Galaxy Note 8 ties with iPhone 8 Plus for best smartphone camera: DxOMark

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has tied with the Apple iPhone 8 Plus for DxOMark’s best smartphone camera title with a score of 94/100. The recently released flagship’s results were published on the DxoMark website yesterday, where the camera ratings company also crowned the Galaxy Note 8 “the best smartphone camera for zoom.”

The Note 8 result arrives only a couple of weeks after the iPhone 8 Plus was announced as the new DxOMark grand champion, and though they now share the title, the capabilities of their cameras differ significantly in a few key areas.

The Galaxy Note 8 proved to be the more impressive when it came to shooting the infamous “bokeh effect” (blurred background and focused subject) shots, though the iPhone 8 Plus was said to have better dynamic range overall. The Note 8’s HDR is also said to be lagging behind some of the competition, as some snaps appeared overexposed, despite it doing a great job in terms of exposure overall.

The Note 8 fared better in low-light circumstances, though, and while DxOMark noted the iPhone 8 Plus’ excellent 2x zoom, at 8x, Samsung’s device had the goods; check out the 8x zoom comparison shot below (the Note 8 is on the left and iPhone 8 Plus is on the right).

Meanwhile, the Galaxy Note 8 is also said to have one of the best autofocuses in the business right now, and DxOMark noted that the Note 8’s performance in indoor light was one of its strengths.

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With regard to the actual hardware, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 makes use of dual rear camera setup, featuring a 12 MP wide-angle sensor with f/1.7 aperture lens and a 12 MP telephoto sensor with f/2.4 aperture lens — supporting 2x optical zoom. You’ve also got a dual-tone flash, Optical Image Stabilization and phase-detection autofocus packed in there, and it can shoot 4K video at 30fps (note that the DxOMark scores only reflect the performance of the rear camera).

You can take a look at the results and check out the other sample images over at the official DxOMark website. Just be aware that DxO works closely with some smartphone manufacturers as a camera technology consultant and, as such, shouldn’t be considered as the most objective of critics.

In other recent smartphone camera news, one analyst has said that the iPhone X camera is two and a half years ahead of the Android competition — read my thoughts on that notion at the link.