Best Smartphone Cameras

Smartphones these days tend to have high-resolution sensors (12 megapixels or more) to produce sharp cropped or enlarged prints. The best smartphone cameras have optical image stabilizers to help minimize blurriness from a shaky hand. And they can capture spur-of-the-moment video with high-definition clarity.

Most new phones offer two or more rear-mounted cameras in addition to a front-facing selfie camera. One rear camera delivers typical shots, and the others work as zooms or wide-angle lenses. Some phones can use the cameras together to produce a bokeh effect, which blurs the background while leaving the subject in sharp focus.

Storage is something else to consider if you’re planning to shoot a lot with your phone. Images and video captured by the best smartphone cameras are relatively large, up to 5 megabytes per still image and several hundred megabytes per minute of video.

If you’re a shutterbug, there’s a real advantage to choosing a phone that accepts microSD memory cards, such as the 6.5-inch Sony Xperia 1 III, $920, the 6.1-inch Sony Xperia 5 III, $800, or the 6.5-inch Samsung Galaxy A53 5G, $450. A card with 64 gigabytes of storage is easy to install and costs as little as $10.

Memory card slots, however, are becoming rarer in new phones. If you buy a phone that lacks this advantage—Apple’s iPhones, for example—you can probably get by with 64GB of internal storage, especially if you’re comfortable using cloud storage. But if you’d rather play it safe, a smartphone with 128GB should do.