Which Smartphone Has The Best Camera In 2020 - Top 10

2023 Author: Gordon Kinson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 08:36

Engineering thought has reached a ceiling - further improvement of cameras is objectively impossible without a radical change in the design of the smartphone itself. All flagship models are equipped with almost perfect, from a technical point of view, modules and to determine the winner, you will have to go an alternative way.

As smartphone users race to fill their file storages and social media accounts with photos of cats, landscapes and their loved ones, engineers are racking their brains over how to improve their already excellent cameras. Moreover, the competition among the latter is even tougher, because the struggle is not for likes, but for millions of dollars of potential profit for the company.

Several years ago, looking at the camera results of the flagship devices of Apple, Samsung and other A-brands, it seemed that the evolution of these modules was about to stop. High-quality, "silent" photos even in low light conditions, ultra-fast autofocus, optical stabilization when shooting video - what more? However, there is no limit to perfection, the emergence of new features and improvements depends solely on user demand.

By mid-spring, all the leading vendors have already delighted the public with announcements and releases of fresh flagship smartphone models, which means that we can summarize the interim results. In this post, we'll take a look at the top 10 mobile cameras as of 2020.

All the smartphones presented below take excellent photos and videos, but narrowly focused specialists can still prioritize, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of a particular model. This rating is compiled according to the data of DxOMark experts and other reputable resources.

Which Smartphone Has The Best Camera - Top 14 In 2020

14th place iPhone 11

Unlike its predecessor iPhone XR, which had only one lens (standard wide-angle 12-megapixel module), the iPhone 11 received an additional ultra-wide-angle camera, which not only added the ability to "reverse" wide-angle zoom, but also significantly expanded the functional scope of the camera in general. Among other things, the iPhone 11 introduced: Night Mode, Auto Correction, improved Smart-HDR, etc.



13th Honor P20 Pro and OnePlus 7 Pro

Honor P20 Pro

The Huawei sub-brand pleases buyers with more democratic price tags and very good cameras, the experience in the construction of which is clearly borrowed from its older brother. The Honor P20 Pro does not have the same zoom capabilities as the Huawei P30 Pro or the latest Samsung smartphones, but it still delivers excellent shooting quality, rated by DxOMark experts at 111 points. The hardware characteristics of the camera phone are as follows:

• Main lens Sony IMX586 with 1/2 "matrix size, 48 MP resolution, f / 1.4 aperture, OIS and 28 mm focal length;
• 8-megapixel "telephoto", matrix size 1 / 4.4 ″, aperture f / 2.4, focal length 80 mm;
• 16MP wide-angle lens with 1 / 3.06 ″ size and f / 2.2 aperture;
• Macro lens with 2 MP sensor.



OnePlus 7 Pro

Like its DxOMark-rated neighbor Honor P20 Pro, OnePlus' flagship smartphone has a Sony IMX586 main lens and a 48MP 1/2 sensor, but with a slightly weaker f / 1.6 aperture and a 26mm focal length. Two additional modules are also practically indistinguishable: a telephoto 8 MP, f / 2.4 and a shirik 16 MP, f / 2.2, but the telephoto lens, unlike its competitor, has its own optical stabilization system. As a result, we get a smartphone that is capable of photographing and filming video at a very high quality level by the standards of 2020, for which it deserves a high place in the rating of camera phones.



12th Honor V30 Pro

Another top-end camera phone developed by Huawei specialists. One of the most noticeable shortcomings of the Honor V30 Pro, in comparison with the same Mate 30 Pro, is the lack of a ToF portrait camera, in addition, the smartphone shoots videos of noticeably lower quality, but at the same time it wins in direct comparison with many competitors on the market. The list of characteristics is as follows:

• Main: 40 MP, matrix size 1 / 1.7 inches, focal length 27 mm, aperture F / 1.6, optical image stabilization;
• Ultra-wide-angle: 12 MP, pixel size 1.4 microns, focal length 16 mm, aperture F / 2.2;
• Telephoto lens: 8 MP, matrix size 1/4 ", focal length 80 mm, aperture F / 2.4, optical image stabilization.

We should also mention the dual front camera Honor V30 Pro, consisting of a wide-angle (32 MP, F / 2.0 aperture) and ultra-wide-angle (8 MP, F / 2.2 aperture) lenses. Another advantage of the camera phone is the combination of phase detection and laser detection on each of the three main cameras.



11th place Samsung Galaxy S20

The new flagship Galaxy S20 Ultra has been positioned, in particular, as the best camera phone in the world, and therefore should compare favorably not only with competitors, but also with its fellows in the line. At the same time, even the difference between the Galaxy S20 and S20 + models was intentionally emphasized - the most budgetary smartphone did not receive the Depth Sensor module, the cost of which is not so high, but in practice, many Galaxy S20 users will feel its absence. This camera is designed to improve the now very popular portrait shots with background blur. The rest of the technical characteristics of the Galaxy S20 cameras are identical to the S20 +.

