iPhone XS Max vs. Galaxy Note 9 camera shootout By CNET

I am here on top of Twin Peaks in San Francisco, with two of the best ones you can buy right now: the Galaxy Note nine from Samsung and the new iPhone 10s Macs. Both phones cost over $1000. Both phones have dual rear cameras with dual optical stabilization and take amazing photos and videos. We're going to take a look at them and compare them side-by-side to see how they stack up overall photos from the iPhone have better dynamic range than those from the Galaxy Note.9. A lot of that comes from the iPhones new smart HDR feature, which retains more details in the brightest and darkest parts of the photo. On the other hand, the note 9 exposes photos brighter, occasionally clipping highlights and light sources like lamps and overhead lighting.

The note 9 also has software that optimizes photos for 20 different subject: categories like landscapes, pets and food, for example. If I'm taking a picture with a blue sky in it, the camera will optimize its settings to the best capture it most of this scene. Optimizations are pretty subtle, which is a good thing. Both of these phones have optical zoom. That allows me to get two times closer to my subject without having that bad Villa stuff that happens with digital zero.

However, once you start using digital zoom photos from both phones start to look sloppy. Here's a photo taken at 10 times, zoom on the iPhone and here's one from the note 9. Both look pretty rough, then there's the interface on both phones, the iPhones native camera. App is easier to navigate, and, while it's nice to have so many mode options, the Galaxy Note 9s default app can be overwhelming and sometimes finicky to use. Though I do like pro mode.

That allows me to take more control over the shutter speed, ISO and aperture of my photos. When it comes to low-light. The note non-explosive seems brighter than the iPhone by switching to its f 1.5 aperture, the widest on any smartphone low-light photos definitely have less noise in the iPhone, but are really soft and suffer from blown highlights and motion. D iPhone low-light photos have a bit more noise, but are sharper with better dynamic range unless I'm taking photos of something static like a building. I almost always prefer to low-light shots from the iPhone over the note 9.

But let's talk about one of the coolest features on these phones, portrait mode or live focus of Samsung closets on the iPhone portrait mode is superb, not only can I change, the lighting looks on people's faces, but also the amount of background blur before or after a photo is taken. The note 9 also lets you change the background blur, but the way the iPhone renders it is more pleasing portrait mode photos from the iPhone have more detail and sharpness in people's faces and colors are more saturated. The ones from the note 9 are softer, though some people might prefer that line. Then we come to video. Both of these phones are two of the best you can get to capture video.

However, the iPhone has better image, quality, colors and recording options. The no nine records excellent videos, but sometimes they can look over sharpened. Low-Light video, for the note 9 looks messy. This clip was recorded on a Street around midnight. It looks soft, has noise in the shadows and there are lights flaring all over the place.

Here's the same moment recorded with the iPhone, and it looks decent. Here's why the iPhone has a new feature called auto low-light FPS. This automatically changes the frame rate and low light conditions from 30 frames per second to 24. As for selfies, the iPhone has finally caught up to Samsung. Selfies from both phones are good.

The iPhone offers portrait mode for selfies, which looks solid, while the note 9 has selective focus, which looks okay, honestly, look at Sofia, video I hope you have long arms, because selfie videos on both phones is really colors. Look more saturated on the note. Nine and the image are attached sharper on the iPhone. At the end of the day, both the iPhone 10s, Macs and Galaxy Note 9 are significant improvements over last year's models. But to me the iPhone offers a better overall experience in terms of image.

Quality, dynamic range, video and ease of use.

Source : CNET