iPhone XS Max vs Note 9: Which phone has the best camera

The iPhone XS Max and the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 are two of the best phones you can buy for your photos and videos. Each has two rear cameras, a dual optical image stabilization and uses a combination of software and hardware processing power to create high quality photos and videos.

According to Apple, the iPhone XS Max, XS and XR have an identical standard camera with a larger lens than that of the iPhone X from last year – 26 millimeters instead of 28 millimeters. According to Apple, the sensor is 32% larger and leaves 50% more light than the iPhone X.

For more differences between iPhone cameras, check out Photo and video comparison of CNET between iPhone XS and X.

The biggest addition to the iPhone XS Max is Smart HDR that takes a quick burst of multiple photos at different exposures and combines them to produce an image that retains more detail in the brightest and darkest parts of the image. It is more advanced than previous iPhones, but other phones like the Google Pixel 2 used similar HDR synthesis and calculation techniques. The newly announced Pixel 3 still more software camera features. (Take a look at Pixel Camera Photos 3 if you are interested).

Note 9 has a double aperture (f / 2.4 by default and f / 1.5 for low light), HDR optimizations and scenes that identify a scene from one of 20 categories of subjects such as landscapes, pets and food. Optimizations enhance settings to give your subject the most ideal appearance possible, similar to what is found on the Huawei P20 Pro and the LG V35 ThinQ.

I brought the iPhone XS Max and the Note 9 around San Francisco on the heights of Twin Peaks, Mission Streets and the lower level of the Xfinity CNET Smart Living House to see how each one handled real situations.

Specifications of the rear camera for iPhone XS Max and Galaxy Note 9

	iPhone XS Max	Galaxy Note 9
Rear camera	Double 12 megapixels	Double 12 megapixels
Wide angle lens	26 millimeters f / 1.8	26 millimeters f / 1.5 – f / 2.4
telephoto	51 millimeters f / 2.4	52 millimeters f / 2.4
Stabilization	Optical	Optical
Optical zoom	2x	2x
Digital zoom	10x	10x

iPhone XS Max flexes its momentum

Overall, the photos of the iPhone XS Max have a better dynamic range than those of Note 9. The new Smart HDR feature is a good example. Take a look at the pictures I took of Senator Sisig's food truck at the mission. That of the iPhone XS Max contains the highlights of the clouds and the yellow building to the left of the photo.

Note 9 exposes his photo brighter, showing more detail in the shadows of the food truck's shelves but cutting off the reflections in the clouds and the yellow building. The iPhone XS Max photo also has higher color saturation than Note 9.

Note the differences between the photos below taken from a couple contemplating San Francisco from Twin Peaks. The iPhone XS Max displays its dynamic range by holding the details in the white shirt and not reducing the shadows of the rocks to black as the note 9. When taking the picture with the Note 9, I will not be able to see it. I saw the "sky" icon for the optimization scene that seems to increase the contrast.

I like the fact that Samsung's stage optimizations are not excessive, like Instagram filters. They are subtle but have a big impact on image quality, like the Smart HDR on the iPhone XS Max.

In the photos below, I took a picture of a cappuccino and a pie in hand from the Four Barrel Coffee. Note 9 detected the food and optimized the photo settings accordingly, while maintaining the color temperature of the plate and the wood table more neutral. The resulting photo has beautiful golden colors in the pie crust and cappuccino mousse. The note 9 here defines the white balance.

The iPhone XS Max brings out the highlights of the hand pie but gives it an almost orange appearance. Notice how everything, the food, the plate and the table have a warm tone.

Interesting discovery: the iPhone XS Max that I used was in gold and, when it was on the outside, the glass bottom served as a mini gold light reflector.

Galaxy Note 9 and iPhone XS Max both have optical zoom

One of the most underrated features of both phones is the optical zoom that allows you to get closer to your subject twice without degrading the image.

The images below were taken late in the morning from this mission-blue building. The iPhone XS Max does a fantastic job with colors and exposes details in the shade. Note 9 has more contrast but is still very beautiful.

However, when you start using the digital zoom, the pictures on both phones are blurred. Here is a picture taken with 10 times digital zoom on the iPhone XS Max and one of the Note 9 centered on the Salesforce tower. Both look rather rough, although the iPhone XS Max has a slightly higher color saturation.

iPhone XS Max and Note 9 let you adjust the blur for portraits

One of the most interesting features of these phones is the portrait mode … or "live focus" as Samsung calls it.

