photography "Samsung Galaxy Note 8: The best smartphone for zoom" according to DxO Mark, tied with the iPhone 8+ with the score of 94

[captain_to_fire]

Source: DxO Mark

 

Quote

Test summary

Achieving an overall DxOMark mobile score of 94 points, the Note 8 becomes the new joint leader for smartphone image quality alongside Apple’s iPhone 8 Plus. 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. It’s still a very capable device for video, however, with its key strengths being good exposure with fast convergence, fast and stable autofocus, as well as good noise reduction, white balance, and color rendering.

Conclusion: Top ranking… for now

When all the tests are verified, the scores calculated, and the perceptual analyses discussed, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes out as an outstanding choice for the smartphone photography enthusiast, matching the top overall score of 94 points of the iPhone 8 Plus. Dual-cam setups offering a second telephoto zoom for portraits are a real step forward for high-end smartphone photography, and the implementation on the Note 8 is exceptional, making it the best smartphone for zoom shots we’ve tested.

Add to that extremely fast and accurate autofocus and a very competent flash unit, the Note 8 breaks new ground as the first smartphone to achieve 100 points for its photo sub-score. With new devices on the horizon from several of the key innovators for smartphone photography, will the Note 8 be able to hold onto its top spot? Time will tell.

Pros

• Excellent zoom performance up to 4x
• Very low noise levels in low light
• Fast and accurate autofocus
• Good detail in bright light and indoor conditions
• Bright and vivid colors

Pros

• Good white balance and color rendering
• Good exposure and fast exposure convergence
• Stable and fast autofocus
• Good noise reduction across all light conditions
• Good stabilization

Cons

• Limited dynamic range, frequent highlight clipping
• Bokeh effect is sometimes not visible even when mode is enabled
• Frequent white balance casts in bright light and indoor conditions

Cons

• No autofocus tracking capability in default mode
• Shadow and highlight clipping in high-contrast scenes
• Residual motion visible when holding the camera still during recording

Tied with the iPhone 8+ I see which doesn't surprise me a bit. The Galaxy line ever since the Note 4 onwards are known to have very good camera capabilities which put the myth 

 

 

Here are some samples from the DxO Mark. Oh boy they are beautiful:

 

It only shows how much smartphone photography has improved. Looking at the unedited samples from DxO Mark, the Galaxy produces vibrant colors and it's telephoto lens is also hardware stablized making it superior than the iPhone 8+. Personally, as I look at the pictures, the iPhone produces more natural colors while the GN8 can sometimes slightly increase color saturation but it's not like the oversaturation of older Samsung phones. If there's one advantage the GN8 has over the Apple one is that both lenses are hardware stabilized but the iPhone 8+ is cheaper than the Note 8. 

 

[Bouzoo]

I can't wait to see how the V30 will stack to those 2. 

[captain_to_fire]

6 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

I can't wait to see how the V30 will stack to those 2. 

DxO doesn't have the results just yet for the V30 but camera results are fairly positive for the V20 https://www.dxomark.com/lg-v20-mobile-review-dual-camera-with-great-results/

 

[Bouzoo]

Just now, hey_yo_ said:

DxO doesn't have the results just yet for the V30 but camera results are fairly positive for the V20 https://www.dxomark.com/lg-v20-mobile-review-dual-camera-with-great-results/

 

In early tests people put it on pair with S8 an iP8. LG has put most of their effort in the camera this time, but I don't want to jump to conclusions, am waiting for proper review. 

 

[suicidalfranco]

NICE!

 

Too bad ever since the iPhone 4 i despise with a burning passion the double glass design. And the curved edges are just the cherry on top of it

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, suicidalfranco said:

NICE!

 

Too bad ever since the iPhone 4 i despise with a burning passion the double glass design. And the curved edges are just the cherry on top of it

It's back and it's here to stay because the glass design allows wireless charging.

[givingtnt]

how can it be the best smartphone if they give it a score that TIES THE IPHONE

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, givingtnt said:

how can it be the best smartphone if they give it a score that TIES THE IPHONE

Take it up to dxo. I think it's more of the fact that both lenses are hardware stabilized.

[System Error Message]

i like how the poll reflects how biased or bribed the media industry is.

As a company and the pricing of their products, they're just like apple, hence why i avoid samsung. I used to want samsung to make apps on but not anymore. Now i want $50 phones to develop apps on instead.

[suicidalfranco]

38 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

It's back and it's here to stay because the glass design allows wireless charging.

Werid... my V10 has wireless charging but...

...

..

.

Spoiler

it doesn't have a glass back or/and on the edges

 

[captain_to_fire]

Just now, suicidalfranco said:

Werid... my V10 has wireless charging but...

  Hide contents

it doesn't have a glass back or/and on the edges

 

Plastic allows wireless charging. I remember that my old Note 2 variant (GT-N7100) doesn't have LTE but it has wireless charging

[79wjd]

2 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

NICE!

