Google Pixel 2 trumps iPhone as 'best smartphone camera' with highest DxOMark score ever

The only reason the "Pixel 2" is the highest scoring phone on Dxomark is that they never reviewed the Panasonic CM1. It is, and will remain, the best phone camera until somebody else steps up and produces an unprofitable large-sensor model.

What's really interesting is how the camera is now becoming the major feature that Apple/Samsung/Galaxy use to attempt to differentiate their obscenely priced 'flagship' models. And yet, I expect 99% of the gear-lust idiots crazy enough to spend this much on a phone will never, ever, pixel-peep the shots on a PC screen, attempt to read a DxO mark review, or even understand what's lacking in their pictures. They'll still take the same duff selfies, mainly just so everybody can see how much they spent on their stupid phone.

Google flexing his marketing muscles.
They still have a lot to do to catch up with Apple, no having a dual cam in their flagship was a big mistake and they are moving too slow on their hardware side.
Not a big fan on huge corporations they dry out innovation and market diversity in the long term

What is all the fuzz about? When I look at those pics, iPhone and Google pixel, I see a slight improvement in overall quality compared to let's say a 5 yo Galaxy Note 2 or so, but any (!) system camera with a m4/3 sensor or larger easily trumps those cameras in any light condition, delivering much (!) better clarity, sharpness, noise levels, robustness of the files etc. Mobile phones are the solution for convenience, but they still fall far behind dedicated cameras.
You can buy today a used Fujifilm X-E1 for less than 200 bucks, maybe 350 with the excellent 35/1,4, and it wipes the floor with any available smart phone.
But of course the Nerd factor of a Fujifilm is much lower.

so how much did Google paid DxO for this review?

I've watched so many videos about the Pixel 2 where they discuss the camera, but literally none of them have mentioned the reduction in sensor size compared to the original Pixel and Nexus 5x/6p. Why? Are these "pro youtubers" really so ignornant of something so fundamentally important?! Having said that, the Pixel 2 sensor is still bigger than the LG V30 and Samsung S8... Maybe software tricks can compensate?

Oh and this removal of the headphone jack is excrutiating. I use my phone at least twice a day every day to listen to music, and I reguarly swap between headphones and earphones. Not having a 3.5mm jack is a deal breaker.

Iphones are ALWAYS more hype and over valued ,over scored than its counterparts ......99% of other branded phones.....motorola-HTC Sony, Samsung, LG ,Nexus, Huwaei,Nokia use android systems (quantity as well as quality ).....akin to microsoft professional systems which is use predominantly in industries, commercial ,transportation,financial.medical,diagnostics and banking soft ware systems instead of IOS on desktop systems .......But Apple is only good in rip off prices ,avoiding taxes,suing other systems copying .boasting and commercial adverts.....

There was (and maybe still is, haven't visited it in years) a popular lens review site that used to rate lenses on several categories, and then provide overall scores. All those categories, except for the last, were usual ones like resolution, flare resistance, etc... The last one though was "Magic and sparkle". And it would often outweigh everything else.

DxO adds more and more "Magic and sparkle" to their "measurements", and as a result their scores make less and less sense.

IMO as a reliable source of ratings DxO is in deep trouble. They are desperately trying to stay relevant, but modern photographic technologies are just too complex to "measure". They, in a way, can no longer be measured, even though DxO keep insisting they're still doing that.

Their story start to remind me the one of SoftRAM: a product that could compress (and thus "enlarge") RAM transparently for 16-bit apps, but with the advent of 32-bit flat address space of Win32 they got into deep sh!t.

(TBC)

Check out iphone8 and Nokia 808 comparison in my gallery now (from Dpreview), and remember the score is for a lot of things, but for photos the 808 and 1020 Nokias are better-IF you can still find a good one.

For the price difference between this and a budget phone I could get a Ricoh GR.

For "non camera" types, they "think" these photos are perfect because they don't know any better.
Personally, other than for work purposes (taking photos of equipment, broken parts etc), I don't use my phone as a camera. If, or until smartphones get rid of their super skinny diet, give em a few cheeseburgers, let them gain some THICKNESS, get rid of the silly slim colorful stylish crap, nothing is going to change. They need to increase the SIZE of the sensor, and snap on the back a LARGER LENS, that has say a 5-10X OPTICAL zoom.

I guess the idea of dedicating a little more real estate on the phone for superior optics at the beginning of the photo capture process is something no one wants to talk about. I'll wait until a phone camera gets released with gushing news about their lens before gushing along with the companies and their software that tries to emulate what better optics acctually do. Even for those who just snap and share, it seems like it's getting into a lot of money for something that has to compensate electronically for its weaknesses. I think that even the people who are casual snapshot shooters would benefit from better lens technology in their phones. Am I way off base here?

It's ridiculous to have a score for flash and simulated bokeh, but no score for the raw files. This shows that Dxomark mobile has solely commercial purposes and has absolutely nothing to do with the dxomark sensor/lens tests. The bokeh score even does not take into account whether the depth of field is realistic (for instance the iPhone 8 Plus blurs the chest slightly despite the same focal plane) because the average smartphone user does not care about this.
Why the media always think that they need to cite every new dxomark mobile article, is beyond me. Probably because the media knows nothing about photography (the media even does not know the difference between f-number and aperture) and when a smartphone company says that Dxomark rated it as the best camera (even before the phone was announced), then of course Dxomark must be the ultimate reference! Extremely bad journalism.

