ProHoster > Blog > internet news > Comparative test of flagship smartphone cameras: Apple iPhone Xs Max, Google Pixel 3 XL, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S10+ and Xiaomi Mi 9
Comparative test of flagship smartphone cameras: Apple iPhone Xs Max, Google Pixel 3 XL, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S10+ and Xiaomi Mi 9
In an age where there is DxO Mark arranging all cameras and smartphones in a certain order, the idea of doing comparison tests yourself seems a little overkill. On the other hand, why not? Moreover, at one moment we had all the modern flagship smartphones in our hands - and we pushed them head-on.
One thing - already in the process of preparing this material came out , which simply did not have time to fit into these showdowns, so we are forced to put the potential winner of the competition out of the brackets. Its place was taken by the autumn flagship of Huawei - Mate 20 Pro.
We did not describe in detail the technical characteristics of smartphones and even their cameras - for this there are reviews that have been published about each of the gadgets presented in the comparative test:
;
;
;
;
.
But it is still necessary to identify some key things. All smartphones presented here have different cameras in terms of functionality and technical device. The Google Pixel 3 XL is the only single-camera smartphone that offers neither extended viewing angle nor optical zoom, only software zoom. The iPhone Xs Max is a dual-camera smartphone with a second camera that provides 9x optical zoom. Huawei, Samsung and Xiaomi have also offered three-camera systems with various variations of wide-angle shooting and zoom - the Mi 10 and Galaxy S20 + have two times, the Mate 3 Pro has three times. At the same time, everyone is equipped with a special portrait mode with the ability to programmatically blur the background - this is a must-have program today, but only Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi have improved the picture with the help of "artificial intelligence". To some extent, HDR + plays the same role in the Google Pixel XNUMX XL, but it makes no sense to compare these modes head-on. Apple iPhone, as usual, hides all settings from the user, deciding absolutely everything for him on his own. Therefore, we conducted the tests in automatic mode and with basic settings - but with the AI mode turned off for all smartphones that allow you to do this.
The test is
In different tests, we will evaluate the result according to different criteria, but the key factors will be sharpness and detail. In addition, the result is affected by the correct exposure and white balance. In each test, a smartphone can score 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 points, depending on the place in the subjective report card (for the first place - 5 points, for the fifth place - 1 point). The device with the most points will be named the best.
The presence of a wide-angle module cannot be ignored in the final assessment simply because the user opens up additional opportunities when using it. To evaluate its work, a separate test was conducted with three participants - the winner in it received 3 points, the second place smartphone - 2 points, the third - 1 point. Accordingly, each of them received additional points in the overall report card.
Since we do not conduct a user survey, the purity of the experiment is not important here - the arrangement of photos is always the same, in alphabetical order.
street landscape
A simple, basic scene where detail, wide dynamic range and color quality are required from the camera in the first place.
Shooting on the main camera, without using the wide-angle or zoom mode, the default settings are everywhere (Huawei can use its "real-time HDR", and the Pixel 3 XL has HDR +). Here everyone shows themselves well - this is exactly the scene where even budget devices should produce a normal picture.
The image performed by the iPhone looks the most pleasant - the colors are a bit cold, but it looks thoroughbred; detail is excellent. Galaxy is slightly yellowish, the picture is noticeably lighter, less contrast, but it suits the stage. Pixel does not use its proprietary processing to its fullest, the shadows are not detailed enough. We also note reddish colors. Huawei, despite its very high status, produces a slightly soapy picture with failed shadows and too warm colors. Xiaomi has natural colors, but otherwise there is nothing to brag about: the dynamic range is weak, and the detail is not the limit.
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 5 points; Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 4 points; Google Pixel 3 XL - 3 points; Huawei Mate 20 Pro - 2 points; Xiaomi Mi 9 - 1 point.
Shooting indoors with a standard viewing angle
This is a noticeably heavier scene - precise work with white balance, high-quality detail with good noise reduction and not only a wide dynamic range, but also confident operation of optics with numerous artificial light sources are important here.
