Now that your phone is a portable camera, if you change your phone for a few years, you'll be pleasantly surprised to see that the improvement in your phone's camera performance, especially in low-light image quality, is too great. In fact, we've gotten to the point where you can leave your old point-and-shoot camera at home by putting a good camera phone in your pocket.
Characteristics of the current development of mobile phone cameras
Manufacturers such as Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi are undergoing fierce camera innovation in China, while Apple, Google and Samsung in the United States are already regular customers of the best camera phones. The original performance of these camera phones tended to be better, but now this gap is narrowing, especially in the case of sufficient light, the quality of the photo is almost the same.
1, we see the number of mobile phone lenses are increasing: many mobile phones now have standard lenses, magnification zoom lenses and wide-angle lenses and macro lenses. Monochrome or infrared sensors can help determine the depth of the bokeh.
Although ultra-high pixel camera phones are becoming more and more popular, such as the 108MP sensor on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, the advantage of ultra-high megapixels is that you can scale and crop images afterwards, or make lossless digital zoom in your camera application without the need for an additional magnifying glass. The downside is that individual pixels can sometimes be very small, which can cause problems for color capture or low-light photography.
2. Super zoom is also popular: phones now combine magnified high-pixel images, optical zoom lenses, and software to give you a 30x, 50x, or (in the case of the Galaxy S21 Ultra) 100x zoom. In general, anything above 10x will show severe digital zoom artifacts. However, when you use a mobile phone such as Huawei and Xiaomi, a good zoom of more than 10 times makes you feel the advancement of technology.
3) Large sensors are separate from high megapixels: Unfortunately, most phones sold in the U.S. lag behind international competition. The 1/1.33-inch main sensor of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and the 1/1.65-inch sensor of the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max are among the largest sensors in the United States. Compare them to the Huawei P40 Pro's 1/1.128-inch large main sensor and the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra's 1/1.112-inch large main sensor, and you'll see that we still have a long way to go.
4. State-of-the-art night mode: Nearly a dozen consecutive shots are now combined to illuminate photos and improve clarity. They seem to have long exposures, but they use artificial intelligence software to reduce blur by aligning various images together. (You still don't want to use them for moving bodies.) Google's Pixel phones, Apple's iPhones, OnePlus 9 duo, and Samsung Galaxy S phones all have great night mode.
5, the requirements for video are getting higher and higher: in the era of self-media, video is more important than ever. Optical image stabilization is always better than electronic or digital image stabilization, creating videos with less jitter is always the need of self-media people.
While 1080p video is still good enough for most people, many phones can record 4K, and 8K recording is fairly common on Android flagships
Slow motion can produce some exciting effects; while most phones can now capture up to 240fps (1/8 speed), some can reach 960fps (1/32 speed). Many phones also have other video tricks, such as time-lapse photography, hyper-time photography, and video bokeh.
Do you still need a standalone camera?
For ultimate image quality, optimal low-light performance, killer optical zoom, or good macro shooting, you still need a dedicated SLR or mirrorless camera. However, if you don't need to take professional photos, then a top smartphone camera will be perfect for you.
At present, the competition for the best camera phone is very fierce, and almost all mobile phone manufacturers have joined the competition in this field, which can be described as "eight immortals crossing the sea, each showing its own ability". With more top flagships expected in 2022 with even greater photography performance, we've gathered and collated a series of information to find the best camera models on the market this year (one already on the market). If you're interested, let's take a look!
The best camera phone expected in 2022
1. Huawei P60
The P-series smartphones are considered Huawei's flagship. Legends like the P30-P40 have confirmed Huawei's place in the high-end smartphone space, especially its ability to take top-notch photos that even the iPhone has to admire.
According to relevant sources, Huawei P60 will be launched in March and April, this new machine is not only equipped with a new "Kirin" processor, but also has amazing changes in appearance.
The Huawei P60 also seems to no longer have a punching function, and instead uses screen technology that hides the front camera, which is still not widespread. This shows that Huawei does have ambitions for further expansion, bringing its products closer to the highest level in the market.
However, Huawei's real weapon is the rear camera. Over the years, the collaboration between Huawei and Leica has given smartphones impressive photography capabilities. Although the contract between the two sides has ended, Huawei will try to keep the image quality of the camera at a high level.
According to the leaked pictures, in the camera combination of the new machine, the P60 series will be equipped with a single 50M main camera + 12M + 20M + 50X optical zoom quad camera combination. The front camera of the new phone, huawei P60 series, it will be equipped with a 32 megapixel front camera. This configuration is also the mainstream configuration in the current imaging field. They look very simple and sophisticated, and their large size guarantees impressive photography capabilities that put pressure on competitors such as Samsung, Xiaomi and even Apple.
2. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
On February 12, Samsung released the Galaxy S22 series of mobile phones, in which the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G truly confirmed the status of the Galaxy S series as a smartphone series with epic camera capabilities, allowing every user to produce professional content.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G camera is further enhanced by a camera quality upgrade that takes users' low-light content quality to a higher level.
Detail is even more pronounced in the Galaxy S22 Ultra's photos. Sometimes even a 100x zoom can be used, and a 20 to 30x zoom is comparable to the quality of optical telephoto. Night shots look better even when night mode is not used, and lens flares and noise are reduced. Samsung has been accused of overworking images, but the latest shot shows scenes that look natural. This is very impressive.
Samsung spent a year refining its software instead of spending its entire budget on enhancing image sensors. Perhaps the Galaxy S22 Ultra borrowed from Google's Pixel to improve photography with better, more advanced software features driven by higher-performance processors while keeping the camera essentially the same. For users, how to achieve photo quality is not important, as long as the effect in the photo is as good as the effect in real life, Samsung seems to have found a balance with the Galaxy S22 Ultra this year.
3、Oppo Find X5
We know the Find X5 Pro will be released on February 24, oppo has said it will be equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, and the camera will use its new MariSilicon X (NPU). The Find X5 Pro's camera will also be the first to take advantage of a collaboration with camera expert Hasselblad. On the software side, Oppo said the Find X5 series will use a new version of ColorOS, which may be built on Android 12.
It is also seen in the teaser image that its camera module contains two large cameras and two small cameras, as well as a flash.
The Oppo Find X3 Pro is one of the highlights of the 2021 phone, standing out for its use of the same camera in the main wide angle, giving you a consistent visual effect no matter which one you use. It provides a high bar for the Find X5 and we're excited to see what MariSilicon X brings to the overall camera experience, and that time is very close, we'll see.
4、iPhone 14 Pro
Apple will introduce a new camera module in its iPhone 14 series. However, it will not come with a periscope lens, as the technology that allows this is included in the patents (mainly Those owned by Samsung).
The iPhone 14 model will feature a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera, which will be a major improvement over the current 12-megapixel camera, as well as 8K video recording capabilities.
The 48-megapixel camera in the iPhone 14 Pro model will also be able to take 12-megapixel photos, possibly through a process called pixel merging. Pixel binning combines data from multiple smaller pixels on a camera's image sensor into a single "superpixel" to improve low-light sensitivity.
With this feature, the iPhone 14 Pro model may be able to take a full 48-megapixel photo in full light, but in poor light, it will use pixel pooling to get a higher-quality 12-megapixel photo, making the most of the 48-megapixel lens.
The iPhone 14 series will be released in September according to Apple's release rules.
5. Google Pixel 7 Pro
The Google Pixel 7 could be one of the most exciting phones of late 2022 with the iPhone 14. The Google Pixel 7 will be released sometime in October 2022. The Pixel 7 series is said to be powered by the new second-generation Tensor GS201 sensor, and for a long time the camera was arguably the most important feature of the Pixel series, and this will continue on the Pixel 7.
The Google Pixel 6 doesn't have a telephoto camera at all, and while the Pixel 6 Pro has one, it can only zoom in to 4x. For the Pixel 7 or at least the Pixel 7 Pro, we wanted to improve the zoom up to 10x and have the flexibility of zoom. There is also the fact that the camera technology under the screen may become a reality on this phone.
6. Sony Xperia 1 IV
We know that Sony does a great job with cameras, and it also sells cameras to many other smartphone manufacturers. Sony's phones aren't as high-profile as those made by Google, Samsung or Apple, even if their combination of hardware and software will attract more fans.
The Xperia 1 IV camera's ultra-wide sensor is the same as its predecessor (Xperia 1 III:12 MP Sony Exmor RS IMX36312), while both the main lens and telephoto camera have been upgraded. The MP configuration is likely to be a 12 MP + 12 MP + 12 MP output, which is typical for Sony's Xperia 1 phones that choose a large sensor over resolution; however, some pixel consolidation may be involved, as there is also information that the Sony Xperia 1 IV will come with a 50 MP and 48 MP Quad-Bayer camera.
The Sony Xperia 1 IV will have a "great shooting performance" thanks to the "improved design" of the camera. The phone is expected to be released in May.