Snap up one of the best camera phones, tried and tested by our team of photographers. These industry-leading handsets are AI-powered and aimed at creative pros.
(Image credit: Apple / Samsung / Honor / Creative Bloq)
With the best camera phones, you'll have a seriously capable photographic tool to take everywhere with you. Phone cameras are improving constantly, and the latest models deliver the kinds of high-end features that wouldn't seem out of place on mirrorless cameras.
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As a photographer, I've picked out my top smartphone recommendations. These are phones that my colleagues and I have tried and tested, putting their cameras through their paces. My top pick is the sublime Samsung Galaxy S24, which impresses with its incredible zoom, its night-shooting capabilities and its AI-powered editing tools. However, I've also included a range of compelling alternatives for you to choose from.
If you're an Apple devotee, try our guide to the best iPhones for photography and we also have a guide to the budget camera phones (under $1,000) if you're not feeling too flush with cash. Otherwise, read on for my top camera phone picks!
Beth Nicholls
Beth has the fun job of finding you the very best prices and deals on creative tech. She's also a keen photographer, and brings her expertise to bear on the best camera phones.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is my current camera phone, and in my opinion, the best one on the market right now. It boasts features including an AI Camera Assistant, on-device Generative Edit tools, low-light nightography, and 100X Space Zoom with super-resolution technology and HDR imaging. Read more below
A bold phone that rethinks smartphone design in all sorts of clever ways, the Nothing Phone 2a is also a dynamite budget-friendly camera phone, capable of superb photos if you put the effort into learning to use it. Read more below
The nubia Z60S Pro may be a bulky boy with a sticky-out camera, but it's also one of the finest phones we've ever tested for photo and video, squaring up to pricier flagship rivals and in many cases beating them with better images and videos. Read more below
Laden with imaging tech from Sony's Alpha mirrorless cameras, this is a phone tilted towards serious photographers and videographers alike. It's an expensive proposition, but having an honest-to-god 399-point autofocus system to work with is a real plus. Read more below
The Magic 6 Pro from Honor is a flagship phone that approaches the big names in terms of price – but its impressive feature-set justifies the expense. It's a particular dab hand for portraiture, with a large variable aperture on its main camera and an intelligent portrait mode. Read more below
The iPhone 16 Pro Max is Apple's latest and top-end product in the iPhone family, which by default makes it the best iPhone option for smartphone photographers. It boasts a new 48MP camera, plus a dedicated Camera Control Button for quick access to your iPhone camera. Read more below
With a Leica-engineered camera, the Xiaomi 14 places a high premium on image quality. It's the camera phone that has most impressed our reviews editor, sporting a 1-inch sensor that gives it a serious bump in terms of dynamic range and low-light performance. Read more below
With an arguable plethora of next-gen AI fetaures, the Google Pixel 9 Pro at times offers more than its own processor can handle. But its image quality is superb and the editing features it offers are genuinely unique. A glimpse of the future that's just a little rough around the edges. Read more below
We can admit it – folding phones are just cool. The Honor Magic V2 is our pick of the best folding phones you can buy, with its design enabling creative photo opportunities. It's pretty expensive, but folding phones just are, and you get flagship-level performance. Read more below
✅ You want the best Android phone on the market: This is the phone I own, and it's the best phone for photography. ✅ You want AI features: Samsung Galaxy AI is on board of course, adding sophisticated next-gen editing features.
Don't buy it if
❌ Cost is an issue: As a recent flagship, this is not a cheap phone. ❌ You're an AI sceptic: The features are everywhere.
The bottom line
🔎 Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the best camera phone you can get right now – and I can say that because I own it. ★★★★½
I own the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and it's by far the best camera phone on the market right now (at least in my opinion) with a 200MP main camera. I chose the S24 Ultra because camera quality is a key, if not the most important, feature for me as a photographer. But I also use my phone every day for social media, freelance work, messaging friends and family, and taking snaps of my dog.
Since I use a lot of social media, especially Instagram for photo sharing on my photography account, Samsung's partnership with Instagram for the S24 series just made sense – and it allows for HDR uploads, native camera integration for creating stories and reels, and other excellent features.
