Apple‘s got a brand new flagship smartphone out and surprise, surprise, it’s got an excellent camera. But the question is: How good is the iPhone X’s camera? Can it compete with the best smartphone cameras in the market right now?
Well, there’s really only one way to find out. It’s time for another flagship smartphone camera comparison.
Admittedly, this flagship smartphone camera comparison isn’t as epic as our last ones BUT it features the latest flagships to have been launched during the second half of 2017. Well, the latest flagships we could get our hands on, that is. Let’s meet the contenders.
This round, there will be four of the best smartphone cameras in the market right now:
1. Samsung Galaxy Note8
2. Huawei Mate 10 Pro
3. Apple iPhone 8 Plus
4. Apple iPhone X
And these phones will be tested in the following scenarios:
1. Macro
2. Colour
3. Low light
4. HDR
5. Portrait
6. Selfie
Which smartphone comes out on top? Let’s find out.
[nextpage title=”Macro”]
This is the most straightforward test. Basically, we mounted the smartphone to a camera slider and moved the device further from the subject in increments of 5mm, taking a picture each time. This creates an even playing field for all the smartphones and should give us a good idea which phone does it best.
For the subject of this test, we used a crisp USD20 note and here are the results:
Samsung’s Galaxy Note8 and Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro tie for the closest macro, producing a sharp image at just 20mm. Both iPhones, on the other hand, needed at least 30mm to get a sharp image.
One great thing about the iPhones though, is the fact that they both have far more accurate white balance than their Android rivals.
[nextpage title=”Colour”]
Colour is probably the most subjective test of the bunch because of how we perceive colour. Picking a winner was pretty difficult because the two iPhones were very close. Personally, I like the slightly less saturated colours on the iPhone X but for social media purposes, the more saturated iPhone 8 Plus’ image will definitely look better on more screens. I especially like the blues on the 8 Plus better but I the iPhone X gets more of the other colours right.
In third place, I’d give it to the Samsung Galaxy Note8 with the Mate 10 Pro in last place.
The Mate 10 Pro’s colours were just wildly oversaturated and is even soft around the edges (I’m guessing software bokeh). This, I believe, is because of the Mate 10 Pro’s AI image recognition feature which identified the M&Ms as food and boosted the saturation.
[nextpage title=”Low Light”]
Low light performance is arguably one of the most important aspects in any smartphone camera and the good news is that all of these phones are pretty evenly matched when the going gets dark.
However, since we’re digging into the details of each image and I have to pick a winner, I’d say that the Samsung Galaxy Note8 pulls out a win for me here by a hair over the second place iPhone X.
The Note8 edges out the competition in two aspects: Its control of luminance noise and the ability to retain the most accurate shape of the objects in low light, both of which are evidently demonstrated here:
Besides the Note8, the other three phones have really jagged edges and murky lines in general which is not attractive at all. The iPhone 8 Plus also produces a much warmer image than the other three smartphones.
However, all but the Mate 10 Pro have some kind of colour noise:
The Note 8’s littered with green bits, iPhone X with magenta bits, while the iPhone 8 Plus has orange bits. I’m definitely impressed that the Mate 10 Pro has that properly under control here.
[nextpage title=”HDR”]
HDR or High Dynamic Range is a camera feature that’s pretty important in smartphone cameras. A phone’s HDR capabilities refer to its ability to capture multiple exposures in a challenging lighting scene (high contrast between shadows and highlights) to produce a final image that’s evenly lit. A smartphone with good HDR capabilities should not lose details in the shadows or the highlights.
In this test scene, the lighting outside and from the window is very bright while the left of the image is fairly dark and hidden in shadows. As far as HDR performance goes, I think the Huawei Mate 10 Pro did the best here without losing much details in the highlights or the shadows. It did not produce the brightest image, but it is the most evenly lit of the bunch.
Both iPhones over exposed the right half of the image where the details from the clouds in the sky were all lost in the highlights. You do get the brightest exposure in the middle (which is where we tapped to expose for all devices) but at the cost of the clouds outside.
One interesting thing to note on the iPhone images is how unnatural the gradient of the shadows are compared to their Android rivals:
Personally though, I like the look of the Samsung’s Note8 image the most. Sure, it doesn’t have the best demonstration of HDR but I like the slightly more vivid colours, cooler temperature and more pleasing textures.
But that, I think, is more down to personal taste.
[nextpage title=”Portrait”]
All four cameras are capable of bokeh-fied “portrait mode” photos but the question remains: Which does it best? Before we can answer that, though, we should consider what makes a nice portrait photo.
To me, I’m looking at the pleasantness of bokeh, how accurately the phone can separate subject from the background, and which has the most flattering angle.
Although the photo is a little soft in this test, I prefer the iPhone X’s image the most. The X does a pretty good job at separating the subject from the background even through all the challenging nooks and crannies of the handrail.
A close second would be the Huawei Mate 10 Pro but its more aggressive (and less pleasing to my eye) bokeh amplified some of the subject separation errors:
What’s more, I’m not a big fan of the Mate 10 Pro’s wider angle because it’s less flattering for the subject (his head looks weird) and it doesn’t do a good job at compressing the background.
The worst performer though, has to be the Samsung Galaxy Note8. Not only is its bokeh the most aggressive (and most artificial-looking), it also doesn’t do a good job at accurately blurring the area around the handrail:
Live Focus bombed pretty hard here.
[nextpage title=”Selfie”]
Finally, we’ve got the selfie test and right off the bat you’ll notice that there are two distinct schools of thought here when it comes to selfies. The first, is to keep things as real as possible (iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X) while the second is to beautify and whiten (Samsung Galaxy Note8 and Huawei Mate 10 Pro).
It really depends on what kind of person you want to project to the world but I like to keep it real so I’d pick the iPhone 8 Plus’ selfie over the rest. It’s crisp with a slight boost in colour saturation and I think it is most faithful to real life.
Why didn’t I pick the bokeh-ed iPhone X, you ask? Well, I honestly don’t think the iPhone X’s selfie portrait is that great especially considering this big separation fail:
Looks kinda like there’s a bug on his shoulder.
[nextpage title=”Conclusion”]
Finally, it’s conclusion time and the best conclusion there is to make is that all of these smartphones can take stellar photos that will be more than good enough for your daily needs.
If we were to tally the scores for each category, the scoreboard would look like this:
Which means everyone but the iPhone 8 Plus is a winner.
Although these are flagship smartphones, they’re not all within the same ballpark when it comes to pricing. For example, the iPhone X has its prices start at RM5,149 for the 64GB variant of the smartphone. The iPhone 8 Plus, on the other hand, retails from RM4,149 (64GB). Then, you’ve got the Samsung Galaxy Note8 which has an RRP of RM3,999. Finally, you’ve got the Huawei Mate 10 Pro which is officially priced at RM3,099.
The fact that these phones’ cameras are fairly close in image quality despite the massive price differences — Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro is RM2,050 less than the iPhone X — is a really good sign for people who like taking photos with their smartphones. Not to mention, Huawei’s definitely got the best camera UI (and Pro Mode) of this lot.
What do you guys think of this camera test? Which phone do you think did best? Let us know in the comments below!
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