• Ultra-wide angle: 12 MP, dot size 1.4 microns, aperture F / 2.2;
• Wide-angle: 12 MP, size 1.8 microns, aperture F / 1.8, optical image stabilization;
• Telephoto lens: 64 MP, 0.8 microns, aperture F / 2.0, optical image stabilization;
• Hybrid optical zoom 3x, digital zoom 30x;
• Front: 10 MP, size 1.22 microns, aperture F / 2.2.

10th place Galaxy Note 10, Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus

Samsung Galaxy S10 and Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus

Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 + at the very beginning of 2019 set a high bar for the quality of shooting photos and videos for other manufacturers - both gadgets received a triple camera with an additional ultra-wide lens.

• 16 MP (Ultra Wide / F2.2), FF;
• Dual Pixel 12 MP OIS (Wide Angle / F1.5 / F2.4), AF;
• 12MP OIS (Telephoto / F2.4), AF.

In addition, the Galaxy S10 + has a dual front camera:

• Dual Pixel 10 MP AF (F1.9);
• 8 MP AF (with adjustable depth of field / F2.2).

DxOMark experts rated the efforts of Samsung engineers at 109 points, and this is a repetition of the high result of the Huawei Mate P20 Pro. Experts consider the main advantage of Korean cameras to be excellent detail and clarity of images even in low light conditions. In addition, the software functionality has been significantly improved, including: expanded capabilities of the "Live Focus" mode, added new animoji, real-time hints when shooting for beginners and specific options for professionals in the Pro section.

Galaxy Note 10

In turn, presented in August 2019, the Galaxy Note 10 received a main camera, which traditionally does not have cardinal differences from the six months older Galaxy S10 model. Nevertheless, some minor nuances and software improvements allowed the Galaxy Note 10 to take a high place in the DxOMark camera phone rating, surpassing the Galaxy S10 due to the video quality (experts noted a wide dynamic range and autofocus accuracy when observing an object).



9th place: Huawei P40

The line of smartphones Huawei P-series 2020 came out under the slogan "Visionary Photography", however, the expected breakthrough in the field of mobile photography, the company failed to make. Nevertheless, gadgets of the Huawei P40 family (P40 Lite, P40, P40 Pro and P40 Pro +) predictably took high positions in the ratings of camera phones due to the company's software developments and the successful experience of cooperation with Leica.

So, Huawei P40 has a main camera consisting of three modules:

• UltraVision main lens: 50 MP matrix resolution, 23 mm focal length, f / 1.9 aperture with Octa Phase Detection autofocus system;
• Ultra-wide angle lens: 16 MP, 17 mm focal length, f / 2.2 aperture;
• Telephoto lens: 8 MP, 3x optical, 10x hybrid and 30x digital zoom, 80mm focal length, f / 2.4 aperture;
• Front camera: 32MP with IR sensor to detect scene depth and apply bokeh effect.

When compared with the older models P40 Pro and P40 Pro +, the relatively low resolution of the telephoto lens and weak zoom capabilities are immediately striking, but the device is quite capable of competing with many flagships from other manufacturers. It should be noted that the Huawei P40 received a new technology of phase detection autofocus Octa Phase Detection, which was separately focused on during the presentation, as well as the ability to shoot video in 4K quality on the front camera.

8th place Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro Premium Edition

Perhaps the most anticipated camera phone of 2019, which was rated by DxOMark experts as equal in shooting capabilities to the leader of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro rating, but at the same time it costs significantly less than the competitor.

In the description, the 5-module camera Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro Premium Edition looks very impressive:

• Primary lens: 108 MP, 25 mm focal length, aperture f / 1.69, optical image stabilization;
• Small telephoto lens: 12.19 MP, 50 mm focal length, f / 2.0 aperture;
• Large telephoto lens: 7.99 MP, 94 mm focal length, f / 2 aperture, optical image stabilization;
• Ultra-wide angle lens: 20.11 MP, 16 mm focal length, f / 2.2 aperture;
• Macro lens: 2 MP, aperture f / 2.4

Add two dual LED flashes to this and you have a camera phone that is second to none on the market for these features. Nevertheless, in fact, an impressive technical description gives a result comparable to more modest, but more thoroughly designed and well-executed systems, for example, in the same Huawei Mate 30 Pro.



7th place Huawei P30 Pro

Shown at the presentation on March 28, 2019, the Chinese flagship Huawei P30 Pro has expectedly raised a new quality bar for premium camera phones. Successfully continuing the tradition of its predecessors (Huawei P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro).

