One of the areas that is often overlooked with modern smartphones that are equipped with bigger camera sensors is the quality of lenses, and the blur they produce /u/DiplomatikEmunetey Android

Quality of blur is a bit of a pet peeve of mine and I don’t ever seem to see it mentioned by reviewers on YouTube, or even websites like GSMArena.

Modern smartphones have bigger sensors, and when they focus up close, due to the nature of the sensor there is more area that is blurred.

The presence of blur is not the issue, in fact it is welcomed; it helps create a more immersive photo with the “3D” effect. The issue is the quality of the blur itself. I don’t know if modern smartphone manufacturers cannot correct for distortions, or simply don’t care and use really low quality of lenses, but the blur modern smartphones produce looks awful.

Here is an example:

I took this photo with the Pixel 8a (top), and the Lumia 950 (bottom). Check how bad the blur looks in the top image. If you don’t know what to look for, take a look at this, where I point it out.

I don’t know what the correct photography term is for this phenomena, but I call it the “evaporating blur”. It is when the blurred subject, letters in this case, look like they are duplicated, ghosted, and are evaporating. As if Thanos just snapped his fingers.

The amount of blurring between the two phones is actually about the same, but the Lumia’s blur is much more pleasant.

I created a thread on r/GooglePixel recently where I asked if anybody else had issues taking blur-free photos of documents with their Pixels. The 8a has a bigger sensor than my previous 4a, and I was unpleasantly surprised when I found out that I cannot take decent photos of documents due to a distortion in the lens. Here is an additional comparison between the 4a, which does a much better job than the 8a, and the Lumia 950. If you check the top and the bottom of the 4a’s sample, you can see that evaporating blur effect. The 950 looks tack sharp, edge-to-edge.

More examples: The 4a, The Lumia 950. Take a look at the right side, the “Phone camera direction” text.

One more example: The Nokia 808 PureView, and the 4a. You see how “HERS” in “SKECHERS” is being evaporated in the sample with the Pixel?

It may look like I am nitpicking on the Pixels, but I am not, I am just a Pixel user and a fan, so I get to try them myself. All modern phones have this issue, at least I haven’t come across one that had a truly nice blur. It’s something I always pay attention to in reviews. Here is an example with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, a premium camera flagship. Look at the right side of the image. Another example with the vivo X200 Pro.

iPhones have a very well known issue with lens flares. It is because they use low quality lenses. It’s something that is still not fixed.

I am surprised how Nokia’s engineers were able to tune their lenses 10 years ago, yet in the modern day, with these premium, super expensive camera centric smartphones we don’t have that.

The point of this thread is to just discuss if anybody else is also bothered by this, maybe I am the only one. What are your thoughts on it? Maybe I can bring awareness, so others know about it, and start to get annoyed by it too, LOL.

Quality of blur is a bit of a pet peeve of mine and I don’t ever seem to see it mentioned by reviewers on YouTube, or even websites like GSMArena.

Modern smartphones have bigger sensors, and when they focus up close, due to the nature of the sensor there is more area that is blurred.

The presence of blur is not the issue, in fact it is welcomed; it helps create a more immersive photo with the “3D” effect. The issue is the quality of the blur itself. I don’t know if modern smartphone manufacturers cannot correct for distortions, or simply don’t care and use really low quality of lenses, but the blur modern smartphones produce looks awful.

Here is an example:

I took this photo with the Pixel 8a (top), and the Lumia 950 (bottom). Check how bad the blur looks in the top image. If you don’t know what to look for, take a look at this, where I point it out.

I don’t know what the correct photography term is for this phenomena, but I call it the “evaporating blur”. It is when the blurred subject, letters in this case, look like they are duplicated, ghosted, and are evaporating. As if Thanos just snapped his fingers.

The amount of blurring between the two phones is actually about the same, but the Lumia’s blur is much more pleasant.

I created a thread on r/GooglePixel recently where I asked if anybody else had issues taking blur-free photos of documents with their Pixels. The 8a has a bigger sensor than my previous 4a, and I was unpleasantly surprised when I found out that I cannot take decent photos of documents due to a distortion in the lens. Here is an additional comparison between the 4a, which does a much better job than the 8a, and the Lumia 950. If you check the top and the bottom of the 4a’s sample, you can see that evaporating blur effect. The 950 looks tack sharp, edge-to-edge.

More examples: The 4a, The Lumia 950. Take a look at the right side, the “Phone camera direction” text.

One more example: The Nokia 808 PureView, and the 4a. You see how “HERS” in “SKECHERS” is being evaporated in the sample with the Pixel?

It may look like I am nitpicking on the Pixels, but I am not, I am just a Pixel user and a fan, so I get to try them myself. All modern phones have this issue, at least I haven’t come across one that had a truly nice blur. It’s something I always pay attention to in reviews. Here is an example with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, a premium camera flagship. Look at the right side of the image. Another example with the vivo X200 Pro.

iPhones have a very well known issue with lens flares. It is because they use low quality lenses. It’s something that is still not fixed.

I am surprised how Nokia’s engineers were able to tune their lenses 10 years ago, yet in the modern day, with these premium, super expensive camera centric smartphones we don’t have that.

The point of this thread is to just discuss if anybody else is also bothered by this, maybe I am the only one. What are your thoughts on it? Maybe I can bring awareness, so others know about it, and start to get annoyed by it too, LOL.