Choosing the best camera phone in 2019 is nearly like picking the top smartphone overall, now that photographic capability has become such an important feature in handsets, and smartphones with amazing cameras are popping up left, right and center from brands like Google, Huawei and Samsung.
The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are Apple's newest smartphones, and they're clearly vying for top spot – but in 2019, when Apple's competitors have overtaken it, and iPhone are no longer top dog for smartphone photography, where will they place in our rankings? We've got the handsets in for testing, and you can expect a verdict very soon.
Our testing is more thorough than simply looking at a specifications list, or picking whatever handset is newest – so much of a camera phone's quality is determined by software optimization as much as sensor and lens power.
At TechRadar we put all smartphone cameras through rigorous testing in different lighting conditions, scenarios, and subjects, to work out how each camera performs at different tasks.
Beyond the specs and capabilities of the camera itself, there are a number of aspects about the phone you’ll also want to consider. For example, getting a high-storage option or one that supports a microSD card will be helpful if you capture lots of 4K video, and battery size and screen quality help you in various ways too.
So to help you, we've compiled this list of the best camera phones, that we've tested extensively, to help you when it comes to choosing your next camera phone.
Of course, we could well see new entrants to this list before the year is out. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10 Plus have recently been announced, and we expect to see the iPhone 11, Google Pixel 4 and Huawei Mate 30 Pro all launch in the coming months.
Best camera phones 2019 at a glance:
- Huawei P30 Pro
- Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
- Huawei Mate 20 Pro
- iPhone XS / iPhone XS Max
- Samsung Galaxy Note 9
The Huawei P30 Pro has been meticiously engineered to be the best cameras phone. How? Two ways: it's the best low-light performer we've tested and its 'periscope' telephoto lens takes astounding optically zoomed-in shots at a distance.
There were a lot of cameras to test on this phone, including four on the back: a 40MP main lens, an 8MP telephoto lens, a 20MP ultra-wide lens, and then a ToF (time-of-flight) camera to sense depth for portrait photos.
The Huawei P30 Pro camera also uses an RYYB (red yellow yellow blue) sensor instead of the industry standard RGB (red green blue) sensor to capture more light, and it shows. The snaps we took for our review had more detail and less shadow than the competition, yet they didn't look completely overexposed. It's a fine balance that few phone manufacturers get right with their tiny cameras and limited software.
It's all amazing for a smartphone, but not entirely perfect. We did notice some purple fringing in areas, and the camera software controls aren't always responsive when switching between ultra-wide, 5x zoom, 10x zoom and digital 50x zoom. But the fact that you can get insanely close to objects with a 50x zoom and also shoot at night as if all of the lights were on really sets a new bar for camera phones in 2019.
Read our full review: Huawei P30 Pro
The Galaxy S10 Plus, along with the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10e, debut cameras new to Samsung owners. In addition to an improved regular camera and a 2x optical telephoto lens on the S10 and S10 Plus, there's also a 123-degree ultra-wide lens on the back of the trio of phones.
We found the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus to be extremely versatile and fun to shoot with. This is mainly down to its best-in-class camera software. It's feature-packed with modes like Color Point. It's a Live Focus (bokeh) mode that masks the background in grayscale, while letting your subject pop. You can change this in post (to become a blur or a swirling blur) and slide the intensity up and down. It's our favorite new camera mode of 2019.
Where does it fall short? Samsung's photos apply aggressive smoothing to mask noise in low-light, preventing it from topping the Google Pixel 3 and Huawei P30 Pro. You're not going to get the very best shots next to those phones, but we've still consider them really good and the huge 6.4-inch display to be the best.
Note: the Samsung Galaxy S10e has the new ultra-wide lens, but lacks the telephoto lens, while the standard S10 lacks the dual-front facing camera of the Plus (though we didn't see much difference between portrait selfies on the Plus and the normal S10).
Read our full review: Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
With three rear cameras the Huawei Mate 20 Pro offers a highly versatile camera phone experience.
The P20 Pro ushered in this era of great Huawei cameras, and the Mate 20 Pro inherits its 40MP wide-angle f/1.8 lens and 8MP, f/2.4 3x telephoto with OIS and then builds on it further.
Rounding out that trio of rear-facing cameras is the new star, an ultra-wide 16MP, f/2.2 lens. It expands the Mate 20 Pro's feature set, letting you take a wider array of photos from limited positions.
Even for casual shooting, it makes life easier when trying to fit a bunch of far-flung elements in the same photo.
The Mate 20 Pro's overall low-light performance is superior to that of most other smartphones we tested, especially with its seconds-long-exposure Night Mode.
The phone's 3x telephoto does a great job of snagging distant shots, and the hybrid 5x zoom adds a digital blend to give you a bit more reach. It’s not perfect, but in our comparative testing, it outdid some digital-only zooms like on the Google Pixel 3.
There's a host of other features in the camera app on the Mate 20 Pro too, allowing you to really fine tune and tinker with the photography experience.
Read our full review: Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Apple's latest iPhone duo boast powerful dual rear cameras, but it's not just the specs that appeal about the firm's mobile photography experience – it's also the ease of use of their smartphone snappers.
The iPhone camera app is well known for being a simple, clutter-free interface, focused on taking great snaps every time with minimal controls, modes and settings for the user to worry about.
It means that you don't quite get the same breath of shooting options as you do on the likes of the Samsungs and Huaweis, but the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max boast Apple's best smartphone snappers to date, with improvements to their low-light capabilities.
If you want a phone to pull out and take a quick snap with minimum effort, the new iPhones are some of the best camera phones around.
Apple has popularized the blurred background Bokeh effect, and Portrait Mode is one of the best implementations of the technology we've used on a smartphone, with a range of studio lighting effects adding extra pizzazz to your compositions.
Both the iPhone XS and XS Max have exactly the same dual 12MP rear cameras, with the only differences between the two being screen size, battery size and their physical size.
The 6.5-inch display on the iPhone XS Max gives you a huge viewfinder when it comes to snapping photos, but it comes with an equally huge price tag, with the still-expensive iPhone XS producing the same results in a smaller form factor.
Read our full reviews: iPhone XS | iPhone XS Max
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 builds on the strong camera offering of the Galaxy S9 Plus, with a number of small enhancements making it even better.
The result is a handset which is comfortable shooting in any scenario, including in low light, for some truly impressive shots.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 camera identifies and adapts to various subjects with a new scene-optimizer feature. It adjusts the white balance and color based on 20 subjects as varied as sunsets, flowers, food, birds, text and so forth.
Compared to even the six-month-old S9 Plus, the Note 9 camera captures more detail, but you'll have to squint to see the differences.
As this is a Note device, you get Samsung's S Pen stylus included with the handset, and you can use the button on this as a remote shutter key.
It means you can set the Galaxy Note 9 down on a surface and walk away from it and still snap a shot using the S Pen. It's a relatively minor perk, but one we enjoy using.
One slight mark against the Note 9 is its lack of HDR video recording, but for many this won't be an issue.
Read our full review: Samsung Galaxy Note 9
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