If you have fallen in love with the iPhone X’s beautiful design and gorgeous OLED display, folks at DxOMark have given you one more reason to love the device. The iPhone X still photography is far superior to every other smartphone in the world including the Pixel 2, Galaxy Note 8, and the iPhone 8 Plus. But when it comes to video shooting, Google’s Pixel 2 remains the king.
101: That’s the iPhone X still photography score
DxOMark is known for testing and rating the camera performance. Buyers and reviewers expect nothing but the best from Apple, especially considering it has a dedicated team of more than 800 engineers to improve the camera on its flagship smartphones. At the beginning of the iPhone X camera review, DxOMark notes that the 10th-anniversary iPhone delivers much better images than the iPhone 8 Plus.
Just like iPhone 8 Plus, the iPhone X has a dual camera system consisting of two 12MP sensors. One of them is a wide-angle lens with OIS and an f/1.8 aperture. Where the two phones differ is the telephoto lens. The iPhone X has an improved telephoto sensor with a wider f/2.4 aperture that supports OIS. Apple has also made some software changes on the iPhone X for enhanced bokeh effects.
Despite all its camera might, the iPhone X was unable to dethrone Google’s Pixel 2 as the world’s best overall smartphone camera due to its not-so-great performance in the video department. The iPhone X still photography score was a record 101 compared to the Pixel 2’s 99 points. But when it comes to video shooting, the iPhone X scored only 89 points compared to the new Pixel’s 96 points.
Overall, the iPhone X received a score of 97, slightly below the Pixel 2’s 98 points. The iPhone 8 Plus and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 both have 94 points. DxOMark pointed out that Apple has upgraded the iPhone X front-camera with Face ID sensors that improve depth mapping to take selfies with bokeh effects. The testing firm praised the iPhone X’s exposure, detail preservation, accurate color rendering, and white balance.
The improved telephoto lens with OIS allows the iPhone X to take better zoom and bokeh shots than the iPhone 8 Plus. The iPhone X is capable of shooting 4K footage at 60fps, but DxOMark performed all the tests at the default 1080p at 30fps. The anniversary iPhone’s performance in video was affected by “luminance noise” in low light conditions and a loss of sharpness during tracking in low-light.
It’s worth pointing out that even though DxOMark has a thorough testing mechanism, much of the scores are subjective as they are assigned by humans to each attribute. These scores are not out of 100 points. If they were, the iPhone X still photography would never have hit 101 points. These points are a weighted mix of scores from still photo and video tests. We wouldn’t be surprised if the next-gen iPhone, Pixel or Galaxy scores more than 100 points.
DisplayMate praises the iPhone X’s Super Retina display
Experts at DisplayMate have confirmed that the iPhone X has the “most color accurate” display in the world. Their conclusion is in line with the recent tests conducted by Tom’s Guide. DisplayMate President Raymond Soneira noted that the iPhone X’s OLED Super Retina display delivers “close to textbook perfect calibration and performance.”
The phone’s built-in color management system automatically switches to a relevant color gamut based on the image displayed. It delivers neither under-saturated nor over-saturated colors. The anniversary iPhone has a huge 19.5:9 aspect ratio compared to the traditional ratio of 16:9 found on most smartphones. The additional space could be used to offer multitasking experience or notifications.
DisplayMate says the notch, which has received a mixed response from critics, has a negligible presence on the front panel. Its pixel count is 32% higher than a traditional HDTV. It has a pixel density of 458ppi. Soneira added that the anniversary iPhone’s image contrast is “slightly too high.” The cover glass protecting the iPhone X display was found to be 50% stronger than the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
Apple’s most expensive smartphone has the highest brightness of any OLED smartphone in the world, with a peak brightness of 634 nits. By comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 has a peak brightness of 560 nits, and the Pixel 2 XL’s brightness reaches 438 nits. The iPhone X users can also reduce the brightness to as low as two nits. It means you can read the content in bright sunlight as well as in a dark room without straining your eyes.
