Samsung’s S20 line has two phones with two different camera configurations - so I just
had to include both in this round of Last Cam Standing. That means the S20+ and S20 Ultra
take on the champion iPhone 11 Pro, as well as the Pixel 4. Samsung has a 50/50
chance of winning in this unique episode!
Last Cam Standing is my long-running smartphone camera testing series that pits the top phones
against each other in a head to head battle. The goal of this video is simple: I’m trying
to find out which of these phones can take the best photos in auto mode with the main lens.
Each company tunes its hardware and software in specific ways, and I want to see
what they think makes a great photo.
Today I’ll be breaking the results into 3 categories: color, clarity, and exposure.
Along the way we’ll learn a lot about how these cameras perform and at the end
I'll crown a winner!
Now let’s meet the contestants. First up is the Samsung Galaxy S20+ and its 12 megapixel
main shooter. This camera module feels like an iteration of past Samsung phones, so we’ll
see just how upgraded it is.
Next up is the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. Where the S20+ feels like an iteration, the S20 Ultra
promises to be a game changer. A much larger 108 megapixel sensor should let in
more light and provide more detail.
After that, we have Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro, the winner of the last round of testing.
It features solid specs and very even processing, and was a big leap over the iPhone XS
that came before it.
Last we have the Pixel 4 from Google. While it didn’t keep up with the other contestants
last time it’s still one of the top camera systems out there. Let’s see how it holds
up after plenty of software updates.
Before we get to the testing I want to thank our fabulous model Tara. I put a link to her
Instagram in the description below, so please check go check out her fantastic work. And
be sure to subscribe to Tech Advisor for even more coverage of these phones
and many more in the future.
Now let's get to the testing! First up is the color category, and here I’m looking
for things like color reproduction and white balance accuracy.
Now more than ever, I really have to split hairs when looking at the results. Each camera
produces close to accurate colors, with the biggest differences coming from white balance readings.
This first example is subtle and you have to focus on things like Tara’s
grey shirt and the cream wall to notice slight variations.
The differences are a little more noticeable against this hanger door. Not only do we see
how each camera renders the yellow wall, we can also see how it affects the skin color
of the model. Honestly I was surprised to see how different the S20+ was compared to
the Ultra. I would have assumed Samsung wanted a more consistent result across its new product line
but I guess the changes to the hardware might be more than I thought.
I’m also surprised to see that the Pixel 4 is producing warmer results than usual.
In this scene it’s Google’s phone that has the warmest concrete. It’s the
S20 Ultra’s photo that leans the coolest and even has a hint of green, especially in
Tara’s skin tone.
But switching over to a scene with predominantly green surroundings, the iPhone cranks the
warm tones to 11, a very fascinating trait that showed up in almost every photo we took
in this area. It does produce pleasing skin tones but it wrecks the rest of the scene
and is not very accurate, especially when viewed side by side with other cameras.
But in all the photos I captured, that is really the only one stumbling block for any of these phones.
Of course the color category always hinges on a bit of personal preference, but to my eye
it’s the S20+ that has the best balance of all four phones. It’s not by a huge margin though,
and it mainly came down to the fact that it was the most consistent and none of
its photos were way off base in one way or another. So the color category goes to the
Samsung Galaxy S20+.
The next category is clarity. Here I’m looking at the sharpness of each camera and how well
they stay sharp in various lighting conditions.
First I want to look at some long-distance shots, like this one across the rooftops.
I’ll remind everyone that the S20 Ultra defaults to pixel binning its 108 megapixel
sensor down to 12 megapixels for the best processing results, which is how most people
will use it and is how I tested it. Zooming in to see the results, it’s the two Samsung
phones that stand above the rest, with the iPhone keeping the scene pretty soft like
usual, and the Pixel 4 having the grainiest version.
Switching to an example down this neighborhood street, we notice the most stair stepping
on the power lines in the Pixel 4’s shot.
But this is a great time to talk about the generous
amounts of sharpening Samsung has always applied to its results, with a telltale sign showing
up as white ‘haloing’ around the power lines. The sharpening is slightly stronger
on the S20 Ultra, but they both have heavy amounts applied to the final image in order
to provide that clear pop.
On to a shot that includes Tara, we notice another fault of the S20 Ultra. Ever since
the first reviews rolled in, there have been reports of the camera missing focus, and it
did crop up in my testing. I will note that we took these photos around mid-March after
the first round of patches came through. Over time it has supposedly improved, but there
are still problems here and there.
I kept Tara in the same spot and moved in closer to see if Samsung still smoothed over
skin like in the past. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the case, with both Samsung phones having
the most information and texture on her face thanks to the sharpening, but this does accentuate
slight blemishes. This time it’s the iPhone that has the most glossed-over look, which
helps hide imperfections but also takes away some of those fine details.
Coming in even closer, I wanted to point out the bokeh quality coming out of the S20 Ultra.
Even without zooming in, we can see the amount of blur on the hanger windows behind Tara,
and it’s thanks to the larger sensor. Now I know that the majority of smartphone users
actually prefer everything in the frame to be in focus, but for photographers like me
who use things like depth of field as a tool to guide attention, it’s a valuable tool
and it’s surprisingly smooth on the S20 Ultra.
Even in this medium shot where most smartphones exhibit very little background blur, the S20
Ultra reproduces some very nice bokeh, which helps add to the depth of the scene and subtly
draws your eye toward the subject.
