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CAMERA SHOOTOUT: The Essential Phone puts up a surprisingly good fight, but Samsung's Galaxy S8 still holds the throne

CAMERA SHOOTOUT: The Essential Phone puts up a surprisingly good fight, but Samsung's Galaxy S8 still holds the throne

The winner is the Galaxy S8, but the Essential Phone's camera puts up a surprisingly good fight, especially for a brand new startup and its first-ever smartphone.

And lastly, a photo that truly tests the Essential Phone's dual-lens color and monochrome (black and white) lenses. The Essential Phone won here.

For this photo, the Galaxy S8 automatically activated its HDR mode, which takes multiple photos at different exposures to capture detail in both lit and shaded areas. At first glance, it might seem like the Galaxy S8 took a better photo because the shaded area is brighter, thus revealing more detail. However, the sunlit areas in the column with the "162" number are overblown and void of detail compared to the Essential Phone's photo. The Essential Phone wins here.

And there's no contest here. The Galaxy S8 continues to dominate in low-light situations.

Yet, the Essential Phone performed terribly in an indoor environment with low lighting. The apples look positively blurry compared to the Galaxy S8's photo.

In a situation with indoor lighting, the Essential Phone's camera really shined through. It produced gorgeous deep colors on the peppers whereas they appear washed out on the Galaxy S8's photo.

In this close up, the Essential Phone takes a sharper photo, but it doesn't look as good as the Galaxy S8's.

If I were to pick one of these photos to show to a friend, I'd pick the Galaxy S8's. It doesn't look quite as sharp as the Essential Phone's photo, but the colors and background look better overall.

With that said, the Essential Phone's photo is more accurate with color, and you could easily enhance it with an editing app should you want to, all while taking advantage of its sharper image. However, the background in the Essential Phone's photo looks pixelated, and the Galaxy S8 offers better bokeh – where the subject is in focus against a blurred-out background.

Now for a scenery shot with the Empire State Building.

The Galaxy S8's photo is more dynamic with its higher contrast, and it looks better for it. For example, the Empire State Building's windows contrast nicely against its concrete. The building on the right also has more depth and contrast, which makes for a more interesting photo. The Essential Phone's photo is good, but the contrast is flatter and less appealing.

But once you zoom 100 percent into each photo, it's easy to see that the lighting and detail in Galaxy S8's photo is less harsh, which makes for a more pleasant photo.

Zoomed out, it appears as if both phones performed nearly identically capturing multiple points of focus represented by the leaves and flowers.

Here's a mix of sunlight and shade.

The Galaxy S8 came out on top again. The Essential Phone actually does better justice to the contrast between the shady and sunlit areas, which makes for a more dynamic and interesting photo. Yet, the sky in the Essential Phone photo is completely overblown and white, whereas the Galaxy S8 managed to retain the sky's blue color.

Here's the other side of the Flatiron Building in the shade, with the sun shining directly behind it.

The Galaxy S8 did better here, as it helped brighten up the shady face of the Flatiron Building more than the Essential Phone. It also made the windows pop a little more compared to the duller windows in the Essential Phone's photo.

First up, a shot of NYC's Flatiron Building in full sunlight.

The colors in the Essential Phone's photo are more accurate, which reflect the Flatiron Building's true colors compared to the seemingly white-washed effect on the Galaxy S8.