The S24 Ultra delivers superb low-light quality images, even in the darkest conditions like at concerts and live shows, and the quad-camera array gives you real shooting flexibility in every situation. Admittedly, the 100x Space Zoom is a feature I haven't given much attention to but is still handy to have if you ever want to go stargazing.
Then we get to the AI. The Samsung Galaxy AI Photo Assist and Generative Edit features offer a host of photography tools to help you create your best work and take it to new levels. It has an AI-made watermark embedded into the metadata though, for ultimate transparency if you've used Galaxy AI to edit. The S24 Ultra is also the only model in the series with S Pen compatibility, which opens up a host of benefits from note-taking and photo editing, to Google's Circle to search feature.
"The current top of the heap as far as Android smartphones are concerned, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra boasts some of the most powerful, well-made portable hardware you could ask for."
✅ You're on a shoestring budget: This is one of the best-value smartphones on the market. ✅ You like to keep things simple: Understated inside and out, the Nothing Phone 2a puts an emphasis on minimalism.
Don't buy it if
❌ You want lots of computing power: The phone may struggle with complex apps like photo editors.
The bottom line
🔎 Nothing Phone 2a is a charming, well-priced minimalist wonder that'll suit anyone looking for a capable camera phone on a budget. ★★★★½
There are more than a few fans of Nothing phones working at Creative Bloq, with plenty of our team members appreciating these singular devices for their fresh, understated but distinctive approach to smartphone design. The affordable Nothing Phone 2a is perhaps the best of the bunch, and if you're looking for a budget-friendly phone that takes excellent pictures, I'd say this should be one of your first ports of call.
The Nothing Phone 2a uses a double camera array – not triple like high-end phones, so there's no telephoto module, but the 50MP wide and ultrawide cameras should see you covered in most situations. While there aren't as many dedicated shooting modes as there are on other phones, you can generally get great results by delving into the settings for yourself. For instance, there's no dedicated macro mode, but our reviewer got some fantastic close-up images all the same.
In this age of generative AI being pushed to do our thinking for us, there's something to be said for a camera phone that requires you to engage with it to achieve the best results. And thanks to the f/1.88 aperture lens and 1/1.56-inch sensor on the main camera, those results are capable of being very good indeed. Running more smoothly than it has any right to considering its lesser computing power, the Nothing Phone 2a is a wondrous thing, available at a fantastic price.
"There are more powerful smartphones, larger smartphones and more expensive smartphones, but there aren't too many with real personality like Nothing Phone 2a."
Main camera: 50MP main, 8MP telephoto, 50MP ultrawide
Selfie camera: 16MP
Video: 8K@30fps, 4K@120fps
RAM: 8GB / 12GB / 16GB / 24GB
Storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
OS: nubia MyOS 14 (Android 14)
Weight: 220g
Battery: 5100mAh
Reasons to buy
+
Feature-rich, detail-rich camera
+
Bright screen
Reasons to avoid
-
Big and bulky
-
No wireless charging
Buy it if
✅ You want top-of-the-line camera specs: The camera array on this mid-range phone puts pricier rivals to shame. ✅ You want 8K video: Does a camera phone need 8K video? No. But here it is!
Don't buy it if
❌ You want a small phone: It's a bulky customer even without considering that colossal camera notch.
The bottom line
🔎 nubia Z60S Pro has one of the best camera systems we've ever seen on a mid-range phone, or really on any phone. ★★★★½
You might not have heard of nubia (lowercase theirs) before – many of us hadn't when the Z60S Pro showed up for review. However, the Chinese-made nubia Z60S Pro quite swiftly blew us away, and it was clear from early one that this phone would be jockeying for a position on our list of the best camera phones. To be fair, you can tell from looking at it that it's packing some serious camera power – the enormous circular camera array sticks out as though it's been grafted on there, adding further bulk to an already hefty phone.
Oh, but it justifies the weight. This is one of the best camera systems I've seen on any phone, capable of producing detailed and bright images all the way across its array – which comprises a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ultrawide and an 8MP telephoto. It's easy to switch between them, and to toggle specialist functions like the brilliant macro mode. Video-wise you can shoot 8K, which admittedly feels more like a gimmick – it's much more useful to be able to shoot 4K at frame rates up to 120p.