In this scene, Huawei's penchant for warm colors works to this smartphone's advantage - colors look natural. The soapiness that we noticed when shooting a street landscape goes somewhere - the details are clearly spelled out. Samsung again shows a tendency to slightly overexpose, but as long as the dynamic range is good, this does not harm the picture. The colors are colder than they should be. In a very similar way, Xiaomi appears in this story - high-quality work. The iPhone, the colors of which look great on the display of the smartphone itself, on the screen of a calibrated monitor gives out an already too cold picture, and the difference between a warm bottom and a cold top is pronounced. The Pixel is also quite good, but loses to competitors in detail and in dynamic range (HDR + did not join the work).
Huawei Mate 20 Pro – 5 points;
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 4 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 - 3 points;
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 2 points;
Google Pixel 3 XL - 1 point.
Shooting indoors with zoom
There are a few details here. Three smartphones are equipped with 9x optical zoom (Xiaomi Mi 10, Samsung Galaxy S20+, iPhone Xs Max), one with 3x optical zoom (Huawei Mate XNUMX Pro), and the Google Pixel XNUMX XL can only demonstrate its software capabilities with digital zoom.
And the results are very unexpected. Pixel with its digital zoom demonstrates very high-quality work - the image almost does not lose sharpness, contour sharpness is neatly tightened, there is no “soap”. Just the picture is a bit dark. The iPhone, however, looks even better: rich, but honest colors, good white balance, excellent detail, confident dynamic range. Samsung is not inferior to both in sharpness, but shows a little strange, unnatural color reproduction. Xiaomi loses a little in both sharpness and exposure accuracy, besides, the image is pale. Well, Huawei with a triple zoom performs the worst in this competition: poor detail, combined with an unsuccessful white balance, does not leave this creation of Chinese engineering a chance.
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 5 points;
Google Pixel 3 XL - 4 points;
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 3 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 – 2 points;
Huawei Mate 20 Pro - 1 point.
Shooting indoors with wide-angle optics
Only three devices with wide-angle lenses participate in this competition: Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S10 + and Xiaomi Mi 9. Both Apple and Google skip it and do not receive points.
Samsung has a very simple optical advantage here - the wide-angle lens of this smartphone simply has a wider viewing angle, which, combined with competent work with spatial distortions (which can still be improved in the settings) and normal colors, brings it to the first place. The Galaxy SHU camera doesn't have autofocus, but that doesn't matter at all in a scene like this. Huawei is also very good, but slightly inferior in almost all respects, except for the presence of autofocus (which does not affect the picture in any way in this case), and in detail, and in viewing angle, and in color reproduction. Xiaomi can also please the user with autofocus in this mode, but the picture itself is worse - cold colors and a pale tone.
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 3 points;
Huawei Mate 20 Pro - 2 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 - 1 point.
Night shooting
The most difficult plot for any smartphone is that due to the small size of the sensor, no smartphone camera can receive as much light as even an ordinary soap dish. It remains to rely on optical stabilization, high-quality software processing and high-aperture optics, which all smartphones participating in testing can boast of. Particularly stands out, of course, the Samsung Galaxy S10 + with a relative aperture of the main lens ƒ / 1,5. We did not test shooting with zoom or wide-angle optics in this story. The same goes for a special night mode with multiple exposure - all smartphones that have it (Google Pixel 3 XL, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 9) we tested, but left the results out of competition.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro, despite the lack of a proprietary monochrome sensor (now a matrix with an RYYB filter can be considered proprietary), demonstrates high shooting quality - normal white balance, contrasting picture; the smartphone tries too hard in artificial sharpening, but this does not lead to disastrous results. Samsung produces a slightly more soapy picture - this is unusual for Korean gadgets, which for a long time were "famous" for too active work with contour sharpening. But there are no complaints about color reproduction and white balance. The iPhone shoots with approximately the same detail as the Samsung, but is inferior in color reproduction - its camera noticeably “greens”. Xiaomi has good sharpness, which pleases given the lack of an optical stabilizer in the gadget, but there is a problem with the dynamic range - overexposure is very noticeable. The Google smartphone at default settings produces a weak picture - huge overexposures and at the same time the presence of frank "soap" and noticeable noise in the picture: the "pixel" literally begs you to turn on a special night mode.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro – 5 points;
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 4 points;
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 3 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 – 2 points;
Google Pixel 3 XL - 1 point.
