T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide Review - Photographers Wanted
by Vivek Gowri on August 12, 2011 8:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Snapdragon
- HTC
- 4G
- Mobile
- T-Mobile
- MyTouch
- Slide
How does all this actually translate to taking pictures? Quite well, actually. I took the Slide with me to a BMW CCA Concours event with a friend of mine, and it gave me some really, really impressive looking images. I had the G2x with me at the same time, and while the G2x camera isn’t particularly good, it looks downright bad next to the MyTouch. Great cars, great pictures. The conditions were absolutely perfect that day, especially by Seattle standards, so it’s unsurprising.
Aston Martin V8 Vantage @ 12PM. Taken in Automatic mode.
When you take pictures in more mixed conditions, they’re not quite as stellar, but still significantly better than a vast majority of smartphone cameras. I’d still put the Nokia N8 at the top (and the N9 even higher when it releases), but this definitely in the conversation for second best, along with the Galaxy S II (which we’re still testing). I’m willing to say the Slide can replace a point and shoot without too much difficulty during the day, it really is that good.
Seattle Skyline @ 12AM. Taken in Night mode, fully automatic settings
Seattle Skyline @ 12AM. Taken in Manual mode, incandescent white balance and ISO 800
The problem is night-time photography. The white balance in low-light situations is way too red in any of the automatic modes (auto, night, HDR), but you can set the white balance and ISOs in Manual mode. That fixes the light balance, but there’s still a lot of noise in the images when viewed at full resolution. It’s a bit disappointing, but there’s simply no way to get enough light to a sensor that small. I shouldn’t complain too much though, because it’s better than most of the other cell phone cameras out there.
Chicago downtown @ 6PM. Taken in HDR mode, fully automatic settings. Image courtesy of Nitin Seemakurty.
ClearShot HDR basically takes three pictures in quick sequence with three different exposures, then digitally merges them to get high dynamic range. Unfortunately, this issue with white balance means that HDR is basically unusable at night. I really like the night-time HDR effect, so I was a bit crestfallen, but the HDR effect is pretty gorgeous at dawn and dusk, as you can see in the image above. The friend I mentioned earlier took the that picture in downtown Chicago at around 6PM, and I honestly found it difficult to believe that came out of a phone camera. My own HDR images, while not necessarily as stunning as my friend’s picture, are decent. I noticed some overdarkening with clouds in the daytime, but it's not too big of a deal.
Seattle downtown @ 10PM. Taken in HDR mode, fully automatic settings.
Also, if you’re not necessarily very good at keeping a steady hand with the physical camera button, you might end up with something like what you see below. Yay for ghosting....this is why I stick to software buttons. This is also true if you’re shooting a dynamic object, like the water in the first downtown Chicago picture.
The view of Lake Union from my apartment @ 3PM. Taken shakily in HDR mode, fully automatic settings.
BurstShot is just a rapid fire, 5 frame burst. It’s good if you want to capture a quick motion sequence, but also if you’re trying to get the best picture out of a set.
SweepShot is a fancy marketing term for a digitally stitched panorama. Hit the camera button then slowly rotate either left or right, and it’ll just fill the bar for you. 5 seconds later, you have a panoramic image of the Seattle skyline (in my case) or whatever else suits your fancy.
The view from the roof of my apartment building @ 5AM. Taken in Panorama mode.
Now, for the other sensor. All of my sample images were taken with the Sony IMX105 sensor, which shoots 8MP pictures at 3264x1840 in widescreen and 3264x2448 in 4:3. My friend’s widescreen pictures come out at 3232x1824, even though the camera application specs the same resolutions as with the Sony sensor. His pictures don’t tell me much, other than he’s a better photographer than I am (or he shoots more picturesque subjects than I do - metropolitan skylines will always be better sample images than cars, but hey, I like cars more than buildings). It also reaffirms my feeling that given the right conditions, the Slide can take really, really brilliant pictures.
Images courtesy of Nitin Seemakurty.
The front facing camera is the same Micron/Aptina MT9V113 1/11” VGA CMOS sensor as the Sensation. Unlike LG’s front facing cameras, this one is oriented such that the output isn’t flipped, as demonstrated by the image sample of my Barcelona jersey. As with the Sensation, quality is pretty mediocre, but it’ll be solid enough for videochatting.