The nubia Z60S Pro, available in the US and other territories, is a revelation. One of the best mid-range phones we've ever tested, and one of the most photographically capable.
✅ You want premium photographic tech: This is a seriously impressive camera phone full of Alpha mirrorless know-how. ✅ You already own and use Sony cameras: It slots well into the ecosystem.
Don't buy it if
❌ You're on a budget: Even with discounts, you're likely looking at a four-figure price tag.
The bottom line
🔎 Sony Xperia 1 VI is the latest smartphone to benefit from the tech giant's imaging know-how, and it's pretty impressive. ★★★★½
Sony is well known for making some of the best and most popular digital cameras money can buy – however, that expertise has never quite translated to its smartphone range, which remains a rare sight in the wild (do you know anyone who owns one?). Despite this, the Xperia smartphones are getting better and better with every iteration, and the Sony Xperia 1 VI is our pick as the best premium camera phone. It's not quite as smooth to use as a Samsung Galaxy or an iPhone – but lord are those cameras something special.
The triple camera array spots three smart lenses – a 16mm equivalent, 24mm, and a 85-170mm optical zoom. The real revelation though comes when you depress the shutter button and get an honest-to-goodness autofocus system, the kind with 399 AF points, the kind you'd see in an Alpha mirrorless camera. For any serious photographer, that is pretty exciting.
Elsewhere, Pro mode enables handy features like a 30fps burst rate and focus peaking. You're taken care of for video too, with 4K capture at 120fps and the S-Cinetone profile for producing cinematic-quality footage straight out of camera. This is a truly excellent camera phone, and could start to mark Sony out as more of a key player in the space.
"Vloggers, streamers and other content creators should take a hard look at this phone, as should anyone who likes the idea of having a powerful camera system in their pocket."
✅ You want to shoot portraits: The intelligent portrait mode creates the kind of artful background blur you're looking for. ✅ You want day-long battery life: The Magic 6 Pro's built-in battery held up well in testing.
Don't buy it if
❌ You're on a budget: While it's cheaper than the big flagships, the Magic 6 Pro is a premium phone, and priced as such.
The bottom line
🔎 Honor Magic 6 Pro is a fine flagship phone, with top-end cameras that are particularly good for portraiture. ★★★★½
The Honor Magic 6 Pro truly feels like a contemporary phone in a lot of ways. For one, the term 'AI' has been plastered all over the marketing copy, with the makers promising AI-powered inter-app communication, AI-powered extraction of text from images, etc, etc. Most users can probably take or leave this stuff, but fortunately, the fundamental nuts and bolts of the phone are excellent – particularly its cameras, which are well-suited to capturing dazzling people pictures.
Available in the US and elsewhere, the Magic 6 Pro sports a triple-camera array with a number of interesting features. Its main wide-angle camera sports a variable f/1.4-2 aperture, giving it more flexibility when it comes to controlling depth of field and exposure. There's also a 180MP telephoto unit and a 50MP ultrawide, and in all cases, picture quality is excellent – in our review, we had no difficulty getting crisp, sharp shots, time and time again. Colour saturation was vibrant without looking unnatural, and detail was plentiful. Good stuff across the board. Portrait shooters will no doubt want to avail themselves of the dedicated Portrait Mode, which blurs backgrounds for a crisply defined main subject.
This is an excellent phone in pretty much all respects. Some of the AI stuff feels like a rough draft, and the failure to include a charger with a phone that commands a four-figure price feels unnecessarily miserly to say the least. However, if you want high-end quality for a little less than the big dogs, this is a great choice.
"The price of this phone is high, but so is the performance and quality. It has excellent cameras, a powerful processor and the zeitgeisty application of AI."
✅ You can't bear to part with Apple: iPhones are popular for a reason, after all. ✅ You want a physical shutter button: Now that's an addition to make photographers pay attention.
Don't buy it if
❌ You're on a budget: The phones are expensive in themselves, and Apple does love to nickel-and-dime for extras.
