DxOMark: Samsung Galaxy Note8 camera quality matches iPhone 8 Plus with overall score of 94, video quality lags behind iPhone 8 Plus, HTC U11, and Google Pixel
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 “phablet” joins the growing number of dual-cam smartphones. The Note 8 features two 12MP sensors …
Context & Ripple Effects
DxOMark had just made the iPhone 8 Plus the camera-score leader at 94; the Note8 now reaches that same overall mark, turning Apple’s benchmark into a shared position rather than a standalone lead. The iPhone 8 Plus’s earlier 94-point result had already exposed a gap between overall still-camera scoring and video performance.
The parity was short-lived in the coverage arc: Pixel 2’s subsequent record 98 score reset the ranking, while later comparisons described the Note8 as especially versatile for video rather than simply the highest-ranked camera.
First-order effects
- Samsung Galaxy Note8 joins the iPhone 8 Plus at 94 in DxOMark’s overall ranking, giving Samsung score-based parity in a prominent camera comparison.
- The Note8’s weaker video assessment leaves the iPhone 8 Plus, HTC U11, and Google Pixel with a clearer quality advantage in that specific use case.
Second-order effects
- Google’s Pixel line gains room to distinguish itself on camera performance as the overall-score tie between Samsung and Apple narrows the value of a single leaderboard position.
- Samsung and Apple face comparisons that separate still-image scores from video quality, making camera claims more dependent on the particular shooting task being evaluated.
Third-order effects
- The coverage points to smartphone-camera competition being judged across increasingly granular benchmarks—overall score, video, selfies, and versatility—rather than by one headline ranking alone.
- If this pattern persists, short-lived score leadership will favor vendors that can sustain differentiated performance across multiple camera modes, as Pixel 2’s higher score illustrates.
The trend: Smartphone camera competition is moving from single headline scores toward mode-specific comparisons that reward breadth as well as peak benchmark performance.