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Samsung Galaxy Note 9 front Camera test

92
selfie
This device has been retested in the latest version of our protocol. Overall, sub-scores and attributes are up to date. For detailed information, check the What’s New article
OTHER AVAILABLE TESTS FOR THIS DEVICE

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s front-facing camera is something of a rare beast in the world of selfie cameras, as it includes an autofocus lens. Add to that a 1/3.6-inch sensor with 8Mp resolution and 1.22µm pixels, 1440p@30fps video, as well as Samsung’s good track record for high-quality smartphone images, and the Note 9 looks like an interesting option for selfie enthusiasts. A device with one of the largest screens launched in 2018, the 6.4-inch display and stylus pen also make the Note 9 a valuable tool for those working on the road. As such, video performance of the front-facing camera could be important for making those business or personal video calls while traveling.

Lab coats on and test charts at the ready, we put the Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s front-facing camera though our industry-standard testing regime, shooting hours of video and thousands of still images. We unveil the scores and bring you our full analysis in this comprehensive review.

Key front camera specifications:

  • 8Mp resolution
  • 1/3.6″ sensor with 1.22µm pixel pitch
  • 25mm f/1.7-aperture lens
  • Autofocus for stills and video
  • Auto HDR
  • 1440p@30fps video

About DxOMark Selfie tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone front camera reviews, DxOMark engineers capture and evaluate over 1500 test images and more than 2 hours of video both in controlled lab environments and in natural indoor and outdoor scenes, using the camera’s default settings. This article is designed to highlight the most important results of our testing. For more information about the DxOMark Selfie test protocol, click here. 

Test summary

92
selfie
96
photo
86
video

Achieving a DxOMark Selfie score of 92, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a joint leader along with the Google Pixel 3 in our new DxOMark Selfie ranking. Boasting good results for both still photos and video, it’s a solid all-rounder, and the inclusion of an autofocus lens means that the Note 9 often captures sharper multiple group and environmental portraits compared to many competitors. While it’s fair to say that the autofocus performance isn’t perfect, Samsung has noticeably improved its accuracy and repeatability over that of the S9+.

Exposures are also good in most lighting conditions, including wide dynamic range potential in high-contrast scenes and acceptable exposures in very low light. Exposure on the face is the most important aspect in our selfie-cam testing, and although target exposures are slightly high in bright conditions, the results are good overall. HDR images improve over the S9+’s, although some tone compression issues can still lead to a lack of contrast on faces and to noticeable haloing.

The Samsung Note 9’s front camera captures accurate exposure on faces in most tested conditions, along with wide dynamic range, ensuring good highlight detail.

In addition to generally good exposure, the Note 9 front camera offers a pleasant color response. Good color rendering and accurate white balance ensure that skin tones have a natural look in most situations.

As we’ve seen recently, Samsung devices handle noise very well in low-light environments, and the Note 9’s front camera offers one of the best compromises between noise and texture that we’ve seen to date. Detail is generally very good, and although very fine details are lost in low-light images, and overall texture could be improved further, the results are excellent.

Noise on faces is very well-controlled in low-light conditions (20 lux).

In Portrait mode, the Note 9’s bokeh simulation effect does a good job of isolating the principal subject, and although some masking errors are visible when there’s a complex background, and the same level of blur intensity is applied regardless of the depth of the background, it’s an acceptable solution overall.

In Portrait mode, the bokeh simulation effect does a nice job of isolating the subject.

The Note 9’s key strengths for video are (again) good exposure on faces in most situations, good color rendering with accurate skin tones, and generally well-preserved details with low levels of noise. Some exposure instabilities are evident, though, with noticeable steps in exposure adaptation visible under changing lighting conditions. Other opportunities for improvement for video include the autofocus performance, as unnecessary refocusing often occurs, especially in low light.

Photo scores explained

The Samsung Note 9 front camera achieves a total photo score of 96, which is calculated from its scores in tests that examine different aspects of its performance under different lighting conditions. In this section we’ll take a closer look at these image quality sub-scores, analyzing some aspects of the Note 9’s performance versus its key competition.

