The 3 handsets introduced yesterday during the Nseries Launch Event in Lebanon sport a similarity beyond design: they all have a dual-led flash that accompanies the camera. Many current Nseries users out there have been moaning this choice for months now that the N96 has been announced, especially since the relatively affordable N82 sports a Xenon and has proven time over time that it can deliver much better quality in low-light conditions. I was curious to see how both Dual-LED and Xenon perform in the real world, especially that aren’t much comparisons to be found on the internet. So holding my trusty N82 in one hand, and the other handsets in the other, I began my tests.
First Test: Xenon and Dual-LED as perceived
When I take pictures of subjects with my N82, especially in dark rooms, I always here “WTF was that? The flash blinded me!”. I guess people aren’t used to Xenon on phone cameras. So I wanted to see how dual-LED performs in that area. It certainly isn’t blinding, but it is much brighter than single LED flash devices like the N95. Here is a video showing you Dual-LED on the N85 vs Xenon on the N82.
Second Test: Comparing the result in pictures
I used the N96 for this comparison as it seemed to me that the firmware might be a bit more mature than that of the N79 or N85. But looking back at the end result now, I think that I should’ve given the N79 a run for its money too, but well, it’s too late. I was told that the N96 still had an old firmware, so I can’t give a final judgment since it’s not a fair comparison, but I will let you see by yourself the results as things are now. [Click on the thumbnails for the full versions: N82 pictures on the left, N96 on the right. The 2nd picture with the N96 was blurry, I didn't notice it until now]
As you can see, the Xenon flash still gives images that vividness that is missed with LED. Also if you’re taking a picture with a lot of color contrast (like the 3rd one), Xenon still manages to capture the dark spots without being “blinded” by the light ones (I am not a photography expert so excuse my limited knowledge). Overall the results here pretty much sum up everyone’s fears: Xenon flash is far better than Dual-LED, but I have to stress again that this is an early N96 software. I hope newer versions will improve the picture quality.
Third Test: Comparing the result in video
One of the main advantages of Dual-LED that have been totted by Nokia since February, is that LED can function for video recording, whereas Xenon can’t. The end result is that if you’re in dark conditions, having dual-LED would be much more practical than Xenon if you want to shoot videos. As a matter of fact, all 3 handsets have a new option during video recording: “Switch video light on”.
So I went ahead and tested the theory out, with the same N96. You will see that the N96’s video resolution sucks, it’s a 352×288 15fps video, this was the highest resolution on the early firmware, but we’re not looking at resolution as much as we’re looking at brightness of the video.
All in all, although these aren’t final tests, they do show that dual-LED can give a very slight advantage in video, but is still swept in pictures. But if we look at the matter as a whole, it’s not really a matter of Dual-LED and Xenon, and 99% of the persons who will look into these handsets won’t even know the difference, let alone care about it. The 1% that know and care are likely to look into the whole featureset that a handset offers and not just this one. Me? I’m sticking with my N82, thank you.
