Galaxy S9 vs. Xperia XZ2 shootout

Introduction

Samsung has the Plus, Sony has the Compact, but the two companies see the base size differently. It's these regular versions that we'll now be taking a closer look at - this is the Galaxy S9 versus Xperia XZ2 camera comparison.

One could argue that the chunky ZX2 is best pitted against the S9+, but such a battle wouldn't be entirely fair to the Xperia - the larger Galaxy has a pair of cameras versus just one on the XZ2. Why not have the XZ2 Compact take on the Galaxy S9 then? Well, we figured display size is a major factor when choosing a phone, and if you're looking at the 5.8-inch S9, then probably the 5.7-inch XZ2 is more up your alley than the 5-inch Compact is. In any case, whatever we establish about the XZ2's camera is equally true about the one on its smaller brother.

And what exactly are these cameras? Sony is sticking with the multi-aspect sensor introduced with the Xperia XZs that takes 19MP 4:3 photos and 17MP 16:9 ones. This year's implementation has a much improved noise reduction and image processing. And the 960fps slo-mo videos are now captured in 1080p.

Samsung's joining the super slo-mo madness this year, and matches the 720p/960fps mode of the Xperia (with better software implementation, at that), but it can't do 1080p/960fps. What it does better than the Sony is 4K recording where the Xperia maxes out at 30fps, while the Galaxy can do 60fps.

The S9 is a little short on pixels in stills, however, its 12MP camera being outresolved by the Xperia XZ2. The Galaxy does have the upper hand in the selfie game with a larger, higher-res sensor and a brighter lens with autofocus.

For a quick round up of the key numbers take a look at this handy cheatsheet.

	Samsung Galaxy S9	Sony Xperia XZ2
Main camera	12MP, 4032 x 3024px	19MP, 4032 x 3024px
Sensor	4:3 aspect, 1/2.55" sensor size, 1.4µm pixel size	multi-aspect, 1/2.3" sensor size,1.22µm pixel size
Lens	f/1.5-2.4, 26mm, OIS	f/2.0, 25mm
Focus	Dual Pixel PDAF	Laser+PDAF
Flash	Single LED	Single LED
Video recording	2160p@60/30fps, 1440p@30fps, 1080p@60/30fps	2160p@30fps, 1080p@60/30fps
Video IS	OIS+EIS	EIS only
Slo-mo	1080p@240fps, 720p@960fps	1080p@120fps, 1080p@960fps
Video features	Stereo audio	Stereo audio
Front camera	8 MP, 1/3.6", 1.22µm, f/1.7, 25mm, 1440p@30fps	5MP, 1/5", f/2.2, 23mm, 1080p@30fps

We like comparing numbers as much as the next guy, but we also like taking photos and looking at them up close. We'll be doing a lot of that, but not before we go over the hardware and software of the two phones. Click away.

Samsung's sensor is large, Sony's is larger and higher-res

The Galaxy S9 is equipped with the latest iteration of the 12MP 1/2.55" sensor that debuted on the Galaxy S7. Same large 1.4µm pixels that also double as phase detection agents (hence dual pixel autofocus) sit in front of a new lens. This time it can switch between an f/1.5 and an f/2.4 aperture - a unique feature for a smartphone at the time being. The lens is once again stabilized.

Xperias haven't been big on OIS and the XZ2 doesn't change that. The 25mm-equivalent lens has an f/2.0 aperture that lets light through to the 1/2.3" sensor familiar from the company's flagships since the XZs. It's got 1.22µm pixels and their total number is close to 21 million but you'll either be getting 19MP 4:3 photos (5,056x3792px) or 17MP 16:9 ones (5,504x3x096px) - it's a multi-aspect sensor. The Xperia relies on a combination of phase detection and laser autofocus.

There are no fancy dual cameras on these two, it's like we're back in the good old days. If only it were that easy.

