The Camera Comparison: iPhone 10 vs Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus

We recently had the opportunity to test and compare the camera capabilities of the iPhone 10 and the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. In this article, we'll delve into our findings and explore the strengths and weaknesses of each device's camera system.

**Exposure and Detail in Dark Areas**

One of the most noticeable differences between the two devices is their handling of exposure in dark areas. The Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus exposed brighter images, but unfortunately, it also crushed the detail in dark areas like hair. On the other hand, the iPhone 10 struggled to expose properly, resulting in blown-out clouds and a loss of detail.

We noticed that manually choosing the F 2.4 aperture mode on the Samsung improved exposure, but even then, we experienced issues with contrast and sharpness. We also tried switching to F 1.5 mode, which resulted in similar problems, including some loss of detail and sharpness. Adjusting the exposure compensation setting helped, but we still noticed blown-out clouds.

It's worth noting that DR (Dynamic Range) doesn't work in Pro mode on the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, so it's best to avoid using this feature when taking photos against a bright background.

**Wide Angle Lenses**

Using wide-angle lenses, we observed that both devices struggled with contrast and saturation. However, the iPhone 10 had more contrast, which made its images appear more true to life. The Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, on the other hand, looked more natural but lacked detail in the shadows.

When switching to portrait mode, we noticed that the iPhone 10's lens was so wide that it distorted the subject's body, making their head look small. In contrast, the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus blurs the background and the foreground, creating a professional camera effect at a fast aperture.

**Selfie Mode**

Using selfie mode, we saw that the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus has a wider lens than the iPhone 10, which resulted in an unnatural perspective. The device's lens also seemed to distort the subject's body, making their head appear smaller than usual.

The iPhone 10's selfie mode, on the other hand, blurs the foreground and background, creating a more flattering effect. However, we noticed that it struggled to maintain consistent blur amounts near the ear. The Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus had a similar issue with maintaining highlight details outside of the frame.

**Portrait Mode**

In portrait mode, we observed that both devices have strong blur effects, but they differ in terms of consistency and quality. The iPhone 10's blur effect was less consistent, while the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus produced a more even and natural-looking effect.

However, when using Portrait + Light mode on the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, it struggled to keep the blur amount consistent near the ear. In contrast, the iPhone 10's portrait mode seemed to perform better in this regard.

**Low-Light Photography**

For low-light photography, we started with F 2.4 aperture mode on the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus and noticed that it performed better than expected. However, when switching to F 1.5 mode, the image suffered from significant noise and loss of detail.

In contrast, the iPhone 10's F 1.5 mode reduced noise but lost detail as well. We also noticed that the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus dropped its shutter speed to an extremely low 1/8 of a second in both modes, which would undoubtedly cause motion blur if the subject moved at all.

**Shutter Speed and ISO**

We manually raised the shutter speed on the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus to one thirtieth of a second to help with this issue but it also forced the ISO setting into Manual mode, which was annoying. In contrast, the iPhone 10's slower shutter speed resulted in brighter images but also increased noise.

**Flash Photography**

When using flash photography, we saw that the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus had more detail than the iPhone 10, but both devices struggled with the distracting bright effect of the flash. However, when switching to telephoto lenses, the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus's image was over-sharpened due to the bright flash effect.

In contrast, the iPhone 10's image looked more pleasant and balanced despite the loss in detail.

**Conclusion**

Ultimately, both devices have extremely good cameras with their own strengths and weaknesses. The iPhone 10 excels in portrait mode and low-light photography, while the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus performs better in landscape shots and offers a wider range of camera modes.

However, it's essential to note that each device has its unique quirks and limitations. The Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus struggles with exposure in dark areas, while the iPhone 10 has inconsistent blur amounts near the ear.

