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Many of you will have heard of DxOMark, the dubious score given to cameras including many of those attached to Android smartphones. Recently it seems every new flagship release from a major OEM beats the previous best. The honor went to the Samsung Galaxy S9+ not so long ago and now resides with the Huawei P20 Pro.
The Galaxy S9+ has predictably stellar cameras, according to DxOMark. Samsung’s newest flagship device scored a 99 overall on DxO’s battery of photo and video quality tests, which is — surprise! — the reviewer's highest ever score for a phone. The S9+ is the first phone to receive higher overall marks than the Pixel 2, which netted a 98 last fall.
You might remember DxO as the firm behind all those smartphone camera ratings, but the company is branching out into hardware. The DxO ONE with USB Type-C was announced earlier this year, and though an iPhone version with a Lightning port has been available since 2015, it's taken until now for an Android version to arrive. And at $499, it's not cheap.
Last year's Pixel was found to be one of the best all-around smartphone cameras. In fact, according to Google, Pixel users take 2x more photos than iPhones, on average. The camera tradition looks to have continued with the latest series of Pixel phones. Of course, you all know what we think about DxOMark. But even so, it appears that the Pixel 2 scored an incredible 98 overall, making it the best phone camera (again) it's ever reviewed.
Anyone interested in the quality of the camera attached to their smartphone is probably aware of DxO Labs. The firm rigorously tests the image quality produced by new devices and gives it an overall score, the DxOMark. Google even used the high rating achieved by its Pixel camera in its own marketing campaign, such is the reputation of DxO's word. Since its release in late October 2016 the Pixel has been top of the DxO rankings, scoring 89 points. Until now, that is, as the newly announced HTC U11 has just come out on top, beating the previous leader by 1 point with at total of 90.
Google takes pride in its smartphone cameras. The company has long sought to make taking photos a primary part of the Nexus experience, with hit or miss results. Now it's looking like the development team has another hit on its hands. At today's event, Google was proud to announce that DxOMark has given the Pixel phone its highest score for a smartphone camera yet.
DxOMark Ranks The DROID Turbo 2 As The Fourth Best Smartphone Camera, Between The Nexus 6P And LG G4
Verizon has just started selling the DROID Turbo 2, but the camera experts at DxOMark got their hands on a unit early to test its capabilities, and the results are good. Motorola's newest Verizon-exclusive device scored an 84 in DxO's tests, which places it in the number four position.
Well it was nice while it lasted. Just one day after DxOMark said the Nexus 6P's camera was second only to the Galaxy S6 Edge, it has declared a new phone at the top. The title now goes to the Sony Xperia Z5.
I think quite a few users were a bit nervous when they heard that the new Nexus phone cameras were eschewing an optical image stabilization system, instead relying on a new sensor design that includes bigger and more sensitive 1.55 micrometer pixels that gather more light. According to the experts over at DxOMark, there's no reason to worry: the Nexus 6P's camera is pretty freakin' great. After the team's battery of intensive photo tests, they've given it a score of 84 out of 100, the second-highest rating on the site. The 6P beats out the Galaxy Note 4, Moto X Style, and the latest crop of iPhones - the only phone to score higher is the Galaxy S6 Edge, and the 6P takes over the LG G4's second-place spot.
Over the past couple of years, LG's smartphones have been drastically improving their imaging capabilities. I was as impressed with my LG G2 as my Lumia 1020 (well, minus the huge image resolution advantage), and the camera performance only got better with the G3 and the G4. This was bound to land the company on DxOMark's radar, where their sensors and software were compared against competing mobile devices.
DxOMark just released their review of the HTC One M9's camera. I'm not going to beat around the bush, the results aren't great (not that any of us here at AP are all that surprised). The HTC One M9 scored a rather abysmal cumulative score of 69, placing the Taiwanese manufacturer's latest flagship in 22nd place on DxOMark's top mobile camera list.