Apple iPhone XS Max vs. Samsung Galaxy Note9

13 October 2018
At a time when LG is pushing the boundaries and installing all sorts of cameras in the V40 ThinQ (the ultra-wide/normal/tele trifecta we've all been waiting for), Apple and Samsung are taking a conservative approach and perfecting their dual camera game.

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Just saying, having a pro mode on Note 9 can fix those few minor flaws on what gsmarena has mentioned, when I used xs max it did not have any pro mode options in their camera. I do not think they have it till now

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    • Prabhat
    • w4m
    • 16 Oct 2018

    Hi GSMArena,

    You said that Samsung is perfecting its dual camera game but let's agree to disagree as Samsung Galaxy A7 & A9 are here :)

      • V
      • Venom
      • LkA
      • 16 Oct 2018

      Both are stuck in hardware limitation..

      P20 Pro and upcoming Mate 20 Pro have 1/1.7". This is twice the size of 1/2.55".
      Xz2 Premium has monochrome to absorb three times the amount of light compared to the RGB sensors of same size.

      Stacking is not going to help against these 3 phones. Note even counting the motion blur issues of

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • LkA
        • 16 Oct 2018

        Whackcar, 15 Oct 2018The Pixel 3 literally has the exact same camera as Pixel 2.... moreLeaks suggest S10+ will use 12MP 1/2.55", 13MP 1/3.4" telephoto and 16MP 1/3.06" ultra wide..
        It won't be much different results than Note 9.

        9

          Martin, 15 Oct 2018Test on DxO is fake, Real web DxO say fake. Same thing with DisplayMate

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • LEi
            • 16 Oct 2018

            Whackcar, 15 Oct 2018The Pixel 3 literally has the exact same camera as Pixel 2.... moreHow about no.
            Huawei is thrash.

              • X
              • Xhxhyy
              • 6ch
              • 16 Oct 2018

              Wrong color and overexposed image. That's a galaxy camera trademark.

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                • AnonD-732843
                • 0p}
                • 16 Oct 2018

                S Yu, 15 Oct 2018In semi-low light although the XS underexposes at a glance,... moreAnything can be perfect but it all boils down to whats better despite the flaws and ultimately, how long profits can be churned.

                On the other hand, more complex cases that are needed yet are still not provided should be detailed hardware information and what said hardware is fully capable of achieving.

                  • D
                  • AnonD-732843
                  • 0p}
                  • 16 Oct 2018

                  Martin, 15 Oct 2018LG V40 destroy both!! Actually, the notch destroys everything.

                    Gosh. At this point in time, camera quality really doesn't matter. Some cameras are slightly better than others, but any small difference is going to be negligible to the average person.

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                      • Dutchie
                      • S3$
                      • 15 Oct 2018

                      Another year, same comparison. It all comes down to OS preference and how much of a power user you are. Dont care about the cameras. Pictures are cropped when uploaded to social media anyways and nobody zooms in to see small differences.

                        • S
                        • S Yu
                        • s$k
                        • 15 Oct 2018

                        In semi-low light although the XS underexposes at a glance, this seems to be a simple matter of tone mapping, from the dusk shots the XS still retains the advantage of shadow details while the Note9 loses a lot of that(note the trees and grass, the XS' advantage is pretty obvious in the first 3 dusk shots, the last one is a bit of a toss), so the XS with some simple PP should definitely have the potential to generate higher quality shots, JPG to JPG, this is like Pixel JPGs which although has limited DR potential compared to RAW is still mapped to be more usable than ordinary JPGs.
                        Strangely neither seems very stable at night, one performs better than the other and vice versa under similar conditions, can't make a pattern out of it.
                        "Apple's way of doing things has been to isolate an oval outlining the face and keep that in focus and then gradually start blurring towards the periphery so it doesn't have to bother with detecting the precise border where subject and background meet"
                        ...seems debatable, though the left side of the guy's face is a gradual blur, the right side is a hard cut, yet it doesn't cut his hair which is about on the same focus plane as his further shoulder, and both are blurred to similar extents. Also in the camera shot, the couch at the right of the photo in the same plane of focus as the camera was incorrectly blurred by Note9, but XS handled the whole couch correctly. Since the system does make mistakes, while I still think the XS is the only one depth map based, it's hard to say for sure, but it's pretty clear that as long as the XS doesn't mess up spectacularly it does a better job compared to Note9's optimal performance.
                        What's needed before in the XS review and is still not provided in this comparison are more complex cases, for example taking a selfie from a low PoV, lying down on one's side, with the back cameras of course just because they're better, and see how the cameras handle the blurring of a tilted ground plane with varying distances to the one detectable face. These samples are too conventional, you're not testing ID photos.

                          • M
                          • Martin
                          • gyc
                          • 15 Oct 2018

                          Kingslayer, 15 Oct 2018Pixel 3 / 3 XL beats them both. They have a better displ... moreTest on DxO is fake, Real web DxO say fake.

                            • S
                            • S Yu
                            • s$k
                            • 15 Oct 2018

                            "Samsung's been doing something along these lines since the Galaxy S8 and is no longer really advertising it."
                            If this is true then not only did I completely miss the advertising, the results are generally subtle enough not to be noticeable in comparisons with other phones. You're supposed to see superior DR against size and resolution matched sensors, and at least some merge artifacts, but I didn't notice any at all.
                            In daylight...at least this sample of the Note9's lens is superior in sharpness at f/2.4 to this sample of the XS, but the XS does retain highlights better wherever highlights are bright enough. The XS usually sharpens more than the Note9 (differs with scene) while its sharpening artifacts are more natural than the competition, somewhat resembling natural shadow grain, and together with the HDR the XS could retain more shadow detail, often in the form of window reflections or interior details. In midtones though the Note9 usually does a better job.
                            Funny how in another test I saw shows notable sharpening artifacts(very little here, as in the XS review) of Note9 shots.
                            In the last sample of the second set the Note9's coma is everywhere, either the focus point is considerably closer than the XS or...at f/2.4 the coma is still worse than Apple's fixed aperture design at f/1.8.
                            I find it strange why the secondary camera wasn't also used in scenes that could test DR, because the XS also uses SmartHDR on the secondary cam, so far we could tell from the varying noise performance across different parts of the frame, for example two balconies similarly lit and close together but one is noisier than the other, this only happens in XS samples.

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                              • Nro
                              • J7R
                              • 15 Oct 2018

                              lol heck this Apple evil things here:

                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XneTBhRPYk

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • LkA
                                • 15 Oct 2018

                                Kingslayer, 15 Oct 2018Pixel 3 / 3 XL beats them both. They have a better displ... moreDxo has already stated that those scores are fake.
                                It says iPhone Xs has 104, when it ended up with 105 final score.

                                Also there is no way they test all those phones these year. They rarely post more than 2 reviews per month.
                                That list has 16 more devices.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • LkA
                                  • 15 Oct 2018

                                  They prefer the iPhone but did not say in the end

                                    alski10, 15 Oct 2018Well, I dont think it will do better than the Pixel 3. The Pixel 3 literally has the exact same camera as Pixel 2. Only software improvements. I doubt it'll be better than Mate 20 Pro & it's high-end camera setup.

                                    I'd say even S10 & U13 will beat Pixel 3 next year... that is assuming they'll upgrade their sensors instead of rehashing the same old ones.

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                                      • Albert
                                      • NsF
                                      • 15 Oct 2018

                                      Are we talking about a phone or a camera!

                                        Pixel 3...LOL, good luck with that!!