Phone camera shootout: Honor Magic7 Pro vs. OPPO Find X8 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

High-quality photography is one of the biggest selling points of premium-grade phones. That's why their makers would go to great lengths to squeeze big sensors and sign big brand partnerships for an optical edge. Having a pocket-friendly shooter is a convenience most people cannot live without.

We had a blast doing our 2024 shootout and decided to shake things up for 2025.

As always, the best cameras are found in the top-of-the-line flagship smartphones. Therefore, we will only consider flagship devices for this series of phone camera shootouts. 

Choosing our contenders

Waiting for all the flagship phones to be released at the end of a year is a nice way to get a bird's-eye view of what's available and suitable. However, waiting has its flaws.

Phones do not have a fixed release cycle, and it can be challenging to stare at 10 identical-looking shots from 10 devices simultaneously (for you and me). While it helps ensure fairness and proper comparisons, it's not practical from a buyer's perspective.

A later comparison is also not helpful to users who want to buy a phone while it's hot and still in stock. For phones released early in the year, a late comparison would result in users waiting for the next release around the corner anyway.

We have a new approach to our camera shootouts to solve all of that.

We'll identify strong nominees from the start of the year and only let one winner of each mini-shootout move on to the next. Each time we get enough new flagship phones to try, we'll make another comparison against the previous victor. This continues until the year ends with only one phone standing, either by beating out new entrants consistently or overthrowing a previous winner.

Logically, a phone that loses early on wouldn't suddenly be able to win later. Similarly, it lets us determine which phone(s) can compete at the top. If a smartphone manages to hang on for a few mini-shootouts only to lose later in the year, we'd know it's also a strong alternative, even if it did not win.

The shootouts reset with each new cycle of phone launches, typically bookended by a calendar year.

Of course, such comparisons have limitations, and we've addressed two major ones below.

If a phone decides to release a game-changing update or fix later, it won't be captured at the launch's comparison. Unfortunately, we think the onus is on phone makers to launch products with as few defects as possible, and it's generally unwise to make purchases based on promises.

Another limitation is the early elimination of a strong phone simply because it was against a much better winner. To address that, we have complementary, ongoing, separately written phone reviews that assess phone cameras independently without comparisons to others. So, if the phone has good cameras or interesting quirks, it will still be accorded its dues in its standalone reviews.

Kicking off 2025 with three mobile titans

Starting our 2025 comparisons are three premium-grade flagship smartphones available in Singapore: the Honor Magic7 Pro, OPPO Find X8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

There is usually a fast volley of launches at the start of the year, so we're aware that there's still a Xiaomi 15 Ultra waiting to challenge the winner of this shootout.

We only choose flagship-tier devices to avoid any shooting limitations that might arise from not having top-tier processors. In 2025, examples of these processors include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite and MediaTek Dimensity 9400, which are present in all three of our contenders.

Scoring the phone camera

Our general rule of thumb is to recreate the average user's experience as much as possible. We want the shootout to reflect the ad-hoc shooting experience while out and about.

This means we do not involve additional hardware or software that requires extra undertaking to procure (ie. paid apps, gimbals, optional downloads, etc.).

We assess the phone's competency based on outcomes. That means the phone should be able to achieve a nice shot in the most common shooting scenarios we've outlined below. 

• We start with the main camera shot, which is the mainstay of any smartphone camera system. It’s the lens most people use when they pull out a phone and snap a photo without making any other changes. Phone makers know this, too, so this camera has the most optimisations and hardware perks. We will judge its overall imaging performance based on classic photography fundamentals: sharpness, colour rendition, detail, noise, contrast handling, etc.
  
    
• We will also compare shots taken with ultrawide and telephoto lenses, low-light (or night) shots and front camera shots for the secondary cameras. To represent them, we have ultrawide, 10x zoom, low-light, and selfie comparisons.
  
   
• We only use the native camera app with auto high dynamic range (HDR) turned on for consistency and to mimic the average user's shooting habits.
  
    
• Photos are taken in a 4:3 aspect ratio in JPEG file format. To check for accuracy, we turned off beautification features and other enhancements for selfies, where possible.
  
    
• The images were taken handheld to mimic everyday users' behaviour, as most users don’t usually have access to tripods.
  
    
• All the photos for each category are taken in the same position and in quick succession with each smartphone to ensure the conditions are kept as similar as possible. The images are then judged on the same colour-calibrated monitor for fairness.

