Gadgetory

HTC is making a lot of noise about the special depth sensor mounted above the camera on its new one m8 the company highlighting some of the artsy effects possible thanks to this unique setup but critics say similar effects can be achieved with far less specialized Hardware today we'll take a quick look at how the One m8 camera stacks up against one of those competitors I'm Michael Fisher you're watching pocket now and this is HTC duo camera versus Nokia refocus for the sample photos used in this comparison we used a Nokia Lumia 925 alongside our HTC One m8 test unit our full review of the One m8 includes many more camera samples and it's available at the first link in the description below each of these devices allows for variable focus the ability to refocus photos after they're taken but they use fundamentally different approaches to achieve that whereas the One m8 employs a dedicated secondary sensor to calculate the relative distance of subjects within an image the Lumia 925 cheats in a manner of speaking as do all Nokia phones with the refocus app by quickly snapping multiple photos at different focal points that means the HTC device is always capturing depth information when shooting you can go back and refocus or you focus as HTC calls it almost any photo you've ever taken with this device as long as you took it in standard mode without the flash by contrast if you want to refocus a photo on the Nokia you need to decide that before you take the shot because you need to use the refocus app to capture it in the first place the second major difference is in the type of photos you're capturing while Nokia refocus works best when you're extremely close to your subject HTC's camera can't work if it's too close so these features aren't necessarily as analogous as a first glance might suggest nevertheless they are similar enough to compare in general terms so here's how they stack up if you're looking for features above all else the duo camera on the m8 is the way to go not only can you enhance your subject with the faux bouquet effect you can add layers of all kinds to add fun to the photo there are animated elements and even a very Spacey 3d type effect that's a fun party trick if nothing else plus you don't have to hold as still when you're shooting as the camera isn't taking multiple exposures and in fact that second sensor helps the camera focus faster but the experience is far from perfect you have to get used to the sensors position so you don't accidentally obscure it with a finger and it doesn't work with any fancy filters like HDR also the software isn't great at determining where to draw the line on the focus regions almost every photo with the you focus effect has a visible delineation even the ones HTC showed off at the m8 launch event this is one of the problems we hope gets fixed with software updates but for now it's certainly not as consistent as we'd like it to be over in Nokia world it's the opposite situation there are very few features to speak of outside the core refocusing element there is a fun color pop option though and of course you can always edit photos in a separate app once you export them that said the refocusing component works very well as long as you're not shooting a moving object it's not as extreme and effect as on the m8 but it also results in a much smoother focus plane with none of the weird distortion of the HTC device and there's even the option here for an all in focus mode creating the effect of a very large depth of field finally Nokia offers a collaborative upload function that lets you post the images online so people you share the photos with can tweak focus as well we want to reiterate that despite their surface similarity these competing features are really made for different purposes that said we think the elegant simplicity of Nokia's more elementary approach is overall better the lack of any special Hardware hasn't hurt the Windows Phone offering in fact its results are often superior meanwhile the One m8 has a big additional camera sensor and not much in the way of quality to show for it at least not yet if you don't care about decision and you just want a big feature load or you're playing the long game and betting third-party developers will come up with some fun ways to take advantage of the duo camera the m8 may suit you just fine but on the whole we think nokia has done more with less in this instance once again folks are full HTC One m8 review is available at pocketnow.com and the first link in the description below and also here on youtube thanks for watching and we'll see you next time