The Motorola One Zoom is a mid-range smartphone with the camera specifications of a flagship. Apart from an OIS enabled 48-megapixel lens, a 16-megapixel ultrawide sensor and a 5-megapixel depth sensor, the One Zoom flaunts an OIS assisted 8-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. The smartphone records videos at 4K resolution, which can be viewed on the large 6.39-inch AMOLED display. The waterdrop notch on the display of the One Zoom features a 25-megapixel selfie camera. The Snapdragon 675 chipset powered One Zoom’s camera was recently tested by the good folks at DxOMark, following a strict protocol, and the results were not that impressive.
Motorola One Zoom DxOMark Score
With an average DxOMark camera score of 87, the Motorola One Zoom fares better than most other smartphones from the company, including the Moto G7 Plus and the Moto Z2 Force which have average scores of 80 and 82 respectively. Despite the seemingly high scores, all three smartphones are yet to catch up with the market leaders.
However, the One Zoom performs inherently better and is comparable to older Apple and Samsung devices like the iPhone 7 Plus and the Galaxy A50, which have average scores of 88 and 86 respectively. In terms of still photography, the Motorola One Zoom manages to score 92 points. Although it is not close to the benchmark, it offers significant improvement over the Moto G7 Plus.
Motorola One Zoom Camera Performance
With the addition of the telephoto lens, the quad-camera setup inherits better optical zoom, slightly better wide-angle shots, exposure, and bokeh. When shooting in well-lit conditions, the exposure seems balanced, while the details are acceptable in both indoor and outdoor locations. However, the images suffer from a significant amount of overshaping on the edges, especially when cropped. Noise levels are also on the higher side compared to other devices in the budget.
The story quickly takes a turn for the worse as we venture into low-light imaging. Exposure immediately takes a hit with limited dynamic range, resulting in an increase of shadow clipping. Backlit wide-angle shots also tend to be underexposed. There is significant scope for improvement in the color department. While white balance is generally not an issue, a slight yellow overshadow is prominent. Motorola has done a great job of color control, although color rendering could have been better. As a result, skin tones often look unnatural in low light images.
Autofocus is inconsistent, and this is evident from the photographs. While the camera is capable of capturing sharp images, a 500ms delay between focus and the final shot is a bit disappointing. Wide-angle shots are acceptable but suffer from underexposure, low detail and color quantization. While the exposure is decent in optimal lighting conditions, the lack of dynamic range with the flash turned off is a serious issue plaguing low-light imaging. The story is consistent with zoom shots. While details are higher in bright conditions, autofocus inconsistencies crop up as the light fades.
Background blur adds a nice touch in portrait mode, although, errors are prominent in the more complex areas. Depth estimation is decent, while artifacts are well-controlled with the primary issue being reduced sharpness and ringing towards the corners. Motorola worked on improving the video quality in terms of autofocus, exposure, and stabilization. While improvements are noticeable in handheld videos when the camera is stable, frameshifts begin to creep up when walking. Noise levels are well-contained when filming indoors, but the details suffer from over-sharpening.
The quad-camera setup with a telephoto lens works in favor of the Motorola One Zoom, as the smartphone offers an attractive proposition for the budget-conscious audience. Well-balanced exposure, decent autofocus, and background blur in portrait mode work in favor of the device. However, serious improvements are required in dynamic range, ultra-wide shots, and color rendering if Motorola plans to take on the leaders with its future lineup.
UP NEXT: The $400 Motorola One Hyper has a pop-up selfie camera and 45W Hyper-Charging
(source)
