The 2021 MKBHD blind smartphone camera test conducted by Marcus Brownlee and his team is an interesting one. It included 16 smartphones, including Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, ASUS ROG 5, OPPO Find X3 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, OnePlus 9 Pro, Google Pixel 6 Pro, Google Pixel 5a, iPhone 13 Pro, Motorola Edge, Xiaomi POCO X3 GT, and Realme GT, among others.
Blind camera tests are interesting because they eliminate confirmation bias – you are a fan of the iPhone 13 Pro and naturally see the best qualities of its photos. And this one threw up fascinating results. For example, we see the Pixel 5a beat the Pixel 6 Pro in stage one. Say what?!
A blind test of this sort does not show us which smartphone camera is the most technically competent. But it at least shows us which smartphone cameras produce the kind of images that appeal to many people when consumed on mobile phones. We need other kind of tests to explore how good these camera phones are for other scenarios.
Anyway, Google’s Pixel 5a went on to beat every phone featured in the test to win the 2021 MKBHD blind camera phone test. You should see the video for yourself: it contains lots of interesting nuggets.
Winner of the 2021 MKBHD blind camera phone test
Check out the embedded video below to see the full test and results and why the Google Pixel 5a won this test.
What do you think of the blind camera test? Do you think that the Pixel 5a is really this good? If you have not seen them before now, you should check out our detailed Google Pixel 5a review, and our Pixel 6 Pro unboxing.