- All right, another experience.
Today we're gonna take the S9 Plus which has been
recently released and we're all really interested in
and compare it, well its camera,
to the top camera phones out right now,
including the Pixel 2XL which everybody keeps asking about,
the iPhone X which everybody keeps asking about,
and then also the Note8 in there just for kind of a control.
Now to do this, I spent a lot of time
running around New York City, trying to take photos
with all of these phones in the exact same positions
and the exact same conditions.
It took me a while to say the least.
The best photos that I had and were good comparisons,
I put them all together, put them side by side,
and that's what we're gonna go through right now.
First up, our standard latte in a coffee shop photo.
Looking at these, I mean this is gonna be a recurring theme
and if you didn't see my old video,
which you should check out the links below
on the best camera phone of 2017,
the Pixel 2 XL does a great job of kind of
darkening the blacks and brightening the whites,
just giving it a little bit more range
and that's because of the HDR that it has.
It takes a bunch of photos, it mixes them together
and it automatically adjusts
where the brightness should be
and where the darkness should be
and just all that fun stuff, to put it very simply.
It does have the darker color of the mug
and the whites are just a little brighter,
but the other ones for the most part,
I mean they're all pretty similar.
I would say the Note8 and the iPhone X are kind of on par.
They're, (hums) yeah, I would say they're basically on par.
There's a little more detail in the stool
in the back on the iPhone X, but not by much.
The S9 Plus though, what it did here was it
kind of blew out the whites a little bit.
The foam on top is just a lot brighter than it should be
and that might have something to do with the aperture,
maybe it opened it up a little bit wider than it needed to,
but that's basically all there is
really to notice in these photos.
You could probably adjust all of these
and make them really good
but for this test, again, we care about auto mode.
Just taking the snap and sending it.
Okay next up, looking at this, I'm gonna say,
well it's actually pretty apparent immediately
that the Note8 and the S9 Plus are of the same family.
Like the same background is kind of blown
a little bit in the same exact way.
There's even like a little kind of a flare happening,
like above that pipe and under the stairs
in the top back right.
You can definitely tell that these are both
from the same company that makes the same software.
I would say that in the S9 Plus photo though,
if you look at that chair in the back,
the chair has a little more detail,
and then also that table next to it has more detail
compared to the Note8, so there's a slight,
slight advantage there,
but otherwise they're very similar photos.
The Pixel 2 XL of course did it's thing.
I mean a good case in point here,
look out the back window and you can see how
it's automatically adjusted that so that it's much darker
so that you can actually see out the window
whereas all of the other phones
for the most part blew it out.
The iPhone X actually did a good job
of not blowing it out as much as the S9 and the Note8.
Also you can see on her face,
because it adjusted all of the shadows down,
there's a little more detail in her face, she's not as soft,
whereas in all three of the other ones, she's much softer.
Speaking of that aperture, here we can see it
in very good detail here.
We have the S9 Plus photo on the bottom left,
we have the Corn Flakes, the Special K,
even the Rice Krispies box are all super bright.
These were all taken in the same lighting, et cetera.
This is actually a scenario
where I think that S9 beat all of them.
Of course you could brighten the other ones, right?
But we're, just what does it do
on its own is what I wanna know.
The other ones all kinda did something similar.
The iPhone X is a little more detailed and saved in Note8
and the Pixel 2 XL has probably a little more detail than,
eh, it's on par with the iPhone X I would say.
The Tony the Tiger in the back there
looks a little bit better in the Pixel 2 XL
than he does in the iPhone X.
So does the Apple Jacks, there's just more detail,
again darkening those shadows and bringing up the lights,
that's kind of what it does.
I would say in this scenario, especially the S9's aperture
definitely helped with this being
a much brighter, much nicer photo.
Here we have the flat iron building,
apparently one of the most photographed buildings
in the world I was told.
This one, I would say with the iPhone X we have,
it likes to make things, you know,
white balances the crap out of them,
so this is actually a little blue for my taste.
But detail's fine, it's what you expect from the iPhone.
I would actually say that
the S9 Plus kinda beats in this one.
There's a lot more detail in the building,
if you look at the windows,
compared to the iPhone X, it's just sharper.
Same thing if you look actually in the background,
there's a building on the right underneath
that like golden spire one, that building underneath,
there also more details in those windows as well,
so I would say it probably did
a better job than the iPhone in this one.
The Note8 very similar to the S9 Plus,
but I think it darkened the windows a little too much
and there's actually less detail
in those windows because of that.
The Pixel 2 XL did it's thing, we have decent detail,
although it leaned a little more toward the Note8,
like it made things pretty dark in those windows but
a little less darker than the Note8,
so I would say there's a little more detail on there.
Again though, I don't know this would be tough for me.
I don't know if I would choose
the Pixel 2 XL here or the S9 Plus.
The Pixel 2 XL because it made things darker, things darker,
it looks a little more crisp
and I think a little more appealing to the eye,
whereas the S9 Plus is actually probably
a little more true to life.
