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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 camera review (originally published October 3, 2017)
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 “ phablet ” joins the growing number of dual-cam smartphones. The note 8 features two 12MP sensors, the primary television camera equipped with a fisheye 26mm f/1.7 lens, and the second with a 52mm telephotograph f/2.4 lens for x2 ocular soar shots. The note 8 is Samsung ’ s first plunder into the world of double cameras and is a great success, offering the best zoom capabilities of any mobile device we ’ ve tested to date. Add to that PDAF autofocus, ocular visualize stabilization, Auto HDR, and a massive 6.3 ” Super AMOLED display, and there ’ s plenty for smartphone photography enthusiasts to get excited about .
Key camera specifications :
- Primary 12MP 1/2.55” sensor with 26mm (wide-angle) f/1.7 lens (1.4um pixel size)
- Secondary 12MP 1/3.6” sensor with 52mm (telephoto) f/2.4 lens(1.0um pixel size)
- x2 optical zoom (up to x8 with digital zoom)
- PDAF autofocus
- Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
- Dual-LED (dual tone) flash
- 6.3” (1440 x 2960) Super AMOLED display with 521ppi density
- 2160p@30fps (4K) video
About DxOMark Mobile tests : For scoring and analysis in our smartphone television camera reviews, DxOMark engineers get and measure over 1500 examination images and more than 2 hours of video recording in both controlled lab environments and in natural indoor and outdoor scenes. This article is designed to highlight the most important results of the test. For more data about the DxOMark Mobile test protocol, cluck here .
Test summary
Achieving an overall DxOMark fluid grade of 94 points, the Note 8 becomes the modern joint drawing card for smartphone trope choice aboard Apple ’ s iPhone 8 Plus. A phenomenal photograph sub-score that breaks new labor as the first smartphone to hit 100 points makes the Note 8 the current class-leader for stills, thanks to excellent zoom quality, good noise reduction and detail preservation, adenine well as fast and accurate autofocus. The note 8 doesn ’ t quite match the lapp heights for video, where its sub-score of 84 is a little behind the best performers, such as the Google Pixel with 91 points, or the iPhone 8 Plus and the HTC U11, both with 89. It ’ mho calm a identical capable device for video, however, with its key strengths being effective exposure with fast convergence, fast and stable autofocus, ampere well as beneficial randomness reduction, white balance, and color give .
Bright light
Images captured in bright light on the note 8 are on the whole great, with boldface and intense color picture and high levels of detail preservation .
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 captures outstanding pictures in undimmed alight, with accurate photograph, bluff colors, and good levels of all right detail .
In brilliantly light, color rendering on the note 8 is generally very good, displaying boldface and graphic coloring material, although a slight pink discolor shed is sometimes visible .
overall moral force range is a little specify compared to some of the best HDR algorithm we ’ ve seen, with bright highlights often overexposed. As usual, we ’ ve tested the device in default mood, but with the Note 8 offering an Auto HDR feature, we expected a little more highlight contingent conservation. Using this challenging HDR test scene, it ’ sulfur obvious that the Google Pixel retains a little more highlight detail in the blues of the river, although both devices fail to record any color in the flip .
The Note 8 displays limited active stove in this challenge high-contrast picture, with some passing of highlight detail .
In line, the same scene blastoff with the Google Pixel displays perceptibly more highlight detail in the water .
Occasional white balance irregularities are besides visible in bright outdoor scenes, with a visible pink cast apparent, but color impregnation remains impregnable for some sandbag results .
Low light and Flash
Shooting under indoor light conditions, the Note 8 ’ south exposures are excellent, with well-managed randomness, good detail preservation, and bright color. In extreme low light, images are a little underexpose, although at 5 lux they remain very functional and are still exploitable even in near-dark conditions of good 1 lux. Although it captures slenderly less detail on moving subjects under indoor alight conditions, the results are still very acceptable, and it ’ s merely when light up levels are very low that the Note 8 badly struggles to preserve detail on moving subjects .
Under indoor light conditions, the Note 8 ’ south exposures are excellent, with well-managed noise, reasonably good contingent conservation, and vivid semblance .
Using flash without any extra light sources, exposure, white balance, and tinge render are thoroughly, although some corner shade is discernible. When mixing flash with extra light sources, exposure, white balance, and color rendering stay accurate, with repeatable results over consecutive exposures, but a rebuff haunt impression appears on some portraits and semblance shade is besides discernible, along with a pinko color shed in the center shifting to green at the edges .
