Here it is! Samsungs flagship Galaxy S9 famiily hasarrived with what theyre calling a reimagined camera. Lets put that claim to the test againstthe current smartphone camera champ, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. We also threw the iPhone X and Galaxy S8 intothe mix for a truly epic showdown! Last Cam Standing is PCWorlds video seriesthat determines the best phone camera for still images in a King-of-the-hill style battle. Whichever phone wins moves on to face thenext major smartphone release, so subscribe to see the journey unfold! The reigning champ for two matches so faris Huaweis Mate 10 Pro. It boasts impressive Leica hardware and AI-poweredsoftware in a single, high-end camera package.But Samsung claims to have revolutionizedsmartphone cameras with the Galaxy S9s dual-aperture setup, which automatically flipsfrom f/2.4 to f/1.5 in low lighting situations. It could be a major breakthrough in phonephotography, or just a gimmick. Our tests will bear that out. And whats this?! Apples iPhone X wants a rematch after itlost to the Mate 10 Pro in last years Last Cam Standing?! Well, it only makes sense to have the twolargest smartphone manufacturers face each other in the ring, so Ill allow it. And even though it has no chance of winning,Samsungs flagship from last year, the Galaxy S8 wants in on the action as well. Lets see just how reimagined a cameracan be in 12 months. As always, we divide our testing into fourcatagories: color, clarity, exposure, and user experience. All our testing mimics how people use phonesin the real world.I just pull the phone from my pocket, anduse the stock camera app with HDR processing set to auto. For this round of testing we also hired Victoriato model for us–be sure to go check out her Instagram! Now lets go over the testing results. The first category is color, and well begoing over color accuracy and white balance. This first shot with Victoria hanging outit in San Franciscos Chinatown plays out just like weve seen in past episodes. The Mate 10 is more desaturated and leansto the cooler side where the iPhone leans warmer and is very saturated. The S9 is a little closer to the Mate 10 thanthe S8, which surprisingly delivered the most natural color.We move inside ths store and its almostthe opposite. The iPhone 10 is desaturated and counteractsthe yellow lights very well. The Mate 10 turned the models hair red, whilethe S9 produces a yellow hue over her face. Back in the street, color reproduction isa little more even. Study the skin tones, the blue jeans, andthe yellow strip on Victorias shirt. The colors on the iPhone 10 are just a bittoo oversaturated for my taste, while the S9 is too cold. Id personally got for the Mate 10 becauseit looks more natural to the eye. Same thing in this shot. The concrete is just too warm on the iPhoneand the Samsung phones are both a bit cooler than the Mate 10.Now this last shot is really telling and theresults speak for themselves. The iPhone is oversaturated and blown out,and the S8 is very warm and muted. The Mate 10 and S9 are pretty close, but theMate has a more pleasing skin tone. Overall this first category is a close oneand the S9 keeps up, but the Mate 10 was more consistent in its white balance readingsand didnt oversaturate images. So Im giving it to the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. The second test category focuses on clarity. Here we look at the sharpness of each camera,and how well they stay sharp in dark environments. For the S9 Ill note the aperture value thephone chose. First up is the classic Adam shot of a brickwall. Zooming in reveals a massive amount of sharpeningon the Samsung phones, but thats Samsungs trademark. Interestingly the iPhone is soft around theedges, but the Mate 10 has the best texture here. Here on the steps, Im surprised by justhow soft the letters are behind the model in the S9 photo.Samsung says the cameras aperture closesdown to f/2.4 in order to stay sharper, which should theoreticaly be true. But at 2.4, the phone should also be ableto keep the object in the distance in focus. But thats just not the case here. Same thing on this wide shot here — the Hiltonsign should be sharper than that when the S9 is stopped down. So it got me thinking, Could f/1.5 be even softer? Switching to manual mode on the S9 lets youmanually toggle between f/1.5 and 2.4. And shot after shot, I wasnt seeing a hugedifference in terms of sharpness between the two aperture values. If Samsung included dual apertures so thatthe 1.5 could help in low light while allowing the 2.4 to keep photos sharper in bright light,then Im not seeing it. In fact, for the most part I cant finda reason why Samsung couldnt just let the camera stay at f/1.5 and call it a day.This whole dual aperture thing feelslike a gimmick to me. So back to the rest of the phones. In bright lighting scenarios the Mate 10 hasthe sharpest images. Both Samsung phones exhibit a weird ghostingpattern around the cars here, which doesnt help clarity overall. Even at dusk, this shot of a building is sharperon the Mate 10, and at such great distances, the iPhone comes in second. Also, the S8 actually does better than theS9 here. But lets move into some very dark scenes tocheck out low light performance, because here is where Samsung shines.This wider shot is impressively sharp on theS9 — just check out the spokes on that motorcycle. The Mate 10 and iPhone keep up, and even theS8 does pretty well. Moving in a bit closer to the wall, and