EE Harrier Mini  – Camera

The Harrier Mini includes a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and an 8-megapixel main camera where
many budget phones are getting away with only 5MP.

Taking
pictures with the Harrier is pretty straightforward. You can touch focus
and touch shoot, with the camera judging the exposure from the point on
the screen that you press. The camera app is a lot like the stock Android one, but there’s nothing in the way of manual controls. It’s also preset to shoot in the lower 6-megapixel resolution in a 16:9 ratio, so you’ll need to jump into the settings to move to the 8-megapixel 4:3 ratio to get the most rewarding photos.

There’s a Night mode to use in the hope of improving low-light shooting, a Panorama mode and the useful addition of HDR.

It’s capable of capturing a respectable
amount of detail in good light, although its colours are a little muted. There’s a decent amount of detail in the rope in the image below, but it can take a few attempts to get grab something worthy of sharing on Twitter and Facebook.

The camera does struggle with high-contrast scenes and
it’s barely usable in low light, although it does have a single LED
flash to provide some assistance. At night, the camera is slow to jump into action, which is frustrating. The Moto E (2015) doesn’t have a flash at all, though, so at the very least you do have the option to persevere and attempt to get something worthy.

While the more expensive Moto G 2 also packs an 8-megapixel camera, it works a lot harder and shoots quicker to deliver more rewarding results.

For shooting video, you can film in a maximum 1080p Full HD with flash support to aid the nightime shooting. For a £100 job it serves surprisingly sharp footage. It’s rare to find a phone at this price that isn’t just a juddery mess.

Overall,
the Harrier Mini’s camera is another component of what makes this phone
such good value for money. It will deliver pleasing images that you’ll
want to share more often than not.