[Review from Engadget So Wrong] Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone 8 Plus Tie for Top Spot In Camera Test.

[Starfyre]

What the Pho! Just ran across these headlines and this horrible horrible article! If there are two takeaways from this thread, it's to not believe everything you read on the internet, and the iPhone 8+ camera is way better than the Note 8.

Note: I did not look at the DxOMark rating/review, this commentary is based strictly off of reading what Engadget is saying.

"Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone 8 Plus tie for top spot in camera test"

(Note: Don't bother going to the link and reading the original review, my commentary to the entire review is below the link with the original text in bold. If you so choose, feel free to read the original article, and if you don't get it come back and read the line by line breakdown to understand how wrong the article is.)
https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/03/galaxy-note-8-iphone-8-plus-tied-in-dxomark-camera-test/

Let's pick this review apart and shed some light:

Paragraph 1/3
Like it or not, DxOMark is currently the go-to tester for smartphone camera quality.
Way to establish a really bad review by offering credibility to some Samsung-paid marketing tool?

Companies will even base their marketing around its scores.
I am sure if you were Samsung, and you paid for these results, you would definitely want something in your arsenal to up yourself against the iPhone (even artificially). I have a feeling Samsung must have paid someone to get this kind of review. What bothered me the most is Paragraph 2/3.

As such, it's a big deal when the outfit declares a new winner...
More ******** to try to inflate the actual credibility of the source.

and it just declared two. DxOMark has given Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 an overall score of 94, putting it in a tie for the lead with the iPhone 8 Plus.
How much did Samsung pay to get tied? At least the source didn't let Samsung beat the iPhone's score. Maybe they used projected iPhone X profits to pay for this?

No, that's not going to trigger endless fan wars, is it? Of course, diving into the scores reveals that the devices reached their scores through different means.
Finally got past the fluff, let's get to the meat!

Paragraph 2/3
The Note 8's advantages chiefly come through its secondary camera,
Wait what, what is this... the iPhone 8+ doesn't have a second camera? Telephoto? Hello?

relatively noiseless low-light photography
iPhone has a dedicated noise processor to handle this!

and lightning-quick autofocus.
No idea about this one, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was wrong about the two cameras.

Of the two, Samsung's phone is the one you'd want for portraits or capturing a fast-moving scene.

The image to the right is iPhone 8+, left is the Samsung Note 8. I don't know about you, but I'd want the photo on the right to be my selfie if I was caucasian. The one on the left is just washed out.

The iPhone, on the other hand, has exceptional high dynamic range performance, accurate face exposure and great overall video performance, particularly with stabilization.
This the review has right, iPhone does have exception performance in all those areas.

And both have their weak points, as you might imagine. The Note 8 has a fairly limited dynamic range that results in lost detail in extreme situations, and has white balance problems in bright lighting or indoors.
Some problems look worse on some phones than others... *cough* Samsung Note 8 *cough*. Just look at the loss of detail in the Galaxy Note 8 photo to the left compared to the iPhone 8+ on the right.

Apple's device occasionally struggles with autofocus, doesn't always nail the color cast in low lighting and has visible noise in low-light video.

Apple's device has visible noise? Again, left Samsung Galaxy Note 8, right is iPhone 8+.
Clearly there is visible noise and loss of detail in "extreme situations" (in this case low lighting).

Paragraph 3/3
The question is: how much does this influence your choice of device? Frankly, it's complicated.
It really isn't.

Some of it clearly depends on personal preference based on your photography habits: you may pick the iPhone if you prefer a more accurate color range, or the Note 8 if you enjoy low-light shooting.
Pick Note 8 for low-light shooting? Seriously? For more noise, reduced level of detail?

This also assumes you treat DxOMark's scores as canonical -- it can't account for every situation with tests, and it may downplay factors that you consider crucial. And of course, there's the simple matter of liking the rest of the phone. If you're a hardcore Android or iOS fan, even the best camera in history probably wouldn't convince you to switch sides.
Sure, but the camera in this case, the winner goes without a doubt to the iPhone. How could DxOMark for giving iPhone 8+ an equivalent score. I am seriously never trusting that source's ratings ever.

Source of images is from the video review by CNET: https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-8-plus-vs-galaxy-note-8-which-phone-has-the-best-video/

Even if you say "hey look CNET is focused on video, those look like video clips" (which would be scary if a the video snapshot of iPhone 8+ looked better than Note 8 still) take a look at these stills from a different review by Tom's Guide...

