200MP main camera, 5x zoom, the usual selfies
The Poco F8 Ultra was a major step up in terms of camera hardware, so it would have been understandable if the F9 Ultra took a more cautious approach to upgrades. It’s still mostly the same triple setup on the back, but with a different main camera – a new 200MP sensor replaces the 50MP one of the previous generation.
Note that new higher-res camera is actually using a smaller sensor, which is not ideal. The new unit’s optical format is 1/1.56, with 0.5µm individual pixels, binned 16-to-1 into 2.0µm resulting ‘pixels’. The old sensor was larger, at 1/1.31″ and 2.4µm combined pixels. So this new main camera is more of a sidegrade.
Hardware apps don’t really reveal the models of the sensors, but the Samsung Isocell HP5 is a relatively safe bet, though a SmartSens imager (SCC62HS) is also a possibility.
The key numbers haven’t changed on the other cameras, it’s just that there are no names in the manifest. The 5x zoom telephoto just might still be using the Isocell JN5 that the F8 Ultra used, with a lens that’s somewhere between 114mm and 120mm equivalent, depending on where exactly you get your information.
As for the ultrawide, we are probably looking at the same OmniVision OV50M40 sensor – the key specs certainly match. It’s a moderately odd pairing of a 50MP sensor with a fixed-focus lens.
The selfie camera is seemingly unchanged as well, a 32MP sensor behind a fixed-focus lens – pretty standard stuff.
Wide (main): 200MP (1/1.56″, 0.5µm – 2.0µm), f/1.68, 24mm, PDAF, OIS; 4K60/8K30 video recording.
Telephoto, 5x: 50MP (1/2.76″, 0.64µm – 1.28µm), periscope lens, f/3.0, 114mm, PDAF (29cm – ∞), OIS; 4K60.
Ultrawide: 50MP (1/2.88″, 0.61µm – 1.22µm), f/2.4, 18mm, fixed focus; 4K60.
Front camera: 32MP (1/3.4″, 0.61µm – 1.22µm), f/2.2, 22mm, fixed focus; 4K30/1080p60.
Daylight photo quality
Main camera
The Poco F9 Ultra’s main camera takes properly great daytime photos at 1x. They have excellent dynamic range and well-judged color saturation, for an easily likable overall look. Detail is top-notch too – everything is nice and sharp and the processing isn’t too liberal on the sharpening.
Daylight samples, main camera (1x)
Portraits are also great from the Poco F9 Ultra – skin tones have no odd color casts, the Portrait mode blur is conservative and quite believable.
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), Photo mode
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), Portrait mode
The 50MP photos at 1x don’t strike us as particularly sharp, and we wouldn’t say they resolve any more detail.
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 50MP
Shooting in 200MP is a bit of a drag as it takes a while to capture and in the end you’re left with 30-40-50MB files, even upwards of 70MB if it’s an outdoor scene with a lot of greenery. Still, the files do hold potential for extracting extra detail though you’d be wise to downscale them in post processing. We chose something around 24MP as a target resolution and the photos are indeed significantly more detailed than the regular 12.5MP ones. It does, admittedly, take a few extra steps, and it’s not applicable for all scenes (you need good lighting) or all subjects (still scenes only).
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 200MP
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 24MP
Now that we know that the sensor holds serious detail potential, it’s no surprise that the out-of-camera regular resolution 2x photos are excellent too.
Daylight samples, main camera (2x)
That holds true with headshots as well, where you’ll be getting great facial detail and the pleasing skin tones we already saw at 1x. The Portrait mode results are also looking very natural.
There’s an additional 3.1x zoom level in Portrait mode which may sound like an odd choice, but it corresponds to a 75mm equivalent focal length and that makes it make sense. It’s a welcome addition if you like the tighter frame, plus detail remains very good, even with that extra crop.