On the iPhone, portrait mode is superb. I can not only change the appearance of lighting on the faces, but also the amount of background blur after taking a photo. Like the previous Samsung phones, the Note 9 also lets you change the background blur before and after taking a photo, but the iPhone makes it more enjoyable.

The iPhone's portrait photos also have more detail and sharpness in people's faces and the colors are more saturated than Note 9's that actually look softer, even with the beauty mode set to a minimum – even if some people prefer this look. Note on the photos below how valuable Note 9 is. I was standing in the same place when I took both pictures.

The iPhone XS Max and the Galaxy Note 9 address the low light differently

Regarding low light, Note 9 switches to its f / 1.5 aperture – the largest of all smartphones – and exposes brighter scenes than the iPhone XS Max. Note 9 dimly lit photos certainly produce less noise than the iPhone XS Max, but the images are really soft and suffer from high lights and motion blur.

The dimly lit photos of the iPhone XS Max have more noise but are sharper and hold better highlights. Unless I take pictures of something static, I almost always prefer the low light shots of the iPhone XS Max to Note 9.

The video on the iPhone XS Max has a new feature called FPS Auto Low Light

These two phones are two of the best for video capture. However, the iPhone XS Max has better image quality, colors and can record videos in 4K resolution at 24 frames per second.

Note 9 records excellent videos, but they can sometimes seem too sharp. Watch the video that accompanies this article to see a clip recorded with both phones.

The poorly lit videos in Note 9 seem light and produce a lot of noise while the sequences recorded simultaneously with the iPhone XS Max seem correct thanks to a new feature called FPS Auto Low Light that automatically changes the frame rate in low light. from 30 frames per second to 24 to improve the quality of the image. By changing the frame rate (and possibly the shutter speed), the iPhone XS Max is able to expose each frame a little longer. Although the difference is neither day nor night, improvements have been made in terms of color saturation and the amount of noise in the image.

The selfies of the iPhone XS Max are improved

As for selfies, the iPhone has finally caught up with Samsung. No more gray selfies from the iPhone X. The selfies of both phones are good and have a nice color.

But while I tested these phones, a little hubbub, unfortunately nicknamed iPhone XS "beauty-gate", broke out. In a nutshell, some people think the iPhone XS and XS Max photos look "softened" like a beauty mode on some Android phones. But check out The history of CNET explaining why your selfies really look different on the iPhone XS and iPhone X. For the record, I love the selfies of the iPhone XS Max.

You can take portrait mode for selfies with the iPhone XS Max, which looks good (the rear camera version is even better) while the Note 9 features a focus selective, which is at best repairable. Take a look at the photos below.

I hope you have long arms because the video selfie on both phones is really cropped. The colors seem more saturated on the Note 9 and the picture is a little sharper on the iPhone.

The Galaxy Note 9 has a pro camera mode

For me, the native camera application of the iPhone XS Max is easier to navigate than what Samsung offers. And while it's nice to have so many mode options, the default application of Galaxy Note 9 can be overwhelming and sometimes difficult to use. Several times, when I tapped a point to focus, it read me like a slip and I passed from the camera back to the camera before. There is nothing worse than letting a friend hold the pose while you manipulate the screen because the camera has gone into selfie mode.

I must mention that I pressed several times on the "key" Bixby located on the side of the phone when taking photos. Not only is it annoying to have to close Bixby and go back to the camera app, but sometimes, if I'm not fast enough, Bixby's voice starts to speak, which makes things worse. I'm not against Bixby … just this button that you can and probably should disable.

I like the Pro mode of Note 9 which allows me to better control the shutter speed, ISO and the opening of my photos. I find myself experimenting with things such as long exposure photos with arty light trails or adjusting the white balance as I please.

Then there is the S-Pen included in Note 9 which also serves as a remote control for the shutter release allowing you to take a picture while moving away from your phone. Whenever I showed that, my friends were having so much fun using it.

But the iPhone can do the same with its provided EarPods. You can activate the shutter by pressing the volume button – if you are in the length of the cable. And if you have a Apple Watch, you can use the Camera Remote application not only to take a picture with your iPhone, but also to preview it.

So, which phone has the best camera?

At the end of the day, the iPhone XS Max and Galaxy Note 9 are significant improvements over last year's models. The iPhone XS Max has a better image quality, a wider dynamic range, a better video and its interface is much easier to use. These features are all very important to me, and even though the Note 9's camera is still excellent, the XS Max easily gets my vote as the best of both.