Galaxy S7 vs Note 5 Camera - More Pixels or Bigger Pixels?
Galaxy S7 vs Note 5 Camera - More Pixels or Bigger Pixels?
2016-04-02
my neck is hurt and this camera angle is
not working for me what's up guys lon
here from Android authority and this
year Samsung made a pretty interesting
move by going with fewer megapixels in
favor of a larger pixel size in the
galaxy s7 but was it a good decision and
how much of a difference does it
actually make over something like say
the galaxy note 5 let's find out if
bigger pixels is actually better than
more pixels and if it's worth the
trade-off the whole idea behind the
reduction in megapixels is to create for
larger pixels for a better low-light
performance and we saw Google do
something very similar with last year's
Nexus phones but we're going to take a
look at a variety of different lighting
situations between these two phones just
to see exactly what other differences
there might be now I want to preface
this by saying that both phones were
shot at their maximum resolutions so 16
megapixels on the note 5 and 12
megapixels on the s7 and they're both
shot in complete auto mode with HDR mode
turned on just to keep things as level
as possible alright so the first photo
that we're going to take a look at here
is just a simple outdoor shot with a
camera facing upwards at a building
towards the sky this is the galaxy note
5 here on the left and this is the s7
edge over here on the right and as far
as the actual colors the level of detail
and just looking at these photos as a
whole they both look like really great
shots but when you look at the colors
and the sharpening that's where you'll
notice a lot of differences so if you
look the sky here on the galaxy note 5
versus the sky on the s7 edge there are
two very different shades of blue the
galaxy note 5 is just a little bit
deeper whereas the s7 edge is a slightly
lighter shade of blue it's not a huge
deal but it is the difference that you
noticed and I sort of prefer the lighter
shade of blue on the s7 edge I think it
looks a little bit better but that's
just personal preference and the second
difference is this Valencia play sign
here the Reds are actually very
different they're a lot deeper and much
more vibrant on the note 5 whereas on
the s7 edge they're a little bit more
washed out not quite as a not quite of a
punchy red so I definitely like the way
the Reds are hit being handled here on
the note 5 a little bit better
now if I were to zoom in at these two
shots and take a closer look at the
details on the buildings like the
windows for example you'll notice the s7
edge is a lot more over sharpened in
comparison to the note 5 you can see an
over sharpening halo effect on the s7
edge that you don't see with the note 5
and I'm not entirely sure why Samsung
chose to be a lot more aggressive with
the over sharpening I don't know if
that's their way of sort of compensating
for the fewer megapixels and in some
situations I like the over sharpening
and we'll talk about what some of those
situations are when we take a look at
some more photos but sort of in wider
shots or landscape shots where there's a
lot of stuff going on the over
sharpening actually hurts the photos
more than it helps the second photo that
were going to take a look at is a
close-up shot of a flower and unlike the
building photo that we just took a look
at I actually don't notice too much of a
difference between these two photos in
terms of their color representation and
the depth of field they look nearly
identical so you can see the yellows and
the Greens here don't really look all
that different between these two shots
and they're both again really
great-looking photos now if you zoom in
on the flower here you'll notice that
the s7 edge is slightly more over
sharpened compared to the note 5 but in
close-up shots or macro shots where
there's a very specific point of focus I
actually think the over sharpening is a
lot more beneficial in these types of
photos so here's another example of a
close-up or macro shot and again these
two photos look very very similar but
the major difference here is again in
the sky you can see that there are two
completely different shades of blue and
the Galaxy Note 5s image is actually
ever so slightly overexposed these
shadows are a lot lighter and you can
see that the highlights are a little bit
more blown out in the background here
you can't see quite as much detail as
you can on the s7 edge here is another
close-up shot but this one is of a
sandwich and it's indoors and right away
you can already see the over sharpening
in effect on the s7 edge if you take a
look at the sandwich the entire sandwich
is actually in focus whereas on the
galaxy note 5 the focus is more towards
the centre and it's sort of focused out
as you move
along the edges of the photo and if you
zoom in on something like the tomato
here for example which has some water
droplets on it you can see a little bit
more of the water and the detail and
tomato on the s7 edge than you can on
the note 5 and this is another one of
those situations where it's a very clear
point of focus a very clear subject and
I think the over sharpening actually is
more of a good thing than it is bad what
people really want to know is how much
better is the s7 in low-light because of
those larger pixels and when taking a
look at these two nighttime shots here
there's actually a lot of differences
and the first one that I notice right
away is how much more yellow the s7 edge
is photo is compared to the note 5
they're both really yellow photos but
it's a lot more dramatic on the s7 the
second difference is in the highlights
so if you zoom into this lamp here you
can see that the note 5 is a little bit
more overexposed there's a bigger halo
effect within the highlights and the
same thing can be seen if you go over to
this McCormick and Schmidt's sign here
you can see that there's a much bigger
halo effect the last difference that I
see is just in the brightness of the
photo this one is probably not too
surprising but the s7 edge is a much
brighter photo overall you can see the
buildings up top a lot easier than you
can on the note 5 and this is probably
due to the larger pixels and also
because you're dealing with a much
brighter lens on the s7 edge with an F
1.7 aperture here is another outdoor
nighttime shot but this one is of some
flowers and neither one of these photos
really look that great to be honest but
there are a lot of differences between
these two photos so with the galaxy note
5 you actually have a much more
colourful shot but it's also very very
yellow and you don't really get a whole
lot of detail whereas on the s7 edge
there's a lot more detail the photo
looks a lot sharper overall but the
colors are extremely extremely washed
out but you'll notice that it's a much
brighter image which allows you to get a
lot more detail you can see a lot more
in the concrete on the ground here you
need to see the left side of the flowers
a lot more whereas on the note 5 the
whole entire left side of that image is
pretty much completely blacked out the
last photo that we're going to take a
look at
here is an indoor shot of an Android
figurine on my desk and the only thing
illuminating this photo is the Philips
hue lights in the background so there's
no office lights on
there's no studio lights on and there's
no lights coming through the windows
because this was actually taken at
nighttime but right off the bat you'll
notice that the s7 edge is a much
brighter image if you look at the
Android figurine you can see him very
clearly whereas on the note 5 you can't
really see him quite as well because
it's a lot darker the same thing can be
said about the background so if you take
a look at the toy car on the left there
you can see the toy car pretty easily on
the s7 edge whereas on the note 5 you
can really only see about half of that
car so you have a much brighter image on
the s7 edge a much more well detailed
image and this is where having those
larger pixels and that wider aperture
that F 1.7 aperture really makes a
difference in low-light so did Samsung
make the right decision here by going
with fewer megapixels in favor of larger
pixels and personally I think they did I
think it was worth the trade-off the
camera still takes fantastic looking
images and pretty much all lighting
conditions and the nighttime shots are a
lot brighter there's a lot more detail
and it handles exposure in the
highlights a lot better they still
aren't amazing but they're definitely an
improvement over the galaxy note 5 or
the s6 from last year that's really
going to do it for this video guys
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