Daylight samples, main camera (2x), Photo mode
Daylight samples, main camera (2x), Portrait mode
Daylight samples, main camera (3x), Portrait mode
Telephoto camera
The telephoto camera also takes great photos. They have a lot of detail and that detail is rendered reasonably well. Contrast is a touch too high, but not really to a point of being an issue, and colors have just the right amount of pop.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (5x)
The 5x headshots are also easy to like thanks to their great subject detail and the nice perspective compression. Skin tones can be slightly on the oversaturated side in outdoor lighting, but that too is hardly a problem. Subject separation is plenty good enough in Photo mode, but you can certainly get some extra background blur in Portrait mode and that too is looking good.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (5x), Photo mode
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (5x), Portrait mode
The 50MP photos have a distinctly watercolor-like detail rendition and we wouldn’t really say they’re of much use.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (5x), 50MP
10x zoom photos can often have somewhat different white balance than the corresponding 5x ones, which struck us as a bit odd. They have alright detail – slightly better than the 50MP 5x shots more often than not, and with more sharpening and better definition. They’re not the best 10x shots we’ve seen, but they’re not half bad either.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (10x)
Ultrawide camera
The ultrawide camera does an alright job for the most part. Its most glaring issue is the lack of autofocus, which means that nearby subjects will be out of focus. That was also the case with the previous-gen Ultra, but here it’s somehow more pronounced – why they would have changed that is beyond us, but here we are.
For distant subjects in good lighting you can count on very good detail as ultrawide cameras go. Things get softer in dimmer conditions, but not dramatically so. Colors and dynamic range are hard to fault.
Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.7x)
The full-res mode doesn’t bring any tangible detail benefits.
Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.7x), 50MP
Close-ups
There are two approaches to close-ups on the Poco F8 Ultra – one is to shoot on the main camera at 2x ( possibly maybe slightly beyond that), and the other is on the telephoto camera, either at its nominal 5x or at 10x. Reproduction at minimum focusing distance is the largest at 10x, followed by the main camera’s 2x, and then it’s the telephoto’s 5x native focal length.
In our book, the best balance between quality and reproduction is at 2x. That said, shooting on the telephoto comes with the benefit of staying further from your subject, which could be a consideration with easily scared (or potentially dangerous) subjects. Pixel-level quality at 10x zoom at this subject distance isn’t spectacular though, but 5x is pretty good.
Close-up samples, main camera (2x)
Close-up samples, telephoto camera (5x)
Close-up samples, telephoto camera (10x)
Selfies
As usual, we’re not fans of the 32MP label on the selfie camera or the fact that it outputs 32MP photos only – there’s just not that much detail in there and there’s no need to be saving 8-10MB files with little practical use. That said, the images are great in the other meaningful ways – dynamic range is nicely wide, skin tones are lively, and colors are looking good overall. So if you don’t pixel-peep or if you resize the photos to a more sensible resolution, they’re pretty nice selfies, all things considered.
The lack of autofocus doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal either, since the chosen focus distance and the depth of field do appear to cover pretty short shooting distances quite well.
Selfie samples
Low-light photo quality
Main camera
The main camera’s low-light photos are very good. They have very well controlled highlights and good shadow development, though there’s just a hint of a general air of darkness. The auto white balance is unfazed by odd lighting and saturation is also quite pleasing. Detail is great and is generally not too processed-looking, though there are outliers – like the concrete wall in the fourth scene, which could be at least a little less sharpened.
Low-light samples, main camera (1x)
The 2x zoom photos at night aren’t quite as exciting as the daytime ones, but they’re still very good and better than most potential competitors or even some proper high-end models.
Low-light samples, main camera (2x)
Telephoto camera
The telephoto camera’s 5x zoom photos are solid. There’s been some tweaking from the old generation to this one and the images are notably less grainy, though the new look can be somewhat plasticky and we’re not sure that’s better. Either way, there’s no shortage of detail. We’d probably prefer brighter exposures, or at least a shadow boost, but maybe this current approach has its fans too.