As for selfies, on paper the Galaxy's setup is in a whole different league compared to the Xperia's. Not only is the S9's selfie camera higher-res (8MP vs. 5MP), the sensor is also much larger (1/3.6" vs. 1/5") and the aperture is wider (f/1.7 vs. f/2.2). The one good thing about the specs of the Xperia's front-facing cam is the focal length - a 23mm equivalent lens will get several of your pals or most of the scenery behind you in the frame, though the Galaxy's 25mm isn't too bad in this respect either.

Camera apps

Everyone has gradually shifted towards a swipeable interface for their camera apps, and the Xperia XZ2 and the Galaxy S9 are staying on top of trends. The two go about it differently though, with both approaches having their pros and cons.

The Galaxy's latest app is a bit too much like Apple's camera app. Side swipes switch between shooting modes, including Auto, Portrait, Panorama, Pro, and Super slow-mo, and you can add, remove and rearrange the modes. What you can't do, however, is have a dedicated video mode - yes, holding down on the record button in both Auto and Pro will give you a preview, but what's so terribly wrong with video having its own mode and a viewfinder which will allow you to accurately frame your video before you've touched this shutter button?

An up/down swipe will switch between front and rear cameras, which is handy and we feel should be the default action in every camera app.

There's also a Pro mode which lets you adjust pretty much all photographic parameters, including (and that's unique to the S9 and S9+) aperture.

Galaxy S9 camera app

Sony's equivalent is called Manual and you can tweak the same stuff minus aperture - the Xperia doesn't have the hardware for that. The settings ranges differ - for example, Sony's shutter speed can be set between 1/4000s and 1s, while the Galaxy's range is wider on both ends - 1/24000s to 10s. The Xperia can set ISO all the way up to 12800, while the S9 is capped at ISO 800 in Pro mode; both have ISO 50 as the lowest setting.

The Xperia only has 4 presets for white balance in Manual mode - the Galaxy matches those, but allows tweaking by light temperature too.

One thing the Xperia XZ2 does much better than the Galaxy S9 is resetting all parameters in Manual mode - a single button will do that for you, while on the S9 you need to switch each one to Auto individually.

Manual mode is one of the side-swipeable modes on the Xperia - the others are Superior Auto, Video and Camera apps. Superior Auto is Sony's intelligent mode that recognizes the scene and adjust parameters accordingly and it's been around since forever - before it was cool and everyone started doing AI-powered camera apps.

Video here is a separate mode, unlike on the Galaxy, and Camera apps is where Panorama is, alongside some novel modes.

Xperia XZ2 camera app

Daylight

In broad daylight the two phones capture excellent images that are surprisingly hard to tell apart at fit to screen magnifications. Only minor differences in color rendition can be spotted from afar - the Xperia's reds are deeper, while the Galaxy's are a touch more orange, and yellows are a little warmer out of the Xperia, and ever so slightly greenish on the Galaxy. Oh, and the grass is often greener on the Xperia's side, too. That said, a lot of these could be due to the scene mode the Xperia XZ2 decides to pick in Superior Auto.

Camera samples, Galaxy S9

Camera samples, Xperia XZ2

Click on the 1:1 button (or use the keyboard shortcut in your viewer of choice) and you'll immediately see the difference - a difference that is present in every shot. The Xperia's images have some extra fine detail that the S9's lower-res sensor can't quite resolve.

The flipside is that the Galaxy's photos are significantly smoother, with noise competently and almost completely weeded out. At the same time noise is visible on all of the Xperia's images, even at ISO as low as 40. Just don't get us wrong, it's not that bad at all, it's just that the S9 is remarkably clean of any noise.

Camera samples, Galaxy S9

Camera samples, Xperia XZ2

The Galaxy S9's Auto HDR (or 'rich tone' as they call it) does a better job with high-contrast landscape scenes than the Xperia. The proficiency of Samsung's HDR algorithms aside, there's another factor at play here, and it's Superior Auto's tendency to pick the 'Landscape' scene mode over the HDR-like 'Backlit'. That typically yields a brighter exposure and blown highlights.

Camera samples, Galaxy S9

Camera samples, Xperia XZ2

The Noise vs. Detail trade-off aside, it's a very close race between these two in good light, which is a pleasant surprise, we have to admit. Let's see how things look in less than ideal conditions.

