Samsung Galaxy S10+ Camera Joins Huawei Mate 20 Pro at Top of DxOMark Ranking

Consumers are yet to experience the camera performance of the Samsung Galaxy S10+. But in the meantime, DxOMark has come up with its detailed coverage to highlight the major pros and cons of the triple camera setup featured on the latest Samsung flagship. The team at DxOMark has also tested the dual selfie camera of the Galaxy S10+ to reveal how go it is against the competition. Through the preliminary review, the DxOMark folks have given the Galaxy S10+ an overall score of 109, while the phone has particularly received a selfie score of 96 points.

The overall DxOMark Mobile score of 109 points makes the Samsung Galaxy S10+ ranked in line with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Huawei P20 Pro that both are claimed to be the top performers in the smartphone market.

The Galaxy S10+ is found to capture excellent colour and exposure in bright light, and the triple camera setup helps take enough detail in both the shadow and highlight areas. The camera is also claimed to capture a noticeably wider tonal range over its competitors. However, in low light and indoor shots, the colour production is perceived to become a bit dull. This brings some reduction on the part of detailing objects in a particular frame.

That being said, the Galaxy S10+ camera controls noise to some extent even in low-light shots. The testers at DxOMark discovered that at some points, the triple camera setup over sharpens artifacts and results in a noticeable blurring of fine textures in some areas.

The dynamic range on the Galaxy S10+ is reported to be quite wide, and the autofocus system helps capture sharp images. Similarly, the flash mode on the phone is noted to perform well by recording a fair amount of exposure. The red-eye effect was noticed on some samples during the initial testing, though.

In terms of giving a bokeh effect, DxOMark remarked that the Galaxy S10+ performs quite well by adding good isolation of the foreground subject along with a blur gradient. But some perspective distortion of the portrait subject was detected while using the Portrait mode. Nevertheless, the Samsung handset is found to offer good detail in close-range zoom shots.

On the part of videos, the team at DxOMark highlighted that the Galaxy S10+ has received a video score of 97 points -- majorly thanks to its pleasant colour rendering, fair enough noise reduction and just a slight lack of fine details in most shooting environments. Target exposure of the Galaxy S10+ while recording videos is also good enough across all light levels.

Photo Credit: DxOMark

However, DxOMark mentioned that the iPhone XS Max delivers better dynamic range in moving shots over the Galaxy S10+. Apple has notably provided a video HDR mode on its top-end iPhone model to enhance dynamic range.

The Galaxy S10+ is also found to add a ringing and judder effect while recording videos in bright light. Likewise, a slight luminance noise impacts video recording in most of the conditions.

DxOMark noticed that the image stabilisation on the new model improves over the Galaxy Note 9 and is perfect for recording videos while walking on a street.

Coming towards the selfie camera performance, DxOMark has given an overall score of 96 points to the Samsung Galaxy S10+. The secondary depth-sensing camera sensor on the phone is observed to improve the quality of the simulated bokeh effect in the Portrait model and results in a photo score of 101 as well as a video score of 88 -- particularly pertaining to the frontal camera setup.

The selfie camera setup of the Galaxy S10+ captures pleasant skin tones, white balance, and colour rendering alongside offering a good target exposure in most conditions, according to DxOMark. The two sensors at the front are also said to enable accurate autofocus and enable a decent blur gradient in the bokeh mode. Further, noise levels are also low in flash images.

On the downside, DxOMark noticed that the Galaxy S10+ narrows depth of field that leads to affect group portraits with soft faces. The testers also noted that the selfie camera setup produces dull colours in low light along with fewer details.

In terms of video performance from the front-facing selfie camera setup, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ has convinced DxOMark through its accurate target exposure, good colour rendering and skin tones, and controlled noise. The selfie camera is also found to have efficient image stabilisation. However, it doesn't resist shakes and jerks at a high level. The testers also observed a few exposure instabilities while recording videos on the Galaxy S10+.

Photo Credit: DxOMark

"The Galaxy S10+ comes with the best camera we've seen on a Samsung smartphone, and will no doubt be one of the devices to beat in 2019," the DxOMark team noted in its camera review.

To recall, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ and the Galaxy S10 have an identical triple camera setup that includes a 12-megapixel sensor with a telephoto f/2.4 auto-focus lens, a 12-megapixel sensor with wide-angle f/1.5/ f/2.4 auto-focus lens, and a 16-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide-angle f/2.2 fixed-focus lens. For selfies, the Galaxy S10+ has a dual selfie camera setup that comprises an 8-megapixel RGB depth sensor with an f/2.2 fixed-focus lens and 10-megapixel sensor with an f/1.9 auto-focus lens.

With Galaxy Fold, has Samsung kicked off a revolution in smartphone tech? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.