The finest smartphone cameras for Apple and Android in 2022
What mobile device has
the best camera? We put the best Android and Apple smartphones to the test to
determine which is superior.
Each year, we at Expert Reviews test hundreds of smartphones. From the most expensive flagships to the most affordable handsets, we conduct a series of fairly rigorous benchmarks to ensure that we are as informed as possible. As a result, we have taken test photos with every single phone that enters our store, so we know which phones have the best cameras for your Instagram food, pet, and holiday photos.
Best Video Camera: Apple
iPhone 13 Pro
Price: £949
Apple's iPhone 13 Pro
is one of the most expensive phones on the list, but it takes excellent photos
and 4K video at 60 frames per second. The 13 Pro Max (and the more expensive 13
Pro Max) has three cameras on the back. The primary camera features a 12MP
sensor with an f/1.5 aperture and sensor-shift stabilisation on a smartphone,
ensuring that your videos are as steady as possible. A 12MP (f/2.8) 3x
telephoto zoom camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a field of
view equivalent to a 77mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor; and an
ultra-wide camera, also with a resolution of 12MP, but with an aperture of
f/1.8 and a field of view equivalent to a 13mm lens on a full-frame sensor.
While still image
quality is excellent, with the 13 Pro building on Apple's excellent portrait
mode, the best thing about the iPhone 13 Pro's video capabilities is the video
capabilities. Again, no other smartphone comes close to this level of video
quality, capturing footage at 4K resolution with a maximum framerate of 60fps
and support for Dolby Vision. Without a doubt, it's a pricey option, but that's
the sky-high price you pay for mobile video of exceptional quality.
Sony Xperia Pro-I: The
zenith of photographic versatility
Price: £1,600
Sony has perfected
smartphone camera technology over the past few years. In fact, the company's
cameras are so good that many Android makers employ Sony sensors in their own
handsets, and there's no indication that this trend will end any time soon.
Sony's Xperia Pro-I, a (very) expensive flagship with one of the most complete
and well-thought-out camera packages to date, is, of course, the company's
finest offering.
Its trio of 12MP lenses
may not seem remarkable, but the new wide sensor is effectively the same 1in
sensor seen in Sony's famed RX100 point-and-shoot camera series. This strategy
pays off, especially when it comes to retaining shadows in certain HDR
settings.
The Sony Xperia Pro-I
is also equipped with significant manual control over your images, with a
comprehensive suite of settings integrated within the camera software. The dedicated
two-stage shutter button is also a significant benefit; we only wish it were
more affordable.
The Apple iPhone SE 3
(2022) is the iPhone with the best value (with a great camera)
Price: £419
Apple may prefer its
customers to spend more on the iPhone 13, but the lower price of the iPhone SE
3 (2022) is well worth a look in terms of its camera. Powered by the same
high-end chipset as Apple's flagships, the A15 Bionic, the iPhone SE may only
have a single 12-megapixel back camera, but the image quality is truly
remarkable for the price.
It also features
Apple's Deep Fusion technology, which enhances low-light photographs, and Smart
HDR 4, which enables the camera to recognize and adjust exposure for each face
in group shots. Across the board, the images we've taken with the iPhone SE
have been excellent.
Once again, Apple's
portrait mode enhances the 12MP sensor with sharp details and a vibrant color
palette. Surprisingly, the iPhone SE 3 outperforms the iPhone 13 Pro Max in
low-light conditions. In addition to allowing for more uniform exposure
settings, the A15 Bionic can record crisp 10-bit Dolby Vision HDR 4K video at
60 frames per second.
In conclusion, the
iPhone SE 3's pricing point is unrivaled by its competitors. Despite the
absence of ultra-wide-angle and zoom settings, the iPhone SE 3's camera remains
astoundingly competent.
The optimal telephoto
camera
Beginning prices are
$1,149.
Similar to its
predecessor, the Galaxy S22 Ultra raises the bar for smartphone photography.
In addition to being
the only smartphone to support 8K resolution video recording (with remarkable
results), the Galaxy S22 Ultra has unrivaled zoom capabilities. The Galaxy S22
Ultra excels at telephotography with its 100x hybrid zoom range and 108MP
primary camera. In our tests, we discovered that the Galaxy S22 Ultra was
capable of capturing images with a high level of detail in well-lit settings,
with a wide dynamic range and colors that appear to leap off the screen. The
night mode of the phone did an excellent job of enhancing the image's
brightness without adding distracting visual noise or obliterating street
lights.
Useful photography features include the ability to capture an image directly from any frame of an 8K video recording, as well as the ability to capture simultaneously in both JPEG and DNG formats using the Expert RAW app available on the Galaxy Store. The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the ideal candidate if you need a flagship smartphone with a camera that can pretty much do it all, as well as something that excels at telephoto shots.
Google Pixel 6 has the
most advanced smartphone camera to date.
Price:
£600
The camera capabilities
of the Google Pixel 6 are simply remarkable. Featuring a brand-new 50MP sensor
(in addition to a 12MP ultrawide), the Pixel 6's photographic capabilities are
once again at the top of the heap. And when the price is so low, there's not
much point in selecting anything else.
The Pixel 6's large
f/1.9 aperture makes it ideal for low-light photography. In good lighting
conditions, the Pixel 6 produced images with excellent dynamic range and color
saturation, as well as an accurate white balance. In addition, Google has
improved the performance of its HDR+ processing algorithms, making image
capture faster. Magic Eraser and Face Unblur do an excellent job of reducing blur
on a moving subject.
The portrait mode
capabilities of this phone are another distinguishing feature. Whether you use
the front-facing or rear-facing camera, every portrait shot is captured
beautifully, with beautifully blurred backgrounds and crisp, distinct edges
surrounding the subject. The Pixel 6 has the best camera for Instagram selfies,
and although it lacks the tertiary 4x optical zoom sensor of the more expensive
Pixel 6 Pro, the standard model sets a brand-new standard for smartphone
photography. Especially when compared to the other phones on this list in terms
of price.
The top budget camera
Price: £319
With the launching of
the Redmi Note 11 Pro, Xiaomi maintains its technological supremacy. Xiaomi has
released a budget phone with a 108MP camera, which is very astonishing for a
phone of this price range, and it performed exceptionally well in testing.
This phone takes
Instagram-worthy photos in a broad variety of lighting conditions and
environments for a fraction of the price of the most recent iPhones and
Samsungs. The Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G's video recording resolution is limited to
1080p at 30 frames per second, but other than that, it's nearly flawless.
The camera on the
OnePlus 10 Pro is the best for the price.
Price: £800
The OnePlus 10 Pro is
the pinnacle of the company's smartphone accomplishments to date. In the UK,
OnePlus may not have the same amount of brand recognition as Samsung and Apple,
but its flagship-beating devices are regularly lauded as excellent
alternatives. Its three cameras performed admirably in our testing, displaying
consistent color balance, a plenty of detail, and minimal visual noise. In
other situations, it even outperformed the iPhone 13 Pro, generating shots that
were clear and sharp in well-lit settings.
The OnePlus 10 Pro's
night photographs have also improved, but they appear a touch softer compared
to those of the iPhone. Other enhancements and additions for this year include
the ability to shoot still photographs in 10-bit color and RAW+ capture, a
Hasselblad-tuned mode that combines three RAW frames to create an image with an
even wider dynamic range than the standard RAW format. The new ultra-wide
camera can also capture fisheye images with a 110-degree and 150-degree field
of view.
