Digital photography has become standard to our modern way of living. What makes a good smartphone camera? Some still believe that more megapixels is better when it comes to camera quality. The reality is that the image sensor is the most important piece of hardware for image quality. There are many different types of sensors and it is hard to tell a lot about an image sensor just by name or the numbers. However, a larger sensor can outperform a smaller one if everything else remains constant. The camera sensors in smartphones are always tiny and a lot smaller than your normal point and shoot camera. Therefore, the smartphone cameras have to rely on their own tricks to produce great quality pictures. HTC had attempted to create an ultra pixel camera (4 ultra pixel) back in 2013 with HTC One, which claimed to be much better than other cameras including low light performance.
How does the smartphone camera sensor work?
A camera sensor is the hardware responsible for turning all incoming lights into electrical signal. The image sensors work to artificially mimic the transduction process of a biological eye. You can imagine a sensor to be like a grid of pixels. The larger the sensor, the larger the pixels and the more sensitive it can be to light.
In front of the sensor is the glass and lenses that the light has to pass to hit the sensor. Aside from the quality of the glass, the spec that matters the most is the aperture. Smartphone cameras are all fixed aperture lenses and generally the bigger the better as more light can be let in. The best smartphone cameras have f/2.0 or f/1.8 aperture, which is great for letting light in and getting separation between foreground and background with shallow depth of field.
The other important factor of a smartphone camera is stabilization to remove blur due to hand shake or movement, which can be achieved through electronic or optical. Electronic image stabilization is good for correcting minor hand shakes and blur but in video it can produce a jello type effect. On the other hand, hardware stabilization or optical image stabilization (OIS), is awesome most of the time as it is great for having longer exposure and shaky hands for producing sharp images, low light images, and smoother video.
After the image is captured, it all comes down to processing. Each smartphone camera processes the image from the sensor a little differently. You will notice that sharpness of images, noise reduction, color production (warm vs cool), saturation, exposure (bright vs under).
The smartphone cameras have gotten very good in the recent years with introduction of dual cameras and software tricks that make the pictures look like the ones you get from a DSLR. Let’s look at the top 7 smartphone cameras that are available on the market right now.
Top 7 Smartphone Cameras of 2018
1. Huawei P20 Pro
- 40 MP (f/1.8), OIS, PDAF/Laser AF
- 20 MP B/W (f/1.6), OIS, PDAF/Laser AF
- 8 MP telephoto (f/2.4), OIS, PDAF/Laser AF
- Front: 24 MP (f/2.0)
The Huawei P20 Pro is leading the way with the revolutionary Leica Triple Camera setup. The Leica camera setup allows 5X Hybrid Zoom, 960 fps Super Slow Motion, 3x optical zoom, LED flash, phase detection and laser autofocus. The front facing camera is also massive with 24 MP (f/2.0) that allows 720p image quality. The addition of the third camera was not just for gimmicks as the P20 Pro claims the number one spot on our list of best smartphone cameras. The P20 Pro produces very good detail when zooming in to your photographs. The pictures have a great blur gradient thanks to the depth estimation and image noise nicely controlled. The camera also has a very accurate and fast autofocus. In bright light, the camera has a wide dynamic range and exposure. In all low light situations, the flash works great and performance is consistent. We did notice that the camera does produce some halo effect in HDR pictures and occasionally produces a pink hue during bright light or indoor conditions.
2. Apple iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
- 12 MP wide-angle (ƒ/1.8), OIS, PDAF
- 12 MP telephoto (ƒ/2.4), OIS, PDAF
- Front: 7 MP (ƒ/2.2)
The Apple iPhone XS is the most recent and expensive smartphone from the big apple. The iPhone XS camera provides great dynamic range, details and target exposure in both indoor and outdoor conditions. The pictures taken from iPhone XS camera produces accurate colors with vivid and pleasant images. The portrait mode also works great with background blur and isolation of the foreground. In low light situations, the flash is often underexposed and there is high noise in the darker areas of the images.
3. HTC U12+
- 12 MP (f/1.75), OIS, PDAF/Laser AF
- 16 MP telephoto (f/2.6), AF
- Front: Dual 8 MP (f/2.0)
The HTC U12+ was a great surprise with an industry leading camera setup. The camera has a laser assisted auto focus that is very fast and accurate. The images have great white balance with accurate and pleasant color reproduction. The camera lens has wide dynamic range and exposure. The subjects and places in the images have great texture preservation and sharp detail. The portrait mode also provides natural looking background blur and natural foreground. The HDR images have visible artifacts and low light images have visible noise level.
