BEST CAMERA MOBILE PHONES

The Vivo X100 Pro has a metal and glass design which looks different from the model it replaces because of its new and larger camera layout. The phone runs the latest Funtouch OS 14 which is based on Android 14.The display’s resolution remains the same as before, but is now a lot brighter, reaching 3,000 nits of peak brightness when needed. It still maintains the same 3D curved edges which can be a bit distracting when viewed outdoors.Image quality is top notch and video quality too seems to have improved. Vivo’s unique floating periscope telephoto camera lets users shoot portraits from a lot closer than what’s currently possible on most smartphones, which is a nice addition to its overall impressive camera performance.The phone allows for a day and half of usage on a single charge thanks to its large battery and charging is pretty fast as well.

Xiaomi 14 has a lot going its way in terms of design, cameras, and performance. The smartphone is ideal for one-hand usage and scores heavily in aesthetics. The cameras with Leica tuning churn out some fantastic photos, while Snapdragon Gen 3 under the hood promises consistent performance. There's bloatware on board, which could have been reduced, and it is first with the company's all-new HyperOS. Xiaomi has finally cracked the premium segment, and Xiaomi 14 is one solid contender under Rs. 70,000 in India.

The OnePlus Open is the brand’s first ever foldable smartphone. It offers a unique and very camera-inspired design in its Voyager Black finish which has a faux-leather rear panel. The phone offers a large cover display which is good enough to be used as a regular smartphone.

The main folding display is a high resolution one and makes good use of the available space thanks to OnePlus’s Open Canvas feature, which lets up to three apps run in a triple-split view with an additional app in a floating window.

Camera performance is quite impressive for a foldable. OnePlus offers a brand-new Sony LYTIA sensor for its primary camera which does an excellent job at snapping photos in all kinds of lighting conditions. The telephoto camera also offers class-leading performance.

Battery life is above expectations and easily lasts beyond a day. However, the OnePlus Open lacks wireless charging, but makes up for it with a very fast wired charging experience.

The Google Pixel 8 Pro has a brand-new design which appears flatter thanks to its flattened rear panel and its new display. The display gets quite bright outdoors and being flat also makes for distraction-free viewing. The phone maintains its IP68 rating and also offers wireless charging features.

At the heart of this phone is Google’s latest Tensor G3 processor which allows for several AI-enabled software features to run locally instead of connecting to the cloud. Despite its benefits when it comes to new AI-features, it’s not exactly there with the best in its segment when it comes to overall performance.

Battery life is the same as the previous model and the same applies to overall camera performance as well. Video quality has improved drastically and this works well even in low light. The new AI-enabled photo and video editing tools work really well and the same goes for the new Pro Controls shooting mode as well.

Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max appears similar to its predecessor, but the company has tweaked and refined its design, mainly in terms of materials. The phone uses a frame made out of titanium, which has been used to reduce its overall weight.

There is a brand-new processor called the A17 Pro. It comes with several improvements in terms of performance and also brings added capability via the newly introduced USB Type-C port.

Also introduced is a brand-new Action Button, which is quite customisable, but by default replaces the iconic ringer/silent switch which has been a standard on all iPhones launched till date.

Camera performance as one would expect is top notch. The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s new telephoto camera also does a fantastic job snapping excellent Portrait photos in all sorts of lighting conditions. Battery life has improved by a bit, but charging speeds remain the same as before.

Oppo’s Reno 10 Pro+ 5G is its first Reno branded smartphone to make it into the premium segment. The device has a premium design with a polycarbonate frame sandwiched between two sheets of 3D curved glass screens. Despite its premium price, the phone lacks some premium features like an IP rating and wireless charging.

Performance with its slightly outdated processor is still quite good and will be sufficient for most premium smartphone users. Gaming performance with the curved edge OLED display’s 240Hz touch sampling rate is also very impressive.

Camera performance is quite good. While the primary camera performs as expected, the ultra-wide isn’t best in class. The high-resolution telephoto camera does an impressive job while shooting at its native 3X optical zoom, which is useful for portraits and close-ups.

Battery life easily lasts over a day with heavy usage and the included 100W charger is rather quick when it comes to charging the phone.

The Google Pixel 7a comes with several upgrades over its predecessor. Most of these upgrades and features make more sense thanks to the Tensor G2 SoC, which is also found in its premium flagships.

Its design, while using the same materials as before, appears a lot more premium even though quality has taken a bit of a hit. The phone also offers an IP67 rating.

The Pixel 7a gets a high refresh rate display which makes the Android 13 interface appear fluid. The phone offers the usual three years of software updates and five years of security updates, which is good to have.

Camera performance, while improved over the previous model, is also quite solid. The new chipset also brings some additional camera features like Long Exposure mode and a faster Night Sight mode. Battery life isn’t the best but you do get wireless charging.

The Realme 12 Pro+ offers a vegan-leather design for its rear panel and also has a very watch-like fluted metal ring around its revamped cameras. The phone isn’t just about a fancy design, but also packs in a solid IP65 rating for dust and water resistance.

Its processor offers more than enough capability to handle day to day tasks and multitasking, but also offers decent gaming performance. The phone also offers the latest Android 14 software but comes loaded with bloatware, which thankfully isn’t intrusive and does not affect the software experience.