We judged photos based only on their results, considering each phone’s software-related tuning, such as noise reduction and distortion correction. This means this comparison does not consider quality-of-life tweaks, like shooting speed, user-friendliness of menus, or other non-result factors.

Scoring system update

Based on feedback and further assessment, we're changing the scoring system used in our 2022 and 2024 comparisons. We're giving extra weightage to the main camera and low-light performance, seeing how these are some of the most essential camera functions, no matter the phone's grade. We've also decided to make the scoring more granular instead of a binary all-or-nothing system, which better reflects the competency of each result.

In a nutshell:

• Each tested category is worth a maximum of 5 points.
• The only exceptions are the main camera and low-light testing, which can earn up to 10 points.
• Points are awarded based on the final image output of the test type. 

Like before, this is strictly a phone camera comparison. These scores do not reflect the phone's overall quality or perceived value. 

Let’s get to the actual results on the following pages.

Main camera performance

We will judge the main camera's performance based on each phone's colour accuracy, sharpness, noise handling, detail retention, dynamic range, and exposure handling. We also account for built-in software optimisations, including any irregularities or artefacts.

Since the winner will be tested again against new entrants at a later date, we opted to take a control shot for the main camera. That would be the indoor shot of unchanging trinkets and accessories with different textures and colours for maximum imaging challenge. This gives us a consistent image to compare across the shootouts.

As for the primary camera test, we have an indoor shot of a restaurant’s colourful interior with different textures (glass, artificial foliage, fabric, wood). This shot will also test the phone’s detail retention abilities, particularly with the intricate design of the skulls mounted on the wall.

For an added challenge, the bright afternoon sun is illuminating the area outside of the restaurant, so we can see how well the phone’s algorithms and exposure handling can deal with vastly different exposures in the same image.

Honor Magic7 Pro

The Magic7 Pro does an outstanding job of balancing the exposure between the restaurant's darker interior and the bright, sun-lit areas outside. The detail retention of the outside lanterns and decor is the best across these three phones, with accurate colours and no overexposed areas.

On the inside of the restaurant, the starburst flares from the three light sources on the ceiling immediately catch one’s eye. They’re a little distracting, but somehow, they add to the photo nicely. Purists might not like this enhancement.

The exposure is generally good, although the LED strip along the top edge above the wall-mounted skull display and the backlight take on a pronounced blue hue instead of the purple hue it’s supposed to have. For a more accurate representation of how the purple backlight should look, scroll down to see the OPPO Find X8 Pro’s image.

The white balance is also slightly off, with a tiny warm tint to the serviettes on the tables.

Upon zooming in, the Magic7 Pro does an excellent job of keeping the skulls closest to the camera in focus. Its very low aperture of f/1.4 contributes to the bokeh past the focal point.

It also resulted in the artificial foliage hanging from the ceiling in the background being blurry and out of focus. 

As for the control shot, the Magic7 Pro does a pretty good job at keeping most of the items relatively in focus. However, the overall image is a touch soft, particularly if you zoom into the Tanqueray bottle's label or the embossed Bvlgari logo on the interior of the ring box to the left. The bottom edge of the Magic: The Gathering card in the middle also isn’t rendered too cleanly.

The white balance is relatively accurate, although there’s a slight boost in saturation, rendering the wood tabletop a deeper shade of brown than it is. 

OPPO Find X8 Pro

The Find X8 Pro blew us out of the water with this image. It faithfully reproduces the purple hue of the light, which neither of the other contenders did, and it kept the image sharp across the board.

Whether you zoom into the skulls, the artificial foliage, the ceiling mural, or the details of the outdoor decor, there’s enough detail to make out the patterns of each object.

The white balance is also handled perfectly, with crisp white serviettes on the tables and accurate whites on the mural on the ceiling.

The one flaw in this image is the slightly overexposed outdoor area, which washes out some of the background's colour. There are also some blown-out spots in the background, such as the wall lantern and the top of the stained glass lampshades.

However, since this photo focuses more on the interior, the Find X8 Pro handles everything beautifully. 

The control image results were a bit surprising. You’ll immediately notice the sharpness falloff when moving away from the centre, with the buttons on the left Switch Joy-Con blurry. You also cannot distinguish the coins' denominations in the bottom right corner.

Given the excellent minimum focusing distance, this meant that the nearer objects are (correctly) out of focus.

Putting that aside, the image is decent. While some parts are a bit soft, others beat the other contenders. Zooming into the Bvlgari logo on the ring box again, it’s more legible than the Magic7 Pro or the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s images.