4. Samsung Galaxy Note 9
- 12 MP (f/1.5-2.4), PDAF, OIS
- 12 MP telephoto (f/2.4), AF, OIS
- Front: 8 MP (f/1.7), AF
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has two 12 mega pixel cameras on the back. One is a telephoto lens that allows for optically stabilized 2x optical zoom. The other is the main camera with variable aperture. In daylight, images are detailed, noise free with much more natural colors than previous galaxy phones. Auto HDR allows for wider dynamic range but the scene optimizer occasionally makes for a higher contrast. Speaking of which, Samsung’s image optimizer is one of the better ones we have seen.
5. Xiaomi Mi MIX 3
- 12 MP wide (f/1.8), PDAF, 4-axis OIS
- 12 MP (telephoto)
- Front (pop-up): 24 MP and 2 MP (depth sensor)
The Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 has two dual camera setup on the front and the rear. The camera setup achieves high quality images mainly due to the improved image processing. The cameras have very fast and accurate auto focus that is consistent every time. The images have bright and vivid colors with accurate white balance and wide dynamic range in both outdoors and indoor shots. The camera does struggle sometimes in high contrast scenes as the noise can be easily seen in the images. The portrait mode is also a hit or a miss due to inconsistency in foreground image production.
6. Huawei P20
- 12 MP (f/1.8), OIS, PDAF & laser AF
- 20 MP B/W wide (f/1.6), PDAF
- Front: 24 MP (f/2.0)
The P20 is really a testament to the efforts that Huawei has put in its smartphone camera. Huawei has managed to claim two spots in the top seven list of best smartphone cameras. The P20 might not have the tripple camera setup of the P20 pro but the refined dual camera setup still manages to outperform most of the competitors. The images have excellent texture to noise ratio with good amount of detail and wide dynamic range in all conditions. The camera setup produces vivid and bright colors with very fast and accurate autofocus. The portrait mode is also precise and manages to isolate the subject from the background. On occasion, the camera does produce visible artifacts with halos and pinkish hue in the pictures.
7. Apple iPhone XR or Google Pixel 3
Apple iPhone XR
- 12 MP (f/1.8), OIS, PDAF
- Front: 7 MP (f/2.2)
The most notable difference with the iPhone XR is that it is the only smartphone on this list with a single 12MP wide-angle camera. All other phones on this list have at least a dual camera setup, if not more. The wide-angle camera has an aperture of ƒ/1.8 and allows 5x digital zoom. For the iPhone XR, Apple has included the same image processing software as the iPhone XS, which allows the iPhone XR to have the same photographic capabilities with wide dynamic range, excellent exposure in all lighting conditions and great noise to detail ratio. The iPhone XR features Portrait Lighting with three effects: Natural, Studio, and Contour. However, given the lack of second camera, the iPhone XR is not able to provide the same level of performance when it comes to zoom and portrait mode.
Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL
The previous generation Pixel 2 devices are still one of the best single-lens camera smartphones in the game. The one thing that is going to stand out the most on the Pixel 3 devices is the camera. The biggest feature in the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL cameras is the visual core processor, which is being put to work as it processes images 40% faster, meaning less waiting for image processing after taking your shot. The camera hardware has been upgraded with rear lens at 12.2 MP and f/1.8 aperture. The front houses dual 8 MP cameras with a Telephoto lens with f/1.8 aperture and Wide-angle lens at f/2.2 aperture, which allows you to take wider 107o group selfies. In terms of image quality, the Pixel 3 is able to retain a lot more detail, which allows for a better zoom performance. The autofocus was also found to be very fast in our daily usage. The portrait mode with background blur is also greatly improved. The camera lives up to the hype with good exposure and dynamic range in most conditions. The night sight shooting mode delivers great results in low light conditions but note that it works well with nearby objects. For instance, if you try to take night pictures of the sky using the night sight mode, it won’t play very nice as it won’t be able to capture any light from nearby objects.
As the photos are all subjective, you can have a smartphone camera that produces images that are objectively closer to reality or images that are less accurate but more pleasing to the eye. Therefore, the decision of picking the right smartphone camera is entirely dependent on you, the user. However, we are hoping that our list of 7 best smartphone cameras of 2018 will help you make the right decision if you are in the market for a new smartphone this holiday season.
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I am officially a tech addict and enjoy providing my views on matters related to this industry. I am always interested in trying out new tech gadgets and I have owned multiple smartphones including the legendary HTC One, SGS2, Nexus 4, iPhone 4, 5S, 6S, XR, Note 9. You can ask me any tech related questions in the comment section or on twitter @hookedNav