DxOMark gives the HTC U11 camera a score of 90, the highest ever, which is a point above Google Pixel and two points above Samsung Galaxy S8
Mobile Review — Overview — With an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 90, the HTC U11 is the highest-rated smartphone camera we have ever tested.
Context & Ripple Effects
HTC is taking the camera crown from Google: the U11's 90 edges past the 89 that made the Google Pixel the previous highest-rated phone just seven months earlier, and clears Samsung Galaxy S8 by two points. For a brand competing far below Google and Samsung in marketing spend, a verified benchmark win on the spec shoppers increasingly consult is outsized currency.
First-order effects
- HTC gains an immediate selling point for the U11 launch — 'highest-rated smartphone camera we have ever tested' per DxOMark Mobile — aimed squarely at buyers deciding between the Pixel and Galaxy S8.
Second-order effects
- Google and Samsung now face pressure to answer at their next flagship cycles, since the related coverage shows how fast this leaderboard turns over: within five months Apple's iPhone 8 Plus posts a 94, Samsung's Note8 matches it, and the Pixel 2 resets the record at 98.
Third-order effects
- If every flagship cycle produces a new record holder, camera quality consolidates around a single third-party score as the industry's de facto ranking metric — making DxOMark results, not megapixel counts, the number vendors race to advertise.
The trend: Flagship smartphones are locked into a rolling benchmark arms race where each generation briefly holds the top DxOMark camera score before the next rival reclaims it.