benchmarks

LG has definitely seen better days and has been largely outpaced by its rivals in many key aspects of the mobile market. It has, however, still held strongly to a few traits, like its ability and courage to make risky innovations short of foldable phones and its audio acumen. Unfortunately, those may no longer be enough to keep it from sliding down even further, especially when its most prized audio features on the LG G8 ThinQ may not be cut out for the job.

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One of the tragedies of Huawei's absence in many markets, especially after losing access to Google Play Store, is the absence of one of the best smartphone cameras in the market, at least by DxOMark's standards. Even Apple and Samsung and especially Google have been outshone by the latest Huawei flagships that you can't get. There might be less regret and envy now that Xiaomi has taken the top spot on that list but, of course, you still can't get the new Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro directly in some markets.

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The Mate 20 X has always been an odd duck. Launched together with the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro in late 2018, the phone traded some features in exchange for a larger screen and a gaming bent, not to mention an optional stylus. Despite some tradeoffs, the Mate 20 X shared the same triple camera setup as the Mate 20 Pro. It turns out, it's just as capable as Huawei's late 2018 flagship. Unfortunately, that may no longer matter as the company puts its focus on the upcoming Huawei P40 and fighting for its survival in the smartphone market.

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iPhones are still as expensive as ever and market trends suggest they will still climb every year. That makes cheaper models of flagship phones all the more enticing to consumers but many do worry what they're losing in exchange. Fortunately for iPhone fans, DxOMark has put the latest extremes of the iPhone 11 generation to the test and, at least as far as camera performance is concerned, you won't be missing out on much with the cheaper iPhone 11.

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The Xperia 1, as its name suggests, was supposed to mark a new beginning for Sony's mobile business. It was the first of its kind to be given access to Sony's own high-end imaging sensors. The Xperia 5 that shortly followed was supposed to improve on that as well. But if the two's ratings on DxOMark as well as other reviews are any indication, Sony might soon be really out of the smartphone game, despite having a strong camera DNA.

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After a rough start that involved Superman and Black Widow, Huawei burst into the global smartphone scene with its notable cameras. It has managed to retain its lead on DxOMark's list year after year, even in the face of adversity from rivals and other forces. Huawei, however, has seen better days when it was less restricted in where it does business. Some consumers might be longing for that past as well now that Huawei as cemented its position for the second time this year with the Mate 30 Pro 5G.

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The Snapdragon 865 is Qualcomm's latest-and-greatest chipset, set to be the 5G heart of most 2020 Android flagships, and unsurprisingly it blows right past its predecessor when it comes to benchmarks. I'm also here to tell you that, having sat with a Snapdragon 865 reference device and watched it clock up sky-high scores in apps like Antutu, Geekbench, and GFXBench, frankly you almost certainly shouldn't care about those numbers.

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Thanks to the surprising success of the first-ever Pixel, a lot of attention has been paid to the camera capabilities of Google's smartphones. This year, however, at least two of the Pixel 4's best features don't have anything to do with cameras at all. Live Transcribe and Live Caption, not to mention the shiny new Recording app, all play up to the phone's audio capabilities. And almost by fate, DxOMark has a new Audio testing protocol to measure just how good those capabilities are.

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It is often said that you get what you pay for but that is also a pretty unfair generalization to make. You will always come across products that turn out to be worth more than twice their price but you will also find some that are exactly what they're worth. As a mid-range phone, the Motorola One Zoom tries to make its case by selling the company's first quad-camera phone. The good news is that it performs impressively for its tier, at least based on DxOMark's tests. The bad news is that it still leaves a lot to be desired.

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Sony isn't giving up the fight, at least not yet. It is stubbornly holding on to what little it has left in the market, making sure that it launches a phone even twice a year. For 2019, that's the Xperia 1 and its smaller doppelganger, the Xperia 5. Unfortunately, if this is the best that Sony has to offer, it might not last long in that game, especially if it can't even hold a candle against more affordable smartphones with better front-facing cameras for taking those oh so popular selfies.

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When Google jumped on the smartphone market as its manufacturer, there were some doubts about the single-camera system on the first Pixel. Google blew the public's mind, however, at what it could accomplish with only a single sensor and a lot of sophisticated software. That trick, unfortunately, may have grown old by last year's Pixel 3 and so, finally, Google added one, just one, camera on the Pixel 4. It still managed to yield good results, based on DxOMark's tests, but Google's formula may be starting to show its age and its limitations.

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For a long time, DxOMark's mobile benchmarks focused on the basics of smartphone cameras but, at long last, it started modifying its testing protocol last year to accommodate unmistakable trends in the market. First to come were tests for bokeh and zoom followed by selfies. Last month it added tests and scores for wide-angle cameras and night mode and now it is adding yet another new protocol that is only indirectly related to cameras: audio recording and output quality.

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