A few weeks ago, we put four of the most talked-about mid-range smartphones of 2026 through a blind camera test. The phones included the OnePlus Nord 6 (review), Nothing Phone 4a Pro (review), Vivo V70 FE (review), and Redmi Note 15 Pro+ (review). We shot the same scenes across different lighting conditions and asked you to vote for the best photo in each category, without knowing which phone took it. With over 2000 votes in, we finally have the results.
The Vivo V70 FE emerged as the clear winner overall and dominated two categories out of five in our comparison. We will now go through each round, show you which phone came out on top, and break down why that image may have stood out to most of you. From daylight and ultrawide to portraits, selfies, zoom, and low light, let’s see which mid-ranger ended up delivering the strongest camera performance.
Table of Contents
Daylight
Winner: OnePlus Nord 6
The daylight round went to the OnePlus Nord 6 (review), and there are a few reasons we can see why. The sky in its image looks bright without being overexposed, and the building has a balanced look with natural-looking reds and blues.
Even the cloud cover looks closer to what you’d see with your own eyes, making the overall shot appear quite realistic. Pair that realism with good sharpness, contrast, and detail level, and you have a final shot that’s pretty easy to like.
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Ultrawide
Winner: Redmi Note 15 Pro+
In ultrawide shots, despite having the same image subjects as the daylight scenario, there are subtle differences that might have influenced the final results. Vivo and Nothing’s outputs are substantially darker compared to Redmi and OnePlus, which puts them out of contention early on.
The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ (review) delivers the most balanced shot here out of all of them, with vibrant colours, a good contrast level and a decent exposure level. The OnePlus Nord 6 comes in at a close second, but it does look a little washed out in comparison to both its daylight counterpart and the Redmi. It makes sense why the Redmi’s image garnered the most votes here.
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Portrait
Winner: Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
The winner for portraits is the Nothing Phone 4a Pro (review), which isn’t surprising since it’s the only device in the lineup with a dedicated telephoto lens.
The phone’s image is the most balanced amongst its competitors, with no obvious lens flares like the Redmi or a yellow tint like the OnePlus. It delivers better colours and exposure compared to the Vivo V70 FE as well, making it an easy winner out of the four.
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Selfie
Winner: Vivo V70 FE
The selfie comparison is a little tricky with two contenders competing closely. The OnePlus and Vivo are clearly ahead of their peers in this comparison, with Redmi’s excessive contrast making the image appear odd and Nothing’s dull output.
At first glance, both the OnePlus and Vivo images look quite close, but the Vivo V70 FE (review) has a lead since it slightly enhances the image with better contrast and sharpness. That ends up reflecting in the polls, with the Vivo V70 FE winning this round.
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Low Light
Winner: Vivo V70 FE
Taking images at night or in poor lighting has always been one of the main challenges for any smartphone camera system. Comparing the results of all four phones here, it becomes pretty clear why the Vivo V70 FE (review) won this round.
It delivers one of the clearest results and manages to contain light bloom really well. Even in terms of lens flares, the Vivo V70 FE outputs the best results, all the while making the colours look quite realistic.
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Conclusion
The comparison so far makes one thing quite clear: that there’s no perfect camera phone at this price bracket. If we break down the results category-wise, you’ll note that each device had its own strengths, which is largely how things work when you actually use these cameras.
All manufacturers have increased smartphone prices this year, and the crunch is most closely felt in mid-range segments like these. While last year we had plenty of options offering telephoto lenses at this price bracket, this year, only the Nothing Phone 4a series devices come with such lenses at this price point. With camera hardware more or less being standardised at this time, the only way to determine the overall better camera phone here is through a blind showing, and with the results in hand, that phone is the Vivo V70 FE (review).
It wins in two scenarios out of five, and the low-light scenario is one of the most important by far. If you’ve been eyeing phones around Rs 40,000 and looking for the best camera phone, based on our comparison, that’s the Vivo V70 FE, particularly if you take a lot of images at night or selfies. For anyone who clicks a lot of portraits, the Nothing Phone 4a Pro (review) would be a better fit with its dedicated telephoto lens.
Even the daylight and portrait results of the Vivo V70 FE are quite appealing, making it a decent camera phone for the price. You can check out our detailed review of the V70 FE if you want to know more about the phone before you make a purchase. Thank you for your time, and we’ll be back soon with another blind camera comparison, so stay tuned until then!