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FrederickL - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link
@Vivek Gowri
Very informative review. With regard to your experience with the 2G I think that the problem may have been that the first shipments of the Desire Z (2G) did indeed have a problem with the construction of that hinge. As far as I can tell (from what I read on various fora at the time) the problem appeared to be largely cured with succeeding shipments. I have had a Desire Z for about half a year now and although the hinge-action has an unusual "feel" to it because of the structural design I have in fact not had any problems with it at all. The disappointment you experienced may be due to the fact that you were an uber early adopter of that phone!
-:)
Frederick
FrederickL - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link
@Vivek Gown
Another thought just struck me looking at your battery life tests (although I know that this is somewhat off topic). If Nokia manage to produce a WP7 phone with something like the N8's build quality, the camera *and* bring their traditional strengths in call quality and battery life to the table (I am thinking that nobody yet gets seriously near the iPhone's battery life) then they *may* prove the doomsayers wrong. Furthermore if they brought those qualities to one of their classic slider packages I think that even a gentleman like yourself who perhaps feels a touch jaded after seeing so many phones might feel pleased! -:)
VivekGowri - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link
I definitely agree about the G2 - I went through two in the first week, and they both felt like crap. The later hardware revisions I played with at the T-Mobile store were definitely better, but they still weren't what I would call "confidence-inspiring". I'm comfortable with my decision to sell when I did, but man was that a brilliantly functional phone for it's day.The Nokia WP7 lineup has me so ridiculously excited, you have no idea. I'm an out-and-out Nokia hardware fanboy who has loathed Symbian since the N95 started to get long in the tooth. The first Nokia WP7 device (Sea Ray, the one that looks like the N9) is gonna be bomb, and if they do one like the E7 or the MeeGo slider phone (rumoured to be the N9 back in the day, don't remember the official name off the top of my head), I'll be basically thrilled. I've been using Mango on my HD7 recently, I'm pretty psyched to see it paired with Nokia's brilliant HW design.
dlochinski - Sunday, August 14, 2011 - link
You actually can buy a spring for the g2, (rather cheap and rather strong) and replace the spring inside the g2, then voila, no issues! It is rather unfortunate that it had problems in the beginning, but it is a good phone beyond that.FrederickL - Sunday, August 14, 2011 - link
@Vivek Gowri
Indeed. I currently run my "Z" as my primary and my dear old "Wildfire" as my backup. I will be looking to upgrade my main phone in about a year and as far as I can see my likely choices will be between HTC's then current Android slider and whatever Nokia has presented as its high end WP7 slider. My good lady runs an N8 and as far as the hardware is concerned she loves it but as far as the os is concerned she uses language that would make a Navy Seal blush! I would certainly be looking in about a year (we have an important anniversary coming up) at whatever is then Nokia's flagship cameraphone. All in all the coming year bodes well for choice of good kit in the marketplace. I look forward to it.
Johnmcl7 - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link
This is the wrong way round:"The lower the F/#, the larger the aperture and the higher the diameter of the lens opening. This gets you a greater depth of field and allows more light to reach the image sensor"
As you widen the aperture the depth of field is reduced, not increased although perhaps that's just the way I read 'greater' to mean deeper depth of field. Either way on such a small focal length the slightly increased aperture isn't really going to have a noticeable effect on depth of field which is going to be very deep anyway.
Thanks for the review although frustratingly while there were rumours of this phone being released in Europe as the HTC Doubleshot (the G2 was released as the Desire Z with Sense intact) I can't see any sign of it on preorder lists so like the Droid 3 it looks like it's not going to be sold here. Which is particularly frustrating given there's no other high end qwerty sliders after the Desire Z.
John
anandtech pirate - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link
It looks like HTC needs to stop being cheap on the internal storage. 4GB when the standard now is at least 8gb to 16gb.bplewis24 - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link
Completely agree with the Custom UI rant you threw in there. I hope more reviewers keep harping on it.The Moto D1 had a dedicated camera button that could be long-pressed to open the camera application, so I don't think HTC was copying MS on that one.
Lastly, great review as always. AT is the go-to site for smartphone reviews now. I can't tell you guys how many times I have debunked irrational and subjective criticisms of specific phone/hardware with objective analysis and evidence from these reviews.
VivekGowri - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link
Yeah, I guess I didn't mean that they were copying Microsoft, but the idea was definitely marketed pretty heavily by the WP7 devices. HTC has put out enough WP7 devices in the last year that taking that feature to Android seems pretty logical.Bristecom - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link
Good find on the use of two different CMOS sensors. I'd be very interested to see some direct comparison shots and video - particularly in low lighting. I hope you can figure out what sensor the Samsung Galaxy S II uses, although I'm pretty sure it's the S5K3H2.