Want your smartphone photos to shine? These are the best camera phones in 2024

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has raised the bar for smartphone photography, but this phone isn't a one-trick pony. It offers an exceptionally polished all-round experience that puts the "big three" - Apple, Samsung and Google – in the shade.

Thanks to a huge 1-inch Leica sensor, this phone has a variable aperture that allows it to deliver exceptional images, even in low-light conditions. There are four lenses in total and six different focal lengths. All four lenses have a 50MP image sensor, while focal lengths vary from 12mm to 240mm, allowing for outstanding photography, whether you're up close, or at a distance. There are preset street photography modes, a Master Portrait mode, and a periscope lens which allows for exceptional quality images even when zooming in.

In addition, users can buy a dedicated professional photography kit for the phone, which effectively turns it into a compact camera. With an RRP of £179 it adds an extra cost to an already expensive handset. But it does have a 1500mAh battery built-in – ideal for long days where you're taking lots of photos, and you've already used your power bank.

If the camera is the star of the show, the backing singers are almost as impressive. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra uses Snapdragon's current flagship 8 Gen 3 processor, making this an extremely fast device. There's a Qualcomm Adreno GPU to help give graphics processing a boost, which is great for gamers. A 120Hz display is stunning to look at, while a 5000mAh battery is ably assisted by a suite of power management tools to help it last as long as possible between charges.

It's a brilliant all-round device. But it's the camera that beats everything else currently on the market.

If you're on the hunt for a reliable, affordable phone that can still capture great images, look no further than the Google Pixel 8a. Featuring a dual rear camera system, the main camera is a seriously impressive 64MP wide lens. The second ultra-wide lens is 13 MP, as is the front camera. So, you'll be able to capture sharp details at resolutions normally found on professional gear. The image processing software is what makes this really shine, with advanced features like low light enhancement, fixing blur and more. A Magic Eraser feature will even let you remove distractions from the background of your shots. 

Okay, so there may not be multiple lenses or a wide selection of features, unlike some of the other models here. But less is more with a budget smartphone, and all the money has gone where you need it the most: the main camera.  

The Google Pixel 8a is competing with other smartphones on camera quality that are over twice its price, which is why we think it's the best budget smartphone for photography by quite a margin. And Google promises seven years of security and software updates as well, more than almost any other phone manufacturer.

Sometimes our experts have something of a dilemma when selecting the best products. This is almost the same model as the iPhone 15 Pro, but bigger and with a few upgrades over the smaller version.  

In our full review of the earlier model – the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max – we were blown away by that amazing pro camera system. There's not a huge leap being made here, with much the same lens and resolution options as its predecessor, including some optical zooming. However, the 6.7" Super Retina XDR screen makes reviewing those 48MP shots an absolute joy, and now it's packaged into a titanium body. The A17 Pro chip adds one more core to the GPU over the 14 Pro Max. 

And of course you have that 12MP Ultrawide lens, and the 12MP 2x Telephoto; plus, Portrait mode, Depth Control, Portrait Lighting, Smart HDR 4, and 4K Dolby Vision HDR video up to 60 fps. The 5X optical zoom gives this the edge over the 3X optical zoom on the regular iPhone 15 Pro, alongside an enhanced 6-axis stabiliser to help keep the camera steady.

Again, the iPhone 15 Pro is IP68 splash, water, and dust Resistant – so you'll be confident in taking this out into the wild for your photography projects in no time. At this price, though, you will definitely want to invest in one of the best phone cases you can find.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the best phone Samsung has ever made. And in photography terms, it's an absolute superstar. There are four cameras on the back of the phone – the 200MP main shooter is accompanied by a 12MP ultrawide and a 10MP telephoto lens. There's also a new 50MP zoom periscope camera, which improves the telephoto capabilities of the device. It's a seriously impressive camera array, built to be useful in almost any situation. Low light, zoom, or macro, this phone can do it all. 

It's helped in no small part by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and the 12GB of RAM under the hood that make this a powerful and responsive handset. The post-processing software also uses AI to try and produce the best images possible. Samsung also offers a wide range of photo modes, including Portrait, Night, and Food, to try to produce the most suitable colour balance for the type of subject you are capturing. 

And there's more. A beautiful 6.8-inch QLED display has a 120Hz refresh rate, great for gaming, watching movies, and looking at all those photos you just took. It's an extremely well-balanced package, and a worthy alternative if you don't want to use an iPhone.

Our experts have been spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing the best smartphone for photography, and honestly, the Pixel 8 Pro, alongside the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max, could easily have claimed the top spot. 

The Pixel 8 Pro offers the sort of specs you'd expect from one of the best Android smartphones – 12GB of RAM, a Tensor G3 chip, and a beautiful 6.7-inch display that's arguably superior to that of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. In camera terms, it has a 50MP main camera, supported by a 48MP telephoto lens, and a 48MP ultrawide shooter. It includes Pro Controls, which allow you to adjust shutter speed and focus, much like you would find on a DSLR camera. The aperture is large to let plenty of light in, ensuring that this phone can deliver outstanding photos.  

But it's the processing software that makes this phone shine. As well as automatically adjusting images to improve colour and brightness, the Magic Editor tool allows you a huge amount of control over how your photo looks. This includes features such as Magic Eraser and Best Take, among others.

We'd say the Pixel series currently offers the best AI-aid for getting the most from your photos. But it's an excellent all-round device.

OnePlus once again collaborated with Hasselblad to produce the cameras on the OnePlus 12. And the result is one of the best cameras on the market, that's particularly strong when it comes to portrait photography. 

