Tired of hauling around an extra camera? Grab one of the best smartphones for taking photos and you might find your point-and-shoot collecting dust.
Your phone is the camera you always carry. If you haven’t upgraded it in a few years, you should be pleasantly surprised by how much phone camera performance (particularly low-light image quality) has improved. In fact, we’ve pretty much reached the point where you can leave your old point-and-shoot at home as long as you’ve got a good camera phone in your pocket. But not all phone cameras are equal. We put every phone we review through a rigorous series of camera evaluations to determine the best performers on the market and gathered our top picks here. You never have to worry about carrying a separate camera if you’ve got one of these in your pocket and each is a stellar smartphone, too. From Selfies to Portraits
One thing we’re finding frustrating right now is that many of the best cameras are on smartphones that aren’t available in the US. There’s intense camera innovation going on from manufacturers such as Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi, but, for various reasons, they don’t sell phones in the US, and their phones work poorly on our networks. In the US, Apple, Google, and Samsung have the best cameras. Higher-end phones tend to perform better, but the gap is closing, especially if you primarily take photos in good light. Sony phones also have good cameras, but their latest models can be very expensive or otherwise difficult to get in the US. Apple’s latest cameras tend to be the benchmark in the creative industries. They’re extremely simple to use, with excellent focus and balanced colors. The leap to more creative or whimsical photo modes is harder with Apple than with Samsung, though, because it usually involves learning a third-party app. Google’s Pixel cameras are like the Apple of Android: fast, simple, and balanced. Samsung’s phones have more lenses, modes, and options than Apple’s or Google’s. Samsung’s top innovation right now is super-zoom: its “Ultra” models have a 10x optical zoom with decent resolution at up to 30x digital zoom. Neither Apple nor Google can match that feature. But, in our experience, Samsung phones don’t focus as quickly or intelligently as those from Apple and Google. Samsung also tends to amp up colors more than Apple does, which causes some controversy. The most important factor in any photo isn’t the camera—it’s the photographer. No matter what phone you have, following our camera expert Jim Fisher’s tips and tricks for camera phone photos can make your images better.
