Let’s take a look at the comparison of the telephoto camera results between the high-end smartphones, iPhone 14 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
It’s surprising that the photo results of the iPhone 14 Pro camera are said to be inferior to those of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Is that really true?
As reported by Gadgets360 on March 16, 2023, Samsung’s zoom range is still impressive as it was with the Galaxy S22 Ultra last year, but the company has improved in terms of consistency in capturing shots this year. The photos appear sharp and pack a lot of detail up to 3X zoom (where the first telephoto camera takes over), and the same applies to the dynamic range.
Jumping to 10X zoom, which is the optical limit of the Galaxy, also shows incredible details.
In fact, it is very difficult to convince people that photos like these were taken with a 10X zoom. At 15X, which is the hybrid zoom limit of the iPhone, the photos are still usable, but trained eyes can tell that they have been digitally magnified.
At 30X, Samsung’s stabilization is quite impressive, and the resulting images have some noise but otherwise look like normal images with less detail. At 100X, the photos look like paintings but are still impressive because you can see what’s in the photo, which cannot be seen with the naked eye. Overall, there is a significant improvement in the quality of telephoto images compared to its predecessor.
Apple’s telephoto capabilities are limited to 3X optical zoom and 15X hybrid zoom. At 3X zoom, it is surprising to see the same lack of color and dynamic range that I saw at 1X zoom.
However, in terms of quality, the images look quite good, with good detail and sharpness. At 10X zoom, the image quality is similar to the Galaxy’s 15X with some noise. At 15X, it is clear that these are trimmed and scaled-up images.
With each night mode enabled, the Galaxy S23 Ultra at 3X zoom manages photos that are noisier than the iPhone 14 Pro. However, it has better dynamic range and looks slightly brighter than the latter.
With each night mode enabled, the Galaxy S23 Ultra manages photos that are noisier than the iPhone 14 Pro at 3X zoom. However, it has better dynamic range and looks slightly brighter than the latter.
At 10X zoom, Samsung clearly manages image quality better, with better definition and resolved detail than the iPhone. Nonetheless, it is impressive to see how the iPhone 14 Pro manages the same level of quality even though it is entirely digital.
At 15X zoom, Samsung’s cropping becomes evident, as does the noise that begins to creep up. But Apple’s images are far from unusable at this point.
Samsung manages to push further at 30X, and the images are very usable, with only slight purple fringing. At 100X, the images finally look like oil paintings.
Both phones are also capable of taking longer exposures in Night mode when zoomed in. Both display impressive quality at 3X with controlled noise and dynamic range, but the image quality of the 14 Pro worsens from that point on because stabilization becomes an issue with longer exposures.
Taking pictures at 3X on the iPhone requires a bit of skill when using Night mode set to “max.”
Samsung’s zoom level in Night mode is limited to a maximum of 10X, but the results are very impressive. Noise is well controlled, but the resolved detail is truly impressive for images taken at 10X zoom.
Cropping into a 10X sample reveals more detail (netting under the tower peak), which is very hard to achieve at this focal length on a smartphone. It is quite clear that Samsung has done a lot of work on the Ultra this year in terms of zoom capabilities.