Apart from its design, the phone’s biggest highlight are its cameras. While the primary camera performs well in all types of lighting conditions, the telephoto camera is the showstopper, offering excellent capability at native focal lengths in all types of lighting conditions.

Battery life is top notch and the phone easily lasts a day and half with regular use. Charging speeds are also relatively good.

The Oppo Reno 11 Pro offers a slim and rounded design which appears quite premium despite being made out of polycarbonate and glass. However it lacks an official IP rating of any sort and still does not offer a stereo speaker setup.

The new Dimensity processor is powerful enough for handling regular smartphone tasks and can even handle heavy 3D games. Oppo offers the latest Android 14 software out of the box but it packs in plenty of bloatware and double apps.

The phone offers a very flexible camera setup among which its primary camera offers the best imaging performance followed by the telephoto camera which is good for snapping portraits. Its ultra-wide camera is quite weak and the same can be said about the phone’s video performance in general.

Battery life is quite solid for a slim design-focussed smartphone but charging is very quick. 

iQoo 12 is a dual-SIM handset that runs on Android 14-based Funtouch OS 14. It features a 6.78-inch quad-HD LTPO AMOLED screen with a 144Hz refresh rate and 1,200Hz instant touch sampling rate. The display supports up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness and 2,160Hz PWM for low light dimming.

The phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and iQoo’s Q1 chip for enhanced gaming. It has up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 storage. It also has a 6,010 sq. mm vapour chamber with four cooling zones.

The iQoo 12 has a triple rear camera setup: a 50MP primary camera with a 1/1.3-inch OmniVision OV50H sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera with a 120-degree field-of-view, and a 64MP periscope telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and 100x hybrid zoom. It has a 16MP selfie camera with a wide-angle lens and f/2.5 aperture.

The iQoo 12 supports 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, GPS, NFC, infrared blaster, and USB 2.0 Type-C. It has an accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, compass, and ambient colour sensor, and an under-display fingerprint scanner. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery with 120W FlashCharge support and an IP64 rating for dust and splash resistance.

The OnePlus 12’s design uses premium materials like glass and aluminium for its construction and also offers an passable IP65 rating for dust and water resistance. Its 3D curved edge display shows vibrant colours and also offers a QHD+ resolution, which offers good sharpness.

The phone packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, which has enough power to handle anything one throws at it. The large vapour chamber cooling system also ensures that the phone remains cool at all times.

Its camera setup is similar to the one offered on the OnePlus Open and offers solid telephoto performance up to 6X zoom. Ultra-wide photos and selfies do leave a lot to be desired in terms of low light performance.

The phone comes with OxygenOS 14 and Android 14 out of the box. Battery life is excellent and charging is really fast. The phone also offers fast wireless charging as well. 

The Oppo Find N3 Flip offers a design which is very similar to its predecessor. However, it finally gets an official IP rating. The phone gets an upgraded processor which seems powerful enough to handle both daily tasks and gaming as well.

Its cover display still sits on the left side and is better suited to left-handed users. It can now run full apps but the selection of supported apps is very limited. 

The Find N3 Flip is the first clamshell foldable to offer a triple rear camera setup and they all perform well in all kinds of lighting conditions. Video quality however leaves a lot to be desired.

Battery life easily lasts a day and some more. The phone does not offer wireless charging but does offer fast wired charging. The software experience is quite smooth, but does include some bloatware and preinstalled apps. 

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 offers a large cover display which the brand calls ‘Flex Window’. The cover display is the phone’s highlight feature along with its new processor and revamped hinge, which also makes it appear slimmer than the previous model when folded.

Both the outer and inner display have excellent sunlight legibility. The main folding display also supports HDR10+ content.
The new processor offers better performance be it software or gaming. However, the device does tend to heat up under load, especially when using the camera.

Battery life is a bit average and charging is a bit too low compared to the competition. Camera performance is quite good overall. The phone also performs relatively well when it comes to low light performance. While the phone offers a primary and ultra-wide angle camera, it lacks a macro camera or capability.

The Razr 40 Ultra is a premium foldable from Motorola that has a design made from metal and glass which compliments its premium price tag. Its radical design starts from its cover display which runs from edge to edge and also features a high screen refresh rate. This cover display also has two embedded main cameras and an LED flash.

The inner display of the foldable variety. It uses ultra-thin glass and a new hinge to keep its crease at a minimum.

Software performance is quite fluid with no extra bloatware and third party apps. Motorola has also done a fantastic job of optimising its MyUX software for its cover display, letting it run full apps on the out screen.

Camera performance is quite good for a foldable. Battery life is average for a foldable smartphone at this price point, but wireless charging is a bit too slow.

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G is official with a starting price of Rs. 19,999 in India. The most affordable Nord series phone in India gets a bigger 6.72-inch IPS LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The screen is flat and houses a 16-megapixel front camera inside the hole-punch cutout at the top.

At the back, the Nord CE 3 Lite 5G has a 108-megapixel main camera. Its triple rear camera setup also features two 2-megapixel sensors for macro photography and depth mapping. The phone features a 5,000mAh battery with support for 67W fast charging out of the box.

There is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC. The phone has 8GB of RAM as standard and offers 128GB/ 256GB of storage. There is a side-mounted fingerprint scanner along with AI face recognition.

The Nord CE 3 Lite 5G gets Android 13-based OxygenOS 13.1 out-of-the-box. It will get two major Android updates and three years of security support.