iPhone SE vs. Galaxy A51 camera comparison By CNET

So you clicked on this video because you want to see how the $400 iPhone SE stacks up to a $400. Android phone. Don't worry, I got you! This is the camera comparison of iPhone s8 vs. galaxy 851. Everything you see in this comparison has either been shot on the galaxy, a 51 or the iPhone s aid. So let's take a look at some general photos first and then come back and talk about the differences in the cameras themselves.

For these photos, I left everything on default settings, so you can get an idea of what each does straight out of the box and I say this every time, but so much of this comparison comes down to personal preference and the screen you're viewing on. So both the galaxy and the iPhone have an HDR mode to help balance out shadow and highlight detail, and it does a great job on both phones. As you can see, the galaxy does bump up the saturation slightly more than the iPhone and I noticed it particularly emphasizing flowers or anything with a striking vivid color. That's because, like other galaxy phones, the a51 has a scene optimizer that enhances your photo depending on the subject, so anything from flowers to portraits to food things that I noticed the scene. Optimizer really made food and plant photos pop, but sometimes it can look a little too intense and if you jump to the hundred-percent crop, the iPhone keeps a touch more detail on items like the dish towel, which does look a bit more defined than on the galaxy.

While it might be hard to separate these phones from the photos you just saw. The cameras themselves are significantly different. The iPhone SE has a single 12 megapixel rear camera with a 28 millimeter field of view, but the galaxy a 51 has for a 48 megapixel main camera at 26 millimeters, a 12 megapixel ultra-wide, a 5, megapixel depth camera and a macro camera that ultra-wide camera in particular means you can zoom out to get more in your shot compared to the iPhone. Also, the 48 megapixel mode isn't active by default. You do need to switch it on in the settings like the galaxy s, 20 altar, with its high resolution mode.

The a51 does capture more detail at 48 megapixels, but you don't get features like HDR if you like to take portrait mode photos you're. In luck. Both of these phones do a great job on default settings edge. Detection on the iPhone can sometimes get a bit confused with hair in particular, but it's not hugely noticeable until you zoom in you can also adjust the intensity of the blur on both phones before or after you take the shot, but the iPhone SE only lets you take portrait mode photos of people rather than pets or objects like the galaxy can neither of these phones have optical zoom, so you're relying on digital zoom to get you closer on the iPhone SE, it's at five times, while the galaxy a 51 is eight times so neither of them are particularly great to look at, but you can get an okay shot at five times on both if I had to pick I'd probably choose the iPhone, as it looks less over sharpened. The eight times from the 51 is particularly messy, so I'd only take it to five times OOM.

If you need to get closer speaking of close-ups, though that dedicated macro camera on the galaxy can get really close to your subject. So initially, I struggled to get a good shot indoors, with the macro lens and I, soon realized that you have to have a lot of light to get the most out of this camera. But when it works, it looks pretty impressive. The iPhone can't get as close. Only the Galaxy has a dedicated night mode for taking photos in dimly lit situations.

Unlike other new iPhones, the SE doesn't have a night mode, but, as you can see from these shots, there actually is not as big of a difference as I was expecting. The galaxy does have a slight edge in retaining detail in the highlights and shadows, but it does output a smaller 8 megapixel file. Sorry for all the photos of me in this comparison, but I do have to test out the front-facing cameras. The iPhone has a 7 megapixel camera. While the galaxy is a whopping, 32 megapixels, but megapixels, aren't everything and I think the galaxy is a little more saturated on the red Channel.

My hair, for example, looks coppery red in parts which it definitely isn't in the real world. The iPhone image looks a touch softer overall and doesn't pop off the screen in the same way it does on the galaxy, but my skin tone is more accurate, as you can see from the clips that I've showed you from the cameras so far. Video quality from both is great. So having optical image. Stabilization on the iPhone makes a huge difference when recording video.

This clip was handheld at 4k 60 frames a second and comparing it to the same resolution from the Galaxy. The difference is night and day. That's because you don't get image stabilization at 4k on the galaxy. There is an image stabilization setting at 1080p, though, and you can see in this clip, it makes a huge difference if you're filming handheld autofocus on the Galaxy is also not as smooth as that on the iPhone and for a lot of these clips, especially when filming a static subject, I had to lock the focus before filming to keep things smooth, as you probably heard, audio from both is good, but I think the iPhone sounds more full and rounded than the clips from the galaxy. So both these $400 phones have incredibly capable cameras.

The galaxy offers more flexibility if you want to be able to switch between different cameras like the ultra-wide or macro, but the iPhone has stronger video, recording and optical image stabilization, which makes a huge difference, regardless of which phone you choose you're, getting a lot of camerae for your buck. Thanks for watching the comparison, let me know which phone you think won this battle and stay tuned for lots, more camera comparisons coming soon.

Source : CNET