But when you activate the night mode, which requires 3-5 seconds of immobility from the photographer, the Pixel is transformed - they would not say that it surpasses the same Huawei in its “basic” night shooting, but the gap from itself in normal mode is very significant. Huawei produces a much brighter picture, but tries too hard to smooth the image - it becomes more soapy than when shooting by default. Xiaomi works in this mode unstably: it is not always possible to get a high-quality image the first time, but when it turns out, everything is in order - a bright, sharp picture, but with incorrect color reproduction (there is a bias towards red tones).
Macro
In this scenario, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a natural advantage - the “super macro” mode with the activation of the wide-angle camera, which has a minimum focusing distance of 2,5 cm. The rest of the test participants work with the main camera and approximately the same focusing distance. In this story, sharpness and color quality are important in the first place.
Huawei wins this competition without a fight - simply due to the fact that it can shoot almost real macro with it. And then it's a pretty tough fight. Google Pixel produces slightly cool colors, but bypasses other competitors (except Mate, of course) in terms of sharpness. The Apple iPhone could actually claim second place in this competition - a slightly different color rendition (the Apple smartphone is more “green”), sharpness, if inferior, is minimal. But Pixel is still a little better. Samsung also demonstrates good sharpness, but does not cope well with the exposure - in its style it raises the brightness above the required level, but here it does not suit the picture. Xiaomi also has a completely working macro, but in all respects it is slightly inferior to its competitors - both in sharpness and in color reproduction.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro – 5 points;
Google Pixel 3 XL - 4 points;
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 3 points;
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 2 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 - 1 point.
full-length portrait
Modern flagship smartphones, for the most part, allow you not only to shoot portraits with software background blur, but to choose how to shoot it - close-up or full-length. Somewhere - just moving away from the model, somewhere - with the help of optical zoom. We shot two portraits: full-length and close-up in daylight and one with the most comfortable distance for each smartphone (which is the default when portrait mode is activated) in artificial light. First, let's analyze how smartphone cameras worked on a full-length portrait.
This is the most natural situation for the Samsung Galaxy S10+ and Google Pixel 3 XL - in the first case, the "live focus" mode, which provides background blur, for some reason does not involve zooming, so for a close-up portrait, you need to get closer to the subject. In the second, there is no optical zoom on the smartphone at all, but there is a fully working digital one, as we found out above.
I must say that the Pixel lives up to expectations - in this mode it really shows itself best of all: good skin tone, very high-quality blur (the best of all), high contrast. All skin imperfections will be noticeable, but the picture looks the most natural. Huawei Mate 20 Pro, on the contrary, is very “younger”, smoothing the skin in portrait mode (even with the beautifier turned off) and slightly yellowing, but the portrait again looks natural. The iPhone, which is famous for its natural colors, did not show this here, pushing the skin tone into the red area. Even smoother than that of Huawei, the picture was issued by Xiaomi. It also, as usual, lacked dynamic range (note the overexposure on the nose), but the colors are very good. Samsung, unfortunately, is very soapy on the skin in the "live focus" mode, and nothing can be done about this behavior. It kills the rest of its virtues in this mode - high-quality bokeh and color reproduction.
Google Pixel 3 XL - 5 points;
Huawei Mate 20 Pro - 4 points;
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 3 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 - 2 points;
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 1 point.
Close-up portrait
When shooting close-up portraits, we shot at a normal angle on a Samsung, double digital zoom on a Pixel, dual optical zoom on an iPhone and Xiaomi, and triple optical zoom (the base one for this smartphone) on a Huawei.
