iPhone 8 Plus And Galaxy Note 8 Tied For Best Camera Phone

Last week, the camera benchmark team from DxOMark proclaimed the iPhone 8 Plus the best smartphone camera it has ever tested. This week, the team has given the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 the same quality rating. Both devices have the highest ever DxOMark rating of 94. The iPhone 8 Plus is likely ahead of the Galaxy Note 8 on the list, only because the list is in alphabetical order.

DxOMark published its Galaxy Note 8 camera review Tuesday, highlighting the device’s zoom capability among its top features. The Galaxy Note 8 camera is capable of 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. The dual camera setup includes a 12-megapixel wide angle lens with f/1.7 aperture and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture. Other features include PDAF autofocus, dual-Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Dual-LED (dual tone) flash.

Not highlighting any aspect, in particular, DxOMark noted in its review that the iPhone 8 Plus surpassed the Google Pixel, HTC U11 and iPhone 8 to get the highest camera test rating. The iPhone 8 Plus features a dual camera setup, which includes a 12-megapixel wide angle lens with f/1.8 aperture and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with f/2.8 aperture. The camera is capable of 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom as well as Quad-LED True Tone flash, Optical image stabilization for the main camera and Autofocus with focus pixels.

Many real-life camera test comparisons between the iPhone 8 and the Galaxy Note 8 have brought mixed results. CNET declared the iPhone 8 Plus superior in terms of video capture, while Tom’s Guide selected the Galaxy Note 8 as high quality for still images, for example. Meanwhile, some tech pundits question whether ratings from DxOMark are credible as device manufacturers often collaborate with the benchmark team in some form.

It will be interesting to see how ratings change on DxOMark once the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are introduced. Rumors indicate the Pixel 2 is being manufactured by HTC, while the Pixel 2 XL is being manufactured by LG. It remains to be seen whether that will determine any quality difference between the device’s cameras. Last year’s Google Pixel had a rating of 90, while the iPhone 8 has a rating of 92. The Galaxy S8, which released in April, has a rating of 88.