Smartphone photographic camera shootout: Galaxy S7 vs. iPhone 6S

Permit the games begin: Nosotros tested the Samsung Galaxy S7 confronting Apple tree'south iPhone 6S to run into which flagship device has the best overall camera.

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Lately, we've been inundated by advert from Apple and Samsung nearly how great the cameras are on their phones. On my walk to work, I see Apple tree'south ad touting the iPhone 6S's power to shoot billboard-worthy photography. And when I turn on the boob tube, I run across Samsung boasting about how well the Galaxy S7 shoots in the dark.

While no telephone compares to a good dedicated camera, these are 2 of the best shooters on the market. But how do they compare? That's what I wanted to notice out.I settled on comparing the iPhone 6S ($649 on Apple.com), to Samsung's 5.one-inch Galaxy S7 ($633 on Amazon) because both phones are top-of-the-line and share a similar price.

The rig

It takes more to compare a pair of smartphones than holding i in each hand and shooting out into the void. I wanted this to be an authentic portrayal of how these ii devices compared confronting each other in the existent world, then I enlisted the help of one of our IDG.goggle box directors to build a contraption that would hold each phone steady to capture the same shot, with the shutters firing at the same time.

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This is our "rig." It's comprised of a selfie stick and two smartphone-hoisting bike clamps.

The "rig," as we've so apparently dubbed it, consists of one heavy-duty selfie stick and two metal bike clamps with adjustable smartphone holsters. We and then positioned both the iPhone 6S and Milky way S7 at equal length and used two Bluetooth controllers to trigger the shutters.

I all the same used the tried-and-true method of shooting with both phones on a standalone Joby GorillaPod ($21.lxxx on Amazon), merely this homemade rig proved to be handy for many shooting situations.

The contenders

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The Samsung Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S both feature impressive cameras, but for entirely different reasons.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 comes equipped with a rear-facing 12-megapixel camera. Information technology features Dual Pixel technology, which is fancy lingo for the engineering used inside virtually Canon DSLRs. This means the camera sensor inside the GS7 has two photodiodes in every pixel of the photographic camera sensor, which allows every single pixel to be a phase-detection autofocus signal. It as well features optical image stabilization.

The iPhone 6S likewise has a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera, with a technology Apple calls Focus Pixels. Unlike the GS7, the 6S's stage-detection auto focus just locks in on a few select pixels. The 6S also has a smaller aperture than the Galaxy S7 (f/2.2, compared to f/1.7), which lets in less low-cal.

The 6S and GS7 both shoot with automatic HDR enabled by default, simply I thought information technology would be best if we focused specifically on testing each phone's camera capabilities without this feature enabled. I wanted this to exist an practise in pure pointing and shooting, without any actress software tricks.

Shooting exterior

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The Bay Bridge as shot with the Galaxy S7. The scenery is vibrant and the bridge is sharp.

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The Bay Bridge every bit shot with the iPhone 6S. In this photos's histogram, it shows the iPhone introduces more royal into the heaven, which is why information technology appears indigo.

When I beginning started this experiment, I favored the photos taken with the Galaxy S7. They were brighter, clearer, and more vibrant on screen than the iPhone 6S'due south. They likewise required the least amount of editing with an app like Snapseed or VSCO Cam before beingness exported. Just when I sat downward to compare the photos with my videographer, Adam Patrick-Murray, who does his own professional shooting on the weekends, we noticed that Samsung is overly processing each photo.

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In this underpass photo, Samsung overexposes the sky.

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The iPhone 6S's stop upshot is not as over-candy, which left more than item in the photo.

Take this photo nether the state highway, for instance. You lot'll find that the Galaxy S7 increases the contrast in the scene. Every bit a result, the heaven is overexposed, and the scene under the span is also dark. It'due south fine for sharing online, only this would become an issue if y'all were planning to have this photo into the editing room. The brighter heaven means less detail to work with in a mail-processing desktop awarding like Lightroom.

The iPhone 6S, on the other hand, has a trend of producing pictures that announced apartment and muted. Its photos were the blazon that I would probably run through a few filters before posting to Instagram. But despite that, the 6S actually offered more dynamic range than the Galaxy S7 precisely considering it doesn't overly process. As a JPEG, it's the improve picture to take to the computer or an editing application.

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The Milky way S7: The hood has a magenta hue thanks to the reflection of the sky. But expect at how much more detail at that place is in the photo.

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The iPhone 6S'south Mini Cooper looks flatter because there'due south non as much contrast. The upside to that is there's more information retained hither and then that y'all could edit in in some other application if you please.

