Apple iPhone 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S8 Camera Review: Battle of 12-Megapixel Shooters
One of the notable similarities between Apple's iPhone 7 and Samsung's Galaxy S8 is they both have 12-megapixel rear cameras. However, that does not necessarily mean that they have the same performance.
Galaxy S8 Camera: Same Technical Specs, Better Image Processing
Samsung decided to employ almost the same Dual Pixel camera setup found on the Galaxy S7. Apparently, the South Korean electronics giant deems the said technology enough to tackle the trending dual-lens features now found even in several mid-range smartphones. And according to a review by GSM Arena, Samsung actually made the right decision.
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Based on the said review, while the technical specifications (12 MP, f/1.7 aperture, 26-millimetre lens) are the same with the Galaxy S7's camera, it seems the Galaxy S8's shooter has been improved in terms of processing.
Samsung did not present the new camera feature dubbed as Multi-Frame Image Processing as one of the highlights of the new device, however, reviews say that it actually fits that category.
The Galaxy S8's camera is patterned to take several frames in one shot and automatically blend them together by getting the sharpest details possible out of all frames. This then prevents photos from being noisy.
The slight disadvantage is it makes the shutter react a tad slower when users try to press them in a fast motion, but that can be a tolerable compromise for getting some of the best quality of photos.
While DxOMark has yet to review the Galaxy S8 camera, the Galaxy S7 — to which the Galaxy S8's camera is mostly designed after — has gotten an overall 88 score versus iPhone 7's 86 points out of 100.
DxOMark is the organization trusted for their camera and image quality ratings.
iPhone 7 Camera: Fast and Brighter
On the other hand, the iPhone 7's camera is better on paper than the Galaxy S8 with its technical specs of f/1.8 aperture and 27 mm lens, on top of having the same 12 MP power. But one of its strengths possibly lies with its speed, according to reviews.
While the iPhone 7 produces good quality photos, GSM Arena is not convinced that those are better than what previous iPhones can make. However, DxoMark had some words of praise for the iPhone 7 camera, even calling it "Apple's best yet" and adding that "the iPhone 7 has a brighter lens – f/1.8 compared to the f/2.2 of the 6s and 6s."
Also note that the iPhone 7 camera uses a similar algorithm to that of Galaxy S8's image processing where the device gets several shots and blends them to get the most detail for the best possible result.
One noted change and improvement on the iPhone 7's camera is the addition of an optical image stabilization feature that used to be exclusive for Plus models, according to DxOMark.
Apart from that, several reviewers agree that the iPhone 7 camera is a major leap compared to the shooters found on earlier iPhone generations.