The bottom line
🔎 iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are the latest iPhones – we don't need to explain iPhones to you. They work well and take great photos. ★★★★½
This entry is probably not surprising to most, but Apple's iPhone 16 Pro/Max is one of the best camera phones on the market right now despite lacking any kind of AI power behind the lens (yet). If you're strictly Team Apple, then this latest flagship iPhone is one of the best camera phones out there and probably your only choice if you're not willing to jump ship over to Android camera phones.
The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max have the exact same camera units for the very first time this year, meaning Apple fans don't need to opt for a larger handset for the sake of a better camera. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max both bring a new 48MP (f/1.8 24mm) camera to the table, that has a new "fusion" feature allowing users to customise the default lens. However, the biggest camera upgrade from the iPhone 15 Pro Max to the 16 Pro models is the newUltra Wide 48MP camera (f/2.2 13mm), offering improved detail for macro shots
Let's talk about the Camera Control Button. Did Apple intentionally add this just to make photographers swoon? Probably. But in terms of functionality, it sits on the right-hand side of the phone, and allows users to shortcut their way straight to the iPhone 16 camera app and scroll through common camera settings by sliding a finger across it. I think it's cool that it has haptic feedback too and a mechanical click to feel like a true shutter button.
✅ You want to shot in low light: The 1-inch sensor in this phone has an edge in dark conditions. ✅ You want a sophisticated editing suite: The editing app here is one of the best.
Don't buy it if
❌ You want super-fast 5G in the US: Xiaomi phones have some bandwidth limitations.
The bottom line
🔎 Xiaomi 14 is one of the finest phone cameras we've ever used, and is equipped with a large sensor for sublime quality. ★★★★★
Our Reviews Editor, Erlingur, described this phone as "simply the best smartphone I've ever used" and "the world's greatest phone camera" in his Xiaomi 14 review. This phone has two other siblings with slightly better camera arrays, the Xiaomi 14 Pro and Xiaomi 14 Ultra models, however these come at a greater price, and as we've proven – the standard Xiaomi 14 model is more than capable enough for most smartphone shooters.
It boasts a Leica-engineered camera with a one-inch sensor, and three 50MP lenses, which is a pretty impressive camera package in a phone camera. The megapixel count may not match the 100 or 200MP claims of other competitors (we're looking at you Samsung), but what you get here is a lack of pixel binning and a resolution that is actually 50MP. The main camera has an f/1.6 max aperture, with complete manual control available should you choose to tinker around.
The one-inch Light Fusion 900 sensor, developed by Leica, gave our reviewer some incredibly dynamic images no matter the scenario. The 4K video recording offered crispness and clarity, and the macro photography features had staggering fidelity. On top of that, the Xiaomi 14 is equipped with a feature-rich, AI-boosted photo-editing app suite, with sophisticated filters (including several that impressively replicate the effect from classic camera film types), and even AI-enhanced portrait modes, with a dedicated animal-portrait function.
Also, one thing to bear in mind is that while the Xiaomi 14 is available in the US, it is missing certain LTE bands for some carriers. This means depending on where you are located, you may not get 5G service and may find 4G to be frustratingly slow. This varies across the country – your best bet is to check in with your network.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Xiaomi 14 scorecard
Attributes
Notes
Rating
Cameras
Best to ever do it.
★★★★★
Performance
Very good, though conectivity is an issue in the US.
★★★★½
Battery
Adequate.
★★★★
Price
Cheaper than rival flagships.
★★★★½
Our expert says
Our expert says
Erlingur Einarsson
"The Xiaomi 14 is simply the best smartphone I've ever used. It's got a Leica-engineered camera that has taken the leap from really flipping great last year to the world's greatest phone camera this year."
✅ You want full AI integration: Google's Gemini is fully loaded here, as you would expect. ✅ You don't want XL size: The Pixel 9 Pro has the same camera array as its bigger brother, the Pixel 9 Pro XL.
Don't buy it if
❌ You want something cheap: It is not. ❌ You want super-long lasting battery: 15-hour battery life isn't bad, but we've seen better.
The bottom line
🔎 Google Pixel 9 Pro is the latest AI-stuffed flagship from the AI-obsessed tech giant, and its camera features are pretty good. ★★★★½
The latest range of smartphones from Google, equipped with Gemini AI, the Google Pixel 9 Pro very much goes all-in on its generative features. If you don't like the sound of an AI assistant asking you every two seconds if it can help you with your tasks, this may not be the phone for you, but for those who are excited by AI, it feels like the phone of the future.
