Apple iPhone X vs Samsung Galaxy Note 8: Which one emerges as the winner

Apple just launched its long anticipated anniversary edition, the iPhone X and boy, it has to be the best the company has ever made. But how does it compare to the best available Android phone? How does it compare with the phone that already sports the nearly bezel-less design, an OLED display, a water-resistant and exquisite all-glass and metal chassis and of course, the dual cameras? Let’s find out.

Price

Yes, we decided to start with the most crucial factor - the price.The iPhone is costlier. The for the 64GB variant while the iPhone X comes at Rs 89,000 for the same storage. While the Note 8 support expandable storage, the iPhone X does not.

Apple also launched the and the iPhone 8 Plus at $799, that has a similar hardware package.

iPhone X

Design – dog fight to push out the bezels

The Galaxy Note 8 sports a curved display. It builds on the Galaxy S8’s infinity design that threw the home button out of the window to get more screen space and moved the fingerprint scanner up top at the back maximised the screen area without jeopardising the build quality and usability of the phone.

The iPhone X on the other hand has a flat display. But it has not only thrown out the button, but done away with any possible bezel. It is way more worthy contender of the bezel-less tag. The display is edge to edge, only a very tiny bezel is left at the periphery deliberately left to prevent accidental touches. There is glass on front and back as well.

Also at 5.8-inch, it will be much smaller (and very handy) than the Note 8.

With a 6.3 inch display, the Note 8 has an 83.2 percent screen-to-body ratio. But a big point for the Note is that it uses Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on front and back and we have seen how stronger it is from iPhone’s display glass. Apple says the glass on iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are the strongest, but there is now clue what glass is it. iPhone X is made out of a stainless steel chassis.

Display

Note 8’s display only has a different design, but comes with a different resolution as well. Though out of the box, it is Full HD, but it can be raised to 1440p.

Apple hasn’t bumped the resolution to the same level (2436 x 1125), but has surely used a new technology and given it an uber cool term. The Super Retina display on iPhone X is said to come with much wider colour gamut, which means a more natural looking screen.

Both are Oled display, support HDR 10 and are made by Samsung.

Eyes vs the Face

So with no button on the front, securing the phone is a big task. Note 8 uses everything that is available with the silicon valley and commercially viable – the retina scanning and face recognition, with pattern and pin unlock. The fingerprint scanner is still there, but pretty much beyond anybody’s practical reach and understanding as to why Samsung put it there.

Apple also has a facial recognition Apple literally showed how a twin won’t be able to unlock the iPhone X facial recognition. It is that accurate and precise at detecting user’s face to unlock the phone or make payments.

There is no fingerprint scanner on the iPhone X. The TouchID is gone and replaced by Face ID, put beside the earpiece, with a TrueDepth camera system, the same 3D sensing system that goes at the back for AR.

Performance

This can be very subjective, and a lot depends on how the iOS 11 plays out against the Android 7.1.1 with TouchWiz layered on top. But talking about bare specs, the iPhone runs the A11 Bionic chip, which is theoretically faster than the Snapdragon 835 despite having 6 cores compared to the 8. All cores can work simultaneously. There is Apple designed ISP on the SoC for better photography and also a dedicated ‘engine’, a dual core processor to be precise, for processing artificial intelligence information. More on this as the phone makes it to our hands.

Cameras

Both phones come with dual cameras at the back. And so does many phones in the market right now. With Note 8’s camera, Samsung didn’t reinvent the wheel, it just perfected it. It has a portrait mode that uses the second telephoto camera to create depth of field and portrait images, something what the iPhone 7 Plus already offered a year ago.

The iPhone X builds on the iPhone 7 Plus’s camera. It has 12MP dual camera setup, aligned vertically, with a Quad-LED true tone flash sitting in the middle. The sensors have an f/1.8 and f/2.4 apertures and both have OIS, like the Note 8.

The TrueDepth camera system on the iPhone X has depth sensing capabilities for Augment Reality support. Apple showcased how it could be implemented in gaming and other daily tasks, which put it way ahead of the Note 8.

As for the video, the iPhone X can record 4K and can also do  240fps for slow motion at 1080p while the Note 8 still does 720p 240fps like the Galaxy S8.

For the front camera as well, the iPhone X has a Portrait mode for selfie. There is also Portrait Lighting which Apple says will improve selfies taken in low light. The Note 8 uses the same camera as the Galaxy S8, an 8MP sensor with AF and face detection.

Battery and other things

Samsung reduced the battery size on Note 8, for, well due to obvious reasons. It wouldn’t want another Note 7 fiasco at any cost, even if that meant reducing the battery size. The battery on heavier and bigger Note 8 (compared to Galaxy S8) is smaller.

On the other hand, Apple says the batteries on iPhone X lasts longer than the iPhone 7 by almost two hours, while there is, of course a big increase in the screen size. This is going to be a big win for Apple if the battery backup actually turns out well on the new iPhone.

The iPhone X also supports dual speakers, Qi wireless charging, which means you don’t need to buy the charging pad just from Apple. Any vendor supporting Qi standard would work. Apple will also be selling its AirPower charging mat that can wireless charge the iWatch, iPhone X and wireless earbuds at the same time.