Photo Shootout: Huawei P60 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
Huawei is undoubtedly doing a fantastic job in innovating the photography capabilities of its devices. With their latest smartphone, the Huawei P60 Pro, they used all their big guns to make a phone that can put other flagship smartphones like the iPhone 14 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to shame.
In this article, we put the Huawei P60 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max to the test, and show you the output. While this is not our definitive review of the devices’ cameras, we hope that this will help you define and hopefully appreciate the devices’ raw and computational photography features. We understand that beauty is relative, and we’ll leave the final verdict to you. What we can initially offer are portions of our observations and impressions that can hopefully shed some light on your decision on which one is better overall.
Note: while we review products, we are not trained imaging and photography professionals. We, however, can appreciate a smartphone and its camera technologies bring every shot closer to how it originally ooked.
Camera Specs: Huawei P60 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
| Huawei P60 Pro | Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max | |
| Front Camera | 48 MP, f/1.4-f/4.0, 25mm (wide), PDAF, Laser AF, OIS | 48 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS |
| 48 MP, f/2.1, 90mm (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 3.5x optical zoom | 12 MP, f/2.8, 77mm (telephoto), 1/3.5″, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom | |
| 113 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide) | 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120Ëš (ultrawide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF | |
| TOF 3D LiDAR scanner (depth) | ||
| Rear Camera | 13 MP, f/2.4, (ultrawide) | 12 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/3.6″, PDAF |
Photo Shootout
White Balance
White balance is an important aspect to consider in how good a camera smartphone is. I want a photo that I can instantly post on social media without adjusting color temperature and tint. Check the photos below and see which has a better presentation of white balance.
Dynamic Range
Camera smartphones need to be able to identify, process, and present the brightest and dimmest part of the scene. Right exposure and not dilluting the quality of the photo subject are keys to achieving good output in this category.
Tone and Presence
The camera phone’s sensor and proper AI enhancement are vital points in achieving good photos. It needs to be able to show acceptable levels of exposure, contrast, highlights, and shadows. It also needs to present desirable levels of black and white, and produce an output that requires little to zero post-processing.
Look at levels of texture, clarity, vibrance, and saturation. Computation photography on smartphones sometimes miss the correct mix of these settings that’s why – for instance – some photos appear too saturated or texture-less.
Our initial impression
There are multiple times, by our standards, that the Huawei P60 Pro is a better choice when it comes to mobile photography. It definitely performs better in low light and provides very good levels of tone and presence settings. However, it performs somewhat inconsitently, based on our initial experience. Shots are sometimes noisy and sometimes show poorly managed color temperature. Again, it doesn’t happen all the time, but definitely “fixable” via software update that can be pushed via OTA or by simply plopping your photos to image post-processing softwares like Adobe Lightroom or via in-app editing.
The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max, on the other hand, shows consistent performance allthrough out albeit inferior in terms of overall camera features and performance. It excels in portrait photography too, and show desirable presentation of contrast and saturation. Low photography has greatly improved compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, but it cannot match what the Huawei P60 Pro can do.
Overall, both are excellent devices for mobile photography. However, it is up to you to decide which phone is a better fit for your creative needs. You have the choice to use our sample photos as reference, but I encourage you to wait for our reviews and contents from other content creators.
There is still so much to test!
There is literally too much to test on the Huawei P60 Pro. We haven’t event touched on its ability to do Super Macro shots without getting too close to the subject. I still have yet to compare its performance to the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Xiaomi 13 Pro. I am both stoked and excited to try everything out and share with you my experience.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
