The Ubergizmo CAMERA HW Score

If you languish to find out how well a camera phone performs, you know that it’s hard to find reliable mobile camera reviews on models that are not making the headlines.

There is another way to have a great notion of how a mobile camera “should” perform: by analyzing the camera hardware. It makes a lot of sense: great camera hardware should yield great photos, right?

To provide better news and reviews on mobile phones’ cameras, we have created a proprietary algorithm to evaluate the mobile cameras solely based on their technical data. Our unique Camera HW benchmark can help us predict with some accuracy how a camera will perform and where it fits in the uber-competitive camera phone market.

See below, after the detailed description of our benchmark, the COMPLETE TABLE with all Camera HW scores (direct link to table below).

This new benchmark comes in addition to our Uber IQ Camera score, which helps us measure more accurately the image quality a mobile camera delivers as tested in real life. As with any algorithm, we plan to update it from time to time, so expect the Camera HW score to fluctuate now and then.

As with any algorithm, we plan to update it from time to time, so expect the Camera HW score to fluctuate every now and then. More info in our Camera HW score FAQ.

• Current version: 1.1 (Sept 2020)
• What’s new?
  • Better support in our model for the most recent camera technologies
  • Shows camera sub-scores from 1-10 for Wide, Ultrawide, and Zoom
  • Some data correction
  • New phones added more often

Our logo shows the hardware score, the device name and market category (high-end, premium, high-mid-range, low-mid-range, etc.), and its launch year. We will use color codes to differentiate between market categories.

The Camera HW score uses a proprietary algorithm that takes camera hardware data as an input to compute a score that ranks a camera against its peers. It essentially reveals the “potential” of the camera hardware.

Image Quality (IQ) tests take a lot of time and are very expensive to make – we know because we have our Uber IQ Camera score as well, which is the driving force behind our Mobile Camera Reviews going forward.

The best way to check if a model works is to look at the correlation with observed image quality. For that, we can check for correlations between our Uber IQ Camera  (image quality) score and the Camera HW score.

The charts don’t exactly correlate for a few reasons:

1. Both scores don’t measure the same thing and aren’t expected to be on the same scale
2. The general IQ score contains situations in which the camera hardware isn’t stressed, such as daylight photography where it is more about camera exposure settings and high-dynamic range, which involves a lot of software
3. Software. The IQ gap between different phone makers can be significant even though they may use the same type of camera modules.

Looking at a hardware-challenging situation such as Night photography, the correlation is very pronounced, just as one would expect. It is logical that better camera lenses and sensors would yield visibly better results here.

With this algorithm, we can provide consumers with unmatched mobile camera hardware guidance that will help people choose the best mobile camera experience for their money and/or save a lot of time during their initial phone research.

However, it is important to keep in mind that a hardware store, isn’t as reliable as an image-analysis score because software image processing also plays a large role in building the final photo. That’s why we created the Uber IQ Camera score.

Keep an eye out for new scores!

Thanks for your interest in our Mobile Camera scores. We want to provide insightful and useful information that will help you get the best camera for your needs and money. Keep in touch via Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube for updates.

Uber HW Camera scores, per launch year

Click on any table header to sort the rows.

Filed in Cellphones >Photo-Video. Read more about Camera Benchmarks, Camera HW, Mobile Camera Reviews and Photography Concepts.