Zoom and Bokeh
The stand-out property of the Note 8 is its zoom, with excellent results using the x2 ocular soar lens, adenine well as impressive resolution on digital zoom shots at x4 and even at x8. If you ’ rhenium dangerous about shooting portraits with your smartphone, a dual-cam apparatus featuring a telephotograph lens ( 52mm equivalent on the Note 8 ) is essential for capturing people pictures without the distortions that occur using a fisheye lens, and for helping separate the subject from the setting. Using the note 8 ’ sulfur rapid climb up to x4 magnification in bright conditions results in phenomenal detail, and although less detail is recorded at x8, the images are still very useable, specially in bright light. Using the x2 ocular zoom in low light, detail preservation remains outstanding, but digital soar shots start to suffer a little more, particularly at x8 exaggeration, where contingent is badly affected. silent, it ’ s the best rapid climb device we ’ ve tested to date in low clean .
In bright light up, using the digital rapid climb at x4 enlargement is besides excellent, and although at x8 ( pictured here ) image quality is reduced, results are still very acceptable .
In comparison, the iPhone 8 Plus, although offering excellent ocular soar at x2, international relations and security network ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate ampere strong as the note 8 at x8, with significantly more noise, color fringe, and artifacts .
To farther enhance portraits, the Note 8 ’ second bokeh simulation mode does an excellent occupation of artificially blurring the background — most of the time. When applied, the depth-of-field effect is very good, applying a potent but pleasant blur, with a nice circular supreme headquarters allied powers europe to the mirrorlike highlights. Although some masking error artifacts are visible around the portrait at stopping point inspection, they ’ rhenium less obtrusive when viewing a whole picture, particularly on the device ’ randomness screen. It besides helps when the topic is on the same focal airplane, with visible depth estimate failures resulting in parts of the subject that are closer to the television camera, such as a hand, for exercise, displaying an unrealistic grade of smear. Repeatability is besides a bit hit and neglect, and although the bokeh effect kicks in more much when shooting static subjects, we found the consequence wasn ’ t applied on around a third base of our portrayal shots .
Bokeh pretense effect on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 .
Bokeh simulation effect on the iPhone 8 Plus .
Video
With a video sub-score of 84, the Note 8 lags a little behind the best, but is still a very capable performer in video mode, packing a 2160p @ 30fps solution for detail-rich 4k video recording, or 720p @ 240fps capture for rendering creative slow-motion effects in post-production. The device ’ south samara video strengths are excellent color and noise in undimmed light, with very good overall white libra and color interpret. broadly, the Note 8 ’ s video exposures are excellent, excessively, with fast convergence under changing lighting conditions, although active compass can be a small limit in high-contrast scenes, with some loss of detail in both the shadows and highlights. Autofocus is fast and stable in many cases, although with no tracking capabilities in default mode, keeping moving subjects sharp can be challenging. Video stabilization is besides quite effective, with only minor residual gesticulate visible in some situations, normally on static subjects .
Photo scores explained
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 achieves a total photograph score of 100, which is calculated from its scores in tests that examine different aspects of its performance under different alight conditions. In this part we ’ ll take a closer look at these image quality sub-scores .
Exposure and Contrast
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
82
A identical estimable, if not great, grudge for exposure. The note 8 actually excels in outdoor light conditions where, a few HDR issues aside, it by and large produces accurate exposures with thoroughly line .
In brilliantly fall, the Note 8 produces many excellent exposures with good contrast .
Although close, the iPhone 8 renders slightly better active range with more highlight detail in the reflect flip in the window .
Under indoor light conditions, exposures remain excellent down to easy levels of 20 Lux, and although images in extreme low light ( 1 to 5 Lux ) are slenderly underexposed, they remain exploitable .
In extreme low-light conditions ( 1 Lux ) the note 8 ’ sulfur DxOMark chart shots are underexpose but still exploitable .
The Note 8 ’ randomness limited dynamic range in default option manner is apparent when shooting firm backlit portraits, as the television camera fails to record an accurate exposure for either the dark or lighter areas. No doubt the use of flash to lighten the national and manual allowance of exposure in Pro mode could improve results significantly, but that requires intervention from the photographer .
In backlit portraits, faces are underexposed, while the background is overexposed .
Color
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
73
Galaxy Note 8 images show bluff color interpretation in bright outdoor conditions, and although color under indoor or low-light conditions is very acceptable, some color casts in these conditions affected the overall color mark .
The Note 8 renders bright and graphic coloring material in most fall situations, with peculiarly bold hues when shooting in good light outdoors .
Although white balance is by and large accurate and pleasant, a little pinko color cast is discernible on some outdoor pictures .
In our perceptual analysis of image quality, the Note 8 scored identical well for both color translate and color uniformity, but white balance wasn ’ metric ton as solid, with some visible color casts in all lighting conditions, including a pink project outdoors and a peculiarly obtrusive orange shed indoors .
