A guide to the best smartphone cameras 

Maybe you’re a budding photographer. Perhaps you love capturing magic moments in style. You could just want to snap the ultimate selfie. Either way, is your smartphone camera up to the job?

For many people, the ability to take high-quality photos on the move is one of, if not the, most important qualities to possess in a smartphone.

With this in mind, here’s a guide to some of the best smartphone cameras around at the moment. Now you’ll know the best options for your next upgrade. And whether you’re at the beach, a family BBQ, sporting event or music festival, your camera will record all those key moments in perfect quality.

There are a few vital features that anyone should look for in the ideal smartphone camera. Everything depends on what you need from your photo and video preferences. The key elements to consider are:

Many earlier-generation smartphone cameras struggled with colour definition, often displaying mismatched hues that looked somewhat artificial.

These days, an increasing number of smartphones have excellent colour rendering, allowing your images to be captured in their full glory.

While many smartphone cameras provide excellent definition and a range of different capture options when photographing something from a few feet away, historically smartphones have often struggled to maintain that definition while zoomed in.

That’s understandable, as the average smartphone has hundreds of different uses and isn’t built to match the quality of a dedicated camera with a specialised lens. That said, the best smartphone cameras are advancing at a rapid rate and have closed the gap in terms of the level of zoom distance and quality they provide.

We’ve all been there. You want to capture something awesome or memorable on a perfect evening, but you’re losing the light and can’t get the picture quality you’d usually enjoy in the daytime. 

Sure, you could put your flash on, but that often results in a slightly artificial feel, or a couple of people in the shot with their eyes half closed. Thankfully, some of the best smartphone cameras around are becoming increasingly adept at maintaining quality in limited light, which is a big step forward.

As the two most popular and successful smartphone brands in the UK, it’s always worth starting with Apple and Samsung to see what they offer in terms of smartphone cameras.

While the 12 megapixel camera used by models like the iPhone 13, iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 is good enough for many, we’re focusing on the very best smartphone cameras. It’s fair to say the iPhone 16 took a major leap forward, with new features like Camera Control – which allows you to access camera tools fast, so you capture memories easily and quickly.

The powerful camera system features a new 48MP Fusion camera with an inbuilt 2x telephoto lens, so you can take super-high-resolution images, and zoom in close. With the ultra-wide camera, you can shoot extreme close-up macro photos, or wide, more expansive pictures. It’s like having four lenses all in one. 

Both the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra offer an incredible combination of camera hardware and software.

They each boast a quad camera system, with a 200MP main camera, along with a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and two telephoto lenses. Plus, there’s a 12MP front camera. So whether you’re taking panoramic shots, zooming in close, or taking selfies, you can take stunning, detailed pics.

And with Galaxy AI, you get access to a whole range of new photo editing features. Did someone blink in a photo? Use AI to combine shots so everyone looks their best. Did something get in the way of your shot? Use AI to remove it, and it’s like it was never there. There’s so many ways you can make your pics even more perfect. 

In addition to the leading offerings from Apple and Samsung, some of the other best smartphone camera options include:

Both Google Pixel 9 and Google Pixel 9 Pro offer a game-changing photography experience. For starters, the big 6.3inch Super Actua display makes it easy to see what you’re capturing and you’ll get vibrant colours in every shot (even in bright daylight).

But it’s the triple rear camera system that you need to check out. It consists of a 50MP Octa PD wide camera, 48MP Quad PD ultrawide camera with auto-focus, and a 48MP Quad PD telephoto camera. And if that wasn’t enough, let’s not forget the 42MP Dual PD selfie camera with autofocus. Basically, you’re covered for every kind of shot.

Now that you’ve had a brief tour of some of the best smartphone cameras currently available, why not take a look at some of the options in more detail? 

You can click the links to individual options throughout the blog, or view all our smartphone options.