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/iphone-8-vs-galaxy-s8,review-4190.html

Tom's Guide takes 4 stills, not video.
Of the 4, quoting directly from the review:

1: Take the photos of this lantana flower. The Galaxy S8 image looks blown out and less detailed; the shot from the iPhone allows you to make out more of the petals and delivers more vibrant yellow, pink and coral.
2: Apple’s and Samsung’s phones were more evenly matched when I snapped a photo of the Empire State Building behind a fountain and trees.
3: Our racoon friend here and the surrounding table look brighter in Samsung’s photo.
4: When I turned on the flash, though, for both phones, the raccoon looked more white-washed in the S8 image.

The author concludes the camera section with:
Winner: iPhone 8 and 8 Plus

 

[jamesrick80]

DxOMark gave the Note 8 a 100 in photography alone. That has never happened and you should be amazed. The individual numbers in their scoring system also favors the Note 8. The Note 8 actually deserves a higher than 94 score sense it has OIS on both lens and better low light capabilities. DXOMark purposely delayed their review on the Note 8 due to Apple paying them to do this and they purposely lowered the Note 8's true score.

The note 8 clearly is the better camera system and CNET reviews always suck.

https://www.dxomark.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-best-smartphone-zoom/

 

[ET3SW]

(Note: Don't bother going to the link and reading the original review, my commentary to the entire review is below the link with the original text in bold.

Because your commentary is worth so much..lol

 

[avtella]

Literally you created two threads on the same thing, and are basing your judgments of those few photos.... Why not read the actual DXO review before commenting and calling people paid stooges etc. Just because people may disagree with your assessments doesn't make them paid... regardless of whose better you made it clear you didn't even look at the DXO review or any in depth review like GSMArena so why post using like 3 photos from CNET... not much of a sample size.

 

[Marrakas]

Lol big deal. Samsung phones have had better cameras than iPhones forever.

Remember samsung packs a way bigger sensor in their phones, so I'm actually surprised iphones manages to keep up this well. Says alot about apples optics and image processing.

Oh, and I checked dxomarks review of the note8 where you can see direct comparisons to iphone 8, and it does way better than those photos you posted. https://www.dxomark.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-best-smartphone-zoom/

 

[Susurs]

Well, X should have a better score then...
Both lenses have OIS, and aperture is wider on one of the lenses.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I put very little stock in any reviews. Only one I trust is me.

 

[FFR]

What the Pho! Just ran across these headlines and this horrible horrible article! If there are two takeaways from this thread, it's to not believe everything you read on the internet, and the iPhone 8+ camera is way better than the Note 8.

Note: I did not look at the DxOMark rating/review, this commentary is based strictly off of reading what Engadget is saying.

"Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone 8 Plus tie for top spot in camera test"

(Note: Don't bother going to the link and reading the original review, my commentary to the entire review is below the link with the original text in bold. If you so choose, feel free to read the original article, and if you don't get it come back and read the line by line breakdown to understand how wrong the article is.)
https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/03/galaxy-note-8-iphone-8-plus-tied-in-dxomark-camera-test/

Let's pick this review apart and shed some light:

Paragraph 1/3
Like it or not, DxOMark is currently the go-to tester for smartphone camera quality.
Way to establish a really bad review by offering credibility to some Samsung-paid marketing tool?

Companies will even base their marketing around its scores.
I am sure if you were Samsung, and you paid for these results, you would definitely want something in your arsenal to up yourself against the iPhone (even artificially). I have a feeling Samsung must have paid someone to get this kind of review. What bothered me the most is Paragraph 2/3.

As such, it's a big deal when the outfit declares a new winner...
More BS to try to inflate the actual credibility of the source.

and it just declared two. DxOMark has given Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 an overall score of 94, putting it in a tie for the lead with the iPhone 8 Plus.
How much did Samsung pay to get tied? At least the source didn't let Samsung beat the iPhone's score. Maybe they used projected iPhone X profits to pay for this?

No, that's not going to trigger endless fan wars, is it? Of course, diving into the scores reveals that the devices reached their scores through different means.
Finally got past the fluff, let's get to the meat!

Paragraph 2/3
The Note 8's advantages chiefly come through its secondary camera,
Wait what, what is this... the iPhone 8+ doesn't have a second camera? Telephoto? Hello?

relatively noiseless low-light photography
iPhone has a dedicated noise processor to handle this!

and lightning-quick autofocus.
No idea about this one, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was wrong about the two cameras.

Of the two, Samsung's phone is the one you'd want for portraits or capturing a fast-moving scene.

The image to the right is iPhone 8+, left is the Samsung Note 8. I don't know about you, but I'd want the photo on the right to be my selfie if I was caucasian. The one on the left is just washed out.

The iPhone, on the other hand, has exceptional high dynamic range performance, accurate face exposure and great overall video performance, particularly with stabilization.
This the review has right, iPhone does have exception performance in all those areas.

