I am here on top of Twin Peaks in San
Francisco with two of the best ones you
can buy right now the Galaxy Note nine
from Samsung and the new iPhone 10's
Macs both phones cost over $1000 both
phones have dual rear cameras with dual
optical stabilization and take amazing
photos and videos we're going to take a
look at them and compare them
side-by-side to see how they stack up
overall photos from the iPhone have
better dynamic range than those from the
galaxy note 9 a lot of that comes from
the iPhones new smart HDR feature which
retains more details in the brightest
and darkest parts of the photo on the
other hand the note 9 exposes photos
brighter occasionally clipping
highlights and light sources like lamps
and overhead lighting the note 9 also
has software that optimizes photos for
20 different subject categories like
landscapes pets and food for example if
I'm taking a picture with a blue sky in
it the camera will optimize its settings
to best capture it
most of these scene optimizations are
pretty subtle which is a good thing both
of these phones have optical zoom that
allows me to get two times closer to my
subject without having that bad Pixley
stuff that happens with digital zero
however once you start using digital
zoom photos from both phones start to
look sloppy here's a photo taken at 10
times zoom on the iPhone and here's one
from the note 9 both look pretty rough
then there's the interface on both
phones the iPhones native camera app is
easier to navigate and while it's nice
to have so many mode options the Galaxy
Note 9s default app can be overwhelming
and sometimes finicky to use though I do
like pro mode that allows me to take
more control over the shutter speed ISO
and aperture of my photos
when it comes to low-light the note
non-explosive seems brighter than the
iphone by switching to its f 1.5
aperture the widest on any smartphone
low-light photos definitely have less
noise in the iphone but are really soft
and suffer from blown highlights and
motion D iPhone low-light photos have a
bit more noise but are sharper with
better dynamic range unless I'm taking
photos of something static like a
building I almost always prefer to
low-light shots from the iPhone over the
note 9 but let's talk about one of the
coolest features on these phones
portrait mode or live focus of Samsung
closets on the iPhone portrait mode is
superb not only can I change the
lighting looks on people's faces but
also the amount of background blur
before or after a photo is taken the
note 9 also lets you change the
background blur but the way the iPhone
renders it is more pleasing portrait
mode photos from the iPhone have more
detail and sharpness in people's faces
and colors are more saturated the ones
from the note 9 are softer though some
people might prefer that line then we
come to video both of these phones are
two of the best you can get to capture
video however the iPhone has better
image quality colors and recording
options the no nine records excellent
videos but sometimes they can look over
sharpened low-light video for the note 9
looks messy this clip was recorded on a
Street around midnight it looks soft has
noise in the shadows and there are
lights flaring all over the place here's
the same moment recorded with the iPhone
and it looks decent here's why the
iPhone has a new feature called auto
low-light FPS this automatically changes
the framerate and low light conditions
from 30 frames per second to 24 as for
selfies the iPhone has finally caught up
to Samsung selfies from both phones are
good the iPhone offers portrait mode for
selfies which looks solid while the note
9 has selective focus which looks okay
honestly look at Sofia video I hope you
have long arms because selfie videos on
both phones is really
colors look more saturated on the note
nine and the image is attached sharper
on the iPhone at the end of the day both
the iPhone 10's Macs and Galaxy Note 9
are significant improvements over last
year's models but to me the iPhone
offers a better overall experience in
terms of image quality dynamic range
video and ease of use
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