In this one we have a building.
That building happens to be Rockefeller Center.
We have the iPhone X actually kind of
blew it out a little bit compared to everyone's,
and when I say blew it out, it didn't blow it out that much,
like we didn't lose a lot of data, but a little bit.
Like if you look at parts of that where the light is,
it's really bright.
Again, that Pixel 2 XL we can always look at for
what HDR does to things and you can see how
it's a totally different color compared to the other ones.
It took out all of the extra light
to make it match the foreground.
The S9 Plus and the Note8,
I couldn't tell the difference between these two photos.
If you put them side by side,
I don't think you'd be able to.
If I'm really nitpicking, I can look real close
at some of like the whites in the windows on the left,
they're a hair brighter in the S9 Plus, but not really.
Like basically, that took the same photo.
Here is another night shot where
the S9 Plus is supposed to excel,
and I would say that it does actually in this.
If you look at it compared to the Note8,
the statues, all of them are much brighter,
there's a little more detail in them I would say.
In the background as well, that building in the back,
the yellow building, if you look at
the three windows directly to the left
of the statue on the left's head,
those are definitely sharper than they are on the Note8.
Pixel 2 XL, we can't do this anymore.
The HDR is just good.
The iPhone X on the other hand has,
it definitely subdued the colors like it likes to do,
so you'll see the building in the background
is not yellow really, it's beige.
Also though, something that's interesting to note,
the S9 Plus, the Note8, and the Pixel 2 XL
all made the duplex sign, those lights in the background,
actually readable whereas the iPhone X did not.
There we go for some photos of things that don't move.
I bring that up because the S9 Plus has a bit of an issue
for me at least in my experience with using it so far,
and maybe there'll be an update.
It has a bit of an issue with taking photos
of anything that kinda moves.
When I was in a bar trying to take photos of my friends,
every single photo came out super soft and super blurry.
It did a fantastic job of making everything bright
which is great and actually it's fantastic at that,
I would say it's one of the better phones out there
for like taking photos in the dark or in low light,
and you can see my Twitter,
I posted a photo of something that was taken at like
basically one a.m., midnight,
and it looks like it's daylight.
Really cool.
I'll leave a link to that I you're curious about it.
But people, it has a problem.
Let me show you what I mean.
Here's just one quick example,
and it's not as pronounced in this as I've seen it,
but I think it'll illustrate what I'm saying.
The S9 Plus, if you look at that,
you'll notice that basically everything
or everyone in this photo is soft.
There's not a single person that's really in focus
or not just like super soft, has a little bit
of motion blur to them, they kind of all do,
and it's not like these people are jumping around,
they're having a conversation.
It's a very normal scenario
that you would wanna try to take a photo.
The iPhone X on the other hand,
he's got a little bit of motion blur, but again this is all,
they have a lot less.
Like the guy sitting at the table in the back,
he's a little bit more in focus,
the girl sitting behind him are,
the girl who you can kinda just see her face
to the left of the guy who's in the foreground,
she's a little bit in focus.
Now moving over to the Pixel 2 XL, much better.
He's totally in focus for as much
as you can in this low light scenario.
She has a tiny bit of motion blur,
but again it's not as bad.
Note8 even did a better job I would say,
although only really on that guy, right?
The guy in the foreground, everything else is kinda blurred.
I don't know if this is just like a Samsung thing
and the S9 is just having a bit harder time with it because
of the aperture, like it's letting in a lot more light,
the shutter speed is probably off and so
it's having a hard time with blur.
Let me just say that they all have some motion blur
or some things are not focus when you're taking photos
in dark situations of people, things that are moving.
I just noticed that the S9 Plus
has a bit more of an issue with it.
Now could they update this and fix it?
Absolutely, it's definitely a,
like a settings issue, it's not a hardware issue at all.
I mean I even managed to kind of get around it
and fix it a little bit if you switch over to sport mode.
Now you won't get as bright of shots though
because it limits the aperture
I think during this sport mode.
But people are less likely to be as blurred,
so that was nice.
Also of course if you turn it into pro mode
and adjust the settings yourself,
then you could totally get around this
and get really nice bright shots without motion blur,
but I don't know how many people are gonna do that at a bar
or like when you're with your friend
and you're trying to take a photo, you're not gonna be like
"Hold on, let me adjust the ISO,
"let me adjust the aperture."
You're just not gonna do that.
Yeah, that's it.
This was my camera comparison of the S9 Plus
and some of the top models.
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Let me know in the comments below
what you guys thought of the video.
Of the tested self, if there's a better way
for me to do this down the road or there's some improvements
you'd like to see, be constructive about it please,
but I would love to hear from you guys, always do.
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I'm gonna post a lot more photos
from the S9 Plus and other phones as I do,
but it does take some incredible photos if we're honest.
I have some already up but I'll try to take more
so you guys can check that out if you'd like.
As always, regardless, thanks for watching.
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