2018 has been an incredible year for smartphone photography, with smartphones getting more cameras, larger apertures and most importantly, bigger sensors. We tested them all to find out which smartphone camera is the best of the lot.
Smartphone manufacturers put a lot of emphasis on photography in the year 2018, dedicating a significant chunk of their R&D to figuring out how to deliver better photo and video content out of the smartphone that carries their brand name. Given the increasingly connected world we live in and the popularity of photo sharing sites and platforms, photography has become one of the loudest ways in which we are expressing ourselves. This growing trend has forced manufacturers to understand the limitations of their hardware and push beyond it, with 2018 seeing some of the most innovative solutions. We’ve seen some very surprising implementation of machine learning and even some hardware level changes, all of which has resulted in some amazing camera smartphones for buyers to choose from. However at Zero1, there can only be one winner and we spend a lot of time figuring out who that would be.
2018 Zero1 Award Winner
Huawei Mate 20 Pro (Review)
While the year 2018 saw every smartphone maker resort to software-based enhancements to their imaging stack, Huawei went back to the basics; hardware. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro brings with it a triple camera setup with Leica branded lenses, offering the most diverse focal length options in the smartphone world. We get a 40 megapixel 1/1.7” sensor for the primary 27mm lens, the largest on a modern day flagship smartphone. The secondary 20-megapixel sensor has a 16mm lens with an aperture of f/2.2 while the third 8-megapixel sensor is paired with an 80mm lens with an aperture of f.2.4. As of now, Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro and the P20 Pro are the only smartphones offering an 80mm telephoto lens. The result is an imaging device that produces some beautiful images in practically every lighting condition. The large 40-megapixel sensor offers excellent detail reproduction and the camera’s software takes things up a notch. The stock camera app allows shooting in RAW mode through all three lenses, a feature that will be loved by buddying and professional photographers alike. While the Google Pixel 3 XL’s camera offered impressive HDR-enabled images, the Mate 20 Pro wins the Zero1 Award for the best smartphone camera due to consistent, class-leading performance from all three lenses.
Runner-up
Google Pixel 3XL (Review)
The Google Pixel 3 XL continues Google’s tradition of proving that the company can bend a lot of rules of imaging using just software. Without increasing the sensor size of adding an additional camera, the Pixel 3 XL achieves the best implementation of Portrait Mode, and also one of the most impressive implementations of in-camera HDR. The Google Pixel 3 XL also jumps ahead of all other smartphones (save the Huawei Mate 20 Pro) thanks to its Night Sight mode which shoots low-light photos as if they were shot using a long exposure. The Google Pixel 3 XL’s single camera is capable of providing you with the peace of mind that if you were to take a photo with it, it would turn out good, at least in terms of colour and contrast. What would pinch many though is the lack of a secondary lens, which would allow users to explore their creativity. The single lens can be incredibly restrictive.
Best Buy
Samsung Galaxy S9 (Review)
Samsung’s big camera-centric innovation this year was the dual aperture for the wide angle lens which would enable better control over ambient light. Additionally, Samsung’s smallest flagship sports a camera that has impressed us with both its colour reproduction and the amount of detail it captures. The smartphone produces images with good colour reproduction and enough contrast for them to appear tack sharp. In low light, the images are noise-free, but at the cost of some detail. Given the level of performance offered by the Samsung Galaxy S9’s camera for the price, it becomes our Best Buy recommendation for Zero1.
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Swapnil Mathur
Swapnil was Digit's resident camera nerd, (un)official product photographer and the Reviews Editor. Swapnil has moved-on to newer challenges. For any communication related to his stories, please mail us using the email id given here. View Full Profile
