Photo Shootout: Nexus 5 vs. iPhone 5S

Smartphones are making point and shoot cameras more irrelevant by the year. Sensors on phones are producing more detailed shots in sun and low-light thanks to more advanced software being developed behind them. These technological changes allow today’s simplest low to mid range phones to capture decent photos.

Although low to mid range phones serve their purpose for certain amount of folks; let’s be real, flagship handsets are what we tech enthusiasts pay more attention to.

So the most logical thing to do was put Google’s Nexus 5 up against Apple’s iPhone 5S. LG and Google teamed up once again to deliver us a Nexus 5 that rocks a 5 inch display, and a 8MP camera. This is a camera that Google claimed they made better from last year’s model. On the other side is Apple’s newly minted flagship iPhone 5S, which also offers a maximum resolution of eight megapixels.

Obviously, both smartphones run on different mobile operating systems. The Nexus 5 is running on Android 4.4 KitKat, while the iPhone 5S dawns the revamped iOS 7.

In the one on one, the Nexus 5 put up a valiant effort against the iPhone 5S but ultimately ended up being miles behind in quality. When I was shooting with the Nexus 5 I quickly noticed how saturated and washed out many of the photos I took were — and most of the photos I took were during the day. Every shot at the bottom was taken raw: no filters, no flash, or HDR.

What’s troubling is the fact that Google went into developing the Nexus 5 knowing full well that the camera was a huge point of emphasis, but still managed to not deliver on the 8MP camera’s performance. Hopefully the camera on the Nexus 5 will get better once Google rolls out its next minor software update.

Anyway, my opinion is my opinion, so feel free to let us know which phone images you think is better!