Exposure and Contrast

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

85

91

Google Pixel 7a
Best: Google Pixel 7a (91)

The Samsung Note 9 achieves a good overall score for exposure and contrast, thanks to its predominantly accurate exposure of faces in all lighting conditions, and to its wide dynamic range. However, there are a couple of issues that had an impact on the score: for example, when tested under controlled lab conditions, target exposure tends to be slightly bright in all lighting conditions. You can see in the chart below that this is particularly true under very bright conditions between 300 and 1000 lux, where the Note 9 recorded over 60L for brightness (L*), which can lead to a small amount of highlight clipping on both the subject’s face and in parts of a bright background.

Target exposure is a little higher than expected, particularly in bright lighting conditions.

Thanks to a wide dynamic range, the Samsung Note 9 is capable of capturing bright highlight detail in tricky high-contrast or backlit scenes, while maintaining good exposure on the face. In the test scene below, the Note 9 records significantly more highlight details in the sky compared to the Huawei P20 Pro, and a little more than the iPhone X. Again, the rendering is not without issue, however, as some tone compression leads to slightly low contrast, which is particularly noticeable on faces. Haloing around the subject is often visible in HDR scenes, too, all of which impacted the Note 9’s score.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, high-contrast scene
Apple iPhone X, high-contrast scene
Huawei P20 Pro, high-contrast scene

Under indoor lighting conditions, both face and overall exposures are generally accurate, and images maintain good contrast.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, indoor exposure
Apple iPhone X, indoor exposure
Huawei P20 Pro, indoor exposure

Exposure is good in extreme low-light conditions down to 5 lux, with images very usable and slightly brighter than those of some competitors (such as the iPhone X). At 1 lux, images are noticeably underexposed, although not so dark that they’re totally unusable.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, low-light exposure (5 lux)
Apple iPhone X, low-light exposure (5 lux)
Huawei P20 Pro, low-light exposure (5 lux)

Color

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

85

105

Google Pixel 7a
Best: Google Pixel 7a (105)

Color rendering, white balance accuracy, and color uniformity are all excellent in outdoor lighting conditions, but weaker image quality results indoors and in low light affected the Note 9’s overall color score. In well-balanced outdoor lighting, accurate white balance ensures skin tones are pleasant, and good color rendering ensures vibrant reds, greens, and blues without oversaturation.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 offers excellent color rendering, accurate white balance, and nice skin tones in flat outdoor lighting conditions.

In high-contrast scenes, however, there is a noticeable yellow/green color cast.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, high-contrast scene color
Apple iPhone X, high-contrast scene color
Huawei P20 Pro, high-contrast scene color

Strong color casts are also evident under indoor and low-light conditions, particular when there is one predominant color in the scene. This is particularly noticeable with red and blue backgrounds, which seriously affect skin tone rendering. (This isn’t really a major color issue, however, as you’re unlikely to be taking many selfies against a solid-colored background.) This phenomenon doesn’t impact the Note 9’s color score too much in our final analysis, but it’s worth being aware of the issue.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, skin tones with solid red background
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, skin tones with solid blue background
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, skin tones with solid yellow background

Under more normal test conditions with a range of colors in the scene, skin tone rendering is generally very acceptable.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, skin tone patch analysis

The Note 9 also dropped points in the color category due to non-uniformity, or color shading, which is evident in all conditions. While it’s often the case that smartphone images (from both front and rear cameras) have color shading in low light, color shading is noticeable in Note 9 images even when shot in bright light, and show shifts in color between the center and the edges of the frame in both natural test scenes outdoors and under controlled conditions in the lab.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, color shading
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, color shading

Focus

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

72

97

Huawei P50 Pro
Best: Huawei P50 Pro (97)

A significant advantage of the Note 9’s front-facing camera is the inclusion of an autofocus lens. While the majority of devices offer fixed-focus solutions that provide good sharpness at close range (30cm), and acceptable results at mid-focus (55cm) distances, the Note 9’s autofocus lens makes it possible to achieve sharp images at long range (120cm), too.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s autofocus lens makes good sharpness possible at all the distances we test at (between 30cm and 120cm).

