The best camera phones today based on extensive testing.
Which phone should you buy if you want the best camera? Will the popular choice be the iPhone, known for its ease of use and great video quality, or the Galaxy, which has more cameras? What are the pros and cons of these phone cameras? And are there any other options?
According to Phone Arena, these are the phones with the best cameras based on the results of in-depth testing. The statistics are based on the PhoneArena Camera Score, a testing protocol in which the test takes hundreds of photos and videos, analyzing the performance of every camera lens on the phone.
Let's see which phone will win the battle for the best camera phone in 2024.
1. Galaxy S24 Ultra
The S24 Ultra is the best camera phone according to PhoneArena's Camera Score. That's perhaps no surprise, considering it has two telephoto cameras on the back, one more than most other flagships.
The zoom quality on the Galaxy S24 Ultra is what sets it apart from the competition. It captures more detail and clarity than its rivals, and is clearly your best bet if you want a phone that can take your zoom shots to the next level.
This versatility is also evident in portraits, where having multiple focal lengths like 2X, 3X and 5X zoom is a huge advantage and the Galaxy can cut out the subject from the background perfectly.
Selfies are also great on the S24 Ultra, colours and exposure are accurate and you get a lot of detail. Videos taken with the front camera are also great.
The S24 Ultra is also the best phone for video recording, especially when it comes to zoom quality.
2. iPhone 15 Pro Max
The main camera scores of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra are almost identical. The iPhone scores slightly higher than the Galaxy when using the ultra-wide camera because it retains better detail in the corners of the image.
The iPhone doesn’t give you the same quality of zoom in photos and videos, though. It only has a 5X zoom camera, which is great, but the quality at 2X, 3X, and 4X zoom isn’t as good as a dedicated lens, so the iPhone is less versatile in this regard than the Galaxy.
If you're considering another iPhone model, you should know that the quality of the main and ultra-wide cameras is practically the same on all iPhone 15 models. The real difference is in zoom quality: the iPhone 15 Pro has a 3X zoom lens, while the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus models don't have a telephoto camera at all.
Feature-wise, the iPhone camera app is one of the most intuitive out there and supports both HDR mode and high-resolution previews.
It is also worth mentioning that many other iPhone models also made it into the camera rankings previously published by Phone Arena. Last year's iPhone 14 Pro duo is another strong candidate that you should not ignore.
3. Google Pixel 8 Pro
Despite coming in third, the Pixel 8 Pro scores significantly lower than the Galaxy and iPhone. It's still a great camera, but one area where it falls behind is video.
The Pixel falls a few points short in terms of main camera quality, but those points are due to lack of features in the camera app, not image quality.
The Pixel 8 Pro also comes with a 5X zoom camera, which actually beats the zoom quality on the iPhone 15 Pro Max thanks to particularly strong detail at longer, farther zoom ranges.
Details from the main camera can be a bit soft, but at least you don't have any significant issues with over-sharpening.
4. OnePlus 12
OnePlus has been trying to catch up with its big rivals for years, and while it has improved, there’s still a lot to improve on. Important features are missing from the camera app, as the preview in the viewfinder isn’t high-resolution, and there’s no HDR preview either, so what you see before you take a photo is different from the actual photo. The main camera also gets a lower score for detail rendering.
The OnePlus 12's zoom quality is pretty good, handled by the 64MP 3X zoom camera. The bigger issue is that images from the ultra-wide camera lack a bit of detail and have some sharpness issues in the corners.
However, one area where the OnePlus 12 needs the most improvement is video quality. There are some issues with exposure, something you won't encounter on other flagships.