 

Too bad ever since the iPhone 4 i despise with a burning passion the double glass design. And the curved edges are just the cherry on top of it

I'd personally like the X in the 5s-style body. To hell with wireless charging. Also, the 5s had some glass on top/bottom, so I wonder if it would be possible to incorporate some kind of wireless charging coil into either of those areas. 

[Guest]

And while the Pixel 2s have an overall score of 98 (I really want to know how they weight their scores cause that's some funky weighting), it has a zoom score of 32. (Source)

[Deletist_Jerk]

14 hours ago, givingtnt said:

how can it be the best smartphone if they give it a score that TIES THE IPHONE

Alternative journalism school. 

[vanished]

On 10/4/2017 at 5:48 AM, hey_yo_ said:

Spoiler

 

 

omg this looks like absolute shit  

 

And as for all of them, and all phones everywhere, and even other crappy cameras if there are any still around, here's some advise.  If you want a sharp, detailed image, mega pixels are necessary but not sufficient.  You can slap a 100 MP sensor on it if you want but if there are other factors limiting the quality, like oil smeared on the lens, or just bad glass, etc. you'll never actually get that much detail out of it.  One measurement you'll see DXOMark do for real cameras and lenses is something called "P-Mpix", and it's basically how many MP is actually, effectively has.  For example, if you take a 600 x 400 image, and stretch it up to 6000 x 4000, sure your file is now 24 MP, but the actual amount of detail in the image hasn't changed.  This matters for two main reasons:

1. If you're storing more data than you need to, you're wasting space.  Capture images at a resolution you can actually use, no more.
2. It gives people who don't know better a false sense of quality when they see 100 bajillion MP without looking into any other specs.

Now, I'm not sure what fancy techniques DXOMark uses to determine this value, but you can get a rough estimate yourself pretty easily.  Simply take the image into any basic editing tool (better than MS Paint but you don't need much) and scale it down, and keep scaling it down until it looks completely sharp.  What I mean by that is additional reductions in scale do not continue to increase sharpness.  Now check the % zoom.  Multiply the literal resolution by this to get your new effective resolution.  Do this for both vertical and horizontal and that's your approximate P-Mpix.  I have a feeling that in good light, most smart phones will score roughly 50%, or in other words 1/4 of their literal resolution, (and in low light it will of course be a different story but ignore that since you have to test best case scenario for this to be fair) but some might be worse.

 

I did this myself on the building image and what do you know?  50% is about right.  So, yeah, it's a beautiful 3 MP image.

[TVwazhere]

4 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

omg this looks like absolute shit  

Was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe it's digitally zoomed?

[vanished]

Just now, TVwazhere said:

Was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe it's digitally zoomed?

It has to be

 

which btw is another pet peeve of mine... can we please just call it what it actually is?  "cropped"  

[TVwazhere]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

It has to be

 

which btw is another pet peeve of mine... can we please just call it what it actually is?  "cropped"  

Zoom sounds cooler 

[vanished]

Just now, TVwazhere said:

Zoom sounds cooler 

I'm sure it's mislead a lot of people over the years into thinking they're actually getting additional detail or quality somehow, from somewhere though 

[TVwazhere]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

I'm sure it's mislead a lot of people over the years into thinking they're actually getting additional detail or quality somehow, from somewhere though 

And people were probably mislead the GTX1080 was for 1080p gaming. Hell, half the time I cant remember Input lag vs response time definitions, or which manufacturers made EVGA's G series of PSU's D: 

[captain_to_fire]

5 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

It has to be

 

which btw is another pet peeve of mine... can we please just call it what it actually is?  "cropped"  

The telephoto lens in both the iPhone and the Note 8 uses only 2x optical zoom, anything above 2x zoom will resort to crappy digital zoom up to 10x. That is why 5x zoom on a 12 MP dSLR will always be better than 5x digital zoom from a 12 MP smartphone which is basically cropping an image. 

 

That is why photographers who does photoshoots of models still use dSLRs even though smartphone cameras now support RAW files. 

[vanished]

Just now, hey_yo_ said:

That is why photographers who does photoshoots of models still use dSLRs even though smartphone cameras now support RAW files. 

That's far from the only reason...  

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

That's far from the only reason...  

When I had my graduation photo taken, I notice the flash came out of xenon bulbs with umbrellas as the photographer hit the shutter button. I don’t even know what those umbrellas on a studio serve for. 

[vanished]

1 hour ago, hey_yo_ said:

When I had my graduation photo taken, I notice the flash came out of xenon bulbs with umbrellas as the photographer hit the shutter button. I don’t even know what those umbrellas on a studio serve for. 

It diffuses the light and makes it softer so it's not all coming from one concentrated spot