LG's g6 just beat out the Google pixel in our testing to become the king of
smartphone cameras it didn't have too much time to rest though because here
comes the Samsung Galaxy s8 it's time for another head-to-head showdown this
time in Las Vegas first let's talk specs LG g6 is main shooter sports a 13
megapixel sensor and F 1.8 lens and optical image stabilization Samsung's
camera is largely the same from last year
with a 12 megapixel sensor and F 1.7 lens and dual pixel autofocus all the
specs look good on paper but that's why we take them out to test in real-world
scenarios I'll also add that I'm testing these cameras the way most people use
them in auto mode that means straight out of the pocket using the stock app
with HDR set on auto the only setting I'm changing is megapixel count going
for the full resolution of each camera now that we've covered that let's move
on to the test results the main areas I'm focusing on are color clarity and
range first up is color and what I'm looking for here is accuracy vividness
and how the camera balances color temperature Samsung has a history of
really pushing saturation and while it can happily say they've eased off on it
the s8 really stumbles with color temperature SFO is too blue on the si
yet accurate on the g6 even in this complex lighting scenario LG still gets
it right allowing for both the cool table light and warm ceiling lights to
show up whereas the s8 is all orange since we're in Vegas for the NAB
Convention there were color charts everywhere and once again the s8 was
inaccurate on color temperature but this last example is important yes
the s8 takes a more pleasing photo but the g6 is more accurate even if a bit
dull the g6 is able to capture more variations of color in the grass and the
s8 and that's key so even though Samsung improved its image processing since last
year's model it's not good enough this category goes to the LG G 6 let's move
to clarity and here I'm looking for not only the overall crispness of the
picture but how the phone uses its sharpening and no
reduction this category was a closer competition with both phones holding
their own in bright light I only give the slight edge to the g6 because of the
more a patterns on these shutters present in the s8 photo checking out
this macro shot reveals a bit of a different story with the SH showing
clear text on the chips in lower light the s8 pulls even further ahead
retaining more texture in the dark area and to my surprise even after the g6
blew way the Google pixel in low-light test it really struggled with this super
dark scene as great as the g6 as optical image stabilization is Samsung's is just
better even though it's close in bright light I have to give this category to
the Samsung Galaxy s8 the last category is range here I'm looking for how much
light information the camera is able to capture and how it chooses to expose for
the scene the histogram is our friend in this category and here's the basic way
to read it all the information on the right side of the histogram represents
the bright areas of the image while the left side represents all of the dark
areas of the image you want the exposure to fall somewhere in between otherwise
you start to lose information this first photo is pretty simple but shares an
overarching theme I notice between the two phones looking at the histogram we
see the dynamic range is pretty similar but the s8 exposed a bit higher than the
g6 not necessarily a bad thing for the shot so let's move on here again the g6
is a bit darker than the SI and we can see that in the histogram but we also
start to see that we're losing information in the highlights once again
not horrible for the shot but it's starting to worry me we move on to this
next scene and we finally start to see a problem zooming in on the table here
we're losing the objects that have a spotlight on them whereas the g6 is
protecting those highlights while still retaining enough info in the shadows and
we keep seeing this trend play out both phones are very close and how they
expose but the s8 pushes it a bit too much and loses highlights blending these
TVs together but it's this last shot that really shows the dynamic range of
the g6 the s8 actually underexposed here but still wasn't able to retain the
highlights the g6 handles the scene like a champ
holding info in the highlights and the lowlights so I'm giving the range
category two the LGG six well the results are in and the G six takes the
color and range categories while the s eight takes it in clarity with two out
of three the LG G six is the winner I am really impressed by how much Samsung has
improved their photo processing making it not only visually pleasing but
technically adept but LG shines in too many scenarios really nailing the
balance between appealing the people who just want to shoot and post a photo and
professionals who desire more flexibility all while featuring a second
lens and having an awesome stock photo app so LG's g6 continues to be our
smartphone camera King and will go on to defend its crown against another
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