DxOMark Mobile

With an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 90, the HTC U11 is the highest-rated smartphone camera we have ever tested. As you’d expect from a top performer, its scores are impressive across the board. In particular, its very low noise and fast autofocus helped edge it ahead of our previous highest-scoring phone, the Google Pixel. The HTC U11 features remarkably consistent performance in a wide variety of shooting conditions, making it a great camera for most situations.

The eagerly-anticipated Samsung Galaxy S8 offers a primary camera module featuring a 1/2.5” sensor that records 12Mp (4032x3024 pixel resolution) stills. Additional still photography features include an equivalent 26mm f/1.7 lens with image stabilization, phase detection autofocus, an LED flash unit, face detection, HDR processing, and a built-in photo editor.

The Huawei P10 Smartphone features a dual-camera setup that includes a traditional RGB color sensor and a separate monochrome sensor which combine to record the final image. The advantage is an improvement in low-light performance, with denoising applied to the P10’s more sensitive monochrome sensor, which can record more photons in the same amount of time compared to the RGB sensor. This results in lower levels of noise and greater detail preservation, which is particularly noticeable in low-light images. To further bolster the P10’s low-light credentials, the camera module has been co-engineered with Leica and features the German manufacturer’s Summarit f/2.2 lens. The P10’s dual-camera setup is the same technology used in the Huawei P9 Mate, which achieved excellent scores in our industry standard tests. Huawei has obviously put a lot of effort in to its latest Smartphone photography capabilities, with notably significant development over the last 2 years, so it’s little wonder that the P10 displays excellent improvement in image quality over the previous P8 and P9 models.

The Xiaomi Mi 5SPlus features a dual 13Mp camera setup, including a 1/3”-type sensor with 1.12µm pixel pitch and a f/2 primary lens.  In default mode, it captures 4160x3120-pixel resolution still photos in a 4:3 aspect ratio and offers video recording resolutions of 2160p@30fps and 1080p@60fps.

Launched in October 2016, the Nubia Z11 Smartphone offers a 16Mp 1/2.8”-type sensor with f/2 lens, and captures 4608 x 2456-pixel resolution stills in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Achieving an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 77 points, the Nubia Z11 performs better for still photography, where it secures a Photo sub-category score of 80 points, compared to 72 for Video. Highlights for stills include generally good and stable exposure, as well as excellent detail preservation that outperforms some of the top-end smartphones we’ve tested in outdoor lighting conditions.

For smartphone photography enthusiasts, Sony’s latest flagship offering, the Xperia XZ, features a 23Mp 1/2.3”-type sensor (5520x4140 pixels)and a wide-angle 24mm-equivalent f/2 lens. Achieving an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 87 points, compared to 88 for its predecessor the Xperia X Performance, it shares many of the same strengths and weaknesses of Sony’s previous device. 

Launched in September 2016, the LG V20 Smartphone features dual front-facing cameras, including a primary 16Mp 1/2.6”-type sensor with a 29mm equivalent  f/1.8 lens, and a second 8Mp sensor with a 12mm f/2.4 lens for wide-angle shots. The higher-resolution 16Mp camera is the LG V20’s default photography setup; following our testing protocols, our image quality analysis is based on the primary camera module.

Huawei continues to make rapid progress in the quality of its mobile device cameras. Its new Mate 9 scores an impressive 85 Overall score in our DxOMark tests. That’s five points better than Huawei’s slightly smaller current flagship phone — the P9 — and eleven points better than its predecessor, the P8. Although the P9 premiered Huawei’s dual-camera system, the Mate 9 uses it even more effectively to provide low-noise images with good detail, along with high dynamic range.

The TCL 950 is a new smartphone from Chinese manufacturer TCL (commonly known as Alcatel in the West). Its camera features a 21Mp (5248x3936 pixel) Sony IMX230 sensor, dual-tone LED flash, and 1080p video capture. Achieving an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 82 points, the TCL 950 put in a consistent performance across our still and video image quality tests, achieving sub-scores of 82 for photo and 83 for video.

With an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 89, pixel, the latest Google smartphone, is the highest-rated smartphone camera we have ever tested. Its image quality scores are impressive across the board, but it is particularly strong in providing a very high level of detail from its 12.3MP camera, with relatively low levels of noise for every tested lighting condition. It also provides accurate exposures with very good contrast and white balance, as well as fast autofocus.