The Ultra cameraphone comparison: Oppo vs Samsung vs Xiaomi vs Vivo vs Huawei

Video recording, daylight

Now it's time to see how our set of Ultra cameraphones performs in video recording. Some phones max out at 4K video resolution, while others can record in 8K. You can refer again to the specs comparison on the first page of this article as a refresher on what video recording capabilities we are dealing with here. To keep the scope of this comparison manageable, we'll only be comparing 4K@30fps footage from each camera and focal length.

As you will see, each of the phones applies a different crop level when video recording, resulting in unexpected differences in the field-of-view, which does not necessarily match the native focal lengths of the cameras we just compared in photo quality. For instance, the video captured by the Xiaomi 15 Ultra's ultrawide camera is notably wider than that of the vivo X200 Ultra's ultrawide, even though both feature 14mm lenses. And the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra captures the widest possible field of view here.

Below, you will see screenshots from all of our video samples as they are easier to compare. The full-length videos themselves are found in a YouTube playlist, embedded at the bottom of this page.

Video quality does not necessarily mirror photo quality, and the vivo X200 Ultra's otherwise supreme ultrawide camera isn't too hot for video. That is, it doesn't have an advantage over the others.

In terms of ultrawide video, we are essentially seeing a tightly packed set of examples that can be categorized as average in video quality.

Daylight video, ultrawide (0.6x): Huawei • Oppo • Samsung • vivo • Xiaomi

At main camera level around 24mm, the vivo is obviously heavily handicapped, having to use its ultrawide camera against main cameras at native focal lengths. Among those, it's the Oppo and the Xiaomi that are tied for best sharpness, with the Galaxy a bit behind and the the Huawei another inch behind - it's also not a hugely varied performance (vivo aside).

Daylight video, wide (1x): Huawei • Oppo • Samsung • vivo • Xiaomi

The thing is, the vivo is not spectacular at its main camera's native 35mm either - the Oppo and Xiaomi more or less match it for detail, the Galaxy does decently and it's only the Huawei that's more noticeably softer.

Daylight video, standard (35mm): Huawei • Oppo • Samsung • vivo • Xiaomi

At 2x zoom level, or around 50mm focal length, the Galaxy and the Xiaomi are in the lead, the Huawei and the vivo are somewhere in the middle and the Oppo is the softest.

Daylight video, standard (2x): Huawei • Oppo • Samsung • vivo • Xiaomi

Moving to the actual telephoto cameras, there's a bit more variation. The Galaxy is the least impressive in terms of detail, while the Oppo is the best of the 70mm trio, the Xiaomi being closer to the Galaxy, unfortunately. Out of the 80+ millimeter duo, we're probably liking the Huawei a little better - its detail is looking a bit more natural next to the heavier sharpening of the vivo. Picking between the Huawei and the Oppo then becomes more or less a matter of preference between the focal lengths - and since longer is usually better, we'd go with the Pura 80 Ultra.

Daylight video, short tele (3.0-3.7x): Huawei • Oppo • Samsung • vivo • Xiaomi

At the next zoom step, the Xiaomi at 100mm isn't really better than the Huawei at 89mm above, and that's roughly on par with the Galaxy's 5x zoom at 115mm. The Oppo is as good as they come at 135mm tanks to its 6x zoom camera, easily beating the Huawei and the vivo which get to 135mm through digital zoom. The Oppo is also better than the Galaxy and the Xiaomi too.

Daylight video, medium tele (4.3-6.0x): Huawei • Oppo • Samsung • vivo • Xiaomi

At 10x zoom the Huawei and the Xiaomi are about on par, inching ahead of the Oppo and the Galaxy, though not exactly being too impressive in the process. The vivo is the softest of the bunch.

Daylight video, long tele (10x): Huawei • Oppo • Samsung • vivo • Xiaomi

You can check out the playlist below, which includes all the video samples from which we grabbed the frames above.