The short of it is that Android Authority
took pictures of 15 different scenes using the HTC One M9, the Galaxy
S6 edge, and two different phones from Huawei. The end result was that
the One M9 didn’t outright win in any of the categories and only managed
to tie for best in one of them.
But
here’s the thing: Just looking at the different pictures the four
phones took, it was easy to spot which ones were taken by the One M9:
They were the ones that had the dullest colors, the worst resolution and
lowest contrast. Take a look here, for instance, and you’ll have no
doubt guessing which one was the One M9.
It’s pretty obvious that the One M9 is “Phone D.”
This
is something that’s somewhat baffling. While Samsung, Apple and LG have
all made leaps and bounds in terms of smartphone camera quality, HTC
has remained far behind. The company always says it’s working to address
the shortcomings of its cameras but so far we haven’t seen any drastic
improvements that suggest it’s even close to matching the top smartphone
cameras in the world and it is easily beaten in blind camera shootouts
by two Huawei phones.