And both have their weak points, as you might imagine. The Note 8 has a fairly limited dynamic range that results in lost detail in extreme situations, and has white balance problems in bright lighting or indoors.
Some problems look worse on some phones than others... *cough* Samsung Note 8 *cough*. Just look at the loss of detail in the Galaxy Note 8 photo to the left compared to the iPhone 8+ on the right.

Apple's device occasionally struggles with autofocus, doesn't always nail the color cast in low lighting and has visible noise in low-light video.

Apple's device has visible noise? Again, left Samsung Galaxy Note 8, right is iPhone 8+.
Clearly there is visible noise and loss of detail in "extreme situations" (in this case low lighting).

Paragraph 3/3
The question is: how much does this influence your choice of device? Frankly, it's complicated.
It really isn't.

Some of it clearly depends on personal preference based on your photography habits: you may pick the iPhone if you prefer a more accurate color range, or the Note 8 if you enjoy low-light shooting.
Pick Note 8 for low-light shooting? Seriously? For more noise, reduced level of detail?

This also assumes you treat DxOMark's scores as canonical -- it can't account for every situation with tests, and it may downplay factors that you consider crucial. And of course, there's the simple matter of liking the rest of the phone. If you're a hardcore Android or iOS fan, even the best camera in history probably wouldn't convince you to switch sides.
Sure, but the camera in this case, the winner goes without a doubt to the iPhone. How could DxOMark for giving iPhone 8+ an equivalent score. I am seriously never trusting that source's ratings ever.

Source of images is from the video review by CNET: https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-8-plus-vs-galaxy-note-8-which-phone-has-the-best-video/

The note 8 images are completely washed out compared to the iPhone.

 

[Zigourney]

I'm an iphone owner, but happily admit that I've seen Samsung phones from the S7 onwards take better photos than iPhones. Photos on Samsung phones always seem to have much lower noise than iphones and they also seem to handle better in low light conditions.

 

[FFR]

DxOMark gave the Note 8 a 100 in photography alone. That has never happened and you should be amazed. The individual numbers in their scoring system also favors the Note 8. The Note 8 actually deserves a higher than 94 score sense it has OIS on both lens and better low light capabilities. DXOMark purposely delayed their review on the Note 8 due to Apple paying them to do this and they purposely lowered the Note 8's true score.

The note 8 clearly is the better camera system and CNET reviews always suck.

https://www.dxomark.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-best-smartphone-zoom/

Not according to the comparisons, the op has provided

 

[happyhippo1337]

And both are still lightyears beyond an RX100 (even the first model) or an A6000 with a kit lens. The differences between the top phones (Pixel, S8/Note and iPhone) are so minimal, there is no point in getting angry about it on the forums.

I find the stabilization on the iPhone videos to be miles ahead of everyone else, that makes a real difference to me. But the images almost look the same. Nothing you can‘t easily fix with 30 seconds in Snapseed. If you start to pixelpeep on them, you will get really disappointed with any smartphone camera. And that will not change until they make them drastically bigger / increase the sensor size. Physics.

 

[DNichter]

Looking at the pictures, the 8 Plus definitely looks better to me. You can never really say in these tests though so it really doesn't matter much to me. Both phones have great hardware and cameras, it just comes down to OS preference.

 

[ghsDUDE]

I just pulled the trigger on the Note 8 (first Android ever) and I'm very impressed with it so far.

I had the 8 Plus and even on iOS 11 it was very stuttery at times. I understand they'll probably fox it in a software update but the Note 8 is buttery smooth.

I plan on going back to iPhone next year after they work out the kinks with X and come out with a larger version of it.

 

[ABC5S]

DxOMark gave the Note 8 a 100 in photography alone. That has never happened and you should be amazed. The individual numbers in their scoring system also favors the Note 8. The Note 8 actually deserves a higher than 94 score sense it has OIS on both lens and better low light capabilities. DXOMark purposely delayed their review on the Note 8 due to Apple paying them to do this and they purposely lowered the Note 8's true score.

The note 8 clearly is the better camera system and CNET reviews always suck.

https://www.dxomark.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-best-smartphone-zoom/

You don’t own any Apple products according to the list of Products that you have listed at the bottom of your your post, and you have a picture of the note 8 as your avatar. So I’m wondering, do you have an account with the Samsung galaxy note 8 forum and only come here to post derogatory remarks of Apple ? Just wondering.

“The note 8 clearly is the better camera system and CNET reviews always suck.

SPEAK THE TRUTH....former Apple enthusiast who discovered a rightful PATH

Samsung's Genius Line: Galaxy Note 8 (THE BEAST), DeX Station and 27 in Quantum Dot Samsung Monitor, Samsung TabPro S Gold, Samsung Chromebook Plus, Galaxy Tab S3”

 

[Hater]

Like any pro photog is going to be snapping photos off using a goddamn phone. Who cares.