Of course, photography features haven't been neglected. Whether you want to remove objects from images with Magic Eraser or not, you'll still appreciate the quality of the triple-camera setup, with a 50MP main camera, 48MP ultra-wide and 48MP telephoto. Having 8K 30p video is also a major upgrade from the Pixel 8 Pro.
There's an argument to be made that Google bit off a little more than it could chew here. While impressive, the AI features put a big strain on the Pixel 9 Pro's Tensor G4 chipset, leading to performance lag and overheating issues, as we found in our review. There's also the perhaps more philosophical question of how many people actually want to use the Reimagine feature to add and remove elements from a photo – essentially make it not a photo anymore. But that's perhaps one to tackle elsewhere – if you're as all-in on AI as Google is, you'll love this capable smartphone.
✅ You want a chic folding design: The clever form factor of the phone allows for creative photo opportunities. ✅ You love cutting-edge tech: This is an undeniably impressive technological achievement.
Don't buy it if
❌ You're on a budget: Don't even think about it. ❌ You're prone to breaking things: The folding design is inherently fragile.
The bottom line
🔎 Honor Magic V2 is a super-cool design that feels like the phone of the future – but is expensive in the present. ★★★★½
A folding phone may not initially seem like the most auspicious choice for photography and video – but in fact, it opens up all manner of creative opportunities. A folding design like that of the Honor Magic V2 – our pick as the best folding camera phone – lets you place the rear camera and screen side by side, meaning you can use the more powerful rear camera array for group selfies and the like.
The array in question consists of a 50MP f/1.9 optically stabilised wide-angle camera along with a 50MP f/2 ultrawide and a 20MP f/2.4 optically stabilised short telephoto. All good stuff, producing punchy photos and particularly good video. The Honor Magic V2 offers a high-level video spec, with the option to shoot in HDR10+, or to use specific LUTs to achieve a particular look.
Folding phones are something of a curio. Manufacturers haven't really figured out a way past some of the inherent drawbacks to the design – the expense of making them that leads to a high asking price, and the fragility of the foldable screen. You really do have to be willing to spend $1,400 or more on a phone that could easily break – which, naturally, not everyone will be.
Honor 200 Pro The Honor 200 Pro boasts a triple 50MP studio-quality camera array, featuring a portrait main camera (f/1.3), a telephoto camera with 50X digital zoom, plus an ultra-wide 12MP macro camera. The main camera also offers a 105% increase in noise reduction in low-light conditions, which is great for concert photos. Read our 4-star review
Oppo Find X5 Pro Equipped with filters made by Hasselblad, the Oppo Find X5 Pro has been one of the most talked-about phones for photographers in recent years. While its zoom lacks reach, its sleek design and polished finish make it a pleasure to use for photos and video. Read our 4-star review
OnePlus 10 Pro With style for days, the OnePlus 10 Pro is one of our picks as the best camera phones for looks. But that doesn't mean it's a shallow affair, equipped as it is with a triple-camera array delivering shots with gorgeous depth and colour – and it's also brilliant for capturing panoramic images. Read our 4.5-star review
Realme GT 2 Pro A comparatively affordable option compared to many of the phones on the main list, the Realme GT 2 Pro also wins plaudits for its close-up macro modes, which are some of the best in class. Also, its main camera array gives the iPhones a run for their money in low light, at a fraction of the cost. Read our 4.5-star review
Google Pixel 8 Pro The Google Pixel 8 Pro might have been replaced by the Google Pixel 9 range with Gemini AI, but it still remains to be one of the best camera phones on the market. It has a triple-rear camera setup including a 50MP main camera, a 48MP ultra-wide lens, and a dedicated 5x telephoto lens.
How to choose
There's no singular camera phone that's perfect for everyone, but though in my mind, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra comes pretty close.
I'd suggest that you start by looking at your budget, and assess how much you wish to spend on a camera phone first. Then consider the desirable features you'd want in a camera phone. Remember, it's not always about megapixels. If you shoot a lot of video or TikTok content, then you'll want a camera phone with at least 4K capability.
