The best cameraphones make it easy to get good results, whatever your level of skill or experience. But also pack in additional effects and features for photography enthusiasts who want to get a bit more creative. We’ve rounded-up our pick of the best phones for photography right here.
Top 5 cameraphones
- iPhone 11 Pro
- Huawei P40 Pro
- Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
- OnePlus 8 Pro
- Pixel 4 XL
Also recommended: Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, Xiaomi Mi Note 10, Sony Xperia 1, iPhone SE 2020
We’ll take a closer look at what our top picks have got to offer below…
1) iPhone 11 Pro – best iPhone camera
Samsung and Huawei phones have more lenses than the iPhone 11 Pro, as well as more features and photo and video effects.
But for us the iPhone 11 Pro’s triple-lens camera wins the day because it delivers consistently good results in a range of conditions.
And, just as importantly, because it’s the phone that makes it easiest to take a really good, really striking snap, without any specialist photography knowledge.
We’re also fans of the warmer, more true-to-life colours that the iPhone 11 Pro’s camera renders, which are in stark contrast to the more saturated hues evident in photos taken with Android phones.
The ultra-wide lens with a 120-degree field of vision works well, especially for landscapes and interiors of big building. Which makes it an ideal travel companion.
Apple’s new Night Mode feature impresses too. Much like Google’s Night Sight, this mode hugely improves colour reproduction and picks out more detail when you’re shooting in low light.
Video shot on the iPhone 11 Pro is crisp, bright and notably slick and it takes the best portrait shots of any iPhone, by more accurately blurring out background details to bring your subjects into sharper focus.
2) Huawei P40 Pro
A powerhouse cameraphone, the P40 Pro’s rear camera comprises a 50-megapixel standard lens, a 12-megapixel telephoto lens, a 40-megapixel ultrawide lens and time-of-flight depth-sensing lens for better portrait shots.
As with the iPhone 11 Pro, we really like that the camera’s artificial intelligence does a lot of the heavy lifting, so you can just point and click without having to think too much and still get good results. This phone’s automatic mode really is your friend.
Conversely, if you’re a camera enthusiast there are some neat, advanced features to get to grips with, as well as an exhaustively comprehensive editing suite.
The 5x optical zoom and 50x digital zoom work well and allow you to get close to your subject from a good range, while capturing plenty of detail, while video recording in 4K and 8K impresses as well.
The catch? It’s a big one. And that’s that Google has withdrawn services such as Gmail and Google Drive from the P40 Pro, meaning Huawei’s phone is a lot less useful than it should be.
But if you genuinely think you can get by without them, it’s the best Android cameraphone around.
3) Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra – best Samsung phone for cameras
The S20 Ultra is Samsung’s top-of-the-range Galaxy S phone for 2020, with a best-in-class screen and plenty of power. As you might expect, it’s among the standout cameraphones on the market, too.
It’s home to four cameras at the rear, including a 48-megapixel telephoto lens, a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens, a 0.3-megapixel time of flight lens for depth-sensing and an improbably mighty-sounding 108-megapixel standard, wide lens.
In general shots, are packed with detail, with noise kept to a minimum. And the S20 Ultra can record video in lush 8K as well, resulting in some of the best photo-shot footage we’ve seen.
There’s a Night Mode, which doesn’t quite turn night into day like some of other phones but still comes in very handy in low light and makes it much easier to get good shots amid the gloom of a wintry night in England.
What may be a deal-breaker for some, though, is that colours in all photos taken with the S20 Ultra are very saturated.
We prefer a more natural appearance. But if you favour the sort of ultra-bright hues that seem to go down on storm on social media sites, this may well be the phone for you.
4) OnePlus 8 Pro
OnePlus made a name for itself over the last few years for phones that offer high-end features for a keen price.
The OnePlus 8 Pro isn’t anything like as affordable as those early models, but comes in a bit cheaper than the other phones on our list. Team that with a very, very good array of cameras and you’ve got a phone with a lot of appeal.
The main, rear camera has four lenses (a 48-megapixel standard lens, eight-megapixel telephoto lens, a 48-megapixel ultrawide lens and a five-megapixel colour filter lens), as well as a host of options.
Not least a decent night mode, an array of zoom modes, all of which capture plenty of detail, and Instagram-style effects that you can apply in-app.
5) Pixel 4 XL
Google’s range of Pixel smartphones has often brought to market innovative camera features that you don’t find anywhere else. The Pixel 4 is no exception.
This time around, the exclusive feature is the Astro mode. And as the name suggests, it’s for shooting night skies.
When activated, it keeps the shutter open for four minutes or more, allowing you to capture the cosmos in mind-boggling detail. Although, you’ll need to be in somewhere rural to see it at its best.
The Pixel 4 XL performs well for more everyday shots when in automatic mode too, and served up images that were rich, sharp and with pronounced and dramatic contrast.
We also liked the ability to adjust the level of shadows with sliders, while the Night Mode works as billed.
Which phone has the highest megapixel camera?
The household-name phone with the highest megapixel camera is the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, which is home to a 108-megapixel main camera, as well as 48-megapixel telephoto lens, a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens and 0.3-megapixel time-of-flight lens.
What’s the best cameraphone for video?
Lots of high-end cameraphones record slick, sharp video in 4K (Ultra HD). But because they record in 8K, which is twice as sharp, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Huawei P40 Pro are our pick for the best cameraphones for recording video footage.
The caveat is that not many of us have 8K TVs at the moment, so you won’t be able to enjoy the richly detailed footage at its best.
Which phones have the best optical zoom?
- Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+
- Huawei P40 Pro Plus
- Pixel 4 XL
- OnePlus 8 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro
What’s the best phone for selfies?
When it comes to selfies, camera quality is pretty subjective. But we’d recommend the iPhone 11 Pro, Galaxy S20 Ultra, Google Pixel 4 and OnePlus 8 Pro, all of which allow you to take good ‘depth-of-field’ portrait shots and deliver appealing and flattering self portraits in a range of conditions.
Which phone is best for night photography?
The best phones for taking photos in low light are those equipped with special night-into-day low-light modes, such as Google’s Night Sight and Samsung’s Night Mode.
Our pick of the best phones for shooting at night are:
- Phone 11 Pro.
- Google Pixel 3/Pixel 3 XL.
- Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus.
- Apple iPhone XS.
- Honor View 20.
- Galaxy Note 9.
What does ‘megapixel’ mean?
Megapixels are the units in which the resolution of a camera is measured, with one megapixel equalling one million pixels. The higher the megapixel-count, the more detail the camera is capable of capturing.
Each year phones come to market with higher megapixel cameras than before. However, megapixels aren’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to camera quality.
Just as important is how much light the camera lets in, as well as having a range of lenses that are designed with different photo types in mind.
