DxOMark Mobile report: BlackBerry Priv

DxOMark Mobile report: BlackBerry Priv

Summary

The BlackBerry Priv combines Google's Android operating system with BlackBerry's security features and a slider form factor with hardware qwerty-keyboard. In the camera module an 18MP sensor works together with a Schneider Kreuznach designed lens and optical image stabilization. The camera is capable of recording 4K video and there is also a dual-tone LED flash. 32GB of built-in storage can be expanded via a microSD-slot.

With a DxOMark Mobile score of 82, the BlackBerry Priv performs on the same level as Apple's iPhone 6s or the Sony Xperia Z3+ and occupies a joint eleventh place in the DxOMark smartphone rankings. The DxOMark testers liked the 'very good exposure with wide dynamic range, generally accurate and fast autofocus, well-preserved detail, especially in bright light, pleasant colors and good overall flash performance'. Points of criticism included the 'sometimes inaccurate white balance, strong ringing, comparatively high noise levels in bright light and over-saturated colors when shooting with flash'.

In video mode the DxO team liked the 'very good noise reduction, good detail preservation in bright light and the accurate and smooth autofocus'. On the downside, 'stabilization causes visible frame shifts and rotations, a pink cast is visible in low light and the lens sometimes refocuses unnecessarily'.

Still Photography

Color, Exposure and Contrast

The DxOMark team found that the BlackBerry Priv images showed 'very good exposure with wide dynamic range and pleasant colors'. As negatives they noted that the 'white balance is sometimes inaccurate, with a yellow, pink or blue cast in bright light'. They also noted 'some color shading in outdoor and low light conditions' and a 'pinkish cast in low tungsten light'.

Overall DxOMark awarded the BlackBerry Priv scores of:

• 4.7 out of 5 for Exposure
• 4.1 out of 5 for White Balance accuracy
• 3.3 out of 5 for Color shading in low light*
• 4.1 out of 5 for Color shading in bright light*
• 3.0 out of 5 for Color Rendering in low light
• 4.5 out of 5 for Color Rendering in bright light

Noise and Details

DxOMark's engineers reported that the BlackBerry Priv images show 'well preserved detail, especially in bright light' but 'compared to other smartphones noise levels are high in bright light'.

Texture Acutance

Texture acutance is a way of measuring the ability of a camera to capture images that preserve fine details, particularly the kind of low contrast detail (such as fine foliage, hair or fur) that can be blurred away by noise reduction or obliterated by excessive sharpening.
Sharpness is an important part of the quality of an image, but while it's easy to look at an image and decide visually whether it's sharp or not, the objective measurement of sharpness is less straightforward.
An image can be defined as 'sharp' if edges are sharp and if fine details are visible. In-camera processing means that it's possible to have one of these (sharp edges) but not the other (fine details). Conventional MTF measurements tell us how sharp an edge is, but have drawbacks when it comes to measuring fine detail preservation. Image processing algorithms can detect edges and enhance their sharpness, but they can also find homogeneous areas and smooth them out to reduce noise.
Texture acutance, on the other hand, can qualify sharpness in terms of preservation of fine details, without being fooled by edge enhancement algorithms.