wehave a surprise! The S8 kills the S9. In fact the Mate and iPhone are even clearerthan the S9 in this shot. So, while Samsung does some impressive thingsin low light, the S9 is inconsistent whereas the Mate 10 is solid throughout every lightingscenario. The Huawei Mate 10 Pro wins the clarity sectionas well. The third test category is exposure. In this one we cover how the camera exposesfor a scene, and find out just how much dynamic range is retained in the shot.Ill be including histograms in this sectionso you can get even more detail. Lets start with a nice city shot. The Mate 10 and iPhone 10 both capture a pleasingexposure and retain plenty of information in the extreme ends of the histogram. But the S9 and S8 both overexpose the sky,losing some cloud detail and color. Same thing happens here: the sky is blownout on the S9. The shot on the Mate 10 is flatter but ifI was to edit these photos Id rather add contrast into the shot than try to take itout. But here the S9 does better. The Mate 10 is a bit underexposed, and theskin on the model in the iPhone shot is blown out. The S8 is on the darker side, just like theMate 10. This next shot was to test how the camerashandle backlit scenarios. Every phone other than the Mate 10 blows outthe highlights on the red bench and white wall in the background.Focusing just on the face, the Mate 10 alsofeels the most natural and evenly exposed. In this first alleyway shot Victoria looksghostly on the S9. Shes not too bad in the Mate 10 shot, butI actually perfer the iPhone exposure here. Its a more even exposure while still havingsome depth in the shadows. This last photo has the S9 once again exposesthe models skin too brightly. Its a fine line between having a punchyimage with contrast that adds depth and retaining information in the exposure, but the iPhonefeels too proccessed here so Im going with the Mate 10s shot.Both Samsung phones lost information fromoverexposure in too many scenarios, and the iPhone tended to blow out skin tones. The Mate 10 underexposed in some scenariosbut didnt loose anything that couldnt be brought back in editing. So Huaweis Mate 10 Pro goes 3 for 3, takingthe exposure category. The fourth and final test category looks userexperience. Here I get into what its like using thecamera day to day, and highlight extra features as well.Well start with the Mate 10. It has a fast and powerful camera app, butits not the most user friendly. Trying to find the Pro mode isnt very straightforward,and unfortunately that continues through the rest of the apps menu features. But Huawei does have an amazing black andwhite mode, using a secondary 20 megapixel sensor. Cap that off with Huaweis AI powered sceneand object recognition, and you have a great and reliable user experience. For the S9, Samsung has redone its app layoutto something that iPhone users will recognize. Its pretty straightforward and easy touse, and has a fun AR emoji option built right in. But I had a couple of problems using the appdaily. First off, I found switching between modesto be very slow.As I was testing out the dual apeture in manualmode, I was dreading trying to to get there over and over again from auto mode. Second, Bixby vision always pesters you inauto mode and man is that frustrating. The iPhone X is fast and easy to use as always,but I really dont like how long it takes to launch. All the rest of the phones have you launchingthe camera app with a double press of a button, something I can do before even looking atthe phone. The iPhone on the otherhand has you raisethe phone, then long press on the camera icon to launch. Thats too slow for me. But once again, its defintitely the mosteasy to use right out of the box. And finally we have the Samsung Galaxy S8. This phone has been out for a year now soits a known quantity at this point, but it delivers a solid experience nonetheless. My biggest painpoint while using the S8 wasthe lack of a second lens for doing fun things like Portrait Mode. Speaking of Portrait Modes, I did do somequick testing between the three phones that have it, and didnt find any huge improvementsto the edge detection.I still use it all the time but cant waitfor further advancements in the tech. I lean towards perfering the Mate 10 withits wider field of view, but each option has its problems. At the end of the day I continued to loveusing Huaweis Mate 10 Pro, which takes the user experience category. So to close it out, lets crown a winner! The S8 is still a very good camera that excelsin low light, but its been surpased by the S9 in almost every way. And while the iPhone X keeps up with the pack,it wasnt able to win a rematch.The Galaxy S9 is Samsungs best camera todate, but continues Samsungs habit of oversharpening and blowing out highlights. And because the dual aperture approach doesntdeliver substantial improvements, Im calling the S9 camera an evolution, not a revolution. So, winning 4 out of 4 categories, and continuingits reign is Huaweis Mate 10 Pro! The Mate 10 Pro has been a blast to take photoswith over the last couple months since it came out. Its a huge improvement over the Mate 9that came before it, building off of the strength of Huaweis unique two camera system. Add on top of that the Leica patnership andimpressive AI algorythims and you have a camera system that might stay in the top spot fora while.But where is LG and its successor to theawesome G6? Im hoping itll come soon. Subscribe and stay tuned for more in depthcamera matchups!.
