Credit: MKBHD

In a blind camera test carried out by a popular YouTuber, the iPhone 11 Pro didn’t win. And, in fact, it did a lot worse than you might expect.

Brownlee’s Test

The iPhone 11 Pro’s camera was knocked out in the very first round of Marques Brownlee’s annual blind camera test, which you can view below.

Brownlee, also known by his handle MKBHD, carried out the same test last year. In it, he snaps photos with some of the most popular smartphones on the market, posts them to Twitter and asks his millions of followers to vote for their favorite.

But, importantly, he doesn’t reveal the brand or model of smartphone when he posts it. That way, users can’t just vote for their favorite brand.

Apple’s latest flagship got just 30 percent of the vote, losing to a photo snapped by the much cheaper OnePlus 7T Pro. (If you’re curious, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ was the overall winner of the test.)

Apple’s latest-and-greatest smartphone actually lost in the very first round to a device that retails for $400 cheaper. With all of the glowing reviews of Apple’s latest camera improvements, that’s certainly an unexpected result.

It is worth noting that Twitter heavily compressed each photo, so a thorough analysis of the images is pretty much impossible. But even taking that into account, there’s likely some other reason why Brownlee’s followers eliminated the iPhone so quickly.

What’s Going on Here?

If you look at both photos, you can see quite a few differences that may have swayed voters in Brownlee’s test.

The iPhone’s picture was awash in a blue tint, while the OnePlus photo was yellower. Apple’s white balance in this particular photo is also somewhat subpar.

But it’s likely the brightness of both pictures that ultimately led to the OnePlus photo winning out.

Brownlee himself notes that “people are gonna just pick the brighter photo.” The iPhone’s picture left much of Brownlee’s face in shadow, but the OnePlus brightened up more of the picture.

So, is this a conclusive test that proves which smartphone has the “best” camera? Well, no. But that’s mostly because camera quality is extremely subjective. Just look at the following photo, taken with the iPhone 11 Pro, with a small amount of editing.

When you’re talking about new smartphone cameras, it really all comes down to personal preference.

The iPhone 11 Pro, despite losing this test, has an excellent and extremely well-reviewed camera. Unless you don’t like the look of the images it produces, you can’t go wrong with its overall quality.

At the end of the day, pretty much any flagship smartphone is going to be good enough for whatever you may throw at it. Choosing the “best” between them is just nitpicking — so just go with the one that you like most.