No matter whether you’re posing for a sunny holiday selfie, capturing lovely family moments or just taking in the beautiful landscape, you want any photos you take with your smartphone to look as amazing as they possibly can.
There’s just so many different kinds of smartphone cameras out there all with different MPs, apertures, lenses and the like which can make it really difficult to decide on which one to go for. Here’s our pick of the top five best camera phones from 2017 which will hopefully make your decision a little easier.
Samsung Galaxy S8
On paper, the S8’s camera might look very similar to the Galaxy S7's with the same 12MP count on the rear side, f/1.7 lens and camera modes, but the huge improvement becomes immediately obvious the moment you start snapping away.
There’s no gimmicky extras just a clean, simple-to-use interface which can be handily operated with just one hand. Combine this with a lightning quick dual pixel auto-focus and you’ve got the perfect device for capturing thrilling high-energy action shots or lovely 4K video.
Automatic HDR capture also works brilliantly together with that wide lens, notably effective exposure and white balance to render all colours bright and bold, no matter how poor the lighting is.
Google Pixel
The 12MP rear camera with a speedy f/2.0 lens on the technology giant’s first non-Nexus smartphone was awarded one of DXOMark’s highest scores ever, beating out even the superb S8. While it may be a matter of personal opinion as to whether this is true, the Pixel’s camera is undeniably capable of capturing some truly incredible shots in all kind of tricky conditions.
A huge amount of processing power is able to push Google’s already excellent HDR mode+ to dizzying new heights so it’s able to perfectly balance out the vibrant colour palette and massively reduce blurring and background noise all while injecting huge amounts of sharp detail into your greatly enhanced JPEG.
The OIS have been replaced with a new gyroscope-based video stabilization system so shooting in either 4K or 1080p is always a really smooth experience.
iPhone 7 Plus
The camera on the enhanced version of Apple’s latest critically acclaimed flagship device is a noticeable improvement on the standard iPhone 7, featuring an impressive 12MP dual camera set-up and a number of heavily upgraded technical specs.
Placing a telephoto lens alongside the standard wide angled one allows for what known as Optical Zoom, so you’re able to get up to a staggering 10x closer to your subject without losing a single vivid detail. It’s a technique which a lot of premium smartphones can really struggle with but here Apple have ensured anything you happen to capture will look flawless.
All shades will appear much richer thanks to a significantly larger colour capture function and you’ll never find yourself in a setting that’s too dark with six new element lenses and a wider f/1.8 aperture that’s able to let in up to 50% more light.
HTC U11
HTC have expertly built on the success of the amazing camera on last year’s HTC 10 by equipping their newly released U11 with much-improved versions of their unique UltraPixel technology, HDR boost and an impressive 5 image OIS for unparalleled stability.
The U11’s camera enables you to smoothly capture the moment with ultra-quick dual pixel auto-focus technology and HTC’s unique Edge Sense feature which allows you to instantly bring up the 12MP rear camera even if your device is asleep.
Your shots will be consistently bright and excellently balanced thanks to the greatly enlarged ultra-pixel’s ability to grab huge amounts of light and by upgrading the front selfie camera from just 5MP to a staggering 16MP, HTC have ensured your selfies will alway look fantastic.
Huawei P10 Plus
Like with Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus, the dual cameras attached to the upgraded version of Huawei’s P10 smartphone are hugely superior to the ones found on the standard model with better quality lenses, a huge 20MP monochrome sensor and a wider f/1.8 aperture.
Black and white photos captured with the P10 Plus look absolutely stunning as you’re not just using a basic edit tool to layer the effect over the top of your photo but instead a proper fitted lens. Normal photography is brilliant too with the new 12MP Summilux lens and larger aperture working together to fill your image with plenty of even natural seeming light and plenty of eye catching colours.
Wisely, Huawei have once again chosen to engineer the P10 Plus in conjunction with classic camera manufacturer Leica so you can expect to enjoy all of the speedy efficiency and reliability you’d find in one of their first-class models.
