Honor 6X vs. ZTE Blade V8 Pro: Dual camera duel

Camera

Both devices are equipped with dual camera setups, but not all dual camera setups are created equally. On paper, ZTE's dual camera is superior to dual 13MP cameras while the Honor 6X has a 12MP main camera and a 2MP depth sensor. The ZTE Blade V8 has one more huge advantage: it can record video in 4K.

We'll be looking at the resulting stills and video from both devices' dual-camera setups, as well as still images from the front-facing selfie camera.

Stills

The University campus is a great place to start with our sample photos. In bright lighting conditions, both devices have faults of their own. For instance, the Blade V8 Pro captures a higher level of details better, but the white balance is inconsistent, and highlights tend to clip a lot. On the other hand, the Honor 6X kept a much more consistent white balance and did a pretty nice job taking in scenes with high contrasts.

Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE

HDR mode was able to help ZTE with wider ranges of exposure while the Honor 6X's HDR mode didn't help much more. Still, the Blade V8 Pro was able to produce those vivid and unnatural-looking stills by using HDR mode, something the Honor phone couldn't really crank up for some reason.

Scene 1: Honor HDR Off • ZTE HDR Off • Honor HDR On • ZTE HDR On

Scene 2: Honor HDR Off • ZTE HDR Off • Honor HDR On • ZTE HDR On

Scene 3: Honor HDR Off • ZTE HDR Off • Honor HDR On • ZTE HDR On

Selfies

By default, the Honor 6X sets the selfie to 50% beautification (which smooths the imperfections and details of the skin). By contrast, the Blade V8 Pro has kept the normal selfie and ultra-beauty-selfie separate.

Honor high contrast • ZTE high contrast • Honor low contrast • ZTE low contrast

In higher contrast situations like a bright and sunny day, the Honor 6X took selfies with better dynamic range.

Beauty filter level 5/10: Honor • ZTE

That said, we much preferred the selfies from the Honor 6X with the default beauty mode. ZTE's selfie camera mudded out details and colors appeared a little washed out compared to the 6X. The 6X's colors are better, but were borderline over-saturated.

Dual-Camera features

As it stands, the most popular feature for a dual-camera smartphone is the ability to create an artificial "bokeh" effect, which puts the focus on the subject while blurring the background and foreground to a light or heavy degree.

Dual-camera simulated f/4.5: Honor • ZTE

In an ideal composition and distance, here is how the simulated bokeh effect stacks up in these two devices. Both devices were quite on par with each other. The Blade V8 Pro was able to blend the blur effect well without messing the silhouette of the subject. The Honor 6X had a microscopic bit of trouble with this near Aunt Jemima's lid.

Video

One of these cameras has a huge advantage. The ZTE Blade V8 Pro can record in 2160p (4K). This is a huge bonus, given the cost of this device and the number of smartphones with $500+ price tags that don't record in 4K resolution.

Despite the ability to record in 4K, we still didn't like the video color representation of the Blade V8 Pro. The video came up with colors that were way too cold, certainly much cooler than the Honor 6X's. Although it didn't represent the scene entirely accurately, the Honor 6X produced a natural-looking picture for video.

We didn't test stabilization because, well, there wasn't any such feature in either smartphone camera. Meanwhile, both devices were caught hunting for focus while recording video. So we aren't really comparing rubies here.

Camera conclusion

Before we send these cameras off, we have to start by saying these aren't really the best cameras on the market since we are comparing two smartphone cameras on devices that cost well below $300. That said, one of these cameras performed notably better than the other.

Winner: Honor 6X. Although the ZTE Blade V8 Pro can record 4K video and captured more detail than the Honor 6X, its inconsistent color accuracy and tendency to set much cooler color tones is not a winner in our book. Although the Honor 6X has inferior specs on paper, it had better dynamic range and color accuracy with more consistent color toning, Oh yeah, and its selfies were more "on point" than ZTE's.