However, this image lacks a little contrast, which will become even more evident when compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s control image.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

The colours pop more noticeably with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, as evidenced by the more vibrant colours on the chandelier to the left of the image. The image is also the widest of the three, with a fellow diner captured at the corner.

Exposure is handled well, with the colours of the outdoor area still visible. However, that area has a noticeable loss of detail, and the artificial foliage is also a bit blurry. The design of the skulls further from the camera also starts to blur together into blobs of colour rather than retaining details such as individual petals.

Colour balance isn’t 100% accurate either, with the light turning blue and the white parts of the ceiling mural having a greyish tint. Again, it's the OPPO Find X8 Pro that had the most accurate portrayal.

The control image taken with the Galaxy S25 Ultra might be the sharpest. The contrast has been boosted slightly, so we get deeper blacks and more defined details, which can be seen when zooming into the label on the Tanqueray bottle and the Magic: The Gathering card in the middle.

However, the colours are a little off, particularly when looking at the Magic: The Gathering card, which has a bit too much of a blue hue at the top left. The fur of the Labubu doll atop the stack of books is also slightly darker than in real life.

There’s also quite a bit of noise in the shadows, particularly if you zoom into the wooden trim on the far left of the image. 

Points awarded for Main Camera performance

To be clear, all three images are excellent. It's easy to be very happy with any of the results. They're all ready for social media use without editing.

Using our new scoring method with a maximum of 10 points for main camera performance, we'd award the following scores based on camera fundamentals: colourisation, sharpness, detail, alongside handling of noise and exposure. We end up with:

• Honor Magic7 Pro: 7 points
• OPPO Find X8 Pro: 9 points
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: 8 points

10x zoom comparison

High zoom ranges are situational but no less important. They're usually called upon when users cannot get closer to their subject or scene. Concert-goers, shooting from vistas, or photography across impassable terrain (manmade and natural) are all common scenarios where you'd wish your telephoto camera was just as good as your main camera.

We’ve opted for the 10x zoom option to zoom into the tower spire of a Thai temple, also known as a prang. Although it’s not a particularly complicated photo with plenty of elements, we can observe the camera's competency by checking for colours, sharpness, and detail retention.

It's uncommon to see phones with default 10x optical zoom; the same goes for our three contenders here. More often than not, phone cameras have to find the balance between software and hardware to get the optimal shot.

Honor Magic7 Pro

The Magic7 Pro takes an odd approach to colourisation. While the prang itself has accurate colours, the phone compensates to bring out the blue accents, which resulted in an unrealistic-looking sky.

Additionally, the photo itself isn’t very sharp. The Magic7 Pro’s telephoto lens, which only has a 3x optical zoom, has to compensate for details with digital enhancements.

Despite that, the phone can still capture smaller details, such as the wear and tear on the brown tiles. With a bit of post-editing to increase the contrast and sharpness, this could be a relatively usable photo. 

OPPO Find X8 Pro

Imaging data tells us that the OPPO Find X8 Pro took this photo using its 6x optical zoom lens (f/4.3 aperture).

The Find X8 Pro takes its contrast to a whole new level. The photo is incredibly saturated with exaggerated contrast. The sky also took on even deeper blues (in bright daylight), and the tower took on a dark jade-like hue to the tower’s green panels. The weathering on the top of the spire is also very dark, detracting from the gold's glint.

Since it uses the 6x optical zoom camera, we get a sharper and more detailed image than the Magic7 Pro. However, the over-processed details make them look muddier when zooming in to view them.

If you’re looking for a striking, dramatic photo, this is probably the best out of the lot. But since we’re looking for an accurate portrayal of what we saw, the excessive saturation and contrast did not do the Find X8 Pro any favours in scoring points for telephoto.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Imaging data tells us the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra took this photo with its 5x optical zoom lens (f/3.4 aperture).

Although the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s image might look a little washed out after seeing what the Find X8 Pro offers, it's more accurate.

Samsung's shooter also has a 50MP telephoto lens that can achieve up to 5x optical zoom. As a result, this photo has decent sharpness and detail.

More importantly, the colour balance is correct and accurate, with a realistic sky and no saturated colours. When zooming in, the details and lines on the flower carvings and tiles are also sharper and more distinct. 

Points awarded for 10x Zoom performance

This shot showcased how important it is to integrate a phone’s hardware and software to get the best result and meet users' actual, real-world demands in realistic situations.

