DxOMark offers a toggle switch to hide virtually all Chinese phones from its ranking, but why?

DxOMark, the camera benchmarking site, has announced a new feature to rank smartphones that are only available in the US. With a single switch, you can now hide almost all Chinese brands from the listing which include the top 3 models on the overall list.

Chinese smartphone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi have been dominating DxOMark’s smartphone camera ranking for quite some time now. At the moment, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro is currently #1 with an overall DxOMark score of 136, followed by the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra with 133 points and the Huawei P40 Pro with 132 points.

When you switch the toggle to “USA”, Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max are pushed onto the podium. In fact, the top 4 models are all iPhone models, followed by the Google Pixel 5. The only “Chinese” smartphone brand on the top 20 list is OnePlus.

DxOMark explains that the filter was necessary due to region-specific product releases. They cited the example of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra which is said to deliver a different result depending on the type of processor despite having the same camera module and lenses.

On their list, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G with a Snapdragon unit for the US only scored 117 points while the Exynos variant received 120 points. For consumers that follow the global launch and reviews, this could cause some mismatch of expectations as the phone you bought might perform differently.

It added that it aims to assist consumers in their buying decisions by providing the same objective, rigorous, comprehensive and science-based evaluations for all products regardless of the region where they are sold. At the moment, they are only offering US based rankings and they plan to provide a similar filter for other markets such as Europe, India and China. The regional filter would be applied not just for smartphone cameras but also for display and audio.

What do you think of DxOMark’s move to segregate listing by region? Will it actually help consumers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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