Camera Shootout: The iPhone 6 Plus' vs. the Samsung Galaxy Note 5's

Avid users of smartphones have chucked their digital cameras thanks to the current design sensibility that smartphone makers have worked into their devices: Across the board, smartphone makers are choosing to incorporate better cameras into their mobile phones. Whether the device is angled for the entry-level market or the premium demographic, they’re all racing to create cameras that can capture professional-grade images.

The iPhone already set the industry standard in mobile phone photography, even at lower megapixels on paper. In spite of the fact that iPhones had stagnated at 5MP while Androids have gone up to 8MP and beyond, the clarity and detail captured by the iPhone was still top-notch. The iPhone 6 Plus was Apple’s answer to the ever-rising megapixels on the rest of the industry’s models. And with the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus, they’ve finally decided to jump in with the Androids and set a 12MP camera on the latest line of iPhones.

Megapixels notwithstanding though, how does the iPhone measure up to a higher-spec Samsung?

Lisa Eadicicco of Business Insider sought to find out. She took an iPhone 6 Plus and a Samsung Galaxy Note 5, both of which are their respective company’s flagship phablets. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5, however, is Samsung's latest phablet flagship, while the iPhone 6 Plus was the phablet flagship a whole "generation" ago. Lisa wrote the article almost a whole month before Apple's release of its latest flagships, the Apple iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus.

Those "generation" differences aside, the cameras' performances were very telling.

Note that the iPhone 6 Plus has an 8MP sensor, versus the Samsung Galaxy Note 5's 16MP sensor.

Here are some of the takeaways from Lisa’s experiment:

-The iPhone 6 Plus renders colors closer to real life. Samsung Note 5, on the other hand, tends to enhance colors and makes them brighter.

-The iPhone 6 Plus renders details, such as street sign lettering, with more clarity.

-The Samsung Note 5 makes some signs, such as a “STOP” sign, more attention-grabbing, because of its high contrast.

-Some subjects stand out on the Samsung Note 5, because it renders the photo with greater sharpness and crispness.

-In some lighting conditions, the Samsung Note 5’s camera renders a washed-out photo, while the iPhone 6 Plus may render darker photos, but the colors are closer to the real-life subjects.

-On human subjects, the iPhone 6 Plus takes photos that render the subject’s skin tone more accurately. The Samsung Note 5 tends to wash out the colors on the subject’s skin tone.

-In the dark, the iPhone 6 Plus can still take photos. On the other hand, the Samsung Note 5 is practically useless in the dark.

On the whole, Lisa Eadicicco found out that if a mobile user wants bolder colors, they should go for the Samsung Note 5. If they prefer color accuracy, the capacity to take photos in low lighting, as well as if they need the capacity to capture details such as letters and numbers, the best choice would be the iPhone 6 Plus.

These are previous-generation models, but these also set the arc or the pattern for each brand’s line of devices. So if you want bolder colors, get a Samsung. But if you want photos as close to real life as possible, grab an iPhone.

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For the whole set of photo comparisons that Lisa Eadicicco took, head on over to Business Insider’s “How the iPhone's camera compares with that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5”: https://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-6-plus-vs-samsung-galaxy-note-5-camera-specs-2015-8