Low light

Examining the low-light performance of these two is a twofold affair, and it all stems from the fact that the Xperia behaves quite differently when you're shooting handheld and when you're using a tripod.

When taking photos handheld, the Galaxy is the winner, and there's no shortage of objective reasons for that - wider aperture, OIS, superior noise reduction. The Xperia's photos are noisier and softer, and for the most part trailing in detail despite the extra resolution. 'Trailing', however, may create the wrong impression - it's true that the image quality is not as good as the S9's but it's still miles ahead of any previous Xperia phone.

Lowlight camera samples, Galaxy S9

Lowlight camera samples, Xperia XZ2

What's more, when you put the two phones on solid ground (or a tripod), things change. Or rather, nothing changes for the Galaxy, but the Xperia XZ2's Superior Auto mode recognizes the phone is now stabilized and slows down its shutter speed - we're seeing a Tripod icon and a Night scene icon in the viewfinder. Mind you, this is still happening in Superior Auto mode - you don't need to go into Manual.

In our testing it routinely chose 0.8s for shutter speed and we concluded that's the ceiling - as opposed to 1/16s when in hand. The lower shutter speed allows the XZ2 to keep the ISO in the 160-200 range when the Galaxy is forced to use a 1.5-3 stops higher sensitivity. It's not a small difference and the Xperia pulls ahead in detail and clarity.

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Lowlight camera samples, Galaxy S9

Lowlight camera samples, Xperia XZ2

Now, there's two ways to look at this. On the one hand, the tripod detection is a nice touch and if that helps get cleaner images when the circumstances allow for it - call us in favor. On the other - how often do you carry a tripod around with you? Sure, if you've specifically gone out shooting night scenes you'd have the tools on hand, but at that point your photographic knowledge is probably sound enough for you to be able to work your way around Manual mode too.

Another point worth making is that in this automatically selected Night scene mode you're getting trails from moving lights whether you wanted them or not. Instead, effectively, to stop motion in your night photos, you need to go into Manual and pick a faster shutter speed (and higher ISO).

So, when both phones are kept in their respective automatic camera modes, and the Xperia is stabilized, it will produce sharper, cleaner and more detailed images than the Galaxy S9, albeit with light trails (whether that's a good thing or not depends on the subject). If you forgot your beanbag at home and you're shooting handheld, the Galaxy S9 will outperform the Xperia XZ2 in the dark - again, in full auto modes.

Manual mode is the ultimate equalizer (Pro mode on the Galaxy). We kept the phones on a tripod, locked both to ISO 200 and the Galaxy's brighter aperture lets it use a faster shutter speed 0.3s vs. 0.5s. The two phones exhibit noise in different areas - the Galaxy's well lit portions of the frame are cleaner than the Xperia's but the Xperia's sky is a little smoother. The XZ2's colors are more vibrant though - the Galaxy's output has lost its flair.

Low light, Pro/Manual mode

One last thing - in all these low light scenes, the Galaxy would fire off shot after shot with no delay in-between. In contrast, the Xperia would take its time after you hit the shutter and take a good 2 seconds before you can shoot again, showing you a progress indicator in the meantime.

Portraits

Both phones can take portraits with blurred backgrounds despite only having one rear camera each. To shoot portraits with the Xperia, you need to download the Bokeh camera app add-on - it wasn't pre-installed on our unit. It maxes out at 8MP, but there's also a 2MP setting, and you can choose between 4:3 and 16:9 aspects for each resolution. The Galaxy has the 'Selective focus' mode built-in, and maximum resolution is 12MP, like regular stills.

Overall, the Xperia is superior in more than one way. Subject separation is more accurate than on the Galaxy, it's almost Pixel-like. And with the Pixel in the conversation, we should mention that the color reproduction and texture of the Xperia is very similar to Google's. The Galaxy S9, on the other hand, makes faces warmer and more than a little yellowish.

