Cameras on iPhone 16 Pro Max are fourth-best in the world
The camera system in the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the fourth-best of its kind in the world, but it manages to top the list when it comes to video capabilities.
The cameras of the iPhone 16 Pro models
Following the release of the iPhone 16 generation, testing on its various features and components have commenced. In one of the more important tests it could undertake, the iPhone 16 Pro Max's camera has been given a great set of results.
According to Monday's testing by DxOMark, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has scored 157 points overall, giving it a global ranking of fourth place. It lags behind the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra (163), the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL (158), and the Honor Magic6 Pro (158).
Its fourth-place ranking for the global table is matched by its fourth-place result for the Ultra-Premium ranking, for devices valued at more than $800.
In terms of smaller categories, the iPhone 16 Pro Max acieved 159, the top score, for video. It "delivered exceptional results," with consistent exposure and color accuracy across a range of conditions, and it had the best texture-noise trade-off of any device the testers had seen to date.
Its video features aimed at professionals also impressed, including ProRes profiles in Log and HDR modes, and the new 4K120fps mode.
As well as its "class-leading overall video quality," praise was also given to its color performance for images using an "extensive range of bright and vivid hues" and customizable image color options. The wide array of editing options, "extremely accurate image preview," and zero shutter lag were also welcomed.
The only "con" in the results relates to the zoom function, which now uses the Tetraprism lens system to increase its magnification. The results determined there were inconsistencies between the 2x range and 5x range, with images "losing some detail."
This may be due to the fact that it is two different sensors in use for each point of the range. At 2x, it's actually using a 12MP crop of the 48MP Fusion camera, while 5x is using the Telephoto version.
The DXO results are a continuation of the high scores Apple's camera system typically receives for its new mobile devices. For 2023, the iPhone 15 Pro Max had the second-best camera system in the world, with a score of 154 points.
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Comments
No one makes a living from test charts.
Regarding smartphone cameras:
They all suck the same.
im wondering how the iPhone compares in “camera” features beyond image quality because those also matter. Is there any lag between taking a picture and then taking another? How do the camera apps compare in terms of features and ease of use?
Over the last couple of years there have been welcome improvements from Apple except for the year they finally upgraded the sensors and then the computational side needed tweaking to get things back into sync.
HONOR was Huawei's 'low cost' subsidiary until it was spun off as an independent entity and now its own range of premium phones. It has Huawei's pedigree in imaging.
The Huawei Mate 70 series will be released before the end of the year and is rumoured to come with a new sensor and imaging capabilities. That will be followed early next year by the following P series flagships (which are photography focused) and of course two new Honor flagships.
Competition is tough in smartphone photography but most output from even midrange phones is great for most people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgeJ0XYuI2E 5:50 DXOMARK will work with the manufacturer to do better on their test if you need a little coaching. Stick to judging whether or not you’re gonna buy a certain smartphone, by it’s overall performance as a smartphone.
Perhaps there were 192 ties for fourth place?
The real takeaway from this test isn't the rankings, it's the obvious conclusion that all the top smartphone cameras are now very competitive, with any notion of "best" being mostly subjective. And, as we see with Huawei, even meager gains over the competition now come at a very high cost. In my opinion, the main quality issue facing the iPhone Pro cameras now was triggered by the change from a 77mm 3x telephoto lens to the 120mm 5x telephoto. This has left the 24mm main (wide) lens with the job of covering the whole 24mm-119mm range with sensor cropping and computational software tricks, and the results aren't great. In the 77mm-119mm range, which is highly used in general photography, the 15 Pro Max and now both 16 Pro models generate objectively provable worse photos than those taken with the old 77mm telephoto lens.
If you know anything about lenses, this is hardly a surprise, Even with a true optical zoom lens of high quality, a 5-to1 zoom range of 24-120mm is going to involve some tradeoffs in image quality vs fixed focal length lenses or a zoom with a more limited range, like a 24-70 or 24-85. But it's so much worse with iPhone because all three lenses are fixed focal lengths and there is no true optical zooming at all--you're getting a 5-to-1 range out of a 24mm lens strictly from "digital" zoom via sensor cropping and computational software, and it shows up inevitably as inferior image quality.
But if a one-point deficit bothers some folks ... there's always next year. Hey, maybe Apple will sneak out some computational processing tweaks over the next year to ease the pain, maybe pull in another point. Everything is going to be okay. Switching to an Android smartphone may get put you up a point on the camera side, but you may be punished in so may other ways everywhere else.
You can achieve great, even amazing, results with an iPhone—there’s no doubt about that. However, with a non-smartphone camera, you can achieve things that no smartphone can come close to. In some ways, top smartphones excel, but in others, they all fall short. It depends on your use cases and what you want from a camera.