Soon after the iPhone 8 was launched, the photography experts at DxOMark crowned the iPhone 8 Plus as the best smartphone camera they ever tested, giving it an overall 94 rating.
It looks like the iPhone’s dominance was short-lived, as it now shares the top spot over at DxOMark with its biggest rival, the Galaxy Note 8.
Truth be told, the DxOMark score system doesn’t make sense because you can’t just assign values to certain photo characteristics that can’t be objectively measured. That doesn’t make DxOMark’s reviews irrelevant, as they provide ample explanations for their findings for every camera they analyze. It’s just that a device, doesn’t need a score for someone to declare it the “best camera in town.”
The Galaxy Note 8 scored 100 points in the photo tests but didn’t do as well in video tests, which explains why it tied with the iPhone 8. But this begs the obvious question: Can a phone go over 100 in these rankings?
A phenomenal photo sub-score that breaks new ground as the first smartphone to hit 100 points makes the Note 8 the current class-leader for stills, thanks to excellent zoom quality, good noise reduction and detail preservation, as well as fast and accurate autofocus. The Note 8 doesn’t quite match the same heights for video, where its sub-score of 84 is a little behind the best performers, such as the Google Pixel with 91 points, or the iPhone 8 Plus and the HTC U11, both with 89.
What’s interesting about the Galaxy Note 8 review, is that DxOMark team says the phone is “the best smartphone for zoom,” which seems a lot let appreciative than “the best smartphone camera” ever tested title used for the iPhone 8 Plus review. For reference, the iPhone 8 is a “solid performance upgrade over the iPhone 7” in DxOMark’s review.
The iPhone X and Pixel 2 phones will receive similar treatments from the company, so it’ll be interesting to see how they fare. Meanwhile, the full Galaxy Note 8 DxOMark review, complete with iPhone 8 Plus comparisons is available at this link. Others have also reviewed the two cameras, posting somewhat similar conclusions.
