The camera in your smartphone is likely the most important one in your life, so it’s vital to find a good one. Image and video quality in good and low light is paramount. So is the user interface; a well-designed one makes easier to get the shot, a badly designed one makes it harder. The autofocus system has to be both fast and accurate. Auxiliary features like HDR, panorama, and flash round off the tests. For this comparison, we only considered the top phones that pack advanced camera features.
This year’s smartphone cameras have gotten so good that we’ve done something for the first time in Tech Awards history: two winners in one category.
That’s because each of the two winners is better at one thing that the other isn’t. The Samsung Note8’s camera is excellent in most things. But the Note8’s videos aren’t as good as the Apple iPhone X. The iPhone X provides the most balanced performance with excellent videos and an intuitive interface. But its still photos aren’t as detailed as the Note8’s.
Apple iPhone X | Google Pixel 2 XL | HTC U11 | Huawei Mate Pro 10 | LG V30+ | Samsung Galaxy Note8 | Sony Xperia XZ Premium | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
User-friendliness | Winner | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Colors | Winner | Winner | - | - | - | Winner | - |
Details | - | - | - | - | - | Winner | - |
Flash | - | Winner | - | - | - | - | - |
HDR | - | Winner | - | - | - | - | - |
Low-light | - | - | - | - | - | Winner | - |
Panoramas | - | - | - | - | - | Winner | - |
Portrait Modes | Winner | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Selfies | Winner | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Zoom | - | - | - | - | - | Winner | - |
Videos | Winner | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Price |
|
Up to S$1,098 with Singtel contract | S$998 | S$1,098 | S$1,098 | S$1,398 | S$1,098 |
*Note: Prices and ratings listed are accurate at the time of individual product evaluation.
For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed in the References section at the end.
What do power users love most about the Samsung Galaxy Note9?