Low-light has been significantly improved on the 8/8 Plus, not just "small unnoticeable incremental updates" anymore:

https://imgur.com/a/YCegK

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/71nvj7/low_light_pho...

EDIT Original source: http://austinmann.com/trek/iphone-8-camera-review-india

Isn't this just software? Slow sync flash is just synchronizing flash with a slower shutter and deciding what data to pull from the camera. Is there unique hardware required to do this?

This is low-light with flash, though, right? What about low-light without flash?

So do our eyes, but our brain makes up for it. Out of context, the brain doesn't have enough info (or maybe incentive) to do that job.

The optical image stabilisation & object tracking of our eyes is mind blowing. Optical illusions demonstrate the amount of interpolation that our brains to do aid vision / fill in the gaps of image detail coming from the eyes.

Not really intending to be an apologist for digital cameras nor disagree that they have a lot of room for improvement, but moreso just put it all in a different light.

I strongly disagree, I was out taking photos with an iPhone 6 the other month. Photos of a night-time street market I took were rather impressive.

have you tried the pixel? The low-light is amazing

Have you tried A7s with a f1.4 lens?

Most people who only photograph with phones, even high end ones, don't seem to realize that similar gains happen in the camera sensors as well. And them being always much larger, they will always be ahead in low light and in signal/noise ratio.