 We took the five best smartphones released this year and tried to figure out which ones are the best at shooting in the dark. You might think that Apple's imaging prowess in good light would mean it's the best in low light too, but that's not always the case. While the iPhone X generates consistently pleasing images in nighttime scenes, bar scenes, indoor scenes, and other low-light situations, the phone tends to smudge the images a bit too much to hide the noise that shows up in low-light photos. Getting rid of noise is something all of these phones try to do, but the iPhone sometimes takes it a little too far and the photos can lose detail in the process. Take a look at these branches, or these power lines, or this building. Now compare those to these photos from the Pixel 2 XL and the HTC U11. These two smartphones, believe it or not, consistently handled low-light situations better than the rest. The HTC U11 captures great detail in most low-light situations, often much more than the iPhone X does. And it doesn't skew the colors of these scenes as much as the Note 8 or the LG V30. It also does a really good job of providing good dynamic range considering the lack of available light. Where the HTC U11 falters is that it's not always consistent in capturing photos to the best of its ability. The Pixel 2 XL, on the other hand, is fantastic at this. Google's method of taking multiple photos at once and then blending the results together helps it reduce image noise, capture more light, and the results are just occasionally unbelievable. Colors are accurate, the photos are crisp, and it handles highlights in these dark photos really well. This process of blending images is known as HDR photography, which stands for high dynamic range. And the other smartphones are able to do similar tricks. The difference is that Google just does it so much better. The Pixel isn't perfect. There are times where it missed focus or other times where it put too much HDR processing into a scene, leaving the HTC with the best image of the bunch. And let's be clear, all of these phones have image stabilization, which is a huge help in low-light. They also all have super wide apertures, which let in a ton of light for a camera this size. And they all have flashes that are useful in a pinch. The iPhone's is especially good now because it slows down the shutter speed so that it's not always obvious that you use to flash. Compared to years past, these phones blow their predecessors out of the low-light waters. But the next time you're in a dark restaurant or trying to take a picture of a nighttime scene, you'll have the best chance of capturing that photo if you have a Pixel 2 in your hands. Hey, thanks for watching. If you want to see a full in-depth photo comparison with all those smartphones, we did a huge 30-minute video with our creative director James Barum. You can watch that right here. And also, go subscribe to The Verge.