Gadgetory

galaxy and iPhone it's another battle of the cameras not much has changed from the s8 plus to the s9 plus but the camera is a different story Samsung has raised the bar on smartphone photography with a variable aperture and super slow-mo feature on its s9 but is it enough to outshine the iPhone 10 and claim the crown as our camera King I took these giants up to Lake Tahoe in California to see how well they can capture the snowy mountains an ideal light there's no question these guys take incredible photos and videos you'll know slight differences in color temperature and texture depending on the screen you're watching this on but at least to my eyes there is no clear winner video on the s9 plus has more contrast and saturation with greater depth and sharpness the iPhone has a softer brighter look and may come across as a bit flatter they both have optical image stabilization on both lenses and video looks smooth even when I'm panting up a snowy mountain chasing my pup they're both good at keeping focus on the subject but the iPhones may look a bit steadier while the galaxy did a slightly better job at smoothly adapting to changes in light they can both record up to 4k at 60 frames per second but you'll have to take our word for it because we can't actually play it in 4k what's unique about the s9 is that it has a variable aperture in low-light it gets wider to let in more light and in bright light it becomes more narrow in a professional camera you can adjust this manually and it's what our pupils do automatically vs9 can only choose between F 1.5 and F 2.4 but the fact that it even has the option is a pretty big deal in a phone it's constantly guessing which one to use for what shot and can produce a wider range of results the iPhones aperture is fixed so it's relying on image processing and shutter speed to adjust to different lighting conditions and shots look more consistent across the board in this lake shot the s9 plus looks a bit softer while the iPhones has more contrast in texture but in this shot of the snow the s9 has the higher contrast even though both were shot at the more narrow f2 point for the s9 plus also lets you pick the aperture in Pro Mode switch between the two and adjust a bunch of other settings to get more out of your shot so you'd probably use Pro Mode when shooting a subject that's actually standing still this was shot using Pro Mode on the galaxy s 9 and this one was shot on the automatic mode on the iPhone 10 as you can see the galaxy s 9 blurred out the background behind me it also lets you adjust the white balance and the exposure but when you're out and about you probably don't want to bother messing around with settings and that's one of the problems with the super-slow-mo feature on the s9 it's not exactly straight forward and 960 frames per second it is much slower than the 240 frames per second on the iPhone 10 but it doesn't shoot in Full HD and it doesn't shoot the entire clip at this frame rate once you hit the record button on the phone it decides when to switch on the super slow-mo feature based on the movement in the shot and it doesn't always get it right it would start it too early or too late and there's no adjusting it later but when it does get it right yes nines is way more dramatic than anything you'll get on the iPhone the iPhone 10 is just point and shoot that's it the entire clip can be in slow motion if you want it to be because you can even edit it later the s9 also has this option but it's buried in the settings and what about the other lens both phones have a second telephoto lens with similar specs for optical zoom and blurred background portraits at 2x both produce great results but if you zoom in you'll notice the s9 plus is sharper the iPhone 10 has portrait mode and the s9 plus has live focus similar to what we saw in the note 8 and neither is perfect at figuring out what to blur but in general they both do a good job at portraits colors on the iPhone seem cooler and the shot is more true to life because it retains a lot more detail in the face while the s9s appears to be more flattering because it makes faces brighter and evens out shadows and skin tones but sometimes all the retouching can backfire and in this photo the s9 applied the same filter on my face as it did to my son and while he looks fine I look yellow the s9 plus lets you adjust the blur while you're taking the shot or after and I ended up using it a lot more than the lighting effects on the iPhone and if you're a fan of selfies both phones have portrait mode on the front-facing cameras as well the iPhone 10 has a depth sensing camera which is slightly better at figuring out what to blur in the shot but they're using software so they're not as great as using the main camera the s9 also lets you do a wide-angle selfie but for video it's the opposite and the s9 gets a little too close for comfort testing out the front camera of both these phones Lake Tahoe but when the Sun goes down is when the s9 plus really shines the wider aperture allows it to let in more light without sacrificing detail and picture quality both did well considering how dark it was but in this shot of the lake there's a no competition the shot on the s9 looks smoother and brighter while the iPhones looks darker and a bit grainy err and once you zoom in it's even more obvious the s9 is still able to capture some detail in the trees and the smoke out in the distance while the iPhones looks like an impressionist painting with blobs the galaxy also did a better job at evening out the lighting in this cabin shot the cabin on the iphone looks blown out and the supplies to videos as well but the differences are not as great yes nines look slightly sharper and more saturated but the iPhone definitely keeps up photographing subjects in bad lighting is tough on both especially if there's movement the s9 plus still looks brighter but it's blurry and the color temperature seems off same goes for video colors on the iPhone seem more true to life but the shot in general looks darker but when the subject is still like this shot of Charlie the s9 pulls ahead the colors may be more realistic on the iPhone but there's a lot of noise in that shot and you can barely see the pup and for food shots it's impressive even in this dimly lit restaurant it managed to capture a lot of texture in the onion both phones have their strengths and weaknesses colors on the iPhone seems slightly more accurate and portraits more true to life but the s9 plus is a lot more versatile and is the clear winner in low-light at least low-light photos at the end of the day you've got to ask yourself what you're looking for in a camera the galaxy s 9 plus is not quite a DSLR level yet but it definitely gives you more control over your shot and if you know what you're doing you can make it look even better but you can't go wrong with the iPhone 10 it gives you great-looking results and it does all the work for you so let us know what you think in the comment section below and what else you'd like to see the s9 compared to it