Every time Apple has released a new iPhone in recent years, it has been ranked as the smartphone with the best camera by DxOMark. With the iPhone 6s though, things have changed for worse.
In DxOMark’s testing, the 12MP rear shooter of the iPhone 6s performed slightly worse than last year iPhones. This should not really have been a problem since the camera performance of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is pretty darn good. However, over the last one year, Android OEMs have greatly stepped up their game in the camera department. Due to this, the iPhone 6s ended up being ranked at the 10th position in DxOMark’s smartphone camera ranking.
The website notes that while the 12MP shooter on the iPhone 6s performs admirably in daylight and manages to preserve a great amount of detail, it struggles in low light with ghosting and noise creeping in.
Importantly, images retain good levels of detail outdoors in bright lighting and slightly improved on its forerunner, but –despite the extra pixels- in low light levels detail preservation is no different.In terms of artifacts, the iPhone’s camera generally performs quite well but occasionally shows some moiré on high-frequency patterns -such as fine fabrics and metal grills in cityscapes. We also observed some ghosting artifacts -as a consequence of the HDR activation- and some flare, though the lens isn’t shielded like some other mobile cameras.
The video recording performance of the iPhone 6s was identical to its predecessor, and it managed to record great looking videos with accurate and fast autofocus in daylight. It also showed a noticeable improvement in low-light when compared to the iPhone 6. However, the software stabilisation only works properly in daylight, where “arguably, it is needed more.”
DxOMark did not test the iPhone 6s Plus camera, but it is likely that it will perform slightly better in low-light conditions and while recording videos due to presence of OIS.
Camera performance have always been a strength for iPhones, but after years of struggling, Android OEMs have been able to catch up with Apple in this department. I was really expecting a major camera upgrade on the iPhone 6s this time around, but apart from the bump in resolution, there was no major improvements from Apple. Disappointingly, the company even ended up using an F/2.2 lens on the handset, which is awfully inadequate in low-light.
[Via DxOMark]
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