Nokia N97 vs iPhone vs N85 vs N82 Flash Test in Darkness

July 9th, 2009 • Mark Guim • Filed Under •

I couldn’t sleep last night and was literally staring at the wall for a long time. I figured I might as well take some sample photos of the wall from the Nokia N97, N85, N82, and the iPhone to compare their flashes (or lack of flash). Check it out.

For baseline, I’m going to use my wife’s iPhone 3GS to show you how the wall looks like in darkness from 5ft away. The 3GS doesn’t have flash, so the room is completely black.

iPhone 3gs photo no flash in darkness wall 5ft
Apple iPhone 3GS – doesn’t have flash

Cant sleep. Nokia n97 flash test in darkness. Wall 5ft
Nokia N97 – dual LEDs flash

Nokia n85 flash test in darkness. wall 5ft
Nokia N85 – dual LEDs flash

nokia n82 flash test in darkness. Wall 5ft
Nokia N82 – Xenon flash

Results

The Nokia N82 remains king of cameraphones. No flash < Dual LEDs < Xenon. The Nokia N85's photo came out better than the Nokia N97 too. I’m curious how the Nokia N86 performs in this test. Were you surprised?

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  • nice
  • This is so so frustrating. N82 still better than other cameraphones. Xenon flash helps freeze movement in dark situations too! I love the N82 but I want something with a better keyboard. Or at least something that I can see that damn keyprint on!
  • Bin
    It really bothers me, that even mobiles released by Nokia after N82 (in the N series), hardly has any xenon flash and I went to buy one for my brother recently (i've been using one for abt a yr and half now), they said N82 is out of production and recommended another N series, N79, which seemed similar to N82 in most aspects (albeit a more advanced one). But there was no Xenon flash. Infact I'm not aware of anymore N series mobiles frm Nokia that has Xenon flash.

    Why are they abandoning this amazing feature? Its really worth it. Maybe it might not be possible to have constant light on, during video capture (maybe they could incorporate both LED and Xenon flash?).

    Bin
  • I'm not surprised at all, even the worst Xenon phones out there (such as some LG & Samsung have brought out) will trump the best LED phones
  • christinasng
    You just convinced me to keep my N82 and NOT buy the N97 or iPhone. :D
  • Mike
    If u look closely at the N97 pic, there is a slight blue tint on the right hand side of the pic. This happens with all low light shots that use the dual led flash. It also happens when videoing in low light scenarios. Really bad fault of Nokia. I sold my N97 cos of this
  • I don't understand Apple repeated the same mistake.
  • Hey Mark! thanks a lot, here is the link to my blog:
    http://tecnovenezuela.com/?p=401

    thanks a lot!!!!!
  • AC
    Uhm, I don't see how the N85 is better than the N97. The N85 to me is more blurry. It has a soft slightly out of focus feel. Is it the color balance is better on the N85?
  • tateblaze
    I still got love for my n28 too. But my 3GS is much faster. I'll still carry both when need be. Those dark lounges are like Kryptonite for the iPhone camera.
  • aryan
    that is why i have n82
  • N86 will make in top 2...i know n86 and it will be a better phone compare than n97^^
  • hello Mark,

    May i use these pictures for same reason in my blog post?

    I will include your blog address.

    Thank you
  • sure you can!
  • Hello Mark,

    Hope you be fine; could I use your Pics to publish in my blog in order to show this differences?
  • of course! Give the link here when it's published.
  • Well, where test with Sony Ericsson C905?
  • nick
    It's a tie in my opinion between the n82 and the iPhone:)
    Seriously, why doesn't the n85 have better flash? One of the selling points is the camera.
    Infact, all the N series should have xeonon flash!
  • Sharomyga
    New firmware update for 5800 nam version availabvle through NSU 21.2.025. Finally ;-)
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