The best camera phones

There were times when you wouldn’t even think about taking pictures from your phone, i for one always hesitated to take snaps and upload them online plainly because of the horrible picture quality. The noise and blurriness on the pictures were usually too high to make sense out of them, now however things have changed. Smartphones have taken over the market boasting impressive cameras. They have advanced so much that point-and-shoot cameras are at risk to lose their ground.

Even though they are very good in performance, but considering that there are so many smartphones out there with impressive cameras that it becomes hard to choose a phone on the desired basis, we are going to change that – we will list the devices with most impressive cameras and that could essentially replace your point-and-shoot device.

Coming top on our list (it’s a first) Apple’s iPhone 4s, it is not that we don’t like Apple – it’s just the fact that they introduce 2 phones every year and the buzz generated is usually shadowed by other phones. Now to come clear, iPhone 4s has one of the best cameras you will find on a smartphone, powered by dual core processor – the performance isn’t shabby either. The Apple iPhone 4s boasts an 8 mp shooter with capabilities of recording videos at 1080 p as well. There is a new back-illuminated sensor, F/2.4 aperture as well which is made by Sony. The overall performance is impressive – and there is very little noise generated by the camera.

There is a LED flash as well, to help you take a few snaps at the night. Along with the sharpness and noise-less (almost) pictures it captures them at very fast rate as well, for the first photo you will need 1 second, and for snaps in between half that – it was the fastest until Galaxy Nexus received Jellybean with performance improvement. But still the results are worthy enough to land it on our list.

contrast comparison (scaled at 5mpx) 

Samsung Galaxy S3 has generated a lot of buzz in the market, although the main feature or performance feature people look for in GS3 is the processor – Mind you it is the fastest we have seen, but the camera is amazing as well.

There is a 8mp snapper on board for the GS3, it can shoot videos as well – and that too at 1080p, but unlike 4s it can take snaps while you record your video – a feature we wish all the phones had. The resolution that GS3 takes snaps at is 3264×2448 pixels, there is autofocus and LED flash to take those random shots.

We argued that iPhone 4s results were impressive because there was hardly any noise, the Samsung takes the lead in brightness/contrast ratio and taking highly clear pictures. When the pictures are compared head to head the Galaxy S3 is a clear winner.

Now, jumping on to the big league, Nokia pure view 808. If you would like to sacrifice operating system flexibility and are ready to Jump on to Symbian OS than there is no better option than PureView 808. Reason simply being that 808 was designed to be a camera phone and not just another phone having a camera. tha staggering 41 megapixel camera (yes) can take ultra-clear pictures. Picture taken are at resolution of 41 MP (38 MP effective, 7152 x 5368 pixels), Carl ziess optics, auto focus and Xenon Flash tops the features.

And finally we have an underdog in our list, the Meizu Quad 4x, its the cheapest of the lot and offers excellent hardware – including a quad core processor. Meizu produces good quality pictures, and although you might argue that One X deserved to be on the list, here is a comparison of their picture quality.

The sharp pictures produced and when compared to the One X it produces a-lot less noise, it sports an 8 megapixel camera which can shoot videos as well at 1080p.

These are the phones we recommend for taking snaps, and if you want a camera based phone than the priority list is as follows.

1. Nokia Pure View 808
2. Samsung galaxy S3
3. iPhone 4s
4. Meizu Quad 4x
5. HTC One X

Although One X did create slightly pixelated pictures – but overall the phone specifications compensates for shortcomings in the camera, it will take very snappy pictures – provided you are willing to sacrifice a bit on quality. Let’s have a look at what these phones would cost you.

Nokia pure view 808 is available worldwide at $550 apiece, pureview is available in either black or white flavors. Galaxy S3 on the other hand will cost you $580 and it is available in white, blue, black, brown, red and graphite colors, iPhone 4s will cost you around $650 (unlocked) but we would not recommend buying it considering tomorrow a new iDevice will be launched. And finally the cheapest of the lot, meizu is available for $380 only. We have attached a few sample pictures courtesy gsmarena, check the links below for detailed pictures.

Nokia Pureview 808: Sample

Samsung Galaxy S3: Sample

iPhone 4s:  Sample

Meizu: Sample

HTC One X: Sample

We always welcome user recommendations, if you think there are better camera phones out there than please share your thoughts via comments.