Which smartphone takes the best selfies?

DxOMark Image Labs, a leading image-quality rating agency based in France, is renowned for its ranking system for smartphone main cameras.

But, as DxOMark points out on its website, "with over an estimated million selfies a day now captured on smartphones, front camera performance is becoming almost as critical for manufacturers."

That's why they've unveiled DxOMark Selfie, a test protocol for front-facing smartphone cameras.

A total of 12 smartphones had their front cameras evaluated by the agency. These phones were given an overall selfie score, taking into account how well they capture both still images and video.

Of those available in SA*, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 came in first place with an overall selfie score of 92 points. It was deemed to be the best of the bunch for taking selfie videos, and also stood out for its lower-contrast selfie portraits, which gives faces a more natural look. 

Apple's iPhone XS Max (selfie score of 82) narrowly beat out the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus (81) for second place.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro (75) and Samsung Galaxy S8 (73) round out the top five. 

For an in-depth breakdown of the test results, visit dxomark.com

*The Google Pixel 3 (92), Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 (84)  and Google Pixel 2 (77) were omitted from our top five as they are not readily available in SA.

• Additional reporting AFP Relaxnews