Whether you're a photographer or an avid smartphone user, we recommend carefully considering your specific needs and preferences before making a purchase decision.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys this is Vadim and welcome to Apple Insider the s 9 plus is samsung second flagship device to feature dual cameras the telephoto lens is pretty much identical to the one on the node eight but the wide angle lens on both the s 9 and the s 9 plus features something we've never seen before in a smartphone a dual aperture system that works by automatically switching between two f-stop modes to adapt to different lighting conditions the F 1.5 aperture mode lets in more light for cleaner low-light images in the F 2.4 mode results in sharper photos the s 9 and s 9 plus will automatically choose the right aperture unless you are in pro mode the iPhone tends wide-angle lens sports an F 120 aperture which is in between the two choices on the s 9 the telephoto lenses on both bones are extremely similar and all of the rear lenses include optical image stabilization the selfie camera on the Samsung let's and more light and has higher resolution than the 7 megapixel F 2.2 front-facing shooter on the iPhone last year we compared the iPhone tens camera to the notates in that video is well on its way to reaching 1 million views you can check it out by clicking the card above but now it's time to see if samsung stepped up their game with the s 9 plus starting with a telephoto image with portrait and live focus modes enabled the background in the Samsung image is noticeably more blurry than that of the 10 it also looks more saturated but the 10s photo definitely looks more accurate in terms of color reproduction the s 9 plus has more detail as well now with the wide-angle lens the s 9 plus exposed very well in auto mode while the 10 was a bit too dark even though the s 9 plus exposed brighter it crushes the detail in dark areas like the hair both phones look extremely similar in terms of detail we manually chose the F 2.4 aperture mode on the Samsung and for some reason Pro mode would under expose the image every single time we saw the same result in F 1.5 mode as well including some loss of detail and sharpness we adjusted the exposure compensation setting to get the s 9 plus to expose brighter but we noticed that the clouds are blown out we went into the settings and discovered that DR doesn't work in pro mode so don't use it if you're taking photos against a bright background here we use the telephoto lenses and notice the ten had more contrast the s9 plus looked more true to what we saw in real life the detail between the two is extremely similar switching to the wide lenses the 10 has more saturation as you can tell by the blue signs switching the Samsung to F 1.5 mode we can tell that the background gets slightly blurry err but we also lose detail in the tree so if you're in good lighting don't use the F 1.5 mode moving onto a selfie using portrait and focus modes the s9 pluses lens is so wide that it seems to distort the body making his head look small the 10 blurs the foreground and the background which is the effect you get with a professional camera at a fast aperture the Samsung however only blurs the background detail looks very similar but the s9 plus doesn't blur as much of the hair which looks much better here the 10 exposes darker and the shadows under the eyes make it look worse however the Samsung completely blows out the clouds now switching to portrait and light focus modes we noticed that the s9 plus has a stronger blur effect we can also see that the 10 struggles to keep the blur amount consistent near the ear the s9 plus also has a wide selfie mode which works like panorama mode but it does have some issues patching the images together the Samsungs does a better job at maintaining highlight details outside compared to the 10 which also seemed to push the white balance a bit to warm the Samsung has more detail as well for low-light we started the Samsung off with F 2.4 aperture mode we noticed that the 10 was more color accurate the s 9 plus definitely had more noise in this mode but it seemed to have more detail than the 10 switching to F 1.5 mode dramatically reduced the noise but it lost detail as well either way the 10 still had less detail we noticed a pretty big issue the Samsung actually dropped the shutter speed to an extremely low 1/8 of a second in both modes in order to preserve detail this will undoubtedly cause motion blur if the subject moves at all we manually raise the shutter speed to one thirtieth of a second to help with this issue but it also forced the ISO setting into man which was pretty annoying we kept the settings in manual to test how much more light comes into the camera sensor with each mode as you can see F 1.5 mode should really help with low-light photos switching to the telephoto lenses the s9 plus did way better in pretty much every single way we can really see a huge difference in detail testing portrait and light focus modes the iPhone automatically used flash whereas the Samsung didn't and it totally ruined the photo taking a selfie in auto mode the s9 plus turned its shutter speed down so low that it came out blurry the 10 chose to keep its shutter speed high which made the image darker but at least it wasn't blurry using flash the Samsung's image was no longer blurry but the face was distractingly bright compared to the background the 10 did a good job of balancing the brightness but it was still a bit underexposed now using the rear cameras in flash the s9 plus has much more detail but you still get that distracting flash effect finally we switched over to the telephoto lenses and although the s9 plus looks sharper it appeared over sharpened due to the bright flash effect the 10 looks much more pleasant and balanced despite the loss in detail both flagship devices have extremely good cameras and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses we'll leave it up to you to look over the photos and decide which camera is superior let us know what you thought about this comparison in the comments section below we'll have more comparisons between the iPhone 10 and samsung galaxy s 9 plus soon so make sure to subscribe and enable notifications so you don't miss them if you enjoy this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out our price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the