Decent main camera, average night vision imaging
The main 48MPix camera generates great images - as long as the light is good. In poor lighting, the results are below average. The night vision camera is very effective in closed spaces, less so outdoors.
The main camera
The main 48Mpix camera is capable of creating beautiful images, at least in good lighting conditions. In low-light conditions the results are below average, and lack of OIS (optical image stabilization) makes it even more difficult to achieve sharp shots in low light.
Sample images from the main camera:
1:1 pixel size, cropped to 1920x1080
The night vision camera
The night vision 20Mpix camera can be effectively used both for daytime and nighttime photography. In both cases it will produce black-and-white images.
A single IR led is used to make the camera see in the dark. According to our tests, an effective range of the led is between 5 and 10 meters, depending on the environment. As a result, it feels quite powerful in closed spaces - most rooms will be smaller than the limit of the led, and an overall feeling is that the camera can very effectively see in the dark.
In an outdoor use the camera feels underpowered - a range of 5 to 10 meters is very short, and in total darkness it is hard to get a good shot. At the same time, the camera is very effective in using very low levels of light, so even in near-darkness you can get nice shots of distant objects or even whole landscapes.
There is a slight confusion with naming - the thermal camera app is called "IR Camera", but to actually use the night vision camera, you need to open the regular photo application, and switch to InfraRed Night mode.
Sample shots from the NV camera:
(full, scaled down to 1920x1440)
The same shots from the NV camera:
(1:1 pixel size, cropped to 1920x1200)
It is clear from the cropped shots above that the night vision camera also preforms better, and delivers sharper images, when it can rely not just on the phone's IR led, but also on some ambient light in the environment.
The night vision camera is a utility, not an art creation tool. You may not get ultra-sharp night time images that will win you art awards, but if you need to see in the dark without alerting every human and animal around, it is a useful thing to have.
There are other mobile phones equipped with two or even three IR leds, so if you need a longer range (15-20 meters), check out another devices. Some devices, e.g. Doogee S98 Pro have two IR leds. There are no devices currently available that have both a thermal camera and three or more IR leds.
An interesting use for night vision camera is detection of hidden cameras, e.g. in a hotel or a meeting room. If the hidden camera is equipped with an IR led, it will activate in low-light conditions, and your NV camera will see the led as a very bright source of light.