With Samsung putting the camera at the heart of the Galaxy S9’s new features, marketing and innovation, the move to DxOMark’s top spot will be a welcome bonus for the company. While benchmarks can never represent the challenges encountered during real-world photography, the test is accepted as a useful general measure of a smartphone’s capabilities.
Samsung credited two of the Galaxy S9+’s features with helping the phone to obtain the score. It said the handset’s Dual Aperture rear lens combined with the Super Speed Dual Pixel Sensor improve the quality of images under varied lighting conditions. The camera dynamically adjusts the aperture of the shutter, which allows it to adapt more effectively to changes in environmental lighting.
The Super Speed Dual Pixel Sensor plays its own role in improving photo quality. The sensor is equipped with dedicated coprocessing capabilities so it can operate independently of the main system. It takes up to 12 individual photos for each press of the shutter, before combining them together into a single high-quality image. Samsung said the innovations helped “reimagine” the camera and enabled the S9+ to come out on top of DxoMark’s scoring table.
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“DxOMark’s ranking affirmed the value of these camera innovations with every photo we take—from midnight to high noon,” said Samsung. “We did more than design a new smartphone camera. We reimagined it so you can capture the perfect image in almost any light, capture moments and tell stories in new, creative ways.”
According to DxOMark, the S9+ “hasn’t got any obvious weaknesses.” It particularly excels in areas including autofocusing, noise control and reproduction of vibrant colours. Its only noted deficiencies are occasional colour casts, exposure instabilities, loss of fine details and other visual aberrations.
The Galaxy S9 was similarly high-scoring, achieving 99 points on DxoMark’s tests. This alone is the highest-ever combined photo and video rating for a smartphone camera. The S9 would hold the record score if it wasn’t overshadowed by its own stablemate, the S9+.
Samsung’s 2018 flagship is the first handset to pass the DxOMark 100-point barrier, beating rivals including Apple’s iPhone X and the Google Pixel 2. Benchmarks aren’t everything though and it’s worth remembering the phone’s yet to reach consumers. It’s likely that real-world performance will differ once the phone hits store shelves this month.
