CheckMag | I traveled the world with a dozen camera smartphones. Which one took the best travel photos?
I love traveling. For regular readers of Notebookcheck, that’s probably no surprise since I’ve published photo comparisons from my travels every now and then for the past year or so.
In order to do so, I always take two smartphones with me. The selection of devices depends on which models are up for review and which phones are purchased by or loaned to us by retailers or manufacturers. I then try to take the same shots with both phones.
My approach and how I came up with the idea
Trying to take the same shots? Yes, it’s not as easy as it sounds. On the one hand, I have to stop while pulling out the second phone, which requires lots of mental strength for a notorious fidgeter like me. But I'm slowly getting better at it.
And on the other hand, my subjects don't always just sit still. Buildings, churches and palaces thankfully can't run away from me, but seagulls, bears and parrots are almost always in motion just as you’re reaching for the second phone. And boat and car drivers obviously don’t even ask me before they scoot off.
I'm currently considering a technical solution to this issue, as the photo comparisons are thankfully receiving lots of positive feedback, which allows us to steadily improve the format.
I actually came up with the idea because our tech mastermind Klaus proudly presented his comparison module for images. It allows readers to simply move a slider to smoothly transition between two pictures. Diligent readers of our photo comparisons probably know this feature, but for everyone else, I've embedded an example below.
Why I travel so much
You might be wondering why I’m traveling so much, don’t I have any work to do? Well, Notebookcheck has always been ahead of times and allowed me to work fully remote. There’s simply no office that I have to work from. And whether I’m working from home or some hotel doesn’t make much of a difference when it comes to writing articles.
Sometimes these trips are also work-related, for example when Qualcomm invited me to Hawaii, Honor to Paris and Tecno Mobile to Barcelona for MWC. These are great opportunities for photo comparisons, which we had to take advantage of.
Overall, 10 articles of this type have been written over the past 11 months, and most have been quite successful thanks to our awesome readers. I also mixed it up and sometimes took high-quality mid-range phones and even flip phones with me, but comparisons with high-end smartphones turned out to be more popular.
What I've learned
Which brings us to the question of all questions: Which phone actually takes the best travel photos? I think I have an answer to that, but first I'd like to explain a few things I've learned on my travels so that you can understand my choice.
- So far, I've taken a total of 12 different high-end smartphones on my trips. In terms of photo quality, none of them completely disappointed me. Most expensive smartphones can take very good pictures in many situations, which doesn't mean that there are no differences.
- The difference between mid-range and high-end devices is usually only noticeable in difficult situations. Upper-mid-range phones can capture memories pretty well, but their high-end counterparts can handle low-light conditions and quickly moving objects better and their camera setups are more versatile.
- During these 12 months, there was also significant progress in terms of camera performance. For example, mobile SoCs from 2025 are more optimized for post-processing images with AI than previous chipsets. Tools like the AI eraser have become more reliable and yield better results. Furthermore, extremely high digital zoom has also become more usable thanks to improved post-processing with AI.
- It's worth taking pictures of beautiful scenes multiple times. If you have time, you shouldn't just take a single snapshot of a particularly gorgeous scene with your smartphone. Instead, feel free to play around with the huge number of settings that are included in camera apps these days. And even in automatic mode, multiple shots occasionally create quite different pictures.
Which is the best travel smartphone for me?
When choosing the best travel smartphone, it's important that it consistently takes good snapshots and offers many settings. It should also take advantage of AI and should set itself apart from the high-end smartphone competition.
In this regard, I've been impressed by Samsung smartphones, specifically the Galaxy S24 Ultra and recently the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
- I also really like the smartphones from Oppo, which also owns the brands OnePlus and Vivo. However, these phones had their occasionally hiccups, like the OnePlus 12 during our comparison at Lake Chiemsee. We also haven't been able to compare many of their phones since some models are quite hard to get in Europe.
- Xiaomi offers good image quality, but the slow zoom often makes it too sluggish for spontaneous shots.
- The iPhone takes great photos but slightly lags behind in terms of detail sharpness.
- Honor smartphones have somehow lost t heir consistency compared to earlier models.
- Sony also offers great image sharpness with less AI, although it’s not always consistent either.
- A great price-performance ratio can be found in the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra, which currently retails for just under €650 in Europe and takes photos that are almost on par with phones that cost twice as much.
It should also be mentioned that our top list of camera smartphones takes a very different approach and focuses on different priorities. The evaluation is more objective and is based on results from our lab tests and experiences with the device during our testing period. That’s why my ranking might be different, and the camera performance can also change after software updates.
In these photo comparisons, I do not reflect on the official results from our reviews, but rather on my personal impressions of the phones and which I liked better in these specific situations.
My favorite pictures
It goes without saying that I have some personal favorites among the photos I took over the past 11 months. They include the Eiffel Tower, a yawning bear in the Bavarian Forest, a sunrise featuring the sacred mountain on Maui, as well as Vienna’s giant Ferris wheel at night.
What's next for our travel camera comparisons
Two more trips are already planned, and as a thank you for reading this article, here's a little sneak peek. We'll soon travel to Linz in Upper Austria, where murals, music, museums and (unusual for an Austrian city) only a touch of Mozart await us.
Additionally, an article about the Rhine and Main rivers is in the works. It features pictures from Frankfurt, Würzburg and the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage.
Please feel free to let me know what you think of the format and what could still be improved. And needless to say, I'm always grateful for new travel destination suggestions.
An overview of all my comparisons thus far can be found in the related articles list below.
