iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S4 Camera Shootout: You Be the Judge

You know Apple takes the camera inside the iPhone 5 seriously when it airs a commercial boasting that “more photos are taken with the iPhone than any other camera.” But are you using the best camera? The iPhone’s biggest nemesis by far is the new Samsung Galaxy S4, whose camera offers a higher resolution of 13 megapixels. Meanwhile, the iPhone 5 uses an 8-MP sensor. But resolution isn’t everything. 

MORE: Best Phones 2013

To gauge which flagship smartphone takes better pictures, we want you to judge the photo quality of the Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5 side by side. There’s just one catch. We’re not going to tell you which device took which photo, and the order of the phones might very well switch from one image comparison to the next.

Editors' Note: The polls are now closed. See why readers chose the iPhone 5 over the Galaxy S4.

As you’ll see, we took multiple photos of different subjects in all sorts of lighting conditions. We snapped a group shot of colleagues on the roof of our New York City building, a fountain in Bryant Park, a motorcycle, a painting (in near darkness) and more. To keep things as fair as possible we used Auto mode in all cases.

Once we’ve heard from enough of you we’ll reveal which phone is which, leading up to our big overall face-off between the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5. Now cast your vote!

Photo Set 1: Fountain

 [polldaddy poll="7094746"]

Photo Set 2: Rooftop Group Shot 

 [polldaddy poll="7094792"]

Photo Set 3: Flowers

 [polldaddy poll="7094805"]

Photo Set 4: Grover and Friends

[polldaddy poll="7094816"]

Photo Set 5: Bryant Park 

 [polldaddy poll="7094826"]

Photo Set 6: Mailbox 

 [polldaddy poll="7094839"]

Photos Set 7: Indoors Low Light

 [polldaddy poll="7094844"]

Photos Set 8: Indoors Flash 

 [polldaddy poll="7094847"]

Photo Set 9: Motorcycle

 [polldaddy poll="7094896"] 

Photo Set 10: Potted Plant

 [polldaddy poll="7094907"]

Photo Set 11: Flags

 [polldaddy poll="7094941"]

Mark Spoonauer
Editor-in-Chief
Responsible for the editorial vision for Laptopmag.com, Mark Spoonauer has been Editor in Chief of LAPTOP since 2003 and has covered technology for nearly 15 years. Mark speaks at key tech industry events and makes regular media appearances on CNBC, Fox and CNN. Mark was previously reviews editor at Mobile Computing, and his work has appeared in Wired, Popular Science and Inc.