Out of a possible 5 points for this category, we scored based on how each phone rendered our 10x requirements. Clarity and sharpness were critical to assessing the camera's ability, while the basics, like accurate colour dynamics with minimal digital artefacts, helped ascertain the great from the good.

Therefore, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is at the top of this category. 

• Honor Magic7 Pro: 2 points
• OPPO Find X8 Pro: 3 points
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: 4 points

Ultrawide comparison

We usually take ultrawide shots to showcase as much of the subject as possible, such as expansive scenery or conveying an event or venue's overall mood and ambience. 

For this category, we took two sample shots. The first was taken on an overcast day along the back streets of Singapore, featuring a colourful wall mural. We’ll look at which phone captures more of the scene while offering a more accurate colour representation and minimal fisheye distortion.

The second is a shot of Selegie House, an HDB block with a unique tessellation pattern that you might have seen on social media. This shot will be an excellent test for fisheye distortion since the straight lines will immediately be obvious if warped. 

Honor Magic7 Pro

The Honor Magic7 Pro has a vast field of view, allowing more of the mural to be captured. This is a big plus point for the Magic7 Pro, since the whole point of an ultrawide lens is to capture more than the standard camera can. 

The colours are also quite vibrant and relatively accurate, considering how dull it was that day, thanks to the overcast skies. The photo also loses sharpness around the edges, as evidenced by the text on the signboard on the far right being pretty much illegible. 

There’s also a bit of noise in the shadowy areas, which can be seen in the dark window and in the areas under the roof. 

The second shot shows a noticeable amount of distortion that curves towards the user at the sides, which is easily seen thanks to all the lines in the photo. That would be the trade-off to having a genuinely ultrawide field of view. At least we know Magic7 Pro has a real ultrawide camera.

OPPO Find X8 Pro

The Find X8 Pro brightened up the colours slightly, which helped to make it look more alive. That and the white balance are still accurate. Imperfections are only visible upon close-up, such as the chromatic aberration on the metal pole in the fence (far left). 

The field of view is the narrowest amongst all three contenders, but OPPO has done quite well in retaining a decent amount of detail, especially with the text on the signboard on the far right still being somewhat readable. The image is sharp even to the corners, which is impressive. A narrower ultrawide also makes fisheye distortion easier to control.

The Find X8 Pro has plenty of software processing going for it, and it’s evident in this image since the noise in darker areas has been thoroughly scrubbed.

Looking at the photo of Selegie House, we can see that it’s a tighter image compared to the Magic7 Pro. While there’s still a bit of distortion towards the edges, the overall photo by Find X8 Pro is better with details (more streaks of grime captured, better leaf representation). With some post-processing, there’s essentially no issue at all. 

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s ultrawide camera does provide a relatively wide field of view, and the phone has the brightest exposure out of the three. The brighter image did not come at a cost of colourisation, as you can see from its vibrancy. The phone managed to capture the subtle details of the cloudy sky, which is enhanced by the increased contrast from the processing.

However, you will notice noise when zooming in, and there’s an evident sharpness falloff at the image's corners. 

Moving onto the photo of Selegie House, it’s also quite broad, but it's also the least distorted ultrawide among these three.It also has the details well captured, from fabrics to grime to greenery. This speaks to Samsung's effectiveness at programming and enhancing its ultrawide captures.

Points awarded for Ultrawide camera performance

The contenders here all performed exceptionally well. Naturally, different ultrawide lenses offer different widths and distortion correction, which is only visible when you compare side-to-side, like we did.

Since all the ultrawide options here are sufficiently, well, wide, the tiebreakers would be minimal distortion, great clarity, and accurate colourisation.

Using the points system with Ultrawide getting a maximum of 5 points, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which edged out the OPPO Find X8 Pro by the narrowest of margins thanks to its slightly wider field of view, lower distortion, and mildly better details. They are both getting the same number of points, with the Magic7 Pro not too far behind.

• Honor Magic7 Pro: 3 points
• OPPO Find X8 Pro: 4 points
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: 4 points

Low-light comparison

Night shots are naturally tough for tiny mobile camera sensors that can barely receive the light they need to excel. However, many modern advancements have since improved light-to-data conversion and gauging distances, on top of top-notch software and correction to both compensate and enhance hard-to-see details.

