Apple's iPhone 11 Pro Max selfie camera falls to 10th place on DxOMark charts

AppleInsider

Despite hardware and software improvements over 2018's model, Apple's iPhone dropped six spots on imaging specialist DxOMark's front-facing camera quality charts as competition from the likes of Huawei and Samsung heats up.

According to a comprehensive review of iPhone 11 Pro Max published by DxOMark on Monday, the smartphone's 12-megapixel selfie camera, and ostensibly that of the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro which shares components with the 6.5-inch flagship, earned an aggregate score of 91 points compared to the 82 points notched by iPhone XS Max last year.

The performance puts 11 Pro Max just inside the firm's top 10 list behind Huawei nova 6 5G (100), Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G (99), Asus ZenFone 6 (98), Samsung Galaxy S10 5G (97), Samsung Galaxy S10+ (96), Huawei Mate 30 Pro (93), Google Pixel 3 (92), Google Pixel 4 (92) and Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (92).

As noted in the report, 11 Pro Max scored 93 points on a collection of still photo tests and 90 points on a corresponding video evaluation, exhibiting strong color reproduction and focus across the board. Image noise was a weak spot for both still shots and video, while photos suffered from poor texture performance. Interestingly, DxOMark found iPhone's selfie camera produced fewer video artifacts than it did photo flaws.

The firm notes noise is a distinct problem for 11 Pro Max's selfie camera, both outdoors and in low-light situations. Example photos reveal visible noise during indoor shooting that results in lower detail and an overall muddy image.

Apple is lauded for its work on bokeh, with tests confirming TrueDepth as an industry-leading depth-sensing solution. Software-driven features like Smart HDR are also praised, as is Apple's decision to move to a wider angle lens.

Today's report marks the completion of DxOMark's iPhone 11 Pro Max evaluation. The firm initially evaluated the handset's audio performance in October and followed up with tests of the handset's rear-facing camera last week.

red oak

What a crock of s***

sjworld

red oak said:

What a crock of s***

You don’t like competition?

mikeinca

DxO reviews aren’t all that great.  And virtually all phone camera reviews fail bc companies are using software to do stuff and all images can be tweaked.  Eg, with a tap you can auto adjust the images.   With another tap you can change the noise of an image.  But these simple adjustments are ignored.  Lame.  

zeplepplin

LOL 

predictable! time to slam DxO - how dare they!!! 

cornchip

Because God knows; selfie pix are the most important thing ever.

filemakerfeller

cornchip said:

Because God knows; selfie pix are the most important thing ever.

Oh? Aren't we all on slofies now?  

edited January 2020

bestkeptsecret

So on an arbitrary scale, the iPhone slips 6 places. That's ok - always room for improvement!

I've no complaints with my front-facing camera, but then I don't do selfies. FaceTime is absolutely no issue.

kevin kee

This is like a ferris wheel. Up - down - up - down. When the new iPhone came out later this year, get ready to read a new headline: the iPhone claimed first spot on selfie camera before slip again after a few months. What's the point?

lkrupp

sjworld said:

red oak said:

What a crock of s***

You don’t like competition?

Yeah, like everybody is going to abandon the iPhone for a Huawei because of this report. My ass.

chasm

DxO have received a fair amount of criticism from various corners for their somewhat-arbitrary reviews in the past, but yes there seems to be a certain amount of butthurt going on in this forum anyway. I would say it's more hairsplitting than an actual lowering of quality (check the scores of the other nine phones) or anything like that, so while there may indeed be nine smartphones that have "better" front-facing cameras than the iPhone 11 Pro Max, there's not anything on that list that hands Apple's (camera) ass on a platter with its clear superiority.

Gee -- its almost like the best camera modules are all the same, and we're only debating post-processing software here or something! 😁

avon b7

kevin kee said:

This is like a ferris wheel. Up - down - up - down. When the new iPhone came out later this year, get ready to read a new headline: the iPhone claimed first spot on selfie camera before slip again after a few months. What's the point?

It's a commonly used reference point and, for all its possible flaws, remains a relatively objective site for comparisons.

Apple hasn't been at the top with regards to its camera offerings for a long while now. The competition has set the standards to follow over the last two or three years and and objectively speaking, Apple hasn't offered what the competition was producing in key areas. It's been trying to catch up.

First it was low light photography and then camera versatility and as Apple has just one window per year to get new phones to its users, it was never going to be easy.

People made a lot out of Deep Fusion and computational photography but forgot what the competition had been doing in that field previously. DX0 held off reviewing the latest iPhones precisely to allow Deep Fusion to go live across devices but it still wasn't enough to top the competition. Computational photography isn't new.

Many people scoffed at tri-cameras but failed to see the versatility they offer so when Night Modes were appearing even in mid range phones, the focus moved to ultra wide lenses and zoom capabilities all the while improving the Night Modes by taking advantage of the improvements in ISPs. Sensor sizes got bigger, new filters were introduced etc.

