Nothing recently launched its new budget mid-range smartphone, the CMF Phone 2 Pro, in the market. It brings several improvements compared to the CMF Phone 1. And one of the most highlighted features of the device is its camera.
The CMF Phone 2 Pro is one of the first devices in its segment to feature a 50-megapixel 2X optical zoom telephoto lens. Alongside it, there is a 50-megapixel primary lens and an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens.
While I am still testing its camera, the techie inside me forced me to install the Google Camera (GCam) on the device to see whether it makes any improvement compared to the stock camera or not.
How to Install Google Camera (GCam) on the CMF Phone 2 Pro
I have tried several Google camera modules for the device. Some modules don’t work at all, whereas some do not work very reliably–probably because of the MediaTek ISP. The one I’m using now is the most stable I could find, but there’s a big downside: it doesn’t work with the telephoto or ultrawide lenses at all. That’s a huge letdown, to be honest.
Step: 1 Download the GCam APK from the following link.
Step: 2 Install the APK.
Step: 3 Open the Google Camera and give all the required permissions. You can now enjoy it freely.
Does the Google Camera make any difference?
Honestly, I don’t think there’s any straight answer to this. The lack of support for auxiliary lenses makes it impossible to replace the stock camera. Since the telephoto is the biggest “advertised” part of the gadget, and the support for it is absent on the GCam, it is not recommended to use the GCam for normal usage.
That said, GCam does fix one of my biggest gripes with the stock camera: the overly bright photos it takes in good lighting. With GCam, exposure looks much more balanced, and colours look better (though, to be fair, the stock app isn’t bad with colours either).
I had to tweak the stock camera’s exposure manually (-0.3 EV) just to get realistic-looking shots (the photos I’ve used in the comparison are without manual EV input). GCam handles this automatically, which is great, but losing the extra lenses is a dealbreaker for most. I have still attached a few camera samples below for your reference.
Selfies are generally better on the GCam, however, the colours are slightly on the saturated side. Stock camera, on the other hand, applies beauty and skin smoothing even when it is turned off, which is kind of weird.
The low light performance is significantly better on the GCam, it gets the exposure, highlight control and details right. I don’t see any obvious advantage of using the stock camera for night images.
Regarding videos, you can use either of them. However, I suggest using the GCam as it produces slightly better-looking videos. The details are better, and the video looks smoother compared to the one produced from the stock camera.
Bottom line? If you want the best output, but only from the main camera, then GCam has no competition. The CMF Phone 2 Pro is one of those devices where I can blindly recommend using the GCam for the main lens.
Be it colours, highlight control or exposure, everything is better managed on the GCam. But for full versatility, you’ll have to stick with the stock app as GCam, as of right now, does not have the support of auxiliary lenses.
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