Low-light samples, telephoto camera (5x)
The 10x photos dial up that plastickyness even higher and it’s not our favorite – grass and brickwork look almost completely made-up. In other types of subjects it’s nowhere as noticeable though. In any case, if you refrain from up-close examination, you’ll likely be perfectly happy with the results.
Low-light samples, telephoto camera (10x)
Ultrawide camera
The ultrawide, while still a decent performer, isn’t really in its element at night. There’s a general softness and some shadows get completely flattened. It struggled with getting the colors right with some types of lighting too.
Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.7x)
Photo quality verdict
The Poco F9 Ultra is generally a competent stills camera with flashes of greatness here or there, but also some shortcomings. The ultrawide camera is the least exciting module, lacking autofocus and generally underdelivering, particularly at night. The telephoto is properly excellent in daytime and reasonably good at night at 5x, though it delivers slightly questionable detail rendition at 10x in all kinds of light. The main camera is a top-class performer at 1x and 2x, it offers extra resolving power if you go through some hoops with its 200MP files, and its low-light results are also easy to like. Selfies are pretty great too – if only there was a readily available lower-res mode.
Video quality
The Poco F9 Ultra can record video up to 4K60 with all of its rear cameras, with the main one adding 8K30 capability on top of that. The selfie camera maxes out at 4K30 (or 1080p60 if you’re willing to trade resolution for more frames). There’s no 24fps capability, not even in the Pro video mode.
The default codec is h.265 but you can switch to h.264. The phone can record in HDR10+ if you enable the toggle in settings (a more accessible button in the viewfinder would be welcome) and it’s available for all resolution/frame rate settings on all four cameras, minus the main camera’s 8K30.
The Pro video mode has a Log recording mode with a handful of live preview LUTs, plus the option to import your own. The usual features are available here, including audio level monitoring, zebras for highlight clipping, and a tiny histogram, which can be switched for a tiny waveform – pretty solid.
There’s an always-on regular electronic video stabilization for all resolutions and frame rates.
You can hit ‘> play’ below and use the ‘>| next’ button to advance through the playlist of all video samples, or you can watch the full playlist on YouTube.
You can count on some very good daytime videos from the F9 Ultra. Dynamic range is wide, contrast is great, white balance is on point and colors have a likeable level of pop to them. Detail is also very good and has an organic rendition. The 2x clips can be a little dreamy in their detail rendition, but they’re still quite alright. The telephoto also returns detailed clips with great global properties. It’s the ultrawide that can’t quite earn good marks for sharpness (as was the case with the previous generation, for that matter), but it does have the main camera’s colors and dynamic range, which is always a great thing to see.
Video screengrabs, daylight: 0.7x • 1x • 2x • 5x • 10x
In the dark, the main camera maintains a pretty solid level, nailing the white balance and saturation, and having excellent dynamic range. Detail is good too, though things can be sharper, after all. 2x clips are soft and noisy, but possibly usable if you absolutely must. 5x footage is very good when it comes to detail and it’s also hard to fault in terms of colors and dynamic range. 10x is just about usable as well. The ultrawide’s footage is dark and somewhat lacking in dynamic range, prus it’s pretty soft.
Video screengrabs, low light: 0.7x • 1x • 2x • 5x • 10x
There’s not much to complain about when we get to stabilization. On the previous generation’s telephoto we observed a certain nervousness, which has been significantly reduced here, and the main and the ultrawide cameras are also nicely stable if you just point them in one direction. Panning is nicely smooth too. Walking shake on the main camera isn’t perfectly taken care of, but maybe those tremors we’re seeing won’t be there if you don’t go looking for them.
Video quality verdict
The Poco F9 Ultra is plenty capable as a video camera, featuring 4K60 on all rear cameras and 4K30 on the front, with HDR10+ available across the board. The Pro mode has a host of advanced features too. Video quality is very good on the main camera and the telephoto in both good light and at night, while the ultrawide is alright during the day, and not particularly likeable in the dark. Stabilization is generally very good.