Samsung turned over an entirely new leaf starting with the Galaxy S6. Top of the line everything became the way of things. Shockingly premium build quality and materials. The fastest internal storage. The faster processor Samsung had on hand, rather than whatever Qualcomm would give them. Enough RAM to power a semi-modern desktop PC. A luscious, high-res screen. To top it all off, a camera that blew away anything Samsung had done before was on board. To put said camera to the test, the phone was put through DxOMark, a benchmark of sorts for mobile cameras that’s done by analyzing stills and video taken by the devices. The Galaxy S6 Edge, with the same hardware and mostly the same software as the S6, easily laid the smackdown on Apple, LG and Sony powerhouses normally known for their great camera quality, scoring 86 points.
When the Xperia Z5 came along, Sony knew they had to up their game on every level to compete. Better build quality, usablility underwater, though that point was later officially redacted, and an exquisite new camera were the order of the day. The Z5 topped DxOMark with no trouble, even beating out the incredible Galaxy S6 Edge by one point. Samsung didn’t take it lying down, however. Enter the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus. Though the Note 5 tied with its elder sibling, the S6 Edge, the S6 Edge Plus ascended its family members’ stations to share the throne with the Xperia Z5. Both handsets scored an amazing 88 for photo quality and an 86 for video quality, beating out everything else tested to date. Mind you, the photo and video juggernaut LG V10 has yet to make its DxOMark debut, but it seems like the Z5 and S6 Edge Plus won’t be surpassed by a terribly wide margin.
The S6 Edge Plus was able to cope with low light situations like a champ and made easy work of bright light as well, almost completely avoiding overexposure on a light-colored building directly in the sun. White balance was close to as perfect as it gets, which aided in color reproduction that could be called nothing short of excellent. Preservation of remarkably small details was a high mark as well, keeping a row of printed photos on a posterboard under low light faithful to their originals and clearly showing the masonry and glasswork on distant buildings in direct sunlight. The flash received high marks as well. On the video section, some jittering could be seen, autofocus in changing light conditions was a bit slow and details got lost in low light conditions, but it still beat out anything else tested. Put through its paces, the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus gave a camera performance that would disappoint only the most hardened of photographers used to professional equipment.