In terms of color reproduction, the situation is similar to what we saw when shooting full-length portraits, but there is a noticeable difference in detail. The Pixel feels surprisingly confident again - when using the minimum digital zoom, there is simply no visible loss in detail. Samsung, due to the need to use a wide-angle camera to shoot a close-up portrait, noticeably “stretches” the face, distorting its features – alas, this again automatically throws the Korean flagship into last place. Huawei is also pretty bad - when shooting with a triple zoom, even in good lighting, sharpness drops sharply, this is also the result of an outsider. iPhone and Xiaomi are more likely to share second place - each has its own trump cards, but the soft picture of the "Chinese" is subjectively a little more attractive.
Google Pixel 3 XL - 5 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 - 4 points;
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 3 points;
Huawei Mate 20 Pro - 2 points;
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 1 point.
Portrait under artificial light
When shooting a portrait under artificial lighting, we shot with each smartphone with the most comfortable focal length for it.
The Pixel, as expected, won this competition as well - it's clearly the best smartphone for shooting portraits today: again, good colors, sharpness and contrast; the face looks a little pale, but this fully reflects the state of lighting in the place where the shooting was carried out. Samsung performed well in this case when shooting in height - softening of facial features accompanied shooting on all smartphones (except Pixel) due to insufficient lighting and, as a result, turned on noise reduction, otherwise the Galaxy is in order - good white balance and decent sharpness . Huawei has noticeably strong anti-aliasing, but autofocus worked very well (sharpness is clearly visible), good blur and normal color reproduction. The iPhone is also, in principle, not bad, but it coped worse with color reproduction on the skin. Xiaomi is helpless in this mode: the picture is dark, pale, without sharpness.
Google Pixel 3 XL - 5 points;
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 4 points;
Huawei Mate 20 Pro - 3 points;
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 2 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 - 1 point.
Text/still life
This test, traditional for such comparative reviews, should first of all reveal the detailing of smartphone cameras. All photos were taken with the main camera without zoom.
In this competition, Huawei confidently wins due to the combination of natural, correct color reproduction and maximum sharpness. The iPhone is close in terms of detail, but the colors are slightly colder. Samsung also performed well in terms of sharpness, but lost in terms of color reproduction - the picture is too warm (which is unexpected for this gadget) and oversaturated. Xiaomi is inferior in both sharpness and color reproduction, greatly shifting the tones to blue. The Pixel is unexpectedly weak both in terms of sharpness and white balance. Also, the picture turned out to be too noisy, which makes it difficult to read the text.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro – 5 points;
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 4 points;
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 3 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 - 2 points;
Google Pixel 3 XL - 1 point.
Conclusion
This is, of course, subjective testing, although based on a number of very different situations - it hardly claims to be the final solution to the "chamber" issue, but it nevertheless provided a lot of food for thought.
Results:
Huawei Mate 20 Pro - 34 points;
Apple iPhone Xs Max - 30 points;
Samsung Galaxy S10+ – 29 points;
Google Pixel 3 XL - 29 points;
Xiaomi Mi 9 - 19 points.
Results do not match assigned test . If the first place is the same for us and for DxO - and this is predictable, then further confusion follows: for example, Google Pixel 3 XL, primarily due to confident work in all portrait modes, high-quality color reproduction and its wonderful digital zoom, has risen much higher than Xiaomi Mi 9, which in most of the tests took fourth or fifth place, behind more expensive competitors. The iPhone Xs Max didn’t show off some of the outstanding color reproduction that people talk about on the sidelines, but it’s habitually stable in almost every situation except shooting at the widest angle – here the Samsung Galaxy S10+, Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 9 have a clear physical advantage. , which may not be numerically adequate in our testing.
At the same time, the most important conclusion is reconciling - smartphone cameras have not just killed the “soap boxes”, but are claiming the positions of entry-level and mid-level DSLRs. Due to multi-camera systems, effective stabilizers, high-aperture optics and, of course, continuously progressing software processing, very noticeable progress is made literally every year. In many situations, smartphones are able to produce a picture that is not only comparable in quality, but sometimes even better due to better “in-camera” processing.
