Battle of the best smartphone manufacturer: Is it Apple or Google?

The iPhone X has been the darling of all media publication houses since Apple started rolling out its flagship offering out of its shelves. With its fullscreen display and the new FaceID setup, the iPhone X is getting all sorts of positive responses, resulting in an enthusiastic response from consumers. However, Google also sells its Pixel 2 flagship for the similar amount of money (if not less) and their offering also has some class beating features. Which one is better? That’s a tough question.

The iPhone X has recently visited DxOMark’s testing labs and has come out with flying colours. The most expensive Apple smartphone has snatched a DxOMark score of 97, positioning itself amongst the best. Yet, it’s not the best as Google’s Pixel 2 has brushed aside the iPhone X by a higher score of 98, making it the best smartphone to take photographs.

DxOMark’s testing reveals that the iPhone X is currently the best smartphone for doing still photography. In fact, it scored 101 points for still photography, primarily for its ability to impress the judges with its great zoom as well as impressive exposure, colour, texture, noise and artefacts. The iPhone X also impressed them with accurate colour rendering and low noise in low light conditions. However, it could only manage a video score of 89, bringing down the score to 97.

The Google Pixel 2, on the other hand, gets an overall score of 98, framing itself as the king of the smartphone photography. The Pixel 2 doesn’t fare on par with the iPhone X’s still photo score but certainly has abetter video score of 96, making it the overall winner. Mind you, the Pixel 2 achieves that impressive score with a single camera lens and not a dual camera setup like the iPhone X. Samsung’s flagship Note 8 with a dual camera system falls behind the duo with a score of 94, which, despite being appreciable, is simply not in the same league as the Pixel 2 and the iPhone X.

While the Pixel 2 edges out in the camera department, it loses out to the iPhone X in terms of the display. DisplayMate has evaluated the iPhone X’s OLED panel and has acknowledged it for rendering natural colours and managing impressive wide viewing angles. They said that the display can achieve ‘higher image sharpness’ than other and can intelligently switch between DCI-P3 colours as well as sRGB format — making it the only display with the “highest absolute colour accuracy” they have ever encountered.

The Pixel 2 has suffered from heavy criticism for sporting a very dull display, despite being an OLED panel. The Pixel 2 comes with the sRGB colour format set as default in order to achieve natural colours, which is certainly not as vibrant as the iPhone X. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 with its AMOLED panel has been known for rendering punchy colours, which while being unnatural, looks good in day-to-day usage.

Therefore, the question of who makes the best smartphone still remains unanswered. Samsung’s flagship Note 8 stands out with a beautiful design but falls back with its display and camera performance. The Google Pixel 2 rules the photography chart with its single camera but fails to impress with the display. The iPhone X with its dual camera is shy of the Pixel 2’s overall performance but rocks the best display panel available in a smartphone. The decision can only be made on your preference — if you want your smartphone to snap great pictures, the Pixel 2 is your best bet but the iPhone X is the right choice if you want the best viewing experience.