World Photography Day: Best camera smartphones for those unexpected moments of magic

“The best camera is the one you have with you at the right moment,” said the instructor at a Photography workshop I attended a little over a year ago. While the world has almost too many kinds of professional cameras – from the ultra-compact to the humongous – it is unlikely most owners will have these everywhere. However, some of life’s most beautiful, photo-worthy moments can come unexpectedly, and that’s when you’ll turn to your most handy camera – your smartphone.

Cameras on modern smartphones can range from below-average to absolutely stunning, and if you want all your photos to fall under the latter, you’re going to need a phone with good cameras. On the occasion of World Photography Day, here are some of the best smartphone cameras you can buy today to capture memories whenever, wherever.

iPhone 14 Series

Apple’s iPhones are synonymous with smartphone photography, so much so that you’ll sometimes find the best third-party smartphone camera accessories only for iPhones. The iPhone 14 series is the latest by the brand, and the camera on the four iPhone 14 series variants is better than ever.

This is especially true for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, where you will get all of Apple’s best camera features along with the new 48MP main camera, which can let you capture shots with some meaty details, allowing you to zoom in and crop to your heart’s content.

The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus stick to 12MP sensors, but you still get Apple’s solid camera optimisation, good compatibility with third-party apps, and brilliant low-light photography.

iPhone 13 Series

While the iPhone 13 series devices aren’t the newest bunch in Apple Store shelves, they still make for great cameras, and are still some of the most powerful smartphones out there too. Where the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max give you high-end features like the dedicated telephoto camera, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini will still offer some of the best camera performance at the price.

Apple’s last mini device, also happens to be one of the most compact smartphones you can carry around with flagship performance and top-notch cameras. With Apple nearing the launch of the iPhone 15 series soon, the iPhone 13 series is soon to be two years old and could hence see some big price drops. Keep your eyes open for a steal deal.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Coming to the Android side of things, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, Samsung’s most powerful smartphone right now is the first to come to mind. The phone comes with an all-out camera setup comprising a 200MP main camera, and a 10MP periscope sensor, along with the ultrawide and telephoto sensors, giving you a compromise-free camera experience. Multiple sensors also mean you always have the right kind of camera when you need it.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra can also deliver up to 10x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom, which allows you to sometimes capture a photograph at the right time, even when you’re far away from the right location. For those who also like to capture videos, the S23 Ultra is also one of the few devices out there that can shoot in 8K resolution.

OnePlus 11

The OnePlus 11 may not have the best camera among the phones on this list, but like most of OnePlus’s flagships, the phone does capture shots that are pleasing to the eye. The OnePlus 11 features a 50MP main camera, a 32MP telephoto sensor and a 48MP ultrawide camera, all of which capture photos that are processed with Hasselblad’s colour correction profile.

If you are habitual to shooting a lot of videos, especially on trips, you’ll like the OnePlus 11 for yet another feature and that’s USB 4.0 storage on the top-end 16GB/256GB model. This allows your phone to capture high-resolution videos of up to 8K resolution, which can now write to the phone’s internal storage at tremendous speeds.

Vivo X90

Vivo’s X-series smartphones are powerful, camera-oriented devices that come with a dedicated V2 Chip to help with the processing of photos, especially those taken in low-light. This works with the phone’s 50MP main camera, 12MP telephoto camera, and 12MP ultrawide camera, all of which come with Zeiss optics.

With Vivo’s FunTouchOS, you also get a lot of camera filters and modes that can turn your smartphone into a creativity hub, perfect for those trips to beach or a lit-up night sky between the skyscrapers.

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Those are some of the best camera smartphones you can buy right now. If you’re looking forward to buying a new flagship smartphone and consider yourself a little above the average photography enthusiast, you should consider the above-mentioned smartphones. One that you can simply pull out of your pocket in seconds when needed.