Some people tried to make a deal of the fact that the iPhone didn't need a dedicated Night Mode but failed to realise that neither did the competition. Night Modes still exist for truly challenging scenes but are almost never used.

In terms of general photography for the vast majority of users, camera phones were 'good enough' from the iPhone 6. Since then flagship phones have needed to shunt the needle still further up and that is what we've seen over the last few years. It all comes at a price but eventually filters down to the lower priced phones so everyone wins.

At the end of the day this is all the result of intense competition and that can only be good for everyone.

Apple made a huge jump with this last release but hoping it would jump in at the top was perhaps overstretching optimism.

Either way, competition is good.

warrenbuffduckh

lkrupp said:

sjworld said:

red oak said:

What a crock of s***

You don’t like competition?

Yeah, like everybody is going to abandon the iPhone for a Huawei because of this report. My ass.

It just sheds some light into what Phil  has actually accomplished over the last year vs. his own PR blatter (where your reference to your lower backend conforms to his vocabulary)

edited January 2020

genovelle

What’s interesting is that it improved 9 points over last year and fell 6 places. 

esquirecats

Having seen first hand Huawei's eagerness to be seen as having a good camera (paying for photographer endorsements/fake retouched images in their advertising/photography events where everyone was paid to be there/hunting down the winners of iPhone's photography competitions/etc), versus the actual performance of their camera: "average, nothing special" (according to many of those same photographers I had the chance to speak to) - I can't help but think that their score of "100" is entirely fabricated.

Then again this is DxO, we can't expect them to be impartial, they're funded by the same people they're evaluating, which time and time again (along with several others, looking at you The Verge), very obviously overstates the quality of those cameras.

Rather it stands to reason that all of these cameras are good enough for what they are, but still obviously behind the quality available with larger cameras - and that the whole DxO rating system is just a means for the company to make money while those brands get to put an independent-looking rating on their advertising.

edited January 2020

frantisek

Biggest surprise is how Asus handle bokeh os fingle hair. None of others can do it.

georgebmac

avon b7 said:

kevin kee said:

This is like a ferris wheel. Up - down - up - down. When the new iPhone came out later this year, get ready to read a new headline: the iPhone claimed first spot on selfie camera before slip again after a few months. What's the point?

....
In terms of general photography for the vast majority of users, camera phones were 'good enough' from the iPhone 6. Since then flagship phones have needed to shunt the needle still further up and that is what we've seen over the last few years. It all comes at a price but eventually filters down to the lower priced phones so everyone wins.

....

Agree....   The hype about photography has ourstripped the wants and needs (and understanding) of most people and has entered the arena of sales hype over razzle-dazzle features meant to attract attention rather than providing meaningful functional improvement.

I would relate it to a car manufacturer advertising that their car can top 250mph.  That works in the showroom but not so well on the highway.

On the other hand, the recent shoot of snow boarders show the outstanding results one can get with an iPhone 11 camera.  But the people who are interested and capable of such shots are limited to a niche audience.

Yes, there is some tricke-down.   But, like all trickle-down, the benefits are limited.

beowulfschmidt

Well, obviously, these guys are totally incompetent at what they do.  After all, Apple could never produce a less than stellar product.  I can only assume that DxOMark has it in for Apple for some reason, likely because Apple didn't accede to some minor request of theirs and they're taking their revenge.  Or maybe they're on the take from one of the others, perhaps Huawei or Samsung themselves?  Has anyone called for an investigation?  I can't see any possibilities other than a giant conspiracy against Apple, honestly.

/s

melgross

Nobody in the photo industry pays any attention to DXOMark. We’ve discussed this before. They are a pay for play company in this. It’s even stated on their site. Companies pay them for testing. If they don’t, we’ll, who knows what they’ll say. They claim to only do pure testing of sensor lens combinations, no funky computer finagling. But when the we’re selling g their own add-on camera for iPhones a few years ago, with its own sensor, they were found disregarding their own rule to make it appear better. It swiftly failed as a product.

whether they claim Apple is great, or lousy, is not relevant.

strangedays

ZepLepplin said:

LOL 

predictable! time to slam DxO - how dare they!!! 

Nah, people said it even when iPhone topped it. They’re bogus, and I believe they sell early test access to manufactures. Gruber explains:

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/09/22/dxo-ratings-are-horseshit

strangedays

avon b7 said:

kevin kee said:

This is like a ferris wheel. Up - down - up - down. When the new iPhone came out later this year, get ready to read a new headline: the iPhone claimed first spot on selfie camera before slip again after a few months. What's the point?

It's a commonly used reference point and, for all its possible flaws, remains a relatively objective site for comparisons.

Uh, no, you must be thinking of some other source, there is nothing objective about DxO scores.