OnePlus Nord can’t compete with the Pixel 4a in camera comparison

The OnePlus Nord has gotten quite a bit of attention lately thanks to its quad-camera that OnePlus claims can compete with flagship-tier devices. Now, the Nord has a new mid-range competitor which is here to give its cameras a run for their money – the new Pixel 4a.
If you’re simply looking the spec sheets for these two phones, the Pixel 4a wouldn’t stand a chance against the Nord since it only has a single 12.2MP camera on the back and an 8MP sensor for

 

[Hadron]

One+ have never had class-leading cameras, so this isn't a shock - though the Nord's colour balance in that tennis ball shot is shocking! And producing mirrored selfies, oh dear...

Spec sheets are useful for marketing but generally tell you very little about picture quality. This is especially true with phone cameras, which all have small sensors and where software is more important than hardware in determining picture quality. Always look at the actual photos rather than listen to marketing claims.

 

[mikedt]

The flipped mirror image selfies is just a setting in the phone's camera app isn't it? I've not seen a phone that doesn't have that option.

 

[Hadron]

I assume both were taken with default settings, since Joe Average Consumer will never actually change these and so that's the most appropriate thing to do. Which makes setting "record pictures mirrored" as the default simply crass, as these images show (reversing the lettering on the sweatshift, changing handedness).