Selective focus samples, Galaxy S9

Bokeh samples, Xperia XZ2

Selfies

If you're looking for awesome selfies, you won't be super thrilled with the Xperia's shots. They're fine, in much the same way you'd expect from a phone a quarter of the XZ2's price, but not really befitting its flagship position.

The 5MP resolution shouldn't have you expecting heaps of detail, but it's decent. In another episode of 'just Sony things', Superior Auto applies a 'Soft snap' scene mode by default when it detects a face. There's an additional 'Soft skin effect' toggle in settings, which is a different thing and switching it off doesn't interfere with the soft snap scene mode. Still, if you do flip the toggle off, you'll remove all beautification smoothing (or most of it, as far as we can tell).

Selfie camera samples, Xperia XZ2, Superior Auto ('Soft snap' scene mode, 'Soft skin effect' on)

For sharpest results, you need to stay closer to the Xperia than the default arm's length. We ended up with oversharpened facial hair, excessive contrast and skin colors that were often off towards pink.

Selfie camera samples, Xperia XZ2, Manual ('Soft skin effect' off)

The Galaxy's mug shots are sharper, with more fine detail and with vastly more natural processing (quite unlike their main camera).

Selfie camera samples, Galaxy S9

The Galaxy S9 can do faux-bokeh portraits with its single front facing camera, the Xperia skips that. Samsung's 'Selfie focus' shots actually end up quite good with reasonably accurate separation between subject and background and a pretty natural looking bokeh.

Selfie focus samples, Galaxy S9

Super slow-mo

Super slow motion video at close to 1000fps is being hailed as the next headline feature - Sony introduced it last year, and Samsung's now joining in. We figured that since the Galaxy S9 and the Xperia XZ2 are among the select few phones that offer it (the Huawei P20 is only now joining them), slow-mo video deserves a closer look - on video, of course. Check out what Will has to say on the matter.

The Galaxy and the Xperia can both record slow-mo videos at 960fps in 720p resolution for a fifth of a second, which when played back at normal speed results in super slow-motion video for six seconds. The XZ2 can also record in 1080p at 960fps, but for only half the duration. That's because Sony hasn't increased the on-chip memory and 1080p does have more than twice as many pixels as 720p.

What the Galaxy does better than the Xperia is the software implementation of the feature. On the XZ2 you need to manually engage the slow-mo recording, so timing it is entirely on you. On the S9 you can do that too, but you can also choose auto, tap on an area in the frame where you expect the action to happen, and the Galaxy will automatically switch to high-speed recording as soon as it detects movement. If you're going to have multiple things moving across the frame, manual could still be a better idea, though.

Additionally, tap-to-focus doesn't work on the Xperia - to change the focus point, you need to go into regular videos, tap on your subject, and then go back to slow-mo. How crazy is that? The Galaxy will happily accept focus requests in slow-mo mode.

On top of that the Galaxy has a neat editor which you can use to do things with your slow-mo videos once you're done with the capture. There's a timeline where you can trim your videos, switch the slow-mo sections on and off, add music, and share your creation. Sony's video editor has no special slow-mo-tailored functionality.

To sum it up, Samsung's slow-mo feature set is a lot more user-friendly. Video quality in slow-mo is similar between the two in 720p, but the Xperia's 1080p footage is, predictably more detailed. However, due to the limited duration and Sony's basic implementation, we'd still pick the Galaxy for slow-mo, even if it was Sony who came up with it first.

And now, here's a bunch of samples.

Video quality

Moving on to the regular videos. Both the Galaxy S9 and the Xperia XZ2 can record in 2160p/30fps, but the Galaxy is also capable of 2160p/60fps. 1080p in both 30fps and 60fps goes without saying. The S9 lets you choose between h.264 and h.265 codecs for all modes, while h.265 on the Xperia is only available for 4K capture.

The h.264 files from the Galaxy get a 45Mbps bit rate in 4K, 28Mbps in 1080p/60fps, and 14MBps in 1080p/30fps. The Xperia's numbers are 54Mbps, 30Mbps, and 17Mbps, respectively - Samsung's more frugal, even too frugal. Using the more efficient h.265 codec the Galaxy's 4K vids were encoded at 27Mbps while the Xperia's get 35Mbps.