 

[oplix]

iPhone probably better for post editing as it tries to give you the closest to the original image. Samsung has the post processing built in so makes it easy for people who just want easy and good looking shots

 

[KittyKatta]

Ive never understood why people get so angry about the stuff thats happening on the other side of the fence.

Do people actually switch platforms so often that "The new iPhone is 3% faster!" or "Comparisons show that Samsung has more contrast in their photos". Are these tiny nuances really enough to make people ditch an OS? Or is this just a reason for angry people to be angrier.

 

[Starfyre]

Ive never understood why people get so angry about the stuff thats happening on the other side of the fence.

Do people actually switch platforms so often that "The new iPhone is 3% faster!" or "Comparisons show that Samsung has more contrast in their photos". Are these tiny nuances really enough to make people ditch an OS? Or is this just a reason for angry people to be angrier.

I am not angry because I haven't spent any money yet

I can't speak for everybody else, but for me, I would switch phones because of a combination of those factors. The camera is a big part of why I use my phone, and I consider it an important feature. If the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 takes significantly noticeable and better photos (which clearly the sample photos from the CNET review I shared shows this is not the case), then if I bought the iPhone, I may have regrets. I want to avoid anger and regret, so I, the consumer, is doing the research before making a decision. To see an article that is misleading such as what Engadget posted is to me, just plain wrong.

 

[Mxbzz]

I am not angry because I haven't spent any money yet

I can't speak for everybody else, but for me, I would switch phones because of a combination of those factors. The camera is a big part of why I use my phone, and I consider it an important feature. If the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 takes significantly noticeable and better photos (which clearly the sample photos from the CNET review I shared shows this is not the case), then if I bought the iPhone, I may have regrets. I want to avoid anger and regret, so I, the consumer, is doing the research before making a decision. To see an article that is misleading such as what Engadget posted is to me, just plain wrong.

The title of your linked CNET article clearly states that they are testing the video aspect of the camera. The sample photos you've provided are frames from a video recording. I don't know your reasoning behind ignoring DXOMark's review, especially since these articles seem to revolve around it, but had you spent just a little time, you would have seen that DXO gave the iPhone a higher score for video, while the Note 8 took the crown for still photos.

You spent all this time attacking Engadget / accusing Samsung for paid results, but would it have killed you to read the DXO review? You said yourself that you're trying to avoid anger and regret by doing your research, yet you're getting nerved by a tech blog's commentary and using video frames to try and discredit Samsung's camera quality. Great research.

 

[daleski75]

Sorry to say but this thread is pointless, photos are totally subjective and some may prefer the note 8 some may prefer the iPhone 8 it's about personal choice.

Now it's a completely different story if a company markets their camera as the best camera out there which turns out to be complete utter rubbish and I am looking at you OnePlus and some review sites say wow it's fantastic then you could call bias.

But at the end of the day between the Note/iPhone/Pixel your going to get fantastic photos and video so lets put down the pitch forks, leave the bias at home and just enjoy awesome photos on your phone.

 

[MUCKYFINGERS]

I just pulled the trigger on the Note 8 (first Android ever) and I'm very impressed with it so far.

I had the 8 Plus and even on iOS 11 it was very stuttery at times. I understand they'll probably fox it in a software update but the Note 8 is buttery smooth.

I plan on going back to iPhone next year after they work out the kinks with X and come out with a larger version of it.

If you don’t go back sooner. Texting on android phones is so inferior compared to iMessage.

 

[phoneme]

I am not angry because I haven't spent any money yet

I can't speak for everybody else, but for me, I would switch phones because of a combination of those factors. The camera is a big part of why I use my phone, and I consider it an important feature. If the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 takes significantly noticeable and better photos (which clearly the sample photos from the CNET review I shared shows this is not the case), then if I bought the iPhone, I may have regrets. I want to avoid anger and regret, so I, the consumer, is doing the research before making a decision. To see an article that is misleading such as what Engadget posted is to me, just plain wrong.

if the camera is that important to you, then maybe you should get the new pixel XL as it has beaten both the note8 and iphone8.

 

[sdwaltz]

Hahaha - without too much study, squinting, or trouble, you can clearly see, and I mean CLEARLY, that the 8 Plus takes better pictures than the Note 8.

To say the opposite is just laughable. The Note 8's camera is good, but the 8 Plus is easily better.

 

[0947347]

Nicely detailed article

And, btw, you are smoking hot

 

[MUCKYFINGERS]

Sounds like they are looking for reassurance/justification on this forum for purchasing something, and they are obsessing over said decision-making