360Photography

iPhone X vs. Samsung Note 8

Two big flagship devices, two big price tags: with the introduction of iPhone X, Apple now has a horse in the “all screen, all the time” smartphone race. Here’s a breakdown of the specs with particular attention to the things that really matter – at least to people who prioritize photography features.

Dual cameras

You’d expect no less in the year 2017: each of these devices has a dual camera module. Both use two 12MP sensors with apertures as listed below.

It’s welcome news that both of these dual cam units are dual-stabilized, meaning the wide and telephoto lenses offer optical image stabilization. The iPhone 7 Plus was only equipped with OIS in its wide-angle lens.

The Note 8 offers 26mm and 52mm equivalent focal lengths, and if the iPhone X is consistent with the 7 Plus, it will come with a 28/56mm combo. The Note 8’s ever-so-slightly wider view of the world may have some advantages, but that depends on your preferences.

The 12MP sensors used by the Note 8 measure 1/2.55″ in the wide-angle unit and 1/3.6″ in the tele lens. Apple doesn’t specify what size sensors it uses in the X, just that they’re bigger, faster, and have deeper pixels than what was used in the 7 Plus. Relatively speaking, a slightly larger smartphone image sensor is still pretty small. Even if they are bigger than the Note 8’s sensors, that’s likely to have less of an impact than improvements in image processing and camera software.

Still shooting features

Apple and Samsung put their devices’ depth-of-simulation modes front and center among camera features. It’s called Portrait Mode on the iPhone X and Live Focus on the Note 8, but they do the same thing: use information collected from the dual cam to create a depth map of the scene and blur the background.

Samsung lets users specify the amount of blur, while the Apple sticks with its classic “you get what we give you” approach and decides on your behalf how blurry the background should be. The Note 8 will also let you save a photo taken with the wide-angle camera; not so on the iPhone X. And Apple means it when they call it Portrait Mode: it can only be used when a face is detected. Samsung doesn’t require a face to be in the scene.

Apple promises better low-light results and more natural looking bokeh with its latest iteration of Portrait Mode. Additionally, iPhone X will include a new beta feature called Portrait Lighting, allowing users to apply different lighting effects, either in live view or after the photo is taken.

Autofocus

Apple doesn’t go into specifics about its camera sensors and is pretty short on details at this point about the autofocus used by the iPhone X. The company claims autofocus is faster compared to the iPhone 7 thanks to a new image processor. Both the Note 8 and iPhone X offer some level of phase detection autofocus, which Apple calls Focus Pixels and Samsung calls dual pixel.

Front-facing cameras

Those who indulge in the occasional selfie will be glad to know that front-facing camera specs are improving with each smartphone generation. The Note 8 users an 8MP F1.7 unit and the iPhone offers a 7MP sensor with an F2.2 lens. That would seem to lend a slight advantage to the Note 8, though the X’s differentiating factor is that it lets you use Portrait Mode with the front camera, as well as its Portrait Lighting feature.

Video

On paper at least, the iPhone X appears to slightly edge out the Note 8 in the video department. The iPhone records 4K at up to 60 fps and is capable of slow-motion capture at 1080p/240 fps. That’s just a step ahead of the Note 8’s 4K 30 fps recording and 720p/240 fps slow-motion capture. The Note 8 does offer slightly larger 9MP still capture during 4K recording, compared to the iPhone’s 8MP stills.

Display

Some people just like really huge phones. For them, the Note 8 and its 6.3″ AMOLED screen were created. The iPhone X has Apple’s biggest iPhone screen yet, but at 5.8″ it’s still significantly smaller than the Note 8’s.

It is smaller, but it’s inarguably better in terms of color management. The iPhone X’s wide gamut OLED is the most color accurate device on the market. That’s a benefit to anyone who takes and looks at photos on their mobile device.

Storage, durability, and other niceties

Anyone who takes a lot of photos with their device cares about storage space. There’s no surprises here: Apple offers the X with 64GB or 256GB of storage space and doesn’t provide a microSD card slot. The Note 8 is sold with 64GB (your only option in the US right now), 128GB or 256GB built in and provides a MicroSD card slot for up to an additional 256GB of space. We’ve got to consider that a Note 8 advantage.

Both devices are also fairly durable, which seems only fair since you’ll pay top dollar for either one. The iPhone X has an IP67 rating – the “6” in that number indicates that it’s dustproof, and the “7” indicates it’s protected against immersion in water up to 1m in depth for 30 minutes.

Fairly solid, but the Note 8 has a better IP68 rating, meaning it’s dustproof and has the highest rating for water resistance. Samsung specifies that this entails “submersion in up to 1.5M of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.” Long story short, the Note 8 has a better water resistance rating, but they’re both fairly sturdy.

And then there’s battery life. Assuming that Samsung straightened out its well-publicized battery problems, it’s pretty much a wash in this category. The iPhone X promises 21 hours talk time or 12 hours of internet use, and Samsung claims 22 hours of talk time with 12-14 hours of internet usage, depending on whether you’re on Wi-Fi or data.

Price

Finally, the thousand dollar question: how much do these devices cost? The iPhone X with 64GB costs $ 999/£999, and the 256GB version costs $ 1149/£1149. An unlocked 64GB Note 8 is $ 930/£869, and ranges from $ 930-960 if purchased outright through a US carrier. Any way you slice it, these are flagship devices with prices to match.

Do you think one of these devices comes up stronger than the other in terms of photography features? Let us know in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)