For this low-light test, we took a handheld portrait (vertical) shot from a hotel room of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

There are plenty of light sources present to pose a challenge, and we’ll be able to check for lens flares, noise artefacts (or overly aggressive de-noising) and any potential overexposure issues.

Honor Magic7 Pro

The Magic7 Pro ensures no glaringly obvious overexposed areas in the image, even with so many light sources (the lights beaming out of the two towers' spires are intentional). The phone also manages to retain the lines on the exterior of the dark building to the right, which is impressive.

However, there’s excessive noise in the shadows to the left of the photo and a few noticeable lens flare spots above the tower. Detail retention is barely passable; the Maxis logo on the tower behind is quite smudged, but at least the large digital clock is still legible. 

The colour balance isn’t quite right either, with the Petronas Twin Towers having a blueish hue instead of real-life brilliant white lights. You’ll also notice lighting halos around the top of the tower spires, which aren’t handled as well as the other contenders below.

OPPO Find X8 Pro

The Find X8 Pro has probably the best detail retention and separation out of the lot, with the digital clock and the Maxis logo being apparent and distinct even when not zoomed in. The overall exposure of the photo is good, and the white balance is correct, with the towers illuminated with bright white light. 

There is a bit of halation around the top of the towers, but it’s kept to a reasonable minimum given its overwhelming aura. Some patchy white halos surrounding the towers, however, are the main letdown. Fortunately, lens flare is also minimised, with only two noticeable spots. 

Additionally, the lines on the facade of the building to the right are visible. There is also some noise in the dark areas of the photo, however, which is surprising given how well the phone generally scrubs out noise in its photos. One should never underestimate how low-light truly brings out a camera's abilities.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s image is also nicely exposed, as expected. However, you’ll immediately notice the significant purple lens flare/reflection at the bottom of the image, which is surprising. The Petronas Twin Towers look the nicest in this image, thanks to the brilliance of the white lights, the slightly boosted contrast, and their excellent handling of light beams (most evident with the crossed beams in the middle of the two towers).

Halation and artefacts around the towers are arguably worse than what's portrayed in the Find X8 Pro because the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra's version makes it look more like milk and cream. That makes Find X8 Pro's circular spots of white feel less disappointing, even if they both aren't up to our preferred standards.

The disappointing part of this image is the lack of detail retention. Even though the towers are nicely captured, the Maxis logo and digital clock are smudged and blurry. Additionally, the vertical lines on the building to the right of the photo are mostly removed. There’s also quite a bit of noise in the night sky and some black artefacts in the top right. 

Points awarded for Low-light performance

Low-light photography is one of the more demanding shootout categories. It requires high-quality hardware components and matching software optimisations to make the camera's initial shot usable for the general public. It's obvious when either (or both) are lacking.

The three phones here produced images that were quite similar to each other without added stylisation. Our decision had to rely on fundamentals like the flattening of shadows/highlights, how they handle details, and the overall accuracy of the scene in person relative to artefacts that appear.

As such, the OPPO Find X8 Pro got the most points in this 10-point category. It barely surpassed the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with slightly better control over halation, better detail retention in small things, and fewer weird artefacts. That said, out of 10 points, none of these phones are at our desired mastery over low-light, and it will be that way for a long time.

• Honor Magic7 Pro: 4 points
• Oppo Find X8 Pro: 6 points
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: 5 points

Selfie comparison

Whether you’re an avid selfie taker or someone who only takes a selfie a few times a year for holidays, people photography remains an essential aspect of assessing a phone's front camera.

We opted for a shot in the same alley where we did the ultrawide camera test. The lighting was relatively flat since it was an overcast, cloudy day, and we could test whether the selfie camera can get skin tones right while dealing with multiple bright colours in the background.

We will judge based on the true-to-life reproduction of selfies, exposure accuracy, details, skin tones, and depth of field of the image.

We turned off all beautification features and took the photos in normal Photo mode instead of Portrait to see if the camera could adequately capture what’s around the human subject.

Honor Magic7 Pro

The Magic7 Pro’s selfie camera has a vast field of view, allowing for more of the surroundings to be captured. This can be great if you want to show off scenery behind you or squeeze more people in for a group selfie. 

The processing and look of this image are noticeably different from the high-contrast, saturated look we got from the Magic6 Pro last year. It’s a lot more natural and less vibrant.

The background isn’t quite as sharp, but at least there’s no unwanted portrait blur, and the words on the signboards behind are still clearly legible. Although the phone's beautification features were turned off, it helped reduce blemishes slightly while lightening the subject's skin tone. 

