Smarphone Camera Comparison : Samsung Galaxy S9 vs iPhone X vs Huawei Mate 10 Pro vs S8+

When a smartphone launches with arguably the most advanced camera module ever put into a production smartphone, you already know what the big question on everyone’s mind is: Is it the best? Is it noticeably better than the rest of the top dogs? Or is “variable aperture” just a fancy marketing term?

Well, we’re hoping to help you answer at least some of these questions. Welcome to the comparison you’ve been waiting for: Samsung’s latest flagship against the world.
OK, maybe “the world” was a little sensational, but we did pit it against every single flagship we could get our hands on. Here are the contenders:

1. Samsung Galaxy S8+
2. Apple iPhone X
3. Huawei Mate 10 Pro
4. Samsung Galaxy S9

We would have loved to include devices like the Google Pixel 2 XL (we didn’t have one on hand), the HTC U11+ (our device ran into some problems) and the new Sony Xperia XZ2 (didn’t have one on hand either), but circumstances weren’t in our favour.

That said, the pictures did still give us a good idea of the smartphone’s capabilities while we wait for 2018’s flagships to come compete with the Galaxy S9. Definitely stay tuned for that.



HDR or High Dynamic Range is a camera feature that’s pretty important in smartphone cameras. A phone’s HDR capabilities usually refers to its ability to capture multiple exposures in a challenging lighting scene (high contrast between shadows and highlights) and combine them into a single image that’s evenly lit. A smartphone with good HDR capabilities should not lose details in the shadows or the highlights.

This was a pretty challenging scene for the smartphones. I would like to apologise for the slightly different framing — we didn’t have a tripod and had to eyeball it — but the phones were exposed at the same spot: Right at the top of the tower.



Running a blind test in the office, many of my colleagues preferred the Galaxy S8+’s photo compared to the Galaxy S9. But I disagree because the shadows in the crevices (and indeed overall) were a little too harsh. Being there myself, the Galaxy S9’s photo is a lot closer to how it looked in person. In fact, the entire image that the Galaxy S9 produced was mighty impressive, being evenly exposed throughout while also retaining the nice blues in the sky. Samsung’s S9 is definitely the winner for me here.

The S8+ definitely comes in a close second and I think it does a slightly better job at retaining the right amount of brightness with a slightly cooler tone, but for me, it loses points for the overly harsh shadows. Still, it’s a sight better than the other two.

Apple’s iPhone X was just a disaster with its default HDR Auto setting, but it still wasn’t as bad as the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. Huawei’s smartphone has a dedicated HDR mode but it fails miserably here, even giving the image a green tint, putting it dead last in my list.