Now let’s go over some low light results, returning to the street from earlier.
When we zoom in on the cars, we see that the iPhone gives us the softest shot, with noise reduction
kicking into high gear. The Pixel 4 produces one of the best shots even though there is
a bit of grain present. But unfortunately the S20 Ultra’s larger sensor doesn’t
help in this example -- I was hoping for a sharper image than this.
Now I know I said I wasn’t going to look at extra modes in this series, but I had to
include the night modes because it’s on by default with the iPhone. With that in mind
the iPhone jumps ahead and turns in a clearer shot than any other camera -- even showing
the most information in the tough-to-see power lines overhead. Both Samsung phones produce
a little more detail in this mode, but it’s nothing to write home about. The Pixel 4 sees
a great boost as well, but also applies a heavy amount of noise reduction.
The same results cropped up in all the low light testing I did.
It's the iPhone that stands above the rest, retaining a great amount of detail without too much noise.
Like I mentioned, Apple enables its night mode by default without having to be prompted by
the user, which I think is actually a smart move since it’s results speak for themselves
and it’s very easy to use.
So the clarity category ends up being a bit more of a competition than the color category.
Samsung’s phones are technically the sharpest options in daylight but rely heavily on post
processing, which comes with its own problems. The iPhone is softer in daylight, but is the
best option in low light since it’s night mode kicks all sorts of butt. And the Pixel
isn’t a slouch in this department -- but it doesn’t excel in any one spot.
On paper this category should have been dominated by the S20 Ultra and it’s crazy 108 megapixel
sensor, and for the most part it turned in great results with plenty of detail and awesome
amounts of depth of field to play with. But it also tripped up too many times by either
missing focus or showing too many oversharpening artifacts.
So until I can confirm that the autofocus issues have been resolved and Samsung dials
back the sharpening, it’s just too hard to give it the win. It’s the iPhone that
is plenty sharp in all scenarios, has the best low light images, and is very consistent in it's results.
I have to play it safe and give Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro the win in the clarity category.
The last category is exposure, and here I’m looking for correct exposures and a good balance
of dynamic range.
Starting on this beach scene, the typical scenario plays out between the different manufacturers.
Samsung leans a bit more into a punchier high-contrast look, Apple produces flat results that seem
dull compared to the rest, and Google continues to underexpose scenes. Apple does have the
most dynamic range here, allowing for more flexibility in editing -- just like it does
with sharpness -- but the Samsung images are more interesting right out of the camera.
Backing up a bit, we get roughly the same results, but the iPhone is a bit underexposed
like the Pixel. Each image had plenty of headroom to push the exposure without blowing highlights
and it just ends up lacking punch. The Samsung phones again turn in almost the same result
as each other and have the best exposure on Tara but end up blowing out the clouds again
and that’s a bummer.
To put a twist on things, let’s move to the forest scene, which yields some very interesting results.
All the shots are fairly similar except for one key area: the sky. On the iPhone
and Pixels photos, the sky is almost all the way blown out, with only a hint of blue or
textured clouds. Compare that to both Samsung photos that showcase a bright blue sky with
fluffy clouds!
Every example here shows off Samsung’s ability to maintain a natural looking sky without
having the image feel over processed. The fact they are doing so while keeping a proper
exposure on Tara is crazy, and I’m not sure why this type of strong HDR didn’t kick
in on the beach scene.
But just when I thought things couldn’t get weirder, I found a couple examples in
my testing where the Samsung phones exposed even darker than the Pixel - a rare thing
for any phone to do in my experience. It’s not wildly off the mark, but it did happen
enough to take note of it here, especially when it did so well in the forest.
I know most of the testing I do revolves around a model, but I do also take a good amount
of scenic photos. The scene optimizer that Samsung uses by default produced horrible
shots when the cameras were pointed at flowers and it was just so bad that I had to include it here.
So like the clarity category, there were times where Samsung, specifically the S20+, turned
in great shots -- but they also had way too many instances that had me scratching my head.
At it’s best, I actually do think that the S20+ does strike the best balance between
maintaining dynamic range while presenting a pleasing photo with plenty of pop. But I’m
not a fan of inconsistent results or consistently underexposed results like what comes out of the Pixel 4.
The most consistent shooter here is the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, which wins the exposure category.
And with that, it looks like we have a winner of this round - the iPhone 11 Pro! I do have
to say that Samsung came damn close and even beat the iPhone in plenty of areas, but Apple
gets the prize here based on fantastic results and a consistent user experience.
The photos coming out of the iPhone 11 Pro offer pleasing results for novices, but also
have room to work with in editing -- which is a very hard balance to strike.
I appreciate that Apple doesn’t push the results too far in one direction and keeps
things fairly even, allowing for me to manipulate the image if I want to. And it’s special
mixture of long exposure algorithms provide some of the best low light photos I’ve seen
out of a smartphone, which is always impressive.
Now more than ever, I’m finding it difficult to see sweeping problems in these flagship
smartphones, so I’ve really had to lean into rewarding consistent performance, where
it makes sense. And in this round of testing, the iPhone 11 Pro takes the cake.
So what do you think? Did I sell the Pixel 4 too short? Did I miss some small detail
in my results? Sound off in the comments below, but more importantly hit the subscribe button
so you can see more episodes of Last Cam Standing here on Tech Advisor!