The iPhone XS and XS Max pack great cameras, but on paper they may not seem like big enough upgrades over the iPhone X. Think again. The addition of Smart HDR, paired with the powerful A12 Bionic processor, substantially improves the quality of photographs taken by Apple’s new iPhones. We decided to pit the new iPhones against the old one in a camera shootout to highlight these improvements. We interchange the iPhone XS and XS Max, because the cameras are exactly the same. Strong lighting conditions We’re going to be mentioning Smart HDR a lot, so let’s first break down what it means. It’s a new feature enabled in the iPhone XS and XS Max camera, and it uses the power of the A12 Bionic processor inside. How? The camera takes a wide variety of photographs from seconds before to seconds after you tap the shutter icon. These are taken at numerous exposures and speeds, and the best of each photograph is combined to form a well-balanced photo (the speed at which all of this happens is barely noticeable thanks to the A12 processor). Doing all this means the iPhone can now handle high-contrast scenarios, such as when you have a bright sky and a dark foreground, much better than before. For example, take a look at the picture of the clouds. It’s a good comparison showing the differences between the iPhone X and the iPhone XS . The sky looks a little overexposed on the iPhone X photo, enough to mask intricate cloud patterns. Those patterns are visible on the iPhone XS photo, and you can see the sky is also a tad bluer, and the clouds more defined. More importantly, the buildings in the foreground are brighter, delivering a much more balanced photograph. This is even more apparent in the photograph of the woman in the middle of a New York City street. This is not a Portrait Mode photo, but a regular shot. You can easily see how much better the iPhone XS fares — the colors are more accurate, especially the skin tone, but what really shines is Smart HDR again. Take a look at the woman’s forehead, nose, and the background on the left side of the iPhone X photo: It’s all overexposed. The difference when you then glimpse at the iPhone XS photo is startling. The differences between the XS and XS Max over the iPhone X can be subtle, but in almost every case, the iPhone XS wins out thanks to Smart HDR. Case in point are the following two photos: These are two great-looking photos, but the one we’d pick to share is from the iPhone XS . The iPhone X photo looks slightly overexposed overall, from the clouds reflecting on the glass to the amber lights inside the building. Zoom in closer, and you’ll also notice much more grain on the iPhone X photo. Smart HDR can be turned off, but we’ve yet to find a good reason to do that. Low light The iPhone XS and XS Max also have larger image sensors than the iPhone X , which means you should see better exposed low-light photographs with less noise. Smart HDR also helps work wonders here. In both these photos of the New York City skyline, it’s easy to see how quickly the iPhone X overexposes lights from buildings, and even the billboard on the bottom left of the photo with the World Trade Center. Better yet, look at the color of the sky in the photos with the water tank on the top left. The iPhone X photo has a yellowish hue, but the XS’ photo is bluer and it looks more natural. There’s also significantly less noise in the XS photo. All of this can be applied to the second photo that has the World Trade Center in it. These next few photos are mostly taken in low light, which is the scenario we try to test the most, as many flagship smartphones can handle bright environments well. All of these photographs succinctly show off why the iPhone XS camera is better, and how. The photo of the subway entrance is one of our favorites — the iPhone XS got the color tone right, but it also didn’t overexpose the subway sign. The next photo from the High Line is another testament to the benefits of Smart HDR. Everything is much brighter, and if you zoom in on the cars near the traffic light, you can see how much more detail the XS photo offers. The changes in the last photo are a little more subtle, but they again have to do with light. You can see the filament on the bulbs in the XS photo, whereas it’s too overexposed on the iPhone X photo. This also applies to the lanterns, as they are too bright on the iPhone X photo. Food It’s not always an easy win for the iPhone XS , though. In this food photo, while we do think the iPhone XS takes the photo we want to share, we wouldn’t be surprised if you opted for the brighter iPhone X photo. The focus is slightly off on the iPhone X photo — the wooden spoon is more in focus — but neither are too grainy. Both work well, but the iPhone XS photo is more true to reality; the scene was definitely not as bright as the iPhone X photo makes it out to be. Portrait Mode There have been improvements to Portrait Mode, especially with its accuracy in identifying subjects and applying bokeh, or blur ,around them. The accuracy of the cutout around the subject is good in both photos of the woman taken with the rear camera, but you can see how Smart HDR vastly improves the iPhone XS Portrait Mode photo. It doesn’t overexpose the sunlight hitting the woman’s forehead or in the background; instead, skin tone is much more realistic and natural, and the iPhone XS overall delivers a stronger photo. It’s not all perfect. Flip over to the front camera, and the iPhone XS still