Why phone camera comparisons are largely meaningless in 2023

Back in the day - 2007 to 2017, roughly, for a decade, I was one of the most active phone camera comparison writers in the world. Writing mainly on the All About sites (still largely up, though inactive for 18 months now), I pitched the trailblazer camera phones of the day against each other - and had enormous fun doing so.

There were leaps forward every year - and these were evident on the screen, with 1:1 crops from phone camera photos showing dramatically better results, especially in low light, as time went on. But there came a point (around 2012) where, in good light, any phone camera can produce good shots. Then there came a point (around 2018) where, in low light, ditto - you'd really have to pixel peep to see differences. 

Fast forward to 2023 and the quality of a phone-shot photo depends far less, I contend, on the actual phone being used, and far more on the skill and imagination of the person taking the photo. In other words, the phone camera hardware isn't really the bottleneck in the same way as it absolutely was in 2007, say.

(Note that I'm talking about unzoomed photos, see below for some zoom comment!)

The diagram above (I've included some prominent and noteworthy camera phones on the timeline, to add context and flavour!) illustrates what I mean. From phone cameras that could shoot tiny grainy images in 2004 to units which rival DSLRs, we've come quite a way. Back at the start of my decade of phone camera testing, the hardware was very definitely the bottleneck and there were times when I'd wish I'd brought along my 35mm compact camera instead, in order to capture what I wanted.

As time went on, the hardware became less of a bottleneck and anyone can take a snap in 2023, getting a result that's clear, in focus and without much noise or grain. 

Making comparing phone cameras rather pointless: "Here are results from four phone cameras, and oh yes, they all look identical. So let's crop in to 1:1 - oh yes, they still look identical, etc.!" And where photos are different in appearance, it's usually more down to exactly where the centre of frame was in regards to the light source, a slight difference here can change focus and exposure. Or differences in colours and saturation will be down to personal preference - and usually customisable in Settings anyway.

My test photos from years gone by exemplify the sort of shot which will - literally - look identical, no matter which phone camera shot it. A few examples:

(in low, artificial light, a festive example from this month!)

(low light again, inside a big church)

(the sun's out, plenty of detail, static subject, yada yada - again this could have been shot with a £100 budget phone with zero issues)

Of course, there's what makes a really interesting photo - and that's down to the imagination, skill and framing capabilities of the user. Here's are a few of my own (ahem) arty shots from the last year, for example:

(shooting into the sun to highlight the water spray and general HDR)

(Getting right down the floor and up close to this grasshopper for maximum 'monster' effect!)

I'm sure you've taken some cracking shots too - these days, phone photography is mostly about what you can see around you and then imagine framed. Not so much which phone is in your pocket.

Of course, web sites continue to pitch phone cameras head to head, long after I stopped doing this on the All About sites. In order to find differences these days, you have to step into two areas: zoom and video capture. Zoom is interesting and we've seen 5x, 6x, and even 10x telephoto lenses in flagship phones, though a) these can't be used when light is low, and b) using such 'long' lenses in day to day life isn't common or practical, as I've mused before.

Video capture is starting to plateau too, albeit five years behind still photography. We're now starting to see 4K/60fps footage starting to be good enough across the board on top end phones and within a few years this will be near identical further down the range, I predict.

So the next time a web site or YouTuber presents a iPhone A versus Galaxy B versus Pixel C style imaging comparison, don't be surprised if there's really not much in it across the board and conclusions are vague!

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