We'll start with the basics: sharing the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that's in the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, the OnePlus 12 comes with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM, and either 256GB or 512GB of storage. The large 6.82-inch display has a 120Hz refresh rate, making it beautiful to watch movies or play games on. It also offers superb battery life and supports super-fast charging.  

The OnePlus 12 offers a 50MP main camera, a 48MP ultrawide, and a 64MP telephoto lens on the back, us a 32MP selfie camera. It lacks the zoom capabilities of the very best smartphones, and it can take a bit more effort to get good macro images than on other devices. But Hasselblad's expertise has been used to enhance the image processing, trying to recreate traditional Hasselblad-type photos. The results are particularly strong for portrait photography – so if that's what you mainly capture, this is a phone to look at.

If you're looking for a good quality camera in a phone that's easy to use and doesn't cost as much as the ultra-premium models, then the iPhone 15 may be just right. The RRP is £799 – that's around £200 less than an iPhone 15 Pro, and £400 less than an iPhone 15 Pro Max. You're potentially saving a packet but still getting a very capable iPhone, albeit with fewer bells and whistles than on its 'Pro' counterparts. 

It's a smaller device, with a 6.1-inch Retina XDR display that's lovely to look at. The smaller size will certainly appeal to anyone who prefers to use their phone one-handed or fit it easily in a pocket. It also has 6GB of RAM and uses Apple's A16 Bionic chip – the same one used on the iPhone 14 Pro. It's more than fast enough for most daily uses. It also benefits from replacing the lightning cable with a USB-C port, alongside the rest of the iPhone 15 range.

The iPhone 15 has a dual-camera system on the back – a 48MP main lens, and a 12MP ultrawide, plus a 2X optical zoom. This doesn't compete with the best telephoto cameras and is one of the most notable differences between this handset and the Pro variants. The main camera now takes 24MP images instead of the 12MP found on earlier models, instantly providing better images than before. Apple's photo-processing technology is also very good, and even allows you to edit what you focus on after a photo has been taken.

Is it the best camera? No. But, if you want good photos without a lot of work, the iPhone 15 is currently one of the best options out there.

Honor has been working hard on its camera phones since emerging as a separate entity from parent company Huawei (itself a company with an excellent reputation for its phone cameras). The Honor Magic 6 Pro is honor's current flagship, and the triple-array camera system, offering a 180MP telephoto camera, earns it a spot on our shortlist. It's the largest telephoto sensor on a phone so far.

Telephoto images aren't the best on the market because this phone only supports a 2.5x optical zoom, meaning anything beyond this is digitally cropped. But thanks to the AI on this phone, low light photography is generally excellent. The AI offers detail reconstruction, while denoise algorithms help to produce rich and vibrant scenes. Not necessarily the truest representation of the scene, but certainly great to look at. The 50MP wide lens has an adjustable aperture, and automatically switches to an f/1.4 aperture in low-light – letting more light in as a result.

General performance is solid, with 12GB of RAM, a flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, and a 120Hz curved display that also filters out blue light and night, to help improve your sleep quality. Four years of Android updates and five years of security updates mean this phone should be good to last you for years as well.

The battery is also excellent, boasting a 5600mAh silicon-carbon battery. Silicon-carbon batteries are potentially more sustainable than lithium-ion, safer, and offer higher energy density. That means a larger energy capacity without a larger battery – potentially up to two days between charges.

If a great camera is your primary concern, then a foldable phone potentially isn't the best choice. Most of the money goes into screen technology. But if you want the best camera you can get on a foldable phone, we think the Google Pixel Fold just edges it.  

The Pixel Fold has an excellent 5.8-inch secondary display on the cover, while the 7.6-inch main display looks fantastic. Both screens are OLED with 120Hz refresh rates. The Tensor G2 chip isn't as advanced as the G3 chip found in the Pixel 8 series, but it's still quite punchy, especially alongside the 12GB of RAM this phone comes with. Google also promises three years of software updates, and five years of security updates for this device. 

As you'd expect from Google, the cameras are excellent, if perhaps not quite as good as those on the Pixel 8 Pro. The three cameras on the rear consist of a 48MP main lens, a 10.8MP telephoto camera and a 10.8MP ultrawide shooter. Crucially, you get many of Google's excellent photo editing tools, such as Magic Eraser and Photo Unblur, to help make all your photos look as good as possible.  

Foldable phones are currently a lot more expensive than more conventional handsets, and you'll pay a premium for the design. The cameras aren't the absolute best, but the Pixel Fold currently offers the best cameras within the foldable category.

If you're already an experienced photographer who likes to tweak all the settings for every image they capture, the Xperia 1 V could be perfect for you. While most other brands try to make things as easy as possible for users, Sony really leans into the freedom it gives users to make their own choices with their photography.  

This means that anyone who wants a basic point-and-click setup where the phone does most of the heavy lifting, should probably look elsewhere. But for enthusiasts, there's a lot to like. There is a Basic mode which offers point-and-click photography, but that's not what this phone is built to do. Instead, the Photography Pro app allows you to alter things such as ISO, white balance, focus type, and much more.  

There are three cameras on the back: a 52MP main lens, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 12P telephoto shooter. The Xperia 1 V also has a new Exmor T sensor, which is designed to capture more light and reduce noise in any images. This enormously improves low-light performance.  

The 6.5-inch 4K OLED display is taller and narrower than most phones but looks great and is ideal for watching widescreen media. 12GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor mean this is a powerful, fast phone, although not quite at the front of the pack. 

In the right hands, this phone can deliver outstanding photos – provided you're willing to put in the work. If not, we'd suggest finding an alternative.