Samsung Galaxy S9+ Camera Beats Google Pixel, iPhone X In New DxOMark Camera Tests

Since both devices were announced at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+’s cameras have been cited among the top reasons to buy the flagship devices. With the results of a new camera test having been published earlier in the week, it looks like the Galaxy S9+ in specific now has some reviews to back up the South Korean company’s claim that the devices have a superior pair of shooters.

In its latest smartphone camera test, DxOMark gave largely glowing marks to the Samsung Galaxy S9+’s rear and front cameras, giving them a score of 99 points. As noted by Tech Times, this was slightly higher than the 98 points registered by the Google Pixel 2, and also higher than the scores given to two other high-end flagship phones – the iPhone X (97) and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (94).

While the scores might suggest that the cameras on these devices, particularly the Galaxy S9+, are nearly perfect, Tech Times stressed that DxOMark does not give grades in a conventional range of 0 to 100, rather combining each device’s scores for photo and video performance. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S9+’s cameras, DxOMark gave grades of 104 for photo performance and 91 for video.

Commenting on each individual aspect of the device’s camera suite, DxOMark wrote that the Galaxy S9+ is capable of shooting “excellent” photos with good lighting, and even in bright sunlight, with bright colors, strong exposure and contrast, and a “very wide” dynamic range. The publication added that the Samsung Galaxy S9+’s cameras were able to find the right balance between noise reduction and retention of image details, conceding that finer levels of detail still had some room for improvement, but stressing that performance in that area was solid overall. Autofocus was also described as being “more than fast enough,” even if it isn’t the fastest among the cameras tested by the website.

Talking about camera features, DxOMark was impressed by the addition of 2x optical zoom to the front camera, a second telephoto lens to the rear camera, and super-slow-motion video capabilities. Artifacts, however, were cited as the one area where the Galaxy S9+’s cameras need the most improvement, due to the presence of purple fringes and ringing halos on photos with high-contrast edges. Still, the publication opined that this was one of the camera system’s “fairly minor issues,” and not a major complaint by any means.

“In both still and video modes, it performs well across the board, delivering consistently good photo and video image quality in all light and shooting situations, thus earning itself our highest DxOMark Mobile score to date.”

As summarized by Forbes, the Galaxy S9+ was described as having top-notch video quality, putting it on similar footing with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro and slightly ahead of the iPhone X, but still a few points behind the Google Pixel 2, which was given a score of 96 for video performance.

While Consumer Reports did not include the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ in its recent list of best smartphone cameras, which had the iPhone X on top of the rankings, the report was published on February 26, just one day after Samsung unveiled its new flagships. More camera tests might follow in the run-up to, and after the Galaxy S9 and S9+’s March 16 release date, as noted by TechRadar, but for the meantime, it looks like the latter phone’s shooters have aced one of the better-known camera tests out there.