In practical terms, faces are usually noticeably sharper in Note 9 images compared to much of its competition when shooting tourist or environmental portraits, where the subject is around 120cm from the camera when using a selfie stick. Implementing autofocus is not without its complications, however, and while the AF is generally very good on the Note 9, some repeatability and stability issues were evident during our tests. The use of a contrast-detection system in the front camera means that the Note 9 suffers some slight instability issues, occasionally focusing on the background instead of the subject both in low light and in high-contrast scenes.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, focus on the background
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop

The Note 9 offers extended depth of field in group portraits in which some subjects are further back than the point of focus. Lens design is important here, with wider-aperture lenses often capturing less depth of field, but that’s not the only factor—sensor size and resolution (and therefore pixel pitch) also play an important role. So although the Note 9 features a f/1.7-aperture lens, which is wider compared to the Huawei P20 Pro’s f/2 lens, the Note 9’s significantly greater pixel pitch in its 8Mp sensor (versus the 24Mp in the P20 Pro) means that the P20 Pro records greater depth of field. In default mode, the Note 9’s autofocus system has to decide which face to focus on, and this also has an impact on depth of field. In our tests, we found that it generally focused on the face nearest the camera, which seems like the most sensible solution.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, group selfie
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop
Apple iPhone X, group selfie
Apple iPhone X, crop
Huawei P20 Pro, group selfie
Huawei P20 Pro, crop

Texture

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

62

85

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G
Best: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G (85)

The Note 9 offers one of the best compromises for detail preservation versus noise reduction among the front-facing cameras we’ve tested so far. The autofocus lens and good sharpness on faces in medium-range (55cm) and long-range (120cm) shots helps the Samsung device achieve a high score for detail. In shots with no subject movement, the Note 9 records good detail in all lighting conditions between 20 lux to 1000 lux. In very low light, its use of fairly slow shutter speeds (for example, 81ms at 5 lux) makes it more challenging to capture sharp shots when there’s some subject movement, with low levels of acutance (below 30%) recorded at 5 and 1 lux. Overall, however, the Note 9’s front camera remains a good device for detail.

Levels of detail captured across light levels and for static and moving scenes

So the level of detail captured is high in bright-light conditions, and although fine details are lost in low light, the results are very acceptable compared to the competition’s. The Note 9 displays significantly more edge preservation compared to the Huawei P20 Pro; and while the iPhone X is arguably more detailed, there’s more noise too.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, 100 lux
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop
Apple iPhone X, 100 lux
Apple iPhone X, crop
Huawei P20 Pro, 100 lux
Huawei P20 Pro, crop

Noise

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

80

90

Huawei P40 Pro
Best: Huawei P40 Pro (90)

Excellent noise reduction has been something of a feature of the Samsung devices we’ve tested over recent years, and it’s just as effective on the Note 9’s front camera. Noise is especially well-controlled on faces in all lighting conditions, and although some luminance noise is evident in the corners and backgrounds in low-light environments, the Note 9 handles noise better overall than many of its competitors.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, indoor noise

As shown below, we use our new realistic mannequins under controlled test conditions in the lab to assess noise. In bright light (1000 lux), detail is very good, with facial features such as eyelashes clearly defined. The Note 9 loses some details in lower light, but the level of noise is low, with only some minor noise evident in both indoor (100 lux) and low-light (10 lux) images.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, 1000 lux
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, 100 lux
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, 10 lux
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop

Artifacts

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

75

92

Apple iPhone 12 mini
Best: Apple iPhone 12 mini (92)

We deduct points for noticeable artifacts (obvious image quality flaws). The main penalties we applied to the Note 9 were for halos and tone compression issues in HDR images. We also observed some chromatic aberration, which appears as colored lines along high-contrast edges; a loss of sharpness towards the edges of the frame; and some slight geometric distortions.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, chromatic aberration
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, tone compression
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop

Flash

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

72

93

Huawei P40 Pro
Best: Huawei P40 Pro (93)

The Note 9 achieves a good score for flash, thanks to effective results both for flash-only and mixed-lighting shots. Using flash as the only light source, exposure on the face and towards the center of the frame is good, although corner shading is noticeable, and leads to a build-up of noise in the corners. White balance leans towards a slight green tint, which affects skin tones, but they remain acceptable. Some minor color shading and color quantization is also visible in flash-only shots. The level of detail is not especially high either, but overall the results are very usable.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, flash shot (0 lux)
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, flash shot (5 lux)
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop

Mixing flash with additional tungsten light sources, exposure is excellent on the face and across the frame, with none of the heavy corner shading we observed in flash-only shots. The slight greenish color cast, color shading, and low level of detail remain, but the overall results are superior to those of many competitors.

