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    Best Phone Cameras

    There are lots of great phones on the market, but these are tops for photos and videos

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    iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra on pink background with camera lens graphics.
    Left to right: the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
    Graphic: Chris Griggs/Consumer Reports, Apple, Samsung, Getty Images

    Phone cameras might not produce photos with the image quality of a great point-and-shoot camera, but in many situations, they come very close.

    The phones featured below have been singled out by Consumer Reports’ testers as having the best cameras you can buy. (Most appear high in our overall smartphone ratings, too.) When it comes to portability and photo-sharing options, they make dedicated digital cameras seem cumbersome. And as the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have on you.

    Smartphones these days tend to have high-resolution sensors (48 megapixels or more) to produce sharp cropped or enlarged prints. All of the best phone cameras in our list have optical image stabilizers to help minimize blurriness from a shaky hand. And they can capture spur-of-the-moment video with high-definition clarity.

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    Most new phones offer two or more rear-mounted cameras in addition to a front-facing selfie camera. One rear camera delivers typical shots, and the others work as zooms or wide-angle lenses. Some phones can use the cameras together to produce a bokeh effect, which blurs the background while leaving the subject in sharp focus.

    More on Smartphones

    Storage is something else to consider if you’re planning to shoot a lot with your phone. Images and video captured by the best phone cameras are relatively large, about 5 megabytes per still image and several hundred megabytes per minute of video.

    If you’re a shutterbug, there’s a real advantage to choosing a phone that accepts microSD memory cards, such as the 6.5-inch Sony Xperia 1 III, $920; the 6.1-inch Sony Xperia 5 III, $700; or the 6.5-inch Samsung Galaxy A53 5G, $450. A card with 64 gigabytes of storage is easy to install and costs as little as $10.

    Memory card slots, however, are becoming rarer in new phones. If you buy a phone that lacks this advantage—Apple’s iPhones, for example—you can probably get by with 64GB of internal storage, especially if you’re comfortable using cloud storage. But if you’d rather play it safe, a smartphone with 128GB should do.

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    CR's Phone Camera Rankings

    Some popular smartphones failed to make the top 10 list below, but often only because the slightly newer models in the same series outshined them by a hair. (The iPhone 13 or Samsung Galaxy S23, for example.)

    The bottom line: Just because a phone doesn’t make the cut here doesn’t mean it has poor cameras. Our head of electronics testing, Richard Fisco, says that from a camera-quality standpoint, there’s little variation among the top-tier smartphones.

    In fact, the differences among this group are so small that they could be chalked up to variations in our test samples, he says.

    In computing the score for cameras, our expert testers rate the quality of the still images taken with a smartphone’s rear cameras, examining resolution, dynamic range, color accuracy, and visual noise. They also evaluate the quality of a phone’s front (or selfie) camera and the rear camera’s video quality.

    Many models can shoot in 4K ultra-high definition, giving your home movies a professional touch. And more phones are making use of AI assistance, whether for enhanced zooming or smarter photo editing on the back end. In any case, chances are this list will steer you toward a quality camera that’s more than capable of capturing quality moments.

    11 Best Phone Cameras

    When we take a close look at our ratings, these 11 phones are at the top for overall camera quality. For a deeper dive into what makes the options below great for shooting photos and video, see the model-by-model write-ups that follow.

    (Honorable mentions also go to the OnePlus Open and Sony Xperia IV, both of which break into the top 10 for the still-image quality of their rear cameras. And older models of the iPhone—including iPhone 12, 13, and 13 mini—still manage to tie for tenth place when it comes to rear camera video.)


    Headshot of CR author Melanie Pinola

    Melanie Pinola

    Melanie Pinola covered smartphones, home office products, and a wide range of other technology topics for Consumer Reports. A seasoned service journalist, her work has appeared in the New York Times, Popular Mechanics, Laptop Magazine, PCWorld, and other publications. Follow Melanie on X, formerly known as Twitter @melaniepinola.

    Courtney Lindwall

    Courtney Lindwall

    Courtney Lindwall is a writer at Consumer Reports. Since joining CR in 2023, she’s covered the latest on cell phones, smartwatches, and fitness trackers as part of the tech team. Previously, Courtney reported on environmental and climate issues for the Natural Resources Defense Council. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.