OPPO Find X8 Pro

The selfie photo out of the Find X8 Pro is also quite wide, but a noticeable blur on the image's background makes the overall picture look softer. If you zoom in on the stop sign or the signboards near the back, you’ll notice the words are slightly out of focus. This isn't bad if you primarily focus on yourself in a selfie. However, we took the test image in standard photo mode to keep the background focused.

Even with beautification turned off, the phone still reduced blemishes and redness. The subject’s skin tone is slightly lighter than the Magic7 Pro’s.

Aside from that, the mural's colours are pretty accurate, although not quite as vibrant. 

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

The Galaxy S25 Ultra has the narrowest field of view for the front-facing selfie camera, and you can immediately see that the frame is tighter than the other two contenders. However, Samsung has done a lot of things right.

The picture is pin-sharp, from the subject in the foreground to the subtle details and the words on the signboards in the background. We didn’t want any blurry portraits, and Samsung abided by our wishes.

The mural's colours are also noticeably more vibrant and contrasty, allowing the background to pop.

Lastly, Samsung didn’t interfere too much with beautification, meaning the subject’s skin tone is the most accurate here, and the blemishes and redness are the least adjusted. This might not be to everybody’s liking, but at least we know we’re getting an accurate photo. 

Points awarded for Selfie performance

As with many other things in life, selfies are a matter of personal preference. Some people might want maximum beautification, while others want the photo to look as realistic as possible. Background blur is another software-enabled feature that might be nice for some but not for others. All three contenders in this mini-shootout were really great options, and we're happy with how the photos turned out.

For this test, the cameras can earn a maximum of 5 points. We focused on the quality of the hardware and software tuning to obtain the most natural and accurate image possible. 

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra delivered in spades, but the other two contenders offered excellent options because their differences were also a matter of taste. You won’t be disappointed with any of them.

• Honor Magic7 Pro: 3 points
• OPPO Find X8 Pro: 3 points
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: 4 points

And our winner is...

As expected of flagship smartphones, all three devices are excellent choices for everyday use and shooting.

The winner in this shootout just happened to accumulate the most points through our extensive tests. Points were earned either because the winner edged out the competition or was the most competent choice for a specific type of shooting. Note that this just means the winner makes it into the next mini-shootout, and we'll only have a sure winner at the end of 2025's launches.

We have narrowed down the overall winner that has accumulated the most points in this shootout.

To reiterate, this is how we score now:

• Each tested category is worth a maximum of 5 points.
• The only exceptions are the main camera and low-light testing, which can earn up to 10 points.
• Points are awarded based on the final image output of the test type. 

It was a very tough decision that eventually resulted in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and OPPO Find X8 Pro both coming out on top. Both phones will make it into the next shootout, where they will be tested more to determine a tiebreaker.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra had more areas of competency and scored equally with the OPPO Find X8 Pro. Samsung's first attempt has a better overall mastery of its cameras, even if its main camera performance doesn't quite match the Find X8 Pro's.

For any smartphone photography enthusiast, the Find X8 Pro offers vibrant and accurate colours with plenty of detail retention. It is an excellent choice that is likely to surpass other 2025 flagship options that will come later this year. As it goes against Samsung in the subsequent shootout, we're hoping its secondary shooting functions will result in a clearer tiebreaker with future rounds of testing.

The Honor Magic7 Pro still managed to net many points that spoke to its high-quality photography. It needs more experience in managing colours accurately and working harder on sharpness and detail retention in less apparent areas. 

If you’re interested in a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (S$1,828 for 256GB), it’s available through local telcos, the Samsung Online Store, Samsung Experience Stores (physical outlet), Lazada and Shopee, and selected consumer electronics and IT stores.

The OPPO Find X8 Pro (16GB RAM, 512GB storage) retails for S$1,649 in Pearl White and Space Black. It is available at iShopChangi, KrisShop, Lazada, Shopee, TikTok Shop, Zalora, and major consumer electronics stores.

Choosing phone cameras that work best for you

Despite our comparison results, good technical imaging doesn't necessarily mean it's best for a specific person. The same camera can produce very different results based on what the photographer values.

That's even before you factor in the rest of the Android phone, where details like security updates, smart device compatibility, or even design might affect your final choice.

A phone's photography capability is only one part of its value. We hope our feature article has helped you better understand how these flagship phones perform in different situations and informed your upcoming 2025 or future purchasing preferences.

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