To create photos and videos, use:

• Base lens with a resolution of 40 MP and an aperture of f1.6;
• Wide-angle lens with a resolution of 20 MP and aperture of f / 2.2;
• 8 MP telephoto lens with f / 3.4 aperture;
• ToF camera;
• Front camera with a resolution of 32 MP and aperture f / 2.0.

However, this is the very rare case when the advantages of a device are not very noticeable "on paper", but leave no chances for competitors in practice. The main feature of the Huawei P30 Pro is the ability to shoot in any lighting conditions and even complete darkness:

Such miracles are possible thanks to an innovative spectral sensor with an unusual average RYB structure (red, yellow, blue) instead of RGB (red, green, blue), which captures 40% more light.

Another trump card of the camera phone is the ability to 5x optical, 10x hybrid and 50x digital zoom (in detail). As a "telescope" the gadget uses a periscope lens with 5 lenses, providing a 125 mm focal length.

6th place Samsung Galaxy S20 +

The middle brother of the updated Samsung Galaxy line is significantly inferior to the flagship, but at the same time it looks quite worthy against the background of most competitors. Installed here:

• Ultra-wide-angle camera: 12 MP, dot size 1.4 microns, aperture F / 2.2;
• Wide-angle: 12 MP, size 1.8 microns, aperture F1.8, optical image stabilization;
• Telephoto lens: 64 MP, size 0.8 microns, aperture F / 2.0, optical image stabilization;
• DepthVision for portraits;
• Hybrid optical zoom 3x, digital zoom 30x;
• Front: 10 MP, size 1.22 microns, aperture F / 2.2.

As you can see from the dry comparison of the numbers, the lag behind the flagship is noticeable with the naked eye, however, there are a number of advantages over last year's models.

In particular, the Samsung Galaxy S20 + is also equipped with a "space zoom", albeit not as vigilant as the Ultra models - it is possible to enlarge the picture by 4 times through optical and up to 30 times through digital zoom.

The Nonacell mode was not implemented for the S20 +, but the device got a number of other flagship functions. For example, the Single Take mode, in which all cameras are shot for 10 seconds, and the result is short videos and several of the best, selected by artificial intelligence, pictures.

5th place Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro

The new flagship Xiaomi, timed to coincide with a decade of the company's presence on the market, was equipped with cameras on the most advanced example of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, only slightly inferior to the Korean manufacturer in detail. Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro camera specifications are as follows:

• Wide-angle: 108 MP, aperture F / 1.7, laser autofocus, optical image stabilization;
• Telephoto lens: 8 MP, aperture F / 2.0, pixel size 1.0 microns, PDAF, laser autofocus, optical image stabilization, 10x hybrid optical zoom;
• Portrait: 12 MP, aperture f / 2.0, size 1.4 microns, 2x optical zoom;
• Ultra wide angle: 20 MP, aperture F / 2.2.

Experts note that the main achievement of Xiaomi specialists was the improvement of data processing algorithms from smartphone cameras, which made it possible not only to make the process of shooting and save the result instantaneous (not least thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chip), but also to implement a whole list of new functions for users, which will certainly be massively applied in practice. For example, during the presentation, it was shown how, in a couple of clicks, you can add an effect to a photo that creates the illusion of a shot from behind the glass, on which "living" water drops are flowing down. In addition, a lot of work has been done to introduce new video shooting modes, among which the support for recording clips in 8K quality stands out.



4th place iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max

In the DxOMark ranking, the cameras of the iPhone 11 Pro / iPhone 11 Pro Max outperformed the South Korean smartphones Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, while the overall rating of iPhones was significantly reduced for video shooting - only 117 points, 124 for photos and 102 for video. Nevertheless, the company's experts noted that Apple was able to implement the technologies necessary to directly compete with the best camera phones on the market in a year.



Following the trends, Apple has equipped its flagship smartphones with a triple camera with the following characteristics:

• 12MP main wide-angle lens with ƒ / 1.8 aperture;
• Telephoto lens 12 MP, ƒ / 2.0 aperture;
• 12MP ultrawide lens with ƒ / 2.4 aperture and 120 degree field of view.

In addition, in smartphones in 2019, Apple has implemented a night mode that improves the quality of photos and videos taken in extremely low ambient light, which is relevant for all, without exception, lovers of mobile photography.



