It’s said that the best camera is the one you have with you, and that’s true - but the better it is, the more chance you’ll have of getting the perfect picture. Camera phones’ quality and features vary dramatically, so which is best for you? Let’s discover the best camera phones around.
Best camera phones: all-round excellence
Let’s cut to the chase: if you want the best smartphone camera, our pick of the best camera phones is the Samsung Galaxy S6. Other phones may have more megapixels or better low-light performance, but as an all-rounder the S6 camera is superb and delivers great shots in almost every situation. It may struggle a bit in poor lighting, but then all smartphone cameras do.
As Camila Rinaldi says in her review: “The rear camera is capable of selective focus, includes an infrared sensor for establishing superior white balance and color correcting images, and features rapid activation with a double tap of the home button. In addition, it delivers various useful modes including slow motion, fast motion, 4K video, panoramas and more, including the possibility to download further camera modes. All of this adds up to an wonderful overall package.”
Best camera phones: active and outdoors
In an ideal world somebody would take the Galaxy S6 and make a ruggedised version for outdoor explorers - so maybe this is an ideal world, because Samsung has done just that. TheGalaxy S6 Active is another AT&T exclusive, which is a shame, but if you’re an AT&T customer it’s a seriously capable camera phone that does everything its S6 sibling does but with added dust-proofing and water resistance.
Best camera phones: selfie snappers
Some smartphone users might not even know there’s a rear camera on their device, because the only pictures they take are selfies. If you’re one of them it doesn’t matter what’s on the back: it’s the front facing camera that counts. Say hello, then, to the HTC Desire Eye, a smartphone whose 13 MP rear camera is paired with a 13 MP selfie snapper. It can even take photos underwater. As we said in our review, “it’s a winner of a one-horse race”: nobody has thrown their weight behind the selfie as wholeheartedly as HTC has. The rest of the phone is pretty good too.
Best camera phones: (boo!) Apple iPhones
The current state of the Apple camera art is the iPhone 6 Plus, which is the only iPhone with optical image stabilization. While the megapixel count doesn’t look too impressive - it’s just 8 megapixels - Apple’s sensors are superb, and the five-element lens takes photos that are good enough to blow up to billboard size. We know that because Apple has taken a bunch of them and blown them up to billboard size. If you’re not on board the Android bus then the iPhone 6 Plus has the best camera of any iOS device, at least until the iPhone 6S ships this fall, but it isn’t quite as good as the camera you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Best camera phones: (boo!) Windows Phone
When it comes to Windows Phone camera phones, there can be only one: the Nokia 1020with its ridiculously high-quality 41 megapixel sensor. It’s just a shame that Nokia ended up with the wrong operating system, because a Lollipop Lumia 1020 would be something else.
Best camera phones: shooting things that are far away
There’s no phone quite like the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, which isn’t really a phone: it’s like a proper camera with a phone glued to it. The selling point here is a 10X optical zoom lens, which enables you to capture mode detail from further away and without the obvious artifice of digital fakery, and it’s teamed with a 20.7 MP sensor. The lens is pretty good, but the phone itself is rather less stellar.
Best camera phones: honorable mention
We can’t do a round-up of camera phones without mentioning HTC’s One M8, which uses a unique dual-lens setup for better low-light performance and photographic fun. If you’re one of the MOAR MEGAPIXELS crowd you’ll be disappointed - you only get 4 MP - but if you enjoy tinkering and messing around post-shot there’s an awful lot to like.
What about you? Do you think your phone’s camera is the one to beat, or should whoever specified its sensor be beaten with flash bulbs? Let us know in the comments!
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