The recently launched OnePlus Nord 4 (review) and Motorola Edge 50 Pro (review) are capable smartphones. We recently conducted a battery and performance comparison and found both to be similar. Today, we bring you the third comparison to test the imaging capabilities and help you pick a better all-rounder phone.
Table of Contents
OnePlus Nord 4 and Motorola Edge 50 Pro camera specifications
For a fair comparison, we have tested the point-and-shoot capabilities of both phones with the default autofocus on the subject. Since the OnePlus Nord 4 does not have a telephoto lens, we will not be comparing the zoom capabilities of both phones. Here’s a quick look at the camera specifications of the OnePlus Nord 4 and Motorola Edge 50 Pro.
| OnePlus Nord 4 | Motorola Edge 50 Pro | |
| Primary Sensor | 50MP Sony LYTIA sensor with f/1.8 and EIS + OIS | 50MP sensor with f/1.4 aperture and OIS |
| Secondary Sensor | 8MP ultrawide sensor with 112-degree FoV | 13MP ultrawide sensor with 120-degree FoV |
| Tertiary Sensor | NA | 10MP 2x telephoto with OIS |
| Front Camera | 16MP sensor with f/2.4 aperture | 50MP Samsung sensor with f/1.9 aperture |
The OnePlus Nord 4, powered by Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3, uses the Qualcomm Spectra 18-bit Triple Cognitive Image Signal Processor (ISP). The Motorola Edge 50 Pro, equipped with Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, uses the Qualcomm Spectra 12-bit Triple ISP. Technically, the OnePlus Nord 4 with higher bit rate support should perform better. Let’s dive into the camera comparison to see whether it performs well in real-life usage.
Daylight
While both the phones are equipped with a 50MP sensor, the shallow aperture on the OnePlus Nord 4, created a natural depth of field behind the fountain. This smaller aperture, also captures less light, resulting in more grains compared to the Moto’s image.
Akin to Moto’s 2024 lineup, the Motorola Edge 50 Pro’s output is social media-ready with more vibrancy and a warm hue. Conversely, the OnePlus Nord 4 produces a dull image with a cooler hue. Even though both the phones tweaked the colour profile, the Nord 4’s result is closer to reality. Motorola Edge 50 Pro did a better job at retaining the details and HDR processing, while Nord 4 managed the highlights well and compensated for the details with increased sharpness.
Winner: Motorola Edge 50 Pro
Ultrawide
The ultrawide lens on the OnePlus Nord 4 is an 8MP Sony sensor with a 112-degree FoV, which retains more details in the centre portion of the image. The Nord 4 has better colour consistency between the primary lens and ultrawide.
The Motorola Edge 50 Pro’s 13MP sensor retains more details across the image. The results from Edge 50 Pro are oversaturated and have more noise, along with a strange blue tint on the car in the background.
Winner: Tie
Portrait
The portraits from the Motorola Edge 50 Pro are again affected by the oversaturation issue and have more contrast. However, it did a better job at natural bokeh, retaining details on the subject and better edge cut-out around it (no pun intended).
The portraits from Nord 4 are well-balanced in terms of saturation and HDR but lack contrast and deeper blacks; this can be taken care of with slight edits. It appears OnePlus has applied some sort of skin smoothing, even while re-touching was set to off.
Winner: OnePlus Nord 4
Selfie
The OnePlus Nord 4 uses a 16MP front shooter to capture social media-ready images with vibrant colours, and a slightly warm hue. The skin tone and colour consistency are a bit off as the shirt colour is close to real but it failed to get the pattern’s colour right.
Conversely, the Motorola Edge 50 Pro, with its higher megapixel sensor and larger aperture, captures more detailed images and better manages the highlights and contrast. The highlights, colour of the shirt’s pattern and skin tone are also better captured on the Moto Edge 50 Pro.
Winner: Motorola Edge 50 Pro
Low light
In low-light scenarios without night mode, the OnePlus Nord 4 did a better job, in terms of HDR, exposure, and colour accuracy. The light sources are managed well, and the sky also appears black.
The Motorola Egde 50 Pro retained more details in the image as the textual information appeared sharper. The over-contrast, and poor processing for highlights killed the image, making the backlit menu boards unreadable, which is much better on the Nord 4.
Winner: OnePlus Nord 4
Night mode
Switching to the night mode, the OnePlus Nord 4’s image looks more or less the same except very minor brightness increase.
Conversely, the Motorola Edge 50 Pro’s night mode-enabled image is considerably improved except it now appears duller. The red neon signs and backlit menu boards are handled well, exposure is well balanced, the bloom around light sources is better than Nord 4, and the gradient on the building’s panel is consistent.
Winner: Motorola Edge 50 Pro
Selfie low light with flash
Both phones did a great job of illuminating the subject and capturing the ambience in extremely low-light environments with the screen flash. In terms of colour, the T-shirt colour is close to accurate in Moto Edge 50 Pro’s result. Conversely, the Nord 4 boosted the reds in both the t-shirt and the box on the shelf.
The subject looks more detailed in the OnePlus Nord 4’s image, but the skin tone is much brighter. While the Moto Edge 50 Pro with its wider FoV produced soft images, with noise. Moto Edge 50 Pro did manage to handle the edge detection and skin tone compared to the counterpart.
It comes down to your personal choice, which image do you prefer more, the brighter and more detailed one, or one where you can accommodate more people, with accurate colours, and better light control?
Winner: Tie
Verdict
Both phones are neck to neck when it comes to imaging capabilities. However, the Motorola Edge 50 Pro wins by a slight margin, as it performs better in daylight shots, selfie, and night mode. This does not mean Moto Edge 50 Pro is the best camera phone in this segment, as the brand needs to work on the over-saturation issue and low light performance. The OnePlus Nord 4 can be vouched for portraits and low-light shots. I believe it is high time for OnePlus to work on the contrast and deeper blacks.
OnePlus Nord 4 Images
Motorola Edge 50 Pro 5G Images
