The Best Camera Smartphones

The Huawei Mate 40 Pro's triple-camera array consists of a 23 mm wide angle with a sensor that we have already encountered in the P40 Pro, an 18 mm ultra-wide angle, and a 125 mm periscope camera. The latter translates into 5x optical zoom and is stabilized by an OIS. Digital zoom peaks at 50x. The ultra-wide angle sensor is brand-new and unlike its predecessor’s no longer utilizes pixel-binning. Instead, it features 1.6 µm large pixels.

The Plus version of Huawei's P40 Pro is a well-made fine-tuned device. In addition to a larger internal storage and a ceramic backside it also supports wireless charging with up to 40 W. The camera was also upgraded, which is unmistakably obvious by the existence of a fourth lens. While the main camera, the ultra-wide angle, and the depth sensor are identical to its sibling the P40+’s zoom capabilities have been improved significantly. Thanks to a periscope zoom, the P40+ supports 10x optical, 20x hybrid, and 100x digital zoom. In addition, it also features a 3x optical zoom with the same OIS that can be found on all other lenses.

The Huawei P40 Pro features a quad-camera with a brand-new 50 MP sensor, which just so happened to be the largest camera sensor in any smartphone at the time of writing. Unlike Huawei’s main Korean competitor, the Chinese manufacturer prefers larger pixels to jamming as many of those tiny pixels as possible into a photo, mainly in order to improve low-light photo quality. The secondary ultra wide angle lens features a 40 MP sensor, the same that was already included in the Mate and is not just the smartphone’s main sensor for video recordings but also allows for great panoramas. Further sensors include a 5 MP periscope zoom with 10x hybrid and 50x digital zoom, and final sensor for depth of field information. All three photo sensors feature optical image stabilization.

The Leica quad-camera of the Huawei P30 Pro consists of four lenses: one ultra wide-angle (16 mm, f/2.2, 20 MP), the main camera (27 mm, f/1.6, 40 MP, 1/1.7" sensor, RYYG filter, OIS), one tele lens (125 mm, f/3.4, 8 MP, OIS), and the TOF camera. The main camera also offers a 10x hybrid zoom (270 mm) as well as a seamless 50x digital zoom (up to 1,343 mm). The Huawei P30 Pro offers an unbelievable range of focal length and is currently the most flexible camera in a smartphone.

The picture quality is really good and can beat the competition clearly, especially in low-light situations. The P30 also captures a lot of light in video recordings, but this affects the picture quality noticeably.

The previous models Huawei P20 Pro and the smaller P20 smartphone or its successor P30, respectively, are also strong alternatives.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra supports the brand-new HM3 sensor with a resolution of 108 MP. The main camera is further supported by two zoom lenses with 3x and 10x optical zoom, respectively, a 12 MP ultra-wide angle lens, and a laser autofocus sensor. Both zoom lenses and the wide-angle lens are stabilized by an OIS. Stabilization at the Ultra’s maximum zoom level of 100x was great and was most likely best in any smartphone at the time of writing.

When compared to its predecessor, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max's camera updates seem fairly minor at first glance. It continues to feature a triple-camera array consisting of a wide-angle, an ultra-wide angle, and a telephoto lens each with a 12 MP sensor behind them. Zoom has been improved slightly to now 2.5x . Its special trick, however, is not the built-in LiDAR sensor but its new optical image stabilization technology. Instead of stabilizing the lens it now magnetically stabilizes the sensor itself, which is supposed to improve low-light photography and videos.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s triple-camera features the exact same 108 MP sensor that we already encountered in the Galaxy S20 Ultra but with a vastly improved autofocus. The ultra-high-resolution camera is furthermore accompanied by a good ultra-wide-angle lens as well as a 5x optical zoom. In direct comparison with Huawei’s king of the hill its 50x digital zoom performed even better.

The Samsung Galaxy S20+ features a quad camera with a rather spartan 12 MP main sensor. However, right next to it is the zoom lens with a whopping 64 MP and a 30x zoom. Further lenses include an ultra wide angle and a depth of field sensor.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G features a powerful triple camera with three 12 MP sensors, an ultra-wide angle, a telephoto, and a wide-angle lens. Unfortunately, only the latter lens features optical image stabilization. The telephonto lens allows for a 2x optical zoom and an up to 10x digital zoom.

The OnePlus 8 Pro's quad-camera features, among other things, two 48 MP sensors, one of which is equipped with an ultra-wide angle lens. It is furthermore equipped with a 3x hybrid zoom as well as a color filter lens. The built-in macro mode allows for a object distance of just 3 cm (1.2 inches). All things considered the photos turned out good but not great. Nevertheless, the camera’s usability spectrum is very wide.