The iPhone 5, Lumia 920, Nokia 808, HTC One X and Galaxy S III go head to head in an Engadget low light shootout.

It looks like Nokia’s controversial marketing move, which involved using pro DSLRs to “simulate” low-light shooting, was even less necessary that the smartphone maker may have thought. During our visit to the company’s Tampere, Finland research and development complex, we were given access to a comprehensive testing suite, enabling us to shoot with the Lumia 920 and a handful of competing products in a controlled lighting environment. Technicians dimmed the lights and let us snap a static scene with each handset at just 5 lux — a level on par with what you may expect on a dimly lit city street in the middle of the night. The 920 took the cake, without question, but the iPhone didn’t fare too poorly itself, snatching up nearly as much light as the Nokia device. The 808 PureView also performed quite well, but the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III yielded unusable results.