3rd place Huawei Mate 30 Pro

If we consider the technical characteristics of the cameras of Huawei Mate 30 Pro, then there are not so many differences with the predecessor P30 Pro and they concern, first of all, the ultra-wide-angle camera:

• Main: 40 MP, matrix size 1 / 1.7 inches, 27 mm equivalent focal length, aperture F / 1.6, PDAF autofocus, optical image stabilization;
• Ultra-wide-angle: 40 MP, matrix size 1 / 1.54 inches, 18 mm focal length, aperture F / 1.8, PDAF;
• Telephoto lens: 8 MP matrix size 1/4 inch, 80 mm focal length, aperture F / 2.4, PDAF, optical image stabilization;
• ToF 3D portrait camera.

So, for shooting photos and videos, roughly speaking, two separate modules of 40 MP resolution each are responsible, and the first has optical stabilization, while the second noticeably cuts the quality of the clips when using digital camera movement correction.

In fact, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro camera can offer a higher level of detail in the corners of the photo when shooting during the day and slightly less noticeable noise in low light conditions, the rest of the differences are almost impossible to notice with the naked eye.

As for the video, the main feature here is the slow motion mode with a frequency of 7680 frames per second. In the video below, you can compare such a SlowMo with a frequency of 960 fps.



2nd place Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

Certainly one of the best camera phones on the market in 2020, which fully met and even exceeded the expectations of Samsung fans. From a technical point of view, the device is equipped with the following main modules:

• Ultra-wide-angle camera: 12 MP resolution, 1.4 micron pixel size, F / 2.2 aperture;
• Wide-angle: 108 MP, pixel size 0.8 micron and 2.4 micron in Nonacell dot merging mode, aperture f / 1.8, optical image stabilization;
• Telephoto lens: 48 MP, size 0.8 microns (1.6 microns in Nonacell mode), aperture F / 3.5, optical image stabilization;
• Depth sensor: camera for portrait shots;
• 10x Hybrid Optical Zoom, 100x Digital Zoom;
• Front camera: 40 MP, pixel size 0.7 microns (1.4 microns in Nonacell mode), aperture f / 2.2.

As you can see from the description, the front camera of the flagship has been significantly improved in comparison with the previous models of the line, and with the younger versions of the Galaxy S20 / S20 + with the installed last year's 10-megapixel lens.

However, the main innovations concerned, of course, the main camera, which has the latest 108-megapixel module of Samsung's own production, which takes pictures with the highest level of detail and can combine pixels using Nonacell technology to obtain the optimal image quality and energy consumption. In practice, this means that the user can, for example, enlarge the resulting image several times, cut out the scene from the background and get a picture that is almost as detailed as the original image.

Another interesting novelty is support for shooting video in 8K resolution. Actually, such functionality is not very much in demand on the market, because monitors with such a high resolution are still very rare, but the owners of the new Samsung 8K TVs may well be interested in purchasing a flagship smartphone.

In addition, we cannot fail to mention the 4x optical, 10x hybrid and 100x digital zoom, which allows, with proper skill, to shoot objects at very long distances in quite acceptable quality.

Camera test: Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and iPhone 11 Max Pro



Camera test: Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Huawei Mate 30 Pro

Buy Samsung Galaxy S20, S20 + and S20 Ultra

1st place: Huawei P40 Pro and Huawei P40 Pro Plus

The main difference between the most expensive models from Huawei P40 and Huawei P40 Lite is the improved zoom, as well as the presence of an optical stabilization module on the main Ultra Vision lens. In addition, the flagships Huawei P40 Pro and Huawei P40 Pro + received an improved wide-angle lens. Huawei P40 Pro camera specifications are as follows:

• Main Ultra Vision camera: 50 MP matrix resolution, 23 mm focal length, f / 1.9 aperture with Octa Phase Detection autofocus system, optical image stabilization;
• Ultra wide-angle lens: 40 MP, 18 mm focal length, f / 1.8 aperture;
• Telephoto: 12 MP, 5x optical zoom, 125mm focal length, f / 3.4 aperture;
• ToF camera for taking portrait photos;
• Front camera: 32 MP with an IR sensor for determining the depth of the scene and the ability to shoot video in 4K.

The main difference between the Huawei P40 Pro + version is again a telephoto lens, or rather two at once. One of them is borrowed from the basic version of Huawei P40 (8 MP, 3x optical zoom, focal length 80 mm, aperture f / 2.4), and the second one involves shooting objects at a very long distance - this is an 8-megapixel module with periscopic optics, allowing you to realize 10x optical zoom. The focal length of the "telescope" is 240 mm, the aperture is f / 4.4.

Thus, thanks to high-quality German optics, proven AI technologies and new software capabilities, Huawei P40 Pro + at the time of its release is expected to take the first line in the ranking of the best camera phones in the world.



See also:

• How to take a photo while filming on iPhone and iPad.
• How to display photos or videos from iPhone or iPad to TV - 3 ways.
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