The iPhone 6S is also the winner when it comes to color accuracy, which is incidentally what contributes to its irksome-looking photos. Look at the photo of a red Mini Cooper shot outside in daylight. The Milky way S7's end issue appears more magenta on the hood of the machine because of the reflection of the blueish sky from above. The iPhone 6S's end issue shows that the hood is a firetruck cherry, which is the color I witnessed with my ain eye.

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On the left, you'll see the iPhone 6S's muted greenery. On the correct is the overly-sharpened, overly-vibrant Milky way S7 version.

Samsung is notorious for over-sharpening its photos, besides, and it'south singing the same song with the Galaxy S7. This isn't specially debilitating to the overall look of the photo, merely information technology does introduce actress artifacts and speckles. On the plus side, it ensures the end outcome looks shareable from the commencement.

Shooting indoors

Humans spend virtually xc percent of their days indoors, which ways that a bulk of the time you lot're shooting with your smartphone, you lot're probable somewhere inside, away from natural lite.

If your main shooter is the Galaxy S7, you're in good company. Samsung's flagship shoots clearer photos in depression-lite environments compared to the iPhone 6S due in part to its wider f/1.seven aperture, compared to the 6S'southward f/2.2. But in that location were nevertheless a few times that the GS7 missed the mark because of its excessive processing.

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The Milky way S7'southward version of the cheesy bar sign offers amend white balance, in addition to a more vivid color palette.

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The iPhone 6S'due south bar sign appears slow and lifeless, though you'll notice some of the pinks in the picture aren't every bit saturated every bit they are on the GS7's version of the photo.

First things beginning, let'southward explore how each phone handles indoor shots. The iPhone 6S's version of this cheesy bar sign in the darkest corner of my living room looks almost lifeless, as if there's a very thin layer of dust blanketing the wine cabinet and the metal sign. The Milky way S7's end result is brighter and more than vivid, though at that place's too noticeable saturation of the pinks and blue hues throughout the photo.

Regardless, Samsung's penchant for over-sharpening actually puts at an advantage in this particular situation: if yous zoom into the GS7's photograph, it's sharpened plenty that you can really read Bar Los Compadres on the glass diorama.

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I prefer this shot over the iPhone 6S's (below) because the entire image is in focus, despite the poor lighting.

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The colors of the iPhone 6S'southward issue feel more than counterbalanced, only the telephone had trouble focusing in the low light.

A few times while shooting indoors, the iPhone 6S would lock on an subject field and so lose focus later on tapping the shutter push button. This happened when I shot the above photograph, thus resulting in a blurry narwhal figurine with wrapping that's hard to parse. The GS7's result offers improve overall toning, though it could still use a bit of a "punch" in editing before it goes to social media.

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I was not happy nigh the way the Galaxy S7 depicted me. I look ghostly, and I barely find whatever contouring in my face.

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The iPhone 6S was a picayune more than diplomatic with my portrait photo. You tin actually see that I have some blush on my cheeks.

The Galaxy S7 struggled with the low-light portrait photo. In an attempt to overcompensate for the nighttime environment, the GS7 brightened everything up, including the fireplace in the background and my face. That kind of automatic editing left me looking blue-hued and pale, and yous can hardly run across that I'thousand wearing makeup. I adopt the iPhone 6S'south portrait photo instead, where yous can actually meet the color of my blush.

Up close and personal

You never know when you're going to want to take an close-upwardly shot of your food, your figurines, or an attractive lavender bush on your walk home. The Milky way S7 is especially capable of handling the focus on these types of shots, and it's particularly skilful at preserving detail upwards close.

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In this macro shot, the Galaxy S7 managed to capture the entire cat figurine and go on it in focus.

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The iPhone 6S struggled with its macro shot. It couldn't concur a focus on the cat's face.

The Galaxy S7 soared in the macro test, which I shot with the camera rig then that both phones were equidistant. The Galaxy S7's delineation of the cat figurine pictured to a higher place appears clearer and more detailed, whereas the iPhone'south is flatter, with less detail around the cat's eyes. The 6S also had trouble focusing on the subject field, thus resulting in a blurry cat face.

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The Galaxy S7 managed to strop in on the foreground and more eloquently mistiness out the groundwork.

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The iPhone 6S looks good from afar, merely upclose you'll run into that the edges of the leaf are inappreciably in focus.

At least the iPhone 6S managed to pull off a depth of field shot, though the extra lighting probably helped it lock its focus. Still, the Galaxy S7's penchant for sharpening things made information technology so that you lot tin actually run across veins on the leafage in the foreground.