The new Xiaomi phone that has beaten iPhone X & Pixel 2 in acclaimed camera rankings

Xiaomi launched its latest flagship Mi 8 last week. Though the iPhone X look-alike phone is yet to reach the market, the camera of the smartphone was tested by DxOMark, an image lab, and it came out with flying colours.

Xiaomi Mi 8 camera is on par with the best in the business and left even Apple iPhone X behind.

The phone, on the back of “a combination of accurate exposure with an extended dynamic range in most lighting conditions, pleasingly rich and vivid colour rendering with neutral white balance in bright light, and generally well-controlled artefacts” scored a very high overall score.

Receiving a score of 99, it performed better than Google Pixel 2, Apple iPhone X, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S and Apple iPhone 8 Plus. However, it could not surpass the scores of Huawei P20 Pro, HTC U12+, Huawei P20 and Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus.

The phone performed a tad better in the photo department than its video performance. “Achieving a video score of 88, the Xiaomi Mi 8 isn’t quite as strong as in stills, but it’s still a good performer. Benefits include fast, accurate, and smooth autofocus with good subject tracking, attractive colour rendering, and a wide dynamic range,” DxOMark said.

Xiaomi Mi 8 packs Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. In the optics department, the rear-facing camera module features twin 12MP cameras, one a wide-angle with a 1/2.55-inch size sensor, and a f/1.8-aperture lens, and the other a short telephoto with a slightly slower f/2.4 aperture.

The advanced features include phase detection autofocus, 4-axis optical image stabilisation (OIS) on the wide-angle module, and an LED flash.

Among the cons of the camera which were pointed out by DxOMark include visible colour fringing, occasional depth inaccuracies in bokeh mode and occasional autofocus delay.