Bokeh

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

60

75

Huawei P40 Pro
Best: Huawei P40 Pro (75)

The Note 9’s Portrait mode is pretty good, offering good noise uniformity across sharp and smooth areas. Results are repeatable, so the effect is consistently applied across consecutive shots, and the system works well in both indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. Depth estimation isn’t perfect, with some masking errors visible when there’s a complex background (such as the dry potted palm in the shot below left), but it does a much better job with simpler backgrounds.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, bokeh mode
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, bokeh mode
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, bokeh mode
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, crop

Another opportunity for improvement relates to the blur gradient, as the same amount of blur is applied to all background areas, regardless of their distances from the subject, which can make the effect look a little unnatural.

Video scores explained

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s front camera achieves an improved score of 86 points for video, making it a good all-rounder for multimedia creative types. We calculate the overall video score using the following video sub-scores: Exposure (68), Color (78), Focus (80), Texture (57), Noise (81), Artifacts (89), and Stabilization (63).

The device’s key video strengths are accurate exposure on the face in most lighting conditions, with good color rendering and accurate white balance in most test conditions, thus ensuring generally pleasant skin tones. Color rendering in low-light videos could be improved, as the low target exposures result in slightly undersaturated color, but white balance remains acceptable and color shading is reasonably well-controlled.

Samsung Note 9, outdoor exposure (video still)
Samsung Note 9, indoor exposure (video still)

Target exposures are accurate, recording video under controlled lab conditions at brightnesses between 20 and 1000 lux, so the Note 9 achieves good video exposure scores for both indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. Exposure does drop off quickly in very low-light conditions below 20 lux, however, and these underexposed videos impacted the score a little. That said, the results are respectable, considering the challenging light conditions. There’s no HDR on the Note 9’s front camera videos, either, so it’s best to avoid high-contrast environments.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, outdoor video
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, highlight clipping
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, group selfie video

Some exposure instabilities are evident when continuing to capture video under changing lighting conditions, with noticeable steps in exposure evident, but convergence is relatively quick and overshoots are rare.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, exposure convergence

Details in videos are well-preserved, with especially good detail captured on subjects close to the camera in all lighting conditions, as well as excellent texture and edge detail in both indoor (100 lux) and bright outdoor (1000 lux) videos. Edge detail remains well-controlled in low-light videos, too, although the level of texture preservation drops off quickly below 100 lux—down to around 30% acutance in very low-light videos, which affected the overall texture score. Instabilities with the autofocus system also affected the texture score, with unnecessary refocusing a problem in both indoor and low-light videos, as the device regularly switched focus to the background.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, video detail
Samsung Galaxy Note 9, video noise

As with still photos, the Note 9 controls noise well when shooting video with the front camera. It controls both temporal and particularly spatial noise extremely well in indoor and outdoor videos. Although more noise is evident in extreme low-light videos, as you’d expect, it’s well-controlled despite the challenging lighting conditions, and doesn’t adversely impact the viewing experience too much.

Conclusion

As Samsung’s flagship “phablet” features a large 6.4-inch screen, stylus pen, dual rear cameras—and not to mention a high-end price tag, it’s unlikely you’d be buying the Note 9 just for the quality of its front-facing camera. Though if you’re looking for a device in this competitive part of the market, and want good selfies both in still images and on video calls, you can be assured of some of the best results currently available.

Enhancing the autofocus system and the HDR rendering over the S9+, Samsung has improved what was already a top-performing front-facing camera on the Note 9. Neither the autofocus nor the HDR is perfect, so there’s still work to do, but it pushes the development of selfie cameras in the right direction.

Add to that generally good exposure and accurate skin tones on faces, as well as a good compromise between detail preservation and noise reduction in low light, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 ends up being one of the best front-facing cameras we’ve tested to date.

Photo Pros

  • Accurate exposures on faces with wide dynamic range
  • Pleasant skin tone and color rendering
  • Well-controlled noise on faces
  • Accurate and repeatable autofocus
  • Good subject isolation in bokeh mode

Video Pros

  • Accurate exposure on faces
  • Pleasant skin tone and color rendering
  • Good detail preservation in the foreground
  • Well-controlled noise
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Photo Cons

  • Low contrast and tone compression in HDR scenes
  • Yellow/green color casts outdoors
  • Low levels of detail in low light
  • Noise and color quantization using flash
  • Slight autofocus instabilities

Video Cons

  • Unnecessary refocusing
  • Residual high-frequency motion in static handheld scenes
  • Exposure instabilities and steps in convergence
  • High level of ringing

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