All of these phones have cameras that exceed my photo skills. I like my my iPhone 8+ because it integrates so well with my iPad.

Oh my dear, soon the smartphones will automatically change the taken photo from sensor measurement into something that is beautified according to our dreams or what the AI „thinks“ should be our dream.
The same BS we are facing from photoshoped reality for years.

Not my cup of tea.

That fake background blur from the Pixel 2 portrait is totally inconsistent. It goes from sharp to blurred then sharp again with absolutely no respect for what's behind or in front of the focal plane. The other picture looks overly processed like what you see on Flickr when people start to mess "artistically" with HDR and the foliage is still a big mash when pixelpeeped. I'm curious to see the benefits of shooting raw with these phones.

Many of you are having a hard time coping with the fact that a good percentage of mobile photographers are making more interesting image portfolios than the more stale, less creative, gear-oriented photogs.

Dxo is fun to look at, but completely useless in actual use comparisons.

A new record every day by dxomark..
To quote Nilay of theverge "nice racket they have going.
Sorry but is is getting to be absurd. Get the phone You like. They are all fine

What happens after 100 score? 101?

All 3 of those "portrait mode" shots are garbage. Tech is not there yet. In the first, you can clearly see where the algorithm wasn't able to get close enough to the subject, in the second the gaussian blur is nauseating, in the third, which is a lighter effect and a bit better, what's with the WB??

I think I'll keep my cameras for a while, lol.

Smartphone companies haven't concentrated too much on bokeh, because it's actually quite easy to figure out the bokeh shapes and how to deal with out of focus areas. Smartphone algorithms right now are concentrating on solely improving dynamic range and detail in photos, apart from trying to colour accuracy right.

I bought the Pixel XL the day it was available and so did my wife. She switched from the iPhone and I came from the exploding Samsung Note 7. She uses her phone as her camera. I'm a travel photographer and have probably snapped only ten images in the many months I have had the Pixel. I don't really care about phone cameras because I almost always have my XT-2 and a 2 or 3 lenses with me and I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to camera phone photography.... But I also know these phones are most peoples' camera, so I'm glad for them. Apple - Samsung - Google: Competition is good for us all.
I'm sticking with Google in the future but won't upgrade now. Heck, I just dropped over 900 bucks for the Pixel 1 a few months ago, and probably only use 25% of its capabilities.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139148982@N02/albums

I think this article is a good representation of the wrong perception of quality when it comes to photography gear. As people learn more about photography, they realize the ability to capture an image that can capture and hold your interest is far more important than capturing per pixel sharpness or color accuracy. But those voices are drowned by novices that only rate gear by per pixel sharpness, lack of vignetting, CA, etc. because they don't have the acuity to understand requirements of a good photograph.

If only we were blessed to receive DxOMark scores for *real cameras* half as fast.....

Personally, over the last two years, I feel this has become a battle of automated post processing more than a battle of camera ability.

At this point, I'd kind of like to see a separate score on the photo side for RAW ability (Exposure, Noise, Flash) and in-camera processed photos (HDR, Bokeh, Texture, Contrast, Artifacts). I'd, personally, like to know both - for the shots I know I'll never PP, and for the times when I want something really exceptional but I don't have a large sensor camera with me.

People actually still use DXO ☺️ Must be the same people who still use an AOL email address 🙄

An $849 phone 😲😲

Checks enough boxes for me.

Portrait mode is a failure, I'd never use it.

hater gonna hate, technology revolution still go on, more convenient to casual photo taker for pro quality with phone. even capable of winning award over big camera :)

I'm glad the phones are getting much better. 5-10 years ago camera phone jpgs were horrible. People would send them to me to print--terrible. Now they are pretty good. I'm not saying great but they do look good for most people.
This is good because right now I see so many "soccer moms" with dSLR's who put them on auto. They come to me and ask why mine are so good and theirs are worse than their iPhone 4.
Anybody can get a great picture on a bright day afternoon, but auto doesn't know what to do when dusk arrives.
I'm not sure how to convey that if you want to buy an ILC, then spend most costly thing you have - time - and learn how to use it.
I think of shutter, aperture, ISO, as three legs of a stool on uneven ground. Your job is to adjust the "legs" to get the seat level (balanced exposure).
For the people who don't want to learn, they should just get the new phone or compact. It will expose better than most slr's on auto, IMO.

And again - what do those numbers of DxO’s actually *mean*?

A bazillion-and-one on the Kauderwelsch-scale *still* doesn’t mean anything...

It must be nice, to be able to get people to swoon and moan over a n-point difference - when nobody actually knows what such a point means.

First of all there is nothing saying you can't use the camera of your choice. Is it a smartphone? Is it a mirrorless? Is it a DSLR? Convenience and performance are trade offs here. No one is kidding anyone here. DXO is one source, but not the only. It is data and how useful or not it is to you is your affair. I use mirrorless and my Samsung S7, and do just fine. Your mileage may vary. Wait next week for next best thing.

Who cares about the portrait mode anyway? It's basically useless artificial junk on all devices, not just phones. Noise, DR, and color are the things that interest us...