Quick Reality Check on HMD Skyline’s Low Light Camera Quality

HMD Global has been putting serious effort into repositioning itself as a maker of respectable smartphones once again. Their latest model, the HMD Skyline, is marketed as the new flagship — boasting solid specs, an attractive design, and most notably, improved camera capabilities supposedly tuned with help from professional photographers. But when it comes to actual camera performance, especially in low light, reality speaks louder than marketing.

We decided to put the Skyline’s camera to the test — not in a studio, but in the way most people use their phones: quick, handheld shots out of the pocket. To make things interesting, we compared its performance to that of Xiaomi’s latest mid-flagship, the Xiaomi 14T Pro, which costs around €100 more. Take a look at the two images below (no editing, just resized for web):

📷 Image 1 – HMD Skyline:

Over-sharpened processing, heavy noise, pixelation in dark areas, and strange light handling. If you look closely, some pixels seem dead or stuck — an unusual sight on a new smartphone in 2025.

📷 Image 2 – Xiaomi 14T Pro:

Noticeably better light control, more detail across dark areas, natural colours, and minimal noise.

 

While Xiaomi has the advantage of a powerful ISP, deeper integration with AI-driven processing, and much more R&D behind its camera systems, this shouldn’t excuse what HMD has delivered. The Skyline’s low-light output is simply not competitive, not even with last year’s midrangers. And this is coming from a phone that HMD proudly presented as a step forward, not just with hardware but with a camera experience “promoted by professionals“.

Unfortunately, the only thing “professional” about this experience is the marketing. In real-world usage, the Skyline disappoints. And if HMD continues down this path, overpromising and underdelivering, they risk confining themselves to the feature phone segment, no matter how nostalgic their designs get.

We still root for HMD. We want to see them succeed. But they have to take smartphone photography seriously again, not just in press releases, but in actual results.