HMD claimed today that the new Nokia Camera app shipped with Pie update on Nokia 6.1 Plus brings imaging quality improvements. What better way to test it than comparing it to the latest Google Camera app?

Our comparison with the previous version of Nokia Camera app on 7.1 Plus and 6.1 Plus to the same Google Camera app had shown big difference in imaging quality. So, how does the new Nokia Camera app fare in the comparison.

Daylight 100% crop comparison:

Nokia Camera app crop is on the top followed by the Google Camera app crop. It is a big improvement in imaging quality with Nokia Camera app capturing almost similar amount of details as the Google camera app. Perhaps one more round of fine-tuning will make it as good or even slightly better than the Google Camera.

Nokia Camera Full-Size image:

Google Camera Full-size image:

More samples: You can check more daylight samples captured with Nokia Camera by clicking here and with Google Camera by clicking here.

Low-light comparison:

Coming to the low-light capture, here are how the full-size without flash images (almost dark) from both Google and Nokia Camera app compare.

Nokia Camera Full-size image:

Google Camera Full-size image:

Nokia Camera Full-size image 1:

Google Camera Full-size image 1:

Again while we can see a big improvement there is still slight difference between Nokia Camera and Google Camera captures. As we said one more round of fine-tuning may make Nokia Camera app worthy of a “PureView” hardware. Though those updating from Oreo will really find the new Nokia Camera app much improved in terms of imaging quality.

The difference:

Daylight: Google Camera uses the least amount of artificial sharpening or noise reduction and keeps details intact. Nokia Camera has started doing the same but we can still see some sharpening or noise reduction that results in sacrifice of details. But the difference now is almost negligible unless you go to 100% zoom level or higher.

Low-light: Google Camera captures images at slightly higher ISO levels as compared to Nokia Camera in without flash conditions. This results in slightly more illuminated image, though with this version of Nokia camera gap has significantly reduced. As we said slight tweaking of ISO levels along with reduced noise reduction may be sufficient to outdo Google Camera.