In 4K, encoded in h.264, the level of detail from the Xperia is higher and vids look crisper. Things even out somewhat in h.265 clips, though the Xperia does appear to have an edge, still. We also prefer the XZ2's overall more natural look to the Galaxy's artificial, sharpened footage. Dynamic range is similar between the two, and so are colors, though if you insist of pointing out the tiniest of differences, you could mention the pinkish tint in the grays and blues of the Xperia, and the extra pop in the Galaxy's cab-yellows.

We've also grabbed a frame from each video for side-by side inspection, if you're into that.

4K video screengrabs: Galaxy S9, h.264 • Xperia XZ2, h.264 • Galaxy S9, h.265 • Xperia XZ2, h.265

Colors don't change in 1080p, but the Galaxy catches up in detail and it's now really a toss-up between the two in both 30 and 60fps.

And here come the screengrabs.

1080p video screengrabs: Galaxy S9, 60fps • Xperia XZ2, 60fps • Galaxy S9, 30fps • Xperia XZ2, 30fps

The Xperia XZ2 and its Compact sidekick can also record HDR video, a rather unique feature in the Android world. We're providing a sample below, taken alongside the regular videos, but unless you have a BT.2020 compliant display, you'd be seeing a washed-out version of it. The phone's own screen does it more justice.

Stabilization

Sony's Steady Shot stabilization has two modes, Intelligent auto and Standard (there's Off, too, but that doesn't count), and in 4K resolution you can only have Standard. The gyro-based Intelligent auto is only available in 1080p. The Galaxy has no fancy name for its stabilization, but it does work up to 4K/30fps (not in 4K/60fps, though), plus there's the added benefit of stabilized optics here.

Indeed, in 4K the Xperia can't quite match the Galaxy's smoothness and its footage is noticeably shakier. It's doing something, but the you'd want the Galaxy for stabilized 4K.

In 1080p, where Steady Shot gets all intelligent, there's not much of a difference between the two phones. Both will deliver shake-free videos with smooth panning.

Final words

Those of you who've been following us for some time might have noticed that we've rarely praised a Sony phone camera. They make the sensors for most smartphones, they have some of the best dedicated cameras - why can't they make a proper smartphone camera? You might have read something along those lines.

If we've criticized the company's flagships before, it hasn't been for a lack of reasons, but it has brought some name calling our way. You can't please everyone, but the Sony loyalist may feel a little warmth reading this, for a change. This time around, the Xperia XZ2 proved to be as good and, on occasion, even superior to the Galaxy S9 in this shootout.

The funny thing is, Sony's phone hit the Galaxy where it hurt most - low-light photography. Support it properly, and the XZ2 will deliver better pictures that the S9 at night, in full auto at that. The Galaxy saves face with solid output when shooting handheld - courtesy of OIS, and a bright aperture, so not all is lost in the dark.

In daylight we'd really struggle to pick a winner. If you refrain from close-up scrutiny, the two are actually very hard to tell apart and when you do zoom in, it's a clash of approaches, neither strictly better than the other - the super-clean Galaxy versus the noisier but more detailed Xperia.

An unlikely winner in another area, the Galaxy is our pick for slow-mo video recording. Yes, Sony introduced it last year, and even upped the resolution this year. But it's Samsung that's wrapped slow-mo in more approachable and easier to use software, ultimately making it better as a whole.

Regular videos, on the other hand, are that little bit more likeable coming out of the Xperia, the 4K/30fps ones in particular, but it's not a night-and-day difference. What can possibly have you leaning either way is the 4K/60fps capabilities of the Galaxy and the HDR recording of the Xperia. Pick one.

Pick the Galaxy S9 or pick the Xperia XZ2, but do it for something other than the camera, because in that particular respect they're neck and neck. And if the Samsung edges ahead in one area, the Xperia quickly makes up for it with a narrow win in another. Yes, choosing the best cameraphone is extra hard this year. Or should we say, rather easy? Everybody's doing such a great job that the premium segment actually has us spoiled for choice.

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