Autofocus
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
94
At 94, the Note 8 achieves an outstanding score for its autofocus performance. Scores are excellent for both inactive scenes ( Landscape ) and those with subject motion ( Family ), achieving about the highest marks in both indoor and outdoor conditions. Focus is fast and accurate in gloomy light, excessively, and although the odd failure fawn in with subject bowel movement in low light, the Note 8 remains a reliable device for sharp images in all conditions .
In low-light conditions ( 20 lux ), a dart time of around 300ms is pretty fast, and the Note 8 is very accurate, excessively, with a 0 % concenter failure rate over 30 back-to-back shots .
Shooting times are besides very fast, with only a very short delay ( under 100ms ) for the Note 8 to find focus from an out-of-focus country in both indoor and outdoor light conditions. The delay was a little retentive ( around 300ms ) in very low clean, but that ’ randomness hush very satisfactory for the conditions .
Detail (65)
The Note 8 ’ sulfur overall contingent score of 65, comprises analyses of texture preservation in both static scenes ( Landscape score ) and scenes with subject apparent motion ( Family score ) in all fall conditions. The eminence 8 records excellent contingent on static scenes in both indoor and outdoor light up conditions ; lower levels of detail in extreme low lighter, and in scenes containing national movement affected the overall sexual conquest.
Read more: Acer Aspire E5-573G Notebook Review
Detail preservation is good in outdoor scenes, but sometimes fine details are lost in low-contrast areas .
In undimmed outdoor conditions, texture preservation on moving subjects is dependable, if not excellent, with less detail under indoor conditions, and a meaning passing of detail on moving subjects in extreme moo easy. Using a tripod doesn ’ metric ton have any impact on the Note 8 ’ south exposure times, but with shutter speeds dropping below 1/40 second gear under low-light conditions between 1 and 100 Lux, tripod images are a little sharp .
Samsung Galaxy Note 8, 1000 Lux .
Google Pixel, 1000 Lux .
iPhone 8 Plus, 1000 Lux .
Examining hand-held images shot in bright sparkle ( 1000 Lux ), edge for the Note 8 is good, but the finest details aren ’ thymine angstrom well-preserved as for the Google Pixel or the iPhone 8 Plus .
Sharpness score for static scenes ( Landscape ) and scenes with subjugate motion ( Family ) in different lighting conditions .
The acutance ( asperity ) graph clearly indicates that the most contingent is preserved in electrostatic scenes ( Landscape ) in commodity sparkle between 20 and 100 Lux. While good texture is besides recorded in scenes with motion ( Family ) in bright conditions between 100 and 1000 Lux, it drops below 50 % in low-light conditions, when you can expect to see motion blur on moving subjects .
Samsung Galaxy Note 8, 5 Lux .
Google Pixel, 5 lux
iPhone 8 Plus, 5 lux
In low-light conditions ( 5 Lux ), the iPhone 8 Plus clearly has an edge for acuteness when viewing 100 % crops, but at the expense of a little more visible noise .
Noise
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
75
A identical good score for randomness, which is excellent in both indoor and broken clean lighting conditions. Denoising is well-managed, with merely some some residual luminosity noise visible in blue darkness areas. Levels of visible noise are well-controlled on the Note 8 compared to the iPhone 8 Plus and the Google Pixel, with less luminosity noise apparent in both the highlight and shadow regions .
Samsung Galaxy Note 8, 5 Lux .
Google Pixel, 5 Lux .
iPhone 8 Plus, 5 Lux .
noise performance in bright light is not quite ampere good as in low-light conditions, with some remainder luminosity noise visible in the apparition areas .
Denoising is very well-managed under low-light conditions, but some residual luminosity noise is quite visible in outdoor conditions in dark areas
Artifacts
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
68
The Note 8 dropped points for personnel casualty of border acuteness, visible ringing along contrast edges, color fringe, vignetting, equally well as visible maze and moiré artifacts, which can occur on high-frequency patterns. Of all these concerns, it ’ s the loss of sharpness between the edges and focus on of the skeletal system that has the most damaging impact on image quality. Viewed on the device screen, the shock of these artifacts is small, but if you ’ ra plan on making prints, or displaying images electronically on a large scale, they will be of more business .
Some Samsung Galaxy Note 8 images can show color fringing on high-contrast edges .
Flash
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
82
A good overall seduce for dart, with the Note 8 ’ s dual-tone LED module providing systematically good results in both flash-only and assorted fall situations. Its key strengths are excellent exposure, american samoa well as good discolor and texture. Heavy vignetting, or corner shade, occurs both on flash-only shots and more heavily in interracial ignite conditions, resulting in fairly dark edges on blink of an eye pictures. Levels of detail are very dear, but noise is apparent, a well as a rebuff ghost in some portrayal pictures. White balance and color render are generally very good and consistent over straight shots, but some color shade does creep in .
