Most smartphones these days come with a high-performance inbuilt camera. Picture quality keeps on improving with newer and newer releases with superior image sensors and higher megapixels. With the competition in the market getting tougher every year, cell phone companies have started adding two or three lenses instead of a standard single lens.
Things to understand about a camera phone before buying
Aperture
This is the first and foremost thing to look at if you are planning to buy a camera phone. Wider the aperture, higher is the picture quality and vice versa. Smartphones such as iPhone 11 Pro, Google Pixel 4, Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus & Huawei P30 Pro have a relatively wider aperture, which ensures better picture quality.
Image sensor
When it comes to picture quality, image sensors should be given the topmost priority.
The primary role of an image sensor is to capture the light image and convert it into electrical signals. Larger sensors are equipped to capture more light than smaller ones.
For example, an 8MP camera with a larger sensor could outsmart a 13MP camera with a relatively more minor sensor. It’s all about capturing the amount of light. If a sensor catches more light, it will produce better quality images.
Megapixel (MP)
This refers to the amount of pixel count that a camera has. The greater the pixel, the higher is the resolution. In a simpler sense, it refers to the number of details in an image.
You might have often noticed that resizing a picture taken on a lower megapixel camera will often make it appear pixelated. For a good quality picture, it is necessary to have a minimum of 12MP camera, which can create an image quality of 11 x 24″.Going anything beyond that will reduce the image quality.
Lens
Smartphone designers have come up with a variety of sensors to make smartphones as compact as possible. Premium smartphones often come with lenses with a better aperture as similar to that of the ones found in digital cameras.
Instead of a single fixed lens, smartphone cameras come with two or more lenses with different focal lengths.
It’s better to choose a dual camera smartphone for better image quality. Dual camera phones come with a telephoto lens and a wide-angle lens.
The best camera phones in 2020
1. Google Pixel 4
Google Pixel 4 undoubtedly comes with a fantastic camera. This is the first google device to have a dual camera. The phone is fitted with a single-lens camera on the front. The real side has both standard-wide and tele lens cameras
The primary camera comes with a resolution of 12.2Mp powered by a 1/2.55-inch sensor.1.4µm pixels adds clarity to the primary camera with a 27mm-equivalent f/1.7 lens having optical image stabilization.
Source:Google store
The second lens features 50mm-equivalent tele lens and has a 16Mp 1/3.6-inch sensor for higher magnification.
Google’s advanced machine learning-based feature can bring up detailed images in the most challenging backgrounds. With it’s Super Res Zoom technology coupled focal length advantage of the telephoto lens, Google Pixel 4 creates images with stunning quality equivalent to those shot from a digital camera.
Specifications
| Rear cameras | 12.2 MP, f/1.7, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS 16 MP, f/2.4, 50mm (telephoto), 1/3.6″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 2x optical zoom |
| Front camera | 12.2 MP, f/1.7, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS 16 MP, f/2.4, 50mm (telephoto), 1/3.6″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 2x optical zoom |
| Dimensions | 147.1 x 68.8 x 8.2 mm |
| Storage | 64GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM |
| Weight | 162g |
2. iPhone 11 Pro
Ever since Apple launched the latest generation of iPhone 11 Pro, it’s been the favorite choice of both creative videographers and photographers alike.
iPhone 11 Pro is designed with a unique set of three cameras, quite amazing, isn’t it? The triple cameras are given life by 12 megapixels on each. The main f/1.8 sensor is the standard wide-angle.
Telephoto lens-designed for low-light photography.Has a wider f/2.0 aperture which supports to click pictures in very dim lights.
Ultra-wide-angle lens-has an even wider aperture of f/2.4, supports 120-degree field view, quite handy when it comes to taking wide-angle photos.
The whole lens system is designed in such a way to ensure seamless switching between all the lenses. The entire software system has been remodeled in a way to enhance the video and computational capabilities fully.
Apple’s Night Mode is an additional highlight which has revolutionized low-light photography.
Apple’sSmart HDR technology utilizes a breakthrough machine learning technique, quite popularly known as semantic rendering. This helps to selectively under- or overexpose certain specific areas of the scene differently.
The front-facing camera is unique in all aspects to create great selfie shots. All the three rear cameras can record ultra high-quality videos on 4K resolution with a frame rate of 60 frames-per-second.
Specifications
| Rear cameras | 12 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS 12 MP, f/2.0, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.4″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 2x optical zoom 12 MP, f/2.4, 13mm (ultrawide) |
| Front camera | 12 MP, f/2.2, 23mm (wide) SL 3D, (depth/biometrics sensor) |
| Dimensions | 144 x 71.4 x 8.1 mm |
| Storage | 64GB 4GB RAM, 256GB 4GB RAM, 512GB 4GB RAM |
| Weight | 188g |
3. Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus
For Android users, who want to cut down on the budget, Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus could be a perfect choice.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus has three rear cameras with a great depth sensor. While compared to its predecessor S10, main and ultra-wide lenses haven’t changed a lot. But what stands unique is its telephoto lens, which delivers stunning picture quality, which S10 was not capable of giving.
The S20 Plus has a 64MP sensor coupled with a 3x optical lens to produce a mindblowing 30x digital zoom. The four cameras with a resolution of 12 Megapixels is more than enough to create colorful and quite detailed images.
In the galaxy S20 version, Samsung has made useful updates in the software to boost it’s Night mode to enhance the images clicked even in very dim light.
Ultra-wide camera-Here there is no pixel combining, but a straight shot at the wide-angle. You can manually select in the viewfinder and opt for 0.5x zoom.
Specifications
| Rear cameras | 12 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.76″, 1.8µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS 64 MP, f/2.0, (telephoto), 1/1.72″, 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x hybrid optical zoom 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 1.4µm, Super Steady video 0.3 MP, TOF 3D, f/1.0, (depth) |
| Front camera | 10 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/3.2″, 1.22µm, Dual Pixel PDAF |
| Dimensions | 161.9 x 73.7 x 7.8 mm |
| Storage | 128GB 8GB RAM |
| Weight | 186g |
4. Xiaomi Mi Note 10
The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 is one of the great pieces of art, combining amazing camera hardware and ultra-smooth sensors. This camera comes with a ravishing pixel size of 108 supported by an image sensor of 1/1.33. Coupled with a 20MP ultra-wide camera and dual Tele lenses, the phone is able to click pictures of ultra-fine quality in a wide range of zoom.
Just imagine the quality of images that can be produced out of a camera having a pixel size of 108 !!!!
Mi Note 10 is the first-ever phone to have two telephoto cameras quite capable of producing 2x and 5x magnification with ease.
Specifications
| Rear cameras | 108 MP (7P lens), f/1.7, 25mm (wide), 1/1.33″, 0.8µm, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS 12 MP, f/2.0, 50mm (telephoto), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, Laser AF, 2x optical zoom 5 MP (upscaled to 8MP), f/2.0, (telephoto), 1.0µm, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS, 5x optical zoom 20 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/2.8″, 1.0µm, Laser AF 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro), 1/5.0″, 1.75µm |
| Front camera | 32 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8″, 0.8µm |
| Dimensions | 157.8 x 74.2 x 9.7 mm |
| Storage | 208g |
| Weight | 208g |
5. Huawei Mate 30 Pro
Of Course, this Chinese manufacturer has won the heart of millions with its own image capturing technology. If you are asked to choose a Huawei based on its image quality, this will be an ideal one
Huawei has evolved in its own creative ways of making phones which produce superior quality pictures. The rear camera is composed of four modules. This includes
Time-of-flight (ToF) sensor-To create 3D depth-sensing effects. Ultra-wide camera with a 40Mp Quad-Bayer sensor and an f/1.7-aperture lens. The large sensor is specifically designed to create wide-angle shots that are bright and sharp. Mate 30 Pro uses 3X optical zoom.
This phone is a savior when it comes to clicking pictures in dim light.
Huawei makes use of the Kirin chipset’s improved processing power and makes use of a new AI-RAW algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to optimize the image quality to the maximum possible extent.
Specifications
| Rear cameras | 40 MP, f/1.6, 27mm (wide), 1/1.7″, PDAF, OIS 8 MP, f/2.4, 80mm (telephoto), 1/4.0″, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom 40 MP, f/1.8, 18mm (ultrawide), 1/1.54″, PDAF |
| Front camera | 32 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8″, 0.8µm TOF 3D, (depth/biometrics sensor) |
| Dimensions | 158.1 x 73.1 x 8.8 mm |
| Storage | 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM |
| Weight | 198g |
6. Oppo Reno 10x Zoom
If you are a gadget freak, you might have heard of Oppo Reno 10x Zoom. This Chinese manufacturer is quite popular for its innovative optical technology in creating smartphone cameras.
The phone is fitted with a trio lens with a periscope-design 5x optical telelens. At present this is one of the smartphones which offers extraordinary long focal length.
The primary camera uses a 48MP Quad-Bayer sensor with a unique blend of a fast f/1.7-aperture lens, with a 16mm-equivalent ultra-wide camera embedded inside. Reno is capable of capturing high-end videos with 4K quality and up to 60 frames per second.
Specifications
| Rear cameras | 48 MP, f/1.7, 26mm (wide), 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS Periscope 13 MP, f/3.0, 130mm (telephoto), 5x optical zoom, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS 8 MP, f/2.2, 16mm (ultrawide) |
| Front camera | Motorized pop-up 16 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/3.1″, 1.0µm |
| Dimensions | 162 x 77.2 x 9.3 mm |
| Storage | 128-256GB/6-12GB RAM |
| Weight | 210g |
Final thoughts
The camera phone technology has evolved to such an extent that you no longer need to look for a digital camera while going out for a vacation. Camera phones these days use multiple lenses with ultra-high sensors and AI-based algorithms to capture images of dazzling quality.
The era where the camera phones will completely replace the digital cameras is already here. And who knows probably tomorrow’s movies might be filmed out of mobile cameras!