makes mistakes. In the iPhone X photo, the blur around the subject is more accurate than the iPhone XS photo (look at the ear on the right of the XS photo). However, Smart HDR does make the XS photo the one we want to share. Look at the digital billboards in the background — they’re all completely blown out on the iPhone X photo. Zoom in closer to the subject’s face, and you will notice there’s a slightly stronger level of detail on the iPhone X photo. The iPhone XS takes slightly softer portraits, but we don’t think this is a “beauty mode” like some have suggested. Instead, it looks like the softer image is largely due to aggressive noise reduction — look down at the subject’s shirt collar, and you’ll notice it doesn’t look as detailed as it does in the iPhone X photo. We believe it’s because of Apple’s new stronger noise-reduction technique, and there also seems to be a slight dip in contrast. Photography expert Sebastiaan de With from Halide explains this in greater detail in an in-depth blog post as well, if you want to explore it further. We snapped a few photos from the iPhone 6S , the iPhone 8 Plus, the iPhone X , and the iPhone XS to compare selfies from the front-facing camera (including two Portrait Mode selfies with the X and the XS). Despite the face looking slightly smoother, we think the XS photos are the best overall. The lack of Smart HDR on the other phones mean a blown-out background, though you can see a slightly stronger level of contrast. We still prefer the end result of the iPhone XS — Smart HDR is worth it. If it’s not for you, you can always turn this mode off by heading to Settings > Camera and toggling off Smart HDR. The iPhone XS and XS Max cameras are much improved over the iPhone X . Do we still think you should upgrade? No, unless you’re a serious iPhone photographer or you just want the latest and greatest.<doc-sep>If you bought an iPhone 7 Plus about two years ago, you might be considering an upgrade to the new iPhone XS Max. And there are many reasons you should — the latest iPhone is the most powerful handset we've ever tested and it features a gorgeous 6.5-inch OLED display that's even larger than that of Samsung's Galaxy Note 9. But it also comes with redesigned dual-rear cameras with larger image sensors for better performance in low-light scenarios. And that means a big improvement over phones released not that long ago. How big an improvement? To find out, we took a little photo tour, pitting the XS Max against the 7 Plus. Here's what two years of camera advances can do for your photos. The Cameras Compared Both handsets use 12-megapixel cameras for both the primary wide-angle and secondary telephoto lenses, but that's where the similarities end. The iPhone XS and XS Max, which feature the same cameras, offer bigger pixels within the image sensor that allow more light to reach the shutter. The XS camera also has a slightly larger aperture for the telephoto lens, f/2.4 versus f/2.8 in the iPhone 7 Plus, as well as optical-image stabilization on both lenses. Only the primary shooter on the 7 Plus gets OIS. The iPhone XS also adds Smart HDR — a new feature that leverages the faster image signal processor in the A12 Bionic to capture a greater number of exposures during each HDR shot. The processor then combines those images into one optimized version that pulls the best aspects of each. While the 7 Plus also benefits from an HDR mode, it's not quite as refined. Additionally, the XS and XS Max allow for adjustment of the bokeh in Portrait Mode shots before and after taking the picture, which older iPhones cannot do. Skyscraper We started with shots of some skyscrapers overlooking Bryant Park on a slightly overcast afternoon. And while the iPhone 7 Plus achieved a perfectly serviceable representation of the scene, it lacked the color and dynamic range of the XS Max's attempt. Smart HDR was clearly working its magic here. You can see farther into the trees through the lens of the newer iPhone, and the highlights, like the gleaming silver building to the left, aren't quite as blown out. Portrait Next, we turned around to snag a few portraits. This was really no contest — the XS Max delivered a photo of my colleague Caitlin that was considerably more balanced, with realistic contrast and bokeh that steered clear of invading the foreground. Not only is the overall frame blurrier on the 7 Plus, but Caitlin's eyes are lost within the deep, dramatic shadows that the older iPhone casts — an eerie effect, to say the least. Flower Of course, you don't just have to use Portrait Mode for people — it works wonders on other objects, too, like this flower in the park. Straight away, you can tell the 7 Plus struggles with the highlights, as the fringes of those red-orange petals are immersed in pure white. However, both phones deserve credit for sharply exposing the flower, as it had been swaying in the breeze the whole time during shooting. Restaurant This round proves even an old iPhone can surprise you every now and then. The 7 Plus does a better job of staying with the XS Max than we anticipated inside a warmly lit restaurant. The colors aren't quite as robust as what the new iPhone captured, and there's more noise than we'd like, but the 7 Plus somehow managed better dynamic range and retained more detail in the shadows. On the other hand, the XS Max doesn't get thrown off by the harsh light from the window in the background, so this one is a bit of a wash. Dark Room If you