Which smartphone has the best camera?
It has never been easier to take great photos on the fly. Everyone now has a smartphone and the camera technology inside these handheld devices has improved dramatically in recent years. We share over 2 billion photos every day on Facebook alone.
The ability to quickly capture and share precious memories is important. The smartphone is usually the camera we have at hand, so it should work well. If you’ve been wondering which are the best camera phones, don’t hesitate, because here are our top picks.
Also read: The best Android smartphones under $ 300
Best Camera Phones 2018
Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL: the best
Why should you buy this? It’s the best smartphone camera we’ve used and the best Android phone on the market.
Who is it for? Anyone who considers photography a top priority in their smartphone.
How much will it cost? $ 800 and more.
Why we chose the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL :
Google continues to put massive camera efforts into its Pixel smartphones – and it really shows. The Pixel 3’s main camera is blazingly fast to focus and produces crisp, detailed photos in a wide range of settings. Use the automatic settings for aiming and shooting and you’ll get great results most of the time.
The main camera of the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL is identical and rated at 12.2 megapixels. Aperture is f / 1.8 and phase detection and autofocus, as well as HDR and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) are supported, but it’s not the hardware that impresses here. Staying true to the dual lens trend, Google achieves the same tricks by using its software expertise to achieve bokeh and blur the background for great looking portraits. HDR + captures multiple shots and combines them to eliminate noise and produce the best possible picture.
With the Pixel 3, Google added even more software tricks called Night Sight, allowing for less grainy digital zoom, improved low-light performance, and the ability to select your ideal shot. The artificial intelligence used by Google takes computer photography to a whole new level and consistently delivers our favorite photos.
Up front, Google embraced the dual-lens trend with a front-facing camera coupling two 8-megapixel lenses, one with an f / 1.8 aperture and a lens with a wider angle with an f / 2.2 aperture. Selfie fans will certainly be delighted with the results and the easily adjustable slider allows you to fit into groups of people or more from your background, outperforming most selfie camera competitors.
Video capability is also excellent, with support for 4K video at 30 frames per second or Full HD at 120 frames per second.
As mentioned earlier, the automatic settings are great, but you can also adjust the exposure, focus lock, white balance, and more if you want. Another big advantage of the Pixel 3 phones is that Google offers free full-resolution storage for all the photos and videos you take in Google Photos (without digging into the free 15GB Google gives everyone).
The Pixel 3 is superior to its predecessor, which last year won our camera session in depth for smartphone, with spectacular dynamic range, high color accuracy, brilliant detail and reliable performance in all types of lighting conditions. The Pixel 3 is also our choice as best Android smartphone yet , but if you don’t mind the ugly notch and want a bigger screen, you can get the same great camera by going with the Pixel 3 XL.
iPhone XS or XS Max: the best camera for iPhone
Image Source: Call
Why should you buy this? It’s the best smartphone of the year, with an impressive main camera.
Who is it for? Apple fans who want the best smartphone camera.
How much will it cost? $ 1000 and more.
Why we chose the iPhone XS and XS Max :
Apple’s iPhone XS boasts the best camera performance ever seen on an iPhone. It’s a great all-around camera that you can just point and shoot at, but it also comes with powerful optical and digital zoom, thanks to this dual camera. If you want to be able to zoom in on distant subjects while still getting a decent shot, this phone is for you.
It has a dual-lens main camera, both of which are rated at 12 megapixels with f / 1.8 and f / 2.4 apertures respectively. There’s also optical image stabilization (OIS), phase detection autofocus, and HDR support.
Natural color reproduction is excellent, and the iPhone XS camera also incorporates a larger sensor than its predecessor, which allows for better low-light performance with less grain. Thanks to Smart HDR, which combines multiple frames, bright lights no longer seem overexposed and is much better suited to high-contrast scenarios than the iPhone X was.
The effect bokeh of DSLR type is the best we’ve seen from an iPhone so far and now you can adjust it after taking a photo. The iPhone XS also comes with Portrait Lighting, which offers different lighting effects for your subjects, making it ideal for capturing great photos of your loved ones.
It can also record 4K video at 60 frames per second or Full HD at 240 frames per second. The front camera is rated at 7 megapixels and takes great selfies.
The camera app is really accessible, but those looking for in-depth control will be disappointed. There is no manual mode for professional photographers, but you can still use an app from the App Store.
Overall, the iPhone XS has a fantastic, easy-to-use camera. If you prefer a larger screen, you can go for the iPhone XS Max, which has the exact same camera suite.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro: the best low-light camera
Why should you buy this? It’s one of the best smartphones on the market, with a camera that outperforms the competition in low light.
Who is it for? Anyone who wants a truly versatile camera.
How much will it cost? $ 1,100.
Why we chose the Huawei mate 20 pro:
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro boasts an innovative triple-lens camera setup on the back. There is a 40-megapixel lens with an f / 1.8 aperture, a 20-megapixel ultra-wide lens with an f / 2.2 aperture, and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with an f / 2.4 aperture. If you are wondering how it differs from P20 Pro , the 20-megapixel lens has gone from monochrome to wide-angle.
Ridiculously feature rich is the only way to describe this camera. Intelligent artificial intelligence recognizes each scene and selects the ideal settings, while ensuring that your shots are properly framed and fully stabilized. Daytime photos are great, but things get even better at night. A dedicated night mode opens the aperture for several seconds, and even when held in the hand, artificial intelligence can remove any blur or shake to produce a stunning, bright photo.
It also supports slow-motion video, which captures 960 fps at 720p, and a new Super Macro mode for extremely close-ups. Huawei’s new AI Kirin 980 dual-NPU AI chip lets you apply cinematic filters in real time when recording video, allowing you to blur the background or make everything except the subject black and white.
There’s also a 6.4-inch AMOLED display, an impressive 4,200mAh battery, with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The big problem with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is that it’s not officially available in the US and it’s expensive to import.
Top alternatives
If the best of Google, Apple, and Huawei don’t do it for you, there are a host of other great contenders for the best camera phone title. Our next choice for impressive overall performance has to be the Samsung galaxy note 9 . It combines a 12-megapixel lens with optical image stabilization (OIS) and variable aperture – the ability to switch between f / 1.5 and f / 2.4 apertures depending on the lighting – with a second 12 megapixel lens with f / 2.4 aperture and OIS. There’s a solid portrait mode, 2x optical zoom, and artificial intelligence that can optimize scenes and spot flaws.
