Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 has been in the market for a few weeks and the phone is widely being called the company's best flagship to date. This is because the phone not only brings a stunning Infinity Display, but also a powerful hardware, all-day battery life and some of the best cameras on a phone. The cameras, in fact, are similar on paper to the Galaxy S9+, but according to DxOMark's tests, the new Note is a touch better. In fact, the Galaxy Note 9 is the third best camera phone as per the rankings, tying with the HTC U12+ with a score of 103. The Huawei P20 Pro is still the leader with a score of 109.
 
The Galaxy Note 9's score is a little higher than the Galaxy S9+ which stands at 99. The reason behind the Note's impressive performance is thanks to its ability in still photography. As per the folks at DxOMark, the Note 9's autofocus performance is "excellent" and the cameras manage to score well in detail retention, noise reduction, zoom quality and bokeh effects. In bright light, the Galaxy Note 9 captures some incredible photos with good exposure and dynamic range. As per DxOMark, images captured are bright, vivid and offer good colour rendering.
 
There is also a good amount of detail captured from the 2x zoom lens on the secondary camera, which is also thanks to some good optical stabilisation. DxOMark adds that the Note 9 is able to capture some realistic bokehs not just outdoors but indoors as well. All of this helped the camera achieve a score of 107 for stills. As for videos, the Note 9 achieved a high score of 94 thanks largely to the dual OIS and quick autofocus, among other things.
 
To jog your memory a little, the Galaxy Note 9 comes with a pair of 12MP sensors on the back with the primary sensor getting a variable aperture lense (f/1.5-2.4) and dual-pixel PDAF, while the secondary sensor gets an f/2.4 aperture, AF and 2x telephoto lens. Both the sensors come with OIS and Samsung has also introduced some advanced AI that allows the cameras to detect scenes and optimise the setting accordingly.
 
DxOMark's report aside, when we tested the Galaxy Note 9's camera, we found some exceptional results as well. Outdoor photography was consistently impressive with good detail, colours and almost no noise. Low-light performance also blew us away thanks to the variable aperture feature that opens up the lens to a pretty wide f/1.5 aperture that lets in a generous amount of light even in absolute darkness. Of course, noise will be more visible in these conditions, but you will forgive that in return for some detailed and pleasant low-light shots.