The Galaxy Note 9 is the closest competitor to the best smartphone camera in the world, the Pixel 2

I've finally found a phone that can keep up with the Pixel 2's camera in a real way, and it's called the Galaxy Note 9 by Samsung. 

Take it easy, there, I tell myself. The Pixel 2 is still the undefeated champ, winning round after round of camera comparisons. Some have come close with valiant efforts, but none as close as the Galaxy Note 9.

This isn't to say that the Galaxy Note 9 takes nearly identical photos as the Pixel 2 XL. Samsung adds its own flair to the Galaxy Note 9's camera that makes photos look good in different ways. 

For transparency's sake, I actually used the Pixel 2 XL for the photo shoot, as it's the model I had with me at the time. But both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have exactly the same camera, so it's fair to say that the Pixel 2 XL represents Google's latest lineup of smartphones. 

Note that some of these photos may look blurry or pretty bad on some standard 1080p resolution screens due to the high resolution of the images. 

Check out photos taken with the Pixel 2 XL and Galaxy Note 9: