Sharp shooters: The best camera phones you can buy

It’s never been easier to take great photos on the fly. Everyone has a smartphone now, and the camera technology inside these pocketable devices has improved tremendously in the last few years. We share more than two billion photos every day on Facebook alone.

The ability to quickly capture and share precious memories is important. The smartphone is usually the camera we have on hand, so it has to perform well. If you’re wondering what the best camera phones are, then wonder no longer, because here are our top picks.

Our pick

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Why should you buy this: It’s the best smartphone camera we’ve used.

Our Score

The best

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

A great dual-camera setup that captures pleasing, natural-looking shots.

$669.00 from Apple

$877.98 from Amazon

Who’s it for: Apple fans who want the best smartphone camera.

How much will it cost: $800+

Why we picked the iPhone 8 Plus:

Apple’s iPhone 8 Plus sports the best camera performance we’ve ever seen in an iPhone. It’s a great all-rounder that you can just point and shoot with, but it also boasts powerful optical and digital zoom, thanks to that dual camera. If you find yourself wishing you could zoom in on distant subjects and still get a decent shot, then this is the phone for you.

It has a dual main camera, both rated at 12-megapixels with f/1.8 and f/2.8 apertures. There’s also optical image stabilization (OIS), phase detection autofocus, and support for HDR. It can record 4K video at up to 60 frames-per-second, or full HD at up to 240 frames-per-second. The front-facing camera is rated at 7-megapixels and it takes great selfies.

The camera in the 8 Plus offers all the same benefits as the iPhone 7 Plus. The natural color reproduction is excellent, though colors with the 8 Plus camera are a touch more saturated than they were on the 7 Plus.

The DSLR-like bokeh effect is the best we’ve seen from a smartphone so far. The 8 Plus also adds Portrait Lighting, which offers different lighting effects for your subjects, making it the perfect phone for capturing stunning shots of your loved ones. Apple has also improved low light performance, and turned HDR mode on permanently for maximum detail and perfect exposure.

The camera app is really accessible, but anyone seeking in-depth control will be disappointed. There’s a lack of options for pro photographers, but you can always utilize an app from the App Store.

Regardless, the iPhone 8 Plus produces the most natural-looking photos of any smartphone camera. It also offers the best 2x zoom and bokeh effect of any phone on the market.

Our full review

The best Android phone camera

Why should you buy this: It’s the best Android smartphone camera we’ve used.

Our Score

The best Android phone camera

Google Pixel XL

A superb camera that outperforms most of the competition and comes with free cloud storage.

$769.99 from Verizon

$649.00 from Google Store

Who’s it for: Google fans who want the best smartphone.

How much will it cost: $650+

Why we picked the Pixel/Pixel XL:

Google put enormous effort into rebuilding the camera experience for its Pixel smartphones and it shows. The main camera is lightning fast to focus and it produces sharp, detailed photos. The HDR+ processing cuts out the noise and boosts the colors and saturation just a touch. Point and shoot with the automatic settings and you’ll enjoy great results most of the time.

The main camera in the Pixel and Pixel XL is the same and it’s rated at 12.3-megapixels, but these are some of the biggest megapixels we’ve seen with a rating of 1.55 µm, compared to the 1.4 µm pixels in the Galaxy S8. The aperture is f/2.0 and there is support for phase detection and laser autofocus, as well as HDR.

It also matches the video capability of the iPhone 7 Plus, supporting 4K video at 30 frames-per-second, or full HD at 120 frames-per-second. The front-facing camera is rated at 8-megapixels and it will serve selfie fans well.

As mentioned, the automatic settings are great, but you can also tweak the exposure, focus lock, white balance, and more if you want to. The lens blur effect works on both the front and rear camera, but it’s created with software. Sometimes the blur effect won’t be as precise as you might like with finer details.

Another major advantage for the Pixel is that Google is offering free full resolution storage for all the photos and videos you shoot in Google Photos (without digging into the free 15GB Google offers everyone).

Low-light performance is good, but there’s no OIS in the Pixel phones, which is a somewhat surprising omission. We also found that photos generally look a little oversaturated, falling somewhere in between the S8 and the iPhone 8 Plus in terms of realism.

The Pixel and Pixel XL are two great camera phones that come close to dethroning the iPhone.

Our full review

The best low-light camera phone

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Why should you buy this: It gets excellent results and offers great low-light performance.

Our Score

The best low-light camera phone

Samsung Galaxy S7

An accessible camera with plenty of options that offers the best low-light performance around.

$491.99 from Amazon

Who’s it for: Samsung fans who want the best smartphone camera.

How much will it cost: $930+

Why we picked the Galaxy Note 8:

It was a surprise that Samsung didn’t really update the camera in the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, but it has finally jumped on the dual-lens bandwagon with the Galaxy Note 8 and the results are impressive. The Note 8 boasts two 12-megapixel cameras, both with OIS. The first is a wide-angle lens with an f/1.7 aperture and that’s bolstered by a telephoto lens with an f/2.4 aperture.

Samsung has its own bokeh effect, called Live Focus, which is great for capturing people and blurring the background. The difference with Live Focus, compared to something like Portrait Mode on the iPhone 8 Plus, is that you can adjust the amount of blur before and after you take the photo.

You’ll also find 2x optical zoom in the Note 8 and it works really well. The OIS kicks in to ensure that your shaky hands don’t cause any blurring and you can get great shots from afar. The shutter speed is fast, the colors are accurate, and it’s an all-round great camera.

What really shines with the Note 8, is the low-light performance. Whether you’re indoors or outside at night, the Note 8 camera manages to capture an impressive amount of detail.

The front-facing camera is rated at 8-megapixels and it comes with a bunch of fun, Snapchat-style masks, so you can disguise yourself. Some of the camera software is a bit gimmicky, but the camera performance overall is excellent.

Our full review

The best budget camera phone

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Why should you buy this: It offers great performance at a low price.

The best budget camera phone

Moto G5 Plus

This is an unbeatable camera for the price.

$229.99 from Motorola

$299.99 from Newegg

Who’s it for: The budget-conscious.

How much will it cost: $230+

Why we picked the Moto G5 Plus:

Trying to find a decent camera at the budget end of the smartphone market is a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack, so the Moto G5 Plus is worthy of praise. Although it’s not as fast as some of the top-range camera phones, the camera app in the G5 Plus could not be easier to use and in decent lighting, the automatic settings get good results most of the time.

The main camera is rated at 12-megapixels, so it can capture a lot of detail. There’s an f/1.7 aperture and it supports phase detection and laser autofocus. HDR is a little slow, but it boosts picture quality dramatically. Video capture goes up to 4K at 30fps and the auto-stabilization works well to eradicate shaking. There’s also a standard 5-megapixel selfie camera that offers a wider angle that’s ideal for group shots.

Surprisingly, there is also a professional mode on the Moto G5 Plus that lets you dig into settings and play with a series of sliders to improve your photos. It’s a good all-round package at this price.

While low-light performance is good for a budget phone, you’re still going to see a bit of noise creeping in. The lack of OIS and the time it takes to process HDR shots, means you’ll want a steady hand. Rushed, spontaneous shots won’t turn out so well on the G5 Plus.

Still, it’s the best camera on a phone in this low price range. Most budget phones have absolutely terrible cameras, but the Moto G5 Plus doesn’t disappoint; it excels.

Our full review

The best wide-angle camera phone

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Why should you buy this: Great wide angle support, video modes, and solid all-round performance.

Our Score

The best wide-angle camera phone

LG V20

You can cram more into every photo with the wide-angle support.

$829.99 from AT&T

$672.00 from Verizon Wireless

Who’s it for: People who like to shoot video and wide-angle photos.

How much will it cost: $750+ (estimated)

Why we picked the LG V30:

The dual-camera setup in the LG V30 bolsters the regular camera with a second lens that gives an expanded 120-degree wide-angle view, giving you more creative options for your photography. General performance is excellent and the camera is speedy to load and shoot. It offers solid color accuracy, plenty of detail, and good low-light performance.

