iPhone vs Samsung: Part 1, Cameras

One long and almost never ending debate is on which phone is better between Samsung phones and iPhones will never come to a solid conclusion because it all comes down to preferences. We can however, still look at different  aspects of each phone and see which one comes out superior in said feature/aspect!

Samsung in February introduced its latest high-end flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra. We’ll compare it to Apple's top smartphone right now, the iPhone 13 pro max. to see how the two amazing phones compare to one another when it comes to camera quality. The Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with four total cameras this year, including a 108-megapixel wide angle camera, a 12-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera, a 10-megapixel telephoto camera with 10x optical zoom, and a 10-megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom.

In comparison to the iPhone 13 Pro Max with its 12-megapixel Wide lens, a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide lens, and a 12-megapixel Telephoto lens that supports 3x optical zoom. Looking at the standard specs on paper, Samsung clearly wins out when it comes to overall specifications, especially in the optical zoom area. But In practice, both phones take amazing pictures and from photo to photo, it can be hard to pick a favorite as you can see in the photos in this blog.

Even though in the past Samsung’s could mainly only compete with iPhone rear (back) cameras because the front cameras would have a smoothing feature that would reduce quality but over the years this issue has been worked on but is yet to be completely eliminated sadly. You'll mainly see differences in color temperature, depending on the scene. The Galaxy S22 Ultra usually has a cooler tone, while the iPhone 13 Pro Max is warmer.

*not the 13 pro max and the S22 ultra. It’s the iPhone 6s Plus and Samsung s6 edge (just for reference when it comes to beautifying and smoothing feature)

The S22 Ultra also tends to increase highlights, and while it can sometimes appear sharper, some may find the images to be a bit too “washed out” because of it. In some situations, the iphone offers up more natural lighting for skin tones than the S22 Ultra, but the contrast that the iPhone uses can make dark areas darker, causing images to lose out on some of their detail. The iPhone images tend to be more vibrant and can be more aesthetically pleasing, but it does really vary based on subject of the shot.

In Portrait Mode, there's a lot of similarity. Samsung has improved its edge detection and “bokeh”, (which is basically the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens) of its portrait photos, and both the iPhone 13 Pro Max and the S22 Ultra take great images. The iPhone is of course more vibrant, and in some images, it's a little sharper. Unfortunately, Samsung is still not great at skin tones and the S22 Ultra does not do as well at preserving skin texture.

When it comes to telephoto capabilities, the 10x optical zoom, the 30x digital zoom, and the 100x digital zoom offered by the S22 Ultra are extremely ahead of the iPhone with its 3x optical zoom and 15x digital zoom. 100x zoom is amazing to see how close you can get, but even at 30x, you can get some fairly usable photos from the S22 Ultra.

As for video recording, the iPhone has the win because it supports Dolby Atmos and ProRes for higher-quality video for those who need it, but for everyday videos, both are more than enough.

Cinematic Mode is better than Samsung's Live Portrait video option because Samsung restricts the feature to faces only, and the iPhone also wins when it comes to stabilization.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra does support 8K video unlike the iPhone 13 Pro Max, but the lack of good stabilization affects the quality. It's not likely that most people are picking their smartphone based on the camera capabilities only, and ecosystem plays a huge role.

Someone who owns multiple Apple devices probably isn't going to go out and buy an S22 Ultra, nor is a regular Samsung owner likely to swap out of that ecosystem for an iPhone.

Apple uses Sony sensors they are the best on the market right now, apart from that the post proseccing software of iOS is much better than any Android phone to date (including Xperias), thats the main thing.

In day to day use, these smartphones are incredibly similar and really both take gorgeous, high-quality photos that can compete with those you can get with high-end “point and shoot” cameras, especially when lighting is good.

In conclusion, it all comes down to personal preference. The iPhone offers warmers rough sharpened more aesthetically blending pictures and the Samsung offers cooler tone, well sharpened photos and amazing zoom. the winner based on I, the author, is the iPhone mainly because I prefer more warm toned photos and love how iPhones preserve skin texture. That’s not everyone’s opinion and that’s okay, that’s even better! Hope this explained something for you.