait pictures are disastrous, it loves make people faces reddish for some reasons... !

Bonus :

I have deliberatly set up the GS2 quality to "excellent/sharp" and let the N8 on medium sharpness settings,





also i've enabled "auto contrast" setting on the GS2 but all normal on the N8, let's see results :





Well, no success either, those are just artificial settings...

Ah i almost forget about close-up scenes :







With flash !









With maximum zoom we have something like this :






Yep, the N8 isn't really a great performer by default (im talking about shoot distance here) unless you use the intelligent zoom

But as you see, even if the GS2 results are more or less (artificially) sharp, but the N8 provide a great DoF and when flash is activated it manages the light brilliantly !

Last but not least, on maximum zoom on close up mode, the picture rendered by the N8 is still very exploitable when the result of the GS2 is just a kids toy...

So, all in all, the N8 does it all and does it amazingly, if we play with settings, you'll swear that's not coming from a "phone" !

Conclusion : I respect Samsung very much for their PIXON 12, and the OMNIA HD (i had both) but i can't say the same about this GS2, even (the much debated EDoF) model from Nokia can blow it and every mobile (All android models, All WP models at least) out of the water easily, you can see yourself how C7 and X7 perform against the N8 ;)