Apple's iPhone has been the industry standard for smartphones when it comes to taking good photos, but not this year, according to image quality consulting firm DxOMark.

The company has given iPhone XS Max's camera a score of 105, four points behind Huawei's last-gen P20 Pro.

The main problem with the new camera, as DxOMark pointed out, is the noise. The phone introduces too much noise to the photos, especially those shot under low-light conditions. This noise is also present when zoomed in.

The report emphasized that the P20 Pro did much better than competitors in the high-end bracket.

The bad part

In addition to the all-in-all score, DxOMark also publishes scores on different aspects of the cameras, giving users a more detailed sense of what the lenses are good or bad at.

Comparing the details of XS Max to P20 Pro, one can easily find that noise is the weakest part of the new iPhone: 11 points behind in still shots and eight points in videos.

"In lower light, luminance noise becomes a little more intrusive than with other high-end phones," the company concluded.

Other areas in which the iPhone lags behind include flashlight brightness (18 points behind) and zooming (14 points).

Thanks to the tri-cam system and AI enhancement, the Huawei P20 Pro dominated the scoreboard.

"If you are looking for the current best camera in a smartphone, look no further," DxOMark said of the smartphone.

Also on the iPhone's front camera, a lot of users online have complained about the iPhone XS "BeautyGate," in which the phone smooths out the human skin too much.

Some media outlets and phone testers assumed that Apple had introduced a new algorithm on smoothing. But if that's true, Apple should give users a switch to turn it off.

The good part

Under daylight, the phone has great dynamic range, which makes dark things visible while bright things aren't over-exposed.

DxOMark did say XS Max's camera improved a lot from the iPhone X, with "a very wide dynamic range and good detail," though that didn't do much to impact its scores.

The advantage largely comes down to Apple's Smart HDR feature, which seemingly combines Samsung's Live HDR with Huawei's Master AI to generate even better exposure.

If the bad part doesn't concern you much, "the new Apple device is a surefire option for any mobile photographer," DxOMark said.

The Chinese tests

The new iPhone's camera was also tested by many Chinese reviewers.

Nayan from "Kejimeixue" made a video comparing iPhone XS Max with Huawei P20 Pro, confirming DxOMark's comments on exposure.

"The Smart HDR left us a great impression in dealing with high-contrast situations," he said in the video.

But he didn't conclude which phone is better at taking photos. Also, he noticed the low-light problem with the new iPhone, which was mentioned by DxOMark.

Another tester, Zhong Wenze, didn't see any problem with low-light performance, describing the XS Max as "potentially the best smartphone right now concerning exposure."