really want to see what the XS Max can do in the least favorable conditions, try snapping a picture inside a nearly pitch-black room like we did here. Noisy and muted are the words to describe the 7 Plus' attempt. The older phone isn't far behind the XS Max in overall brightness, but looking at the XS Max's version you'd never guess our studio was as dim as it was — the photo is that sharp, thanks in large part to that new supersize image sensor pulling in what little light there was in the room. Optical Zoom Here we see the improvements Apple has made to the XS Max's secondary telephoto lens, which the phone relies on for that 2x optical zoom. Peering in on the Chrysler Building from street level leads to a dismal and dreary image on the 7 Plus. The XS Max dials up the exposure, giving the scene some much needed life and returning a smidge of color to the cloudy sky. Bottom Line There's no question that the iPhone XS' cameras are better than those in the iPhone 7 Plus, and noticeably so. That may be unwelcome news for those who'd like to hold onto their handset for as long as possible, but the fact is that two years makes a massive difference in the development of mobile photography. Aperture control on the iPhone XS Max The XS Max's Smart HDR mode helped produce shots with greater depth in the highlights and shadows, allowing you to see more gradations of color than the 7 Plus could provide. The new image sensor proved its worth by delivering brighter and less noisy low-light scenes, while the new aperture control setting for Portrait Mode unlocks the potential for you to decide precisely how blurry you want those backgrounds to be. Overall, the refinements Apple has made over two generations are abundantly clear. That leaves aspiring shutterbugs with a simple decision: If you want the best photos on your iPhone, upgrade to the iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max. Credit: Tom's Guide<doc-sep>In a review published on Wednesday, benchmarking firm DxOMark scored the rear camera on the iPhone XS Max 105, ranking it second only to the Huawei P20 Pro, and comfortably above the Google Pixel 2 and Samsung Galaxy Note 9. The phone has "one of the best mobile cameras," with significant improvements over the camera in the iPhone X, the company wrote. That includes Smart HDR, which is said to produce "very good target exposure and a wide dynamic range in all conditions." In bright lighting the XS Max is noted to have "excellent" results in both photo and video, with "spot on" exposure in outdoor shooting as well as good detail and color. The phone actually scored 110 in photo and 96 in video — the biggest weakpoints in photo being zoom and bokeh (depth-of-field), the latter because Apple's simulated bokeh still makes mistakes in calculating depth, even if the XS Max does a better job than its predecessor. DxO also took Apple to task for problems like underexposed flash shots, and luminance noise in zooms, shadows, and low light. Video problems included the above-mentioned luminance noise as well as "unstable" white balance with indoor lighting. The XS Max scored above several prominent competitors, such as the Google Pixel 2, and Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9 Plus. The P20 Pro ranked first as a "triple-camera juggernaut," DxO said.<doc-sep>
DxOMark today published the results of its in-depth analysis of the iPhone XS Max's rear camera. Apple's flagship smartphone achieved an overall score of 105 points, trailing only the Huawei P20 Pro at 109 in the site's all-time rankings. Note that the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max have identical camera specs, so this review applies equally to the iPhone XS. In its testing, DxOMark found the iPhone XS Max to have "excellent" photo and video quality in bright light, with a "very wide dynamic range and good detail." In terms of photo quality, they found exposure in outdoor images "tends to be spot on," with high levels of detail and pleasant colors. The review adds that Apple's new Smart HDR feature generates images with "very good target exposure and a wide dynamic range in all conditions." Backlit indoor scene shot on iPhone XS Max Backlit indoor scene shot on iPhone X Achieving a video score of 96, DxOMark said the iPhone XS Max shows "outstanding video quality in bright light." play DxOMark concludes that the iPhone XS Max has "one of the best mobile cameras" it has ever tested, with noticeable improvements in many areas over last year's iPhone X. Their review praises the iPhone XS Max camera as being "very reliable overall" and "consistently delivering good results." In lower light, however, DxOMark found that noise becomes "a little more intrusive than with other high-end phones," adding that the iPhone XS Max's zoom capabilities lag somewhat behind the competition — specifically, the Huawei P20 Pro. Beyond that, they say the device is a "surefire option for any mobile photographer." For scoring and analysis in its smartphone camera reviews, DxOMark says its engineers capture and evaluate over 1,500 test images and more than two hours of video both in controlled lab environments and in natural indoor and outdoor scenes, using the camera's default settings. More on their methodology here. DxO is a well-known French image lab that has been reviewing smartphone cameras for many years, but they've attracted some criticism. At the end of the day, camera quality is subjective, at least to some extent.