The dual main camera comprises a 16-megapixel shooter with an f/1.6 aperture (the biggest on a smartphone so far) and a 13-megapixel camera with a wide f/1.9 aperture. You’ll find support for OIS, laser autofocus, and HDR. The V30 has a 5-megapixel shooter on the front which also features a wider angle lens, which is ideal for group selfies. The automatic settings are pretty good, but LG also offers a user-friendly manual mode that gives amateurs the chance to hone their skills and should still satisfy pros looking for something a bit more in-depth than your average camera phone.

The V in V30 stands for video and LG offers something called Cine Video mode on the V30, which offers you a range of cinematic filters to help you shoot memorable home movies. There’s also a Point Zoom function that enables you to choose a focus point anywhere in your frame and then zoom in on it.

Although detail levels are good, wide-angle low-light photos tend to have some noise, probably because of the lack of OIS on the wide-angle lens. There is also still some distortion in the corners, but it’s much reduced compared to last year’s LG V20.

Wide-angle camera lenses are still rare on smartphones, so the V30 is a great buy if you’re into those kinds of shots. It’s also the perfect choice for anyone who likes to shoot a lot of video.

Our full review

How we test

We are constantly glued to our smartphones here at Digital Trends. Every phone we test serves as our daily driver for at least a week, often a lot longer. That means we use the cameras in the smartphones we test for everything, from capturing social events in our lives to capturing video at trade shows or shooting photos for articles. We know how important the camera in your smartphone is, so we always test them thoroughly, snapping shots in as many different environments as we can to get a good comparative picture of how they stack up.

We’re constantly debating the best and it’s not unusual for conversations to spill into impromptu camera tests where we shoot the same landmarks with different phones and then analyze the results and argue about them some more.

How to decipher camera phone specs

There are a lot of technical specifications related to the cameras in our smartphones, so here’s a quick crash course to explain the basics.

The megapixel rating relates to detail. In simple terms: the higher the megapixel count, the more detail you’ll see in the picture. For a long time, the smartphone camera specs race focused on megapixel count, but there’s more to capturing a great photo than detail. It’s also worth noting that many cameras do not capture at the maximum megapixel settings by default, because it’s often more detail than you need. Most manufacturers are now working to improve other aspects of their cameras.

Sensor size is another thing to consider, as it turns out that all megapixels are not created equal. HTC coined the term “ultrapixel” to draw attention to the fact that it had bigger megapixels than some competing camera phones, so even with a 4-megapixel camera it could potentially get better results than an 8-megapixel camera with smaller pixels. They’re measured in micrometers and bigger is theoretically better at capturing light. For example, the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge camera has a 1.4 µm pixel size.

The aperture is the hole that light travels through to hit the sensor and it’s important for low-light performance. The smaller the number is, the larger the aperture. So, the f/1.7 aperture in the Galaxy S8 camera is slightly bigger than the f/1.8 aperture in the iPhone 7 Plus. Changing the amount of light that gets in by fiddling with the aperture also enables photographers to tweak the depth of field. It helps you to capture shots where the subject is in focus and the background is blurred.

Optical image stabilization (OIS) helps to keep the camera steady, so if your hands are shaking, it will be less noticeable on a camera phone that has OIS support. It’s compensating for the movement in your hands.

High dynamic range (HDR) is a technique whereby the camera takes multiple shots of the same subject in different exposures and then combines them in post-processing to create one single shot, which is usually brighter and more detailed than a non-HDR shot. It requires some processing power, so you’ll find it might be a bit slow on budget devices like the Moto G4 Plus, but it’s always desirable if you want the best possible photos.

For video recording you want to look at two things: the resolution and the frames-per-second (fps).

The resolution is simply how much detail is captured. For 4K video it’s 3,840 x 2,160 pixels. For Full HD it’s 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. Phones will not record 4K by default because the files are huge, but there are some special moments you might want to capture in maximum resolution – bear in mind that higher resolutions in TVs and other devices will increasingly become the standard in the next few years.

When you see a high frame rate, such as the iPhone 7 Plus’ ability to shoot Full HD at 120fps, that means you can create slow-motion movies. You can slow the footage down to show detailed moments that would be a blur at a lower frame rate.