Zoom
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
66
An excellent overall mark for zoom, which is composed of person scores in low light, indoor, and outdoor lighting conditions. Using the x2 ocular soar via the 52mm telephotograph lens, detail is excellent under both indoor and outdoor conditions and remains identical good in extreme moo light, besides. long-range soar using the digital zoom at x4 and x8 is besides very good — in fact, the best we ’ ve tested. Although some noise and artifacts do start to become visible with digital soar, they ’ re well-controlled compared to competitor devices. For well detail, try to restrict digital soar to x4 enlargement, but in bright light ( 1000 Lux ), detail at x8 is good about satisfactory, particularly if you ’ re only viewing images on a little screen .
Using the note 8 ’ s digital rapid climb at x5 magnification, detail preservation is good, and although aliasing and moiré effects are scantily visible, some noise and ringing artifacts start to appear. They ’ ra well-controlled compared to many rival devices, however, making the note 8 the best smartphone for digital rapid climb we ’ ve tested to date .
100 % crops of the DxOMark test graph show that the Note 8 records very good detail iusing the x2 optical rapid climb in all light up conditions. With x4 digital zoom, you can expect full detail in bright light and satisfactory results for indoor shots. In very low ignite, the digital zoom fails to capture good detail when viewing images at 100 %, but for small-screen display, resolution is merely about good enough .
100 % crops of the DxOMark test chart shoot in abject light, indoor, and outdoor light conditions at 2x, 4x, and 8x zoom enlargement .
Bokeh
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
45
Bokeh pretense on the note 8 does a reasonably consistent job in both depleted and bright light conditions. Its strengths are a potent blur or depth-of-field consequence, which can make for some strike portraits. The human body of the bokeh is a decent round radiation pattern, exchangeable to what would be achieved optically with a telephotograph lens and wide aperture. Repeatability is an exit, with the effect failing to activate on about a third gear of our portraits, and a noticeable step in the smear gradient is much discernible behind the national, along with inconsistencies in the amount of noise applied to the confuse .
The Note 8 ’ s bokeh pretense mode applies a hard background film over effect, with reasonably estimable topic cover and excellent depth appraisal .
Background blur international relations and security network ’ thymine as marked when taking the same inject with the iPhone 8 Plus, but both devices render courteous circular bokeh on the apparitional highlights, creating something exchangeable to the optical effect of a DSLR and telephotograph lens .
Video scores explained
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 achieves an overall television score of 84 points, so doesn ’ triiodothyronine achieve quite the lapp heights as with calm photos. The overall video recording mark is calculated from the video recording sub-scores, however, which gives some indication of the strengths and helplessness of the device ’ mho performance when shooting moving images, thus : exposure and Contrast ( 80 ), Color ( 86 ), Autofocus ( 65 ), Texture ( 47 ), Noise ( 73 ), Artifacts ( 80 ), and Stabilization ( 81 ) .
The Note 8 ’ randomness key strengths consequently lie in broadly excellent exposures, with fast exposure convergence as ignition conditions change, although dynamic image can be a fiddling circumscribed in high-contrast scenes. White libra and coloring material render are besides very good. Although autofocus is fast and stable in many videos, the miss of any autofocus chase in nonpayment modality reduced the overall score. It should be mentioned, though, that the Note 8 comes with a give chase mode that has to be manually enabled and consequently was not included in our test. Video stabilization is good, but not quite on the like level as some competitors, with a draw of residual movement when holding the camera hush during recording .
Conclusion: Top ranking… for now
When all the tests are verified, the scores calculated, and the perceptual analyses discussed, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes out as an outstanding choice for the smartphone photography enthusiast, matching the top overall grudge of 94 points of the iPhone 8 Plus. Dual-cam apparatus offering a irregular telephotograph zoom for portraits are a substantial footprint fore for high-end smartphone photography, and the execution on the notice 8 is exceptional, making it the best smartphone for rapid climb shots we ’ ve tested.
Add to that extremely fast and accurate autofocus and a very competent ostentation unit, the Note 8 breaks modern land as the first gear smartphone to achieve 100 points for its photograph sub-score. With newly devices on the horizon from several of the key innovators for smartphone photography, will the Note 8 be able to hold onto its top spot ? Time will tell.
Pros
- Excellent zoom performance up to 4x
- Very low noise levels in low light
- Fast and accurate autofocus
- Good detail in bright light and indoor conditions
- Bright and vivid colors
Pros
- Good white balance and color rendering
- Good exposure and fast exposure convergence
- Stable and fast autofocus
- Good noise reduction across all light conditions
- Good stabilization
Cons
- Limited dynamic range, frequent highlight clipping
- Bokeh effect is sometimes not visible even when mode is enabled
- Frequent white balance casts in bright light and indoor conditions
Cons
- No autofocus tracking capability in default mode
- Shadow and highlight clipping in high-contrast scenes
- Residual motion visible when holding the camera still during recording
