DxOMark: Xiaomi Mi 8 beats the Samsung Galaxy S9+ in still shots

31 MAY 2018

DxOMark released its extensive camera review of the fresh Xiaomi Mi 8 flagship. The device has gone through the test gauntlet scoring an outstanding 105 points in photo category and a very good 88 points in video recording. The overall score is 99, meaning that the Mi 8 shares the 4th place with the Galaxy S9+, which did better in video recording but fell a point short in still photography compared to the Mi 8.

The guys over at DxOMark had almost nothing bad to say about the camera. In fact, according to the score, the Mi 8 is probably one of the best value smartphones if you are looking for good camera performance.

The dual camera setup consists of a 12MP main sensor with f/1.8, 1.4µm pixel size, OIS and dual pixel PDAF coupled with a secondary 12MP f/2.4 unit capable of 2x optical zoom and also supports dual pixel PDAF. According to DxOMark, the 2x magnification is pretty decent but not as good as other flagships with telephoto lens.

Anyway, the Xiaomi Mi 8 captures vivid photos with a good dynamic range in various scenarios (including low-light) and delivers accurate exposure and white balance at the same time. The autofocus is speedy, but there are some occasional delays. Low noise can be observed in almost all light conditions - the cameras only struggles in really dark environments.

The main drawbacks of the device when it comes to still images is the loss of detail even in broad daylight and minor inconsistencies with the autofocus, white balance and depth detection in bokeh mode. The most prominent one, though, is color fringing.

  
Purple artifacts/color fringing

As far as video recording is concerned, the cameras once again impress with super-fast autofocus, proper focus tracking, wide dynamic range, punchy but not over the top colors and low noise. Exposure and white balance inaccuracies, loss of detail and inconsistent sharpness are the main issues that you may experience with the Mi 8's videos.

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