Photo quality comparison: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 versus iPhone 11 Pro

We were delighted to get our hands on the new Note devices, with Samsung touting some amazing new updates for the cameras. Between the high resolution, incredible zoom, and 8K video, there was a lot to see, so we hit the road to capture some stellar shots that show off camera skills.

While there are some sample images included in the piece, please see the video for all of our test shots.

For this comparison, we’ll look at the Galaxy Note 20, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and the iPhone 11 Pro. The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max have the same lens setup, so photos taken with one will look the same as if they had been taken with the other.

One thing to remember is that iPhones are about a year old now, and the iPhone 12 is getting closer and closer to launch. This is still a useful comparison though, as the iPhone 11 lineup will be around for some time to come and it’s still the most current iPhone to compare.

When taking a closer look at the cameras, all the devices sport a 12MP ultra-wide angle lens. It’s the other lenses where it gets interesting.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 has a 12MP wide-angle lens and a 64MP telephoto lens. Those two lenses combined can offer a 3X hybrid zoom, as well as a maximum 30X digital zoom.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is equipped with a 108MP wide angle lens along with a 12MP tele lens. It is capable of 5X optical zoom and 50X digital zoom.

Good to see that Samsung listened to its audience and walked away from the 100X “super zoom” offered with the S20 line. Photos produced at 100X were grainy and largely unusable at best.

Both Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are 12MP wide and 12MP telephoto with 2X optical zoom and 10X digital zoom.

Portrait mode, 108MP mode, live focus, panorama,

It seems that every year there are more and more facets of these cameras only in the stock camera applications, and much less in the third-party applications that they can achieve. We don’t want to spend too much time on all of these, but we want to give some general impressions of our time using them.

Both phones still include a portrait shooting mode, which Apple calls Portrait mode and Samsung calls Live Focus. These haven’t changed much since the last phones we tested.

Samsung still leans towards the “fun” side with effects like background swirls and normal blur. Apple has been very focused on replicating real-world lighting effects, and as a general rule, creates a more refined-looking image.

Which one is better depends on the style you prefer.

Panoramas are also a common shooting mode. We took some sample photos via the phones and tried our best to keep the same speed every time, however the photos ended up in completely different sizes.

The iPhone image was the widest, while the Note 20 was the most compact and the Note 20 Ultra was somewhere in the middle. I prefer the wider aspect to these, because the more compact the image is, the more distortion is evident in tighter shots.

Wider shots also lend themselves more to large prints.

The last special feature we wanted to mention was the Note 20 Ultra’s impressive 108MP mode. While it has so many megapixels packed into the sensor, by default it shoots at a much more reasonable size, but the user has the option to enable that massive 108MP resolution if desired.

When we tested this, it didn’t make a big difference. Not a lot of extra detail was picked up in the shot and you could get a little closer, but at that point you may have used the optical zoom the phone offers to begin with.

For your normal daily shots these cameras compare quite well. Samsung still has the slightly oversaturated look it’s known for, and in some shots it worked well.

The water images we took actually looked more lifelike than the slightly cropped rear shots found on the iPhone. In the flower shots that you can see below, the flowers were so oversaturated that they lost quite a bit of detail and contrast.

In low-light shots, like that of our pup Mosby below, the iPhone managed to bring out a bit more detail. Mosby was photographed with a three-second shutter in night mode on all three devices, and the photos from the Samsung Note look good, but not quite as sharp.

We also did a seven second shutter of the night sky. The iPhone was again a bit brighter, albeit grainy, and the Note 20 photos were unusable with most of the black in the images.

The image of our toasted marshmallow porter shows how much better the iPhone’s approach got it right. The bubbles on the head were super sharp, while Samsung still seems to struggle with autofocus.

This year Samsung is using lasers to aid in focusing, but in this image of a curved mug, the autofocus decided to focus on the front of the clear mug rather than the top ring, the beer head, or the roasted marshmallow. .

Overall, the focusing system seems improved over the Galaxy S20.

These flowers lacked contrast and were saturated in both Note images.

Where Samsung really shines is with the telescopic capabilities of its new devices. Both the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra impress Apple in terms of image quality.

Our distant subject shot at 1X for our zoom test

In our samples, we filmed a lighthouse that was at a significant distance. Our 10X iPhone’s photography looked fine, but the 10X Note 20 was much better due to its higher resolution telephoto and hybrid zoom.

The Note 20 Ultra’s 50X shot was sharper at that level, though it started to lose definition as well.

When we got zoomed in at 50X and we looked at a lens that far away, it became increasingly difficult for us to keep the subject in the shot, rendering this zoom level useless in moving situations.

We wanted to test the zoom capabilities one more time, so we took some photos of a group of kites flying through the air. When zoomed in to 50X, the iPhone images were a distorted mess, while the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra was very easy to discern what we were looking at.

It may not be sharp enough to do anything with it, but in some situations it can create very useful photos.

Apple’s professional cameras are definitely starting to look dated compared to these amazing new tele capabilities in the latest Samsung phones.

This camera comparison was particularly focused on photo capabilities, but we have to at least mention video. We played around with this a bit and are very excited about the prospect of amazing 8K video recording on smartphones.

It is true that there are not many 8K TVs or monitors in people’s homes, but when recording in 8K, you can trim the video to maintain at least 4K resolution. It’s limited to just 24 frames per second in the notes, but that’s more than enough, making it a potentially invaluable tool for mobile filmmakers.

On iPhone, we are still limited to 4K at 60 frames per second. Fingers crossed, we see improvements in this area in the upcoming iPhone 12.

Picking a winner here is difficult. In daily shots, we lean a bit towards the iPhone, less saturated images, better focus and better portrait mode. However, the overall hue of the image can be adjusted after the fact, so if it’s a white balance, contrast, or saturation issue, all of that can be adjusted after a bit.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra

Samsung takes it out of the park with the TV capabilities here. Some extreme zoom shots may be too distorted to be usable, but even 10X images look much better than iPhone 10X images.

Apple needs to improve its game when it comes to zooming. Apple’s strategy seems to be to prioritize your typical shots and the wide-angle lens, but if you want something beyond 5X, images start to suffer greatly in this comparison.