Think about the overall strengths of each camera phone, what does the device focus on? Some camera phones have long-ranging zoom cameras, either optical, digital, periscope or a combination. Others might focus on having a larger sensor or quad-pixel size, or a dedicated macro lens, whereas the newer models on the market seem to be all about AI and internal software upgrades.
Of course, you'll need to consider other elements of the phone too. You're choosing a camera phone to use every day, not just a camera, so consider the processing power, screen quality, app compatibility, battery life, and the size of the device you want.
At Creative Bloq, we enjoy putting camera phones through their paces when it comes to testing, with benchmarks in place to measure battery life, response rate, general use – and the camera, of course. Although manufacturers carry out their own testing on phones, we think it's important to have an unbiased reviewer (preferably a photographer) on the case to detect any flaws or find genuine reasons why we think a camera phone might not be the best fit for creatives or up to scratch when compared with competition.
We do this by using social media and checking the upload speeds, running photo editing software, streaming video content, and testing the camera in different real-world scenarios. You can look at a spec sheet all you want (and believe me, we do), but really, nothing beats getting a camera phone in your hands and having a play around with the different lenses and features. Doing this for long enough will allow you to get a good feel for the handset and the general photography experience it offers.
That's what we've done with the majority of the camera phones above. And where we haven't had a chance to review the model ourselves, we've consulted others in the business, including our sister sites such as Digital Camera World and TechRadar to pick their brains. Our writers are professional photographers and keen enthusiasts, with a good understanding of what consumers are looking for in a modern camera phone. For more information, see our guide to how we test and review at Creative Bloq.
Prices on camera phones vary dramatically as you can see from our list – the cheapest phone is around $320, while the most expensive hits $1,400! As you might imagine, the more you spend, the more you get, but in general you can expect to pay around $500 for a capable budget phone, and around $1,000 for a high-end flagship with all the latest features.
Are camera phones as good as digital cameras?
This is a slightly more complex question. In certain ways, camera phones have physical limitations that make them inferior in many ways to the best cameras. The big one is sensor size – smartphones must use physically smaller sensors than cameras. Larger sensors can use larger individual pixels, which creates a cleaner image with less noise and makes for better low-light performance.
However, clever computational tricks mean that camera phones are catching up. For instance, the 200MP camera on the Samsung Galaxy S23 isn't really for capturing 200MP images (though it can), it's designed to use a technique called pixel binning that combines several pixels into one, creating a digital simulation of the larger pixels on a camera's sensor. This improves image clarity, and makes shooting modes like Night Photography much more potent.
Of course, some people will always prefer the form factor of a real digital camera, and we haven't even touched upon the advantage (and expense) of being able to swap lenses. Remember, cameras and camera phones each have their place, and neither one is empirically 'better' these days.
How many megapixels is best in a camera phone?
To an extent, the more the better – though it's a little more complex than it is with regular cameras. When camera phone manufacturers talk about their handsets boasting 200MP cameras, they aren't talking about capturing 200MP photos (while some can, there's limited practical reason to do so).
Rather, the phones use a process called 'pixel-binning' to combine the data from multiple pixels into one, putting out an image that's brighter and less affected by noise, particularly in low light. Essentially, they're simulating the larger pixels (or photosites) that dedicated cameras are able to use by virtue of having physically larger sensors.
This process lowers the resolution of the finished image – for instance, a 48MP sensor using 4-in-1 pixel-binning will produce a 12MP image. For most purposes, this is more than adequate — it's only if you're planning to print images, or crop in significantly, that you might find this resolution limiting.
Beth is Creative Bloq’s Ecommerce Writer and has the fun job of finding you the very best prices and deals on creative tech. Beth kicked off her journalistic career writing for Digital Camera World, and has since earned bylines on TechRadar too. With a Masters degree in Photography, Beth loves getting to tinker with new cameras, especially camera phones, as the resident Samsung fan on the team. Her background working as a tester for CeX let her play around with all kinds of weird and wonderful products, including robots, and she’s recently gotten into 3D printing too. Outside of CB, you’ll find her gaming on her PS5, photographing local shows under the alias Bethshootsbands, and making TikToks of her dog, Tilly.