best deals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next videohey guys this is Vadim and welcome to Apple Insider the s 9 plus is samsung second flagship device to feature dual cameras the telephoto lens is pretty much identical to the one on the node eight but the wide angle lens on both the s 9 and the s 9 plus features something we've never seen before in a smartphone a dual aperture system that works by automatically switching between two f-stop modes to adapt to different lighting conditions the F 1.5 aperture mode lets in more light for cleaner low-light images in the F 2.4 mode results in sharper photos the s 9 and s 9 plus will automatically choose the right aperture unless you are in pro mode the iPhone tends wide-angle lens sports an F 120 aperture which is in between the two choices on the s 9 the telephoto lenses on both bones are extremely similar and all of the rear lenses include optical image stabilization the selfie camera on the Samsung let's and more light and has higher resolution than the 7 megapixel F 2.2 front-facing shooter on the iPhone last year we compared the iPhone tens camera to the notates in that video is well on its way to reaching 1 million views you can check it out by clicking the card above but now it's time to see if samsung stepped up their game with the s 9 plus starting with a telephoto image with portrait and live focus modes enabled the background in the Samsung image is noticeably more blurry than that of the 10 it also looks more saturated but the 10s photo definitely looks more accurate in terms of color reproduction the s 9 plus has more detail as well now with the wide-angle lens the s 9 plus exposed very well in auto mode while the 10 was a bit too dark even though the s 9 plus exposed brighter it crushes the detail in dark areas like the hair both phones look extremely similar in terms of detail we manually chose the F 2.4 aperture mode on the Samsung and for some reason Pro mode would under expose the image every single time we saw the same result in F 1.5 mode as well including some loss of detail and sharpness we adjusted the exposure compensation setting to get the s 9 plus to expose brighter but we noticed that the clouds are blown out we went into the settings and discovered that DR doesn't work in pro mode so don't use it if you're taking photos against a bright background here we use the telephoto lenses and notice the ten had more contrast the s9 plus looked more true to what we saw in real life the detail between the two is extremely similar switching to the wide lenses the 10 has more saturation as you can tell by the blue signs switching the Samsung to F 1.5 mode we can tell that the background gets slightly blurry err but we also lose detail in the tree so if you're in good lighting don't use the F 1.5 mode moving onto a selfie using portrait and focus modes the s9 pluses lens is so wide that it seems to distort the body making his head look small the 10 blurs the foreground and the background which is the effect you get with a professional camera at a fast aperture the Samsung however only blurs the background detail looks very similar but the s9 plus doesn't blur as much of the hair which looks much better here the 10 exposes darker and the shadows under the eyes make it look worse however the Samsung completely blows out the clouds now switching to portrait and light focus modes we noticed that the s9 plus has a stronger blur effect we can also see that the 10 struggles to keep the blur amount consistent near the ear the s9 plus also has a wide selfie mode which works like panorama mode but it does have some issues patching the images together the Samsungs does a better job at maintaining highlight details outside compared to the 10 which also seemed to push the white balance a bit to warm the Samsung has more detail as well for low-light we started the Samsung off with F 2.4 aperture mode we noticed that the 10 was more color accurate the s 9 plus definitely had more noise in this mode but it seemed to have more detail than the 10 switching to F 1.5 mode dramatically reduced the noise but it lost detail as well either way the 10 still had less detail we noticed a pretty big issue the Samsung actually dropped the shutter speed to an extremely low 1/8 of a second in both modes in order to preserve detail this will undoubtedly cause motion blur if the subject moves at all we manually raise the shutter speed to one thirtieth of a second to help with this issue but it also forced the ISO setting into man which was pretty annoying we kept the settings in manual to test how much more light comes into the camera sensor with each mode as you can see F 1.5 mode should really help with low-light photos switching to the telephoto lenses the s9 plus did way better in pretty much every single way we can really see a huge difference in detail testing portrait and light focus modes the iPhone automatically used flash whereas the Samsung didn't and it totally ruined the photo taking a selfie in auto mode the s9 plus turned its shutter speed down so low that it came out blurry the 10 chose to keep its shutter speed high which made the image darker but at least it wasn't blurry using flash the Samsung's image was no longer blurry but the face was distractingly bright compared to the background the 10 did a good job of balancing the brightness but it was still a bit underexposed now using the rear cameras in flash the s9 plus has much more detail but you still get that distracting flash effect finally we switched over to the telephoto lenses and although the s9 plus looks sharper it appeared over sharpened due to the bright flash effect the 10 looks much more pleasant and balanced despite the loss in detail both flagship devices have extremely good cameras and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses we'll leave it up to you to look over the photos and decide which camera is superior let us know what you thought about this comparison in the comments section below we'll have more comparisons between the iPhone 10 and samsung galaxy s 9 plus soon so make sure to subscribe and enable notifications so you don't miss them if you enjoy this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out our price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the best deals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next video\n"