Here we look at the sharpness of each camera, and how well it stays sharp in dark environments. The second test category focuses on clarity.

So I’m giving the Color win to the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. Overall, this color showdown is a close one and the S9+ keeps up, but the Mate 10 was more consistent in its white balance readings, and didn’t oversaturate images. The Mate 10 and S9+ are pretty close, but the Mate has a more pleasing skin tone. The iPhone is oversaturated and blown out, while the S8 is very warm and muted. Now this last shot is really telling, and the results speak for themselves. The concrete is just too warm on the iPhone and the Samsung phones are both a bit cooler than the Mate 10. I’d personally go for the Mate 10 because it looks more natural to the eye. The colors on the iPhone 10 are just a bit too oversaturated for my taste, while the S9+ is too cold.

In the photo above, study the skin tones, the blue jeans, and the yellow stripe on Victoria’s shirt. The upshot is that sometimes “pretty” photos aren’t always the best photos, because we want photos that give us the greatest editing flexibility (be that in Photoshop or Instagram).īack on the street, color reproduction is a little more even. This should give us a great idea of just how far Samsung has come in 12 months.Īs always, we divide our testing into four categories: color, clarity, exposure, and user experience. It’s critical to note that we evaluate smartphone images the same way we would evaluate DSLR images: We dig into the actual pixels of the test shots, and assign a high value to color accuracy and dynamic range. Of course, the new Galaxy S9+ is on deck to fight the Mate 10 Pro, but I also re-tested Apple’s iPhone X, which recently lost to the Mate 10 Pro in a showdown late last year. And even though it has no chance of winning, I tested the Galaxy S8 as well. It boasts impressive Leica hardware and AI-powered software in a single, high-end camera package. The reigning champ for two matches so far is Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro. Head over to PCWorld’s YouTube channel for the 4K version of the video at the top of this article. We gather an assortment of the best smartphone cameras we’ve recently tested, and whichever phone produces the best images and user experience moves on to face the next major smartphone release. Our Last Cam Standing tests are organized like King of the Hill-style battles. You can also read our full review of the smaller Galaxy S9. At the end of the article, I name whether the Galaxy S9+ is the best smartphone camera you can buy today. Read on for my complete tests, which are part of PCWorld’s Last Cam Standing series.

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