500 Photo Shootout Picks The Best Android Camera Phone

For a week, I toted the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Oppo Find X8 Ultra to jam-packed city squares, dark museums, and windy coastlines. I took 500 pictures of the same scenes and with the same settings, and then judged the outcome blindly. The result wasn’t close: the Oppo won 342 out of 500 frames, or 68.4 percent, and left Samsung with IMHO-worthy images only 158 times. Here’s how that margin came about — and why it matters if you’re interested in mobile photography.

How I Tested and Rated Two Flagship Android Cameras

Each shot was taken within seconds of the other. Neither photo was reviewed for composition until I had finished the comparison, and both used each phone’s built-in camera app, with auto HDR taking over in scenes that demanded it. I tracked wins by category (main, ultrawide, 3x, long zoom, low light, portraits) and scored exposure, dynamic range capture, white balance, depth, and detail retention, shooting in a variety of conditions, without focusing on the nuances of noise, autofocus hit rate, or subject isolation. Photos made up 70% of the score; for the remaining 30%, there were short 4K clips shot at both 30fps and 60fps, along with stabilization tests.

Hardware sets the stage. The Oppo combines four 50MP sensors — a main 1‑inch‑type, a 50MP 3x, a 50MP 6x periscope, and a 50MP ultrawide. Samsung retaliates with a 200MP main, 10MP (3x), 50MP (5x) periscope, and a 12MP ultrawide. On paper, Samsung relies on resolution; Oppo leans on bigger pixels and consistency. Independent labs such as DXOMARK have shown the advantages of larger sensors in their tests for dynamic range and noise, which were consistent with my field results.

Main and Ultrawide Results: Daylight Wins and Trade-offs

In good light at 1x, Oppo won 66% of frames. Its sensor was bigger than those of the competition, which meant cleaner shadows and better gradients of tone — in skies and foliage, for example. White balance veered toward the neutral to cool side in midday sun, and helped keep highlights from appearing chalky. Samsung provided crisp detail, but frequently clipped shadows and overexposed faces, a tendency I’ve seen reviewers note as well as in blind tests from creators like MKBHD.

Ultrawide was the tightest race. Samsung took 48 percent to Oppo’s 52 percent — essentially a tie. Samsung’s ultrawide kept straight lines a little better at the edges and in some instances produced richer blues. Oppo’s edge was micro-contrast in textures (cobblestones, brickwork) and less corner noise under overcast skies.

Zoom and Detail: Mid-telephoto to Long-range Performance

That is where the gulf opens up. At 3x, Oppo won in 70% of photos. Simply, there was more scene detail than with Samsung’s 10MP 3x — with fewer sharpening halos on signs and tree branches. Skin texture remains intact, without the waxy appearance that can crop up in gritty city light with dinky sensors.

Oppo’s 6x periscope, meanwhile, triumphed the most on longer focal-length crops, with victories in 81 percent of comparisons versus Samsung’s 5x. In twilight, Oppo retained textural detail on distant architecture but also kept noise under control. Samsung still grabbed plenty of info, though midtones would compress, making stone and wood look a bit flatter. Handheld 10–20x digital zoom was also a win for Oppo, with cleaner starting data from the 6x optical base.

Low Light and Night Mode: Exposure, Color, and Noise

In low-light restaurants and museum hallways, Oppo captured 78% of frames. It took shorter night-mode merges to produce clean exposures with the 1‑inch‑type sensor, and therefore there were fewer motion artifacts from people walking through the shot. Fiber lamp filaments, neon signs, and reflective surfaces maintained color with minimal deviation toward orange or green. Samsung’s night shots were usable and at times fairly dramatic, but noise in shadowed corners and an off-color cast under mixed light showed up more frequently.

One caveat: Oppo sometimes overprotects faces by brightening them too aggressively, and that can make things look a bit artificial in backlit scenes. Samsung, meanwhile, underexposed parts of the same subset of frames. In terms of 500 images total, Oppo was more consistent.

Portraits and Skin Tones: Separation, Color, and Bokeh

Oppo was victorious in 65% of the wins with its 1x, 2x, 3x, and long-lens portraits. The separation of subjects made more sense at 3x and 6x, too; there was less haloing around hair and a more convincing background-blur geometry. The Hasselblad Natural Color Solution leaned toward more true-to-life skin tones and subtle saturation; outdoor portraits had ambient color (cooler by the sea, warmer closer to sunset) that didn’t wipe out complexion accuracy.

Samsung did serve up pleasing color on clothes and much of the pseudo-sliced-and-diced aesthetic many people seem to like. But edge artifacts around shoulders and hats appeared more frequently, and the tonal mapping for faces would sometimes treat highlights too harshly in direct sunlight.

Video and Extras: Stabilization, Focus, and Pro Tools

Video was closer than stills. In 4K60, Samsung had more consistent walking shots and less focus pumping when switching from the foreground to the skyline. Oppo was a bit sharper at 6x video and also handled mixed light sources indoors better. For creators, there are similarly robust pro modes on both; Samsung’s Expert RAW workflow is still excellent for editing latitude, and Oppo’s Master and XPAN modes encourage fun framing. Oppo’s 6x tele-macro also snapped some magnificent detail shots of textures that Samsung’s native modes couldn’t match.

The Clear Winner: Oppo Find X8 Ultra vs Galaxy S25 Ultra

After bracketing 500 matched frames, the Oppo Find X8 Ultra is the better camera phone for still photos. It has better reliability due to sensor size, mid-tele to long-tele quality, night performance, and portrait realism. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is still among the best all-rounders out there, with much better stabilization and a flexible, familiar camera app, but it falls behind in these areas that matter most to dedicated shooters.

If I had to carry one in my travel bag, it’s the Oppo. The hit rate is what it is, and when I’m trying to grab fleeting moments I’d rather not have to go for a second take.