Apple states that the iPhone 8 Plus uses sensors that are physically larger than its predecessor. This may be true, but it doesnt show in the EXIF data. Phone 8 Plus vs. Galaxy Note 8 Camera Battle. Apples new i. Phone 8 series and flagship i. Phone X models are on sale now and the company says they have the best cameras ever on a phone. Samsung fans may take offense, as the company claims its S8 and Note 8 cameras are, in fact, the best. Is one better than the other Should you switch operating systems to get better images out of your constant companion Is it worth it to get one of the bigger, pricier, dual lens modelsWe ran extensive tests to help you decide. Spoiler alert There isnt a clear cut winner in this battle. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but all are among the absolute finest camera phones you can buy. Phone 8 and X New SensorsApple states that the i. Phone 8 Plus uses sensors that are physically larger than its predecessor. This may be true, but it doesnt show in the EXIF data. The main camera is a 2. I took a look at the x ray photos that i. Fixit made of the main sensor module in the i. Phone 7 and i. Phone 8. Theyre different magnifications, so a direct comparison isnt possible without some resizing. I resized the two images to match as closely as possible in Photoshop, using the outline of the chassis as a guideline, and then overlaid the sensor modules over one another as best as possible. A back and forth viewing shows that, if theres a difference in size, its extremely minor. According to the EXIF data, the i. Phone 8s main camera is still a 3. Phone 7, and Apples marketing information tells us that its a six element design, also the same as on the 7. Mevo Plus is the pocketsized live editing camera. Stream live to Vimeo, Livestream, Facebook, YouTube, Periscope and Twitter. The worst thing about listening to the iPhone announcement was the cold, terrifying realization that I might have to buy an iPhone 7 Plus. If you believed. Beautiful. State of the art. Worthy heirs to the iPhone throne. The iPhone 6 is all that. Its a joy to see and hold, it has a great camera, and the new operating. Read the latest stories about Tech on Fortune. The i. Phone X varies slightlyvery slightlyreporting its main lens as a 4mm f1. Thats an academic difference at best, but were still curious as to what i. Fixits teardown will show. As far as we can tell, the angle of view of the 8 series and Xs main cameras are the same. Thats also true with the 2x lens. The 8 Plus sports a 6mm f2. X has an f2. 4 secondary lens, which gathers a little bit more light, but again, its not a major difference in the real world. Youll notice that the math doesnt work out there for it to be a 2x. Thats because the secondary sensor is smaller than the primary. The main lens uses a chip thats a 13 inch class the same size Apple has used since the 5s and the 2x sensor is a 13. Samsung uses a 4. S8 and Note 8. The focal length is wider, but because the cameras main sensor is a larger 12. Its second lens seems to be a little tighter than simply digitally zooming the main lens into its 2x position. That makes me think its closer to 5. Apples secondary imager. The lens itself is a 6mm f2. Yes, Samsungs main camera has a wider aperture. But the difference between f1. The difference in f stops between the 2x lenses isnt negligible, but its close. The one third stop difference means youll capture the exposure at the same ISO at 13. Phone and 14. 0 second with the Note 8. The real advantage the Note 8 holds is that its secondary lens is optically stabilized, while the 8 Plus is notyoull need to step up to the i. Phone X to get dual stabilized lenses. Lab Tests. We run a standard array of lab tests on every camera we test, from compacts all the way up to medium format models. Theres a test chart to evaluate image noise, and also take a look at how noise reduction effects detail, as well as a standard contrast based resolution chart to see how crisp a lens is. Smartphone cameras are a bit different than SLRs, not only because of the tiny lenses and sensors, but also because a lot of the voodoo that goes into their ability to make a photo is based on software. Plus, because youll likely be posting your latest snapshot to Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, or the like, image filters are liberally available and applied to photos to give them different looks. So take lab tests for what they are a pure as we can manage look at the cameras default output. Theyre not the be all, end all aggregator of what is good and what is bad, especially when you consider that your phones camera app is simply the first step in a long journey that your images will travel on before theyre seen by friends, family, and followers. We chose to compare the i. Phone 8 Plus with the Galaxy Note 8 for a couple of reasons. One, each handset shares a lot of tech with its smaller sibling. Two, theyve each got a dual camera configuration, so they can do thing like capture images with a blurred background and also shoot photos with standard angle field of view. If youre a fan of small phones, and are trying to make the decision between an i. Phone 8 or Galaxy S8, you can just ignore the test images and data from the 2x camera and look at what the single lens model can do. If youre thinking about the i. Phone X, look to the i. Phone 8 Plus results for guidanceimage quality and processing is the same. Noise. To test the i. Phone we used the Pro. Cam 5 app, a 5 download that supports full manual shutter and ISO control, as well as Raw image capture. Its also the only way you can be certain youre using the 2x lens when you want tothe standard camera app switches to a digitally zoomed view of the wide lens in dim light. Apple has put Raw support into recent phones, but doesnt support it with its own software. The Note 8 shoots in Raw if you use the Pro mode in its standard camera app, but you cant use the 2x lensit only works in Auto mode. And, like the i. Phone, if youre using its app in auto mode youll end up with a digitally zoomed shot at 2x in dim light. The i. Phone 8 has a base ISO setting of 2. When shooting in Pro mode, the lowest you can set the Note 8 is ISO 5. There is very little if any difference between ISO 2. ISO 5. 0 on the i. Phone, so well start our comparison shots at ISO 5. Both settings are going to be used in bright, outdoor light. The Note 8 shows a bit more contrast and color saturation than the i. Phone 8 when shooting JPGs. A look at the Raw files shows that the Notes larger main sensor is capturing just a little more fine detail, visible in the foliage underneath the silo. In the real world, its an essentially negligible difference. The extra sharpening delivered by the Samsung JPG engine delivers a slightly higher sharpness score 3,0. Phones main camera 2,8. But when you consider that both are outputting 1. MP files that are destined for social networks, the difference is academic. At ISO 1. 00,the difference between the i. Phone 8 and Note 8 main cameras is negligible. Raw images are very close as well, with the i. Phone showing a little bit more contrast when processed in Lightroom CC with default settings applied. The i. Phone 8s JPG output shows a slight bit more detail at ISO 2. Note 8. Lightroom does a bit better job removing color noise from the Note 8s DNG output, but otherwise the output is very close. At ISO 4. 00 the output remains close between the two phones. The Note shows a slight edge in detail, and slightly lower noise 1. Phones main camera 1. Again, the i. Phone shows more color noise in its DNG output, but we expect Adobe to improve its processing engine to eliminate it in the future. Aside from the false color, Raw image quality is neck and neck. ISO 8. 00 is the top manual setting supported by the Note 8s camera app. Its JPG output shows a little bit more detail than the i. Phones main camera, but both are quite blurred. Lightroom removes color noise from the Notes Raw output effectively, and while its grainy it preserves detail not seen in the JPG. Color noise in the i.