jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Tony and Chelsea Northrup chose the Google Pixel 6 Pro as the best cell phone camera, with Apple in second place, and Sony in third. For their other "Best" choices, you can find them on YouTube - and point out all their bad choices.

ELNikkor

My son's Pixel 3a has an awesome camera; could just imagine how much better the 6's camera would be!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Probably three times better.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

It has been a couple years, but I bought a Samsung Galaxy S9 because it had the best camera that was NOT apple made. It still works amazingly well. Lightroom Mobil for it has a built in camera and the phone itself has a camera. The Lightroom part is unusual! When I first got it, I set up the auto syncing. If I take a picture with either camera in the phone and leave Lightroom running on the phone for a few minutes, I will soon have the image in Lightroom Classic, ready for editing.

I wish my real camera did that!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

3x2=6, so maybe just 2x better.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

The reviewers are not qualified to have a valid opinion. Though I will agree that the Google Pixel 6 Pro "appears" to have those in the know in their corner. As far as an iPhone is concerned, after my experiences with a few of their phones and a MacBook Pro in the past, I will never ever buy another apple product again. Too expensive for what is an average or less product.

srt101fan

Gene, if you rule out IPhones, what cell phones would you suggest? I have an old Samsung Galaxy that needs replacing pretty soon. Like the OP, I'm thinking about cell phone camera quality (Getting a bit old to lug a DSLR around on walks!).

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's a great feature.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

I use DXoMark.com for objective reviews. Here's their top 10 USA phones. The Apple 13s and Google 6 are pretty close. If you go beyond USA phones, the Hauwei P50 scores 144 and the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra scores a 143. I wonder why Apple let's Hauwei and Xiaomi best them.

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larryepage Loc: North Texas area

When I needed to replace my old voice (and a little text) phone in 2012, I came close to selecting a Pixel phone (or whatever it was called at that time). It had a camera with a <somewhat> real, multi-element lens. I ended up with a Samsung S4 instead once I realized that I already had a couple of cameras and several lenses that were a lot more capable than the camera in that phone.

In a more recent required replacement to become compatible with the new 5G network being activated in a month or so in our area, my choice was a Samsung S21+, primarily because it was a phone that I could actually get delivery of that had capability to handle a little growth down the line. After eventually deciding to play with the camera a little bit, I discovered that its camera (three of them, actually) is pretty surprisingly capable. It does quite a good job, even in difficult lighting situations. Plus I can carry my phone (with its camera) in locations where my camera (or even one of the vaunted mirrorless models) would never be allowed, like into a concert hall. And if I follow the same rules of composition and other technique that I use when shooting "seriously," I can get quite decent results.

Many here have bashed cell phone cameras and photographs, perhaps based on the thumbnails attached to text messages. Most of those seem to be 20-50kB images derived from the original images. While I still prefer my standalone cameras for serious photography and snapshooting, I feel like the time for the bashing is largely over. I now use that energy to help kids get the best results possible from their phones when they are looking for a serious image. And once they find out that they can, they then start looking for more of those "serious images." In today's world, a phone is pretty much a phone, but the camera is a focus of competition. They are all quite good, especially in the upper models, but the others tend not to be slouches either. I've seen kids do wonders with the output from the cameras in quite modest cell phones.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

I have a 4yr old Samsung S8 and here are a couple of photos I just took with it, pretty acceptable! That's a bottle of Tequila.

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Ollieboy

I have a pixel 3a think it takes excellent photos. I've had Samsung phones and will never buy one again because of the bloatware they pack into them. LG and Pixel phones seem to have gotten past the bloatware BS.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

RayJorg

A word of warning - I was an avid Google Pixel fan until I got burned. My Pixel 2XL suddenly refused to connect to home wifi - I live in a bad cell coverage area & rely on the wifi connection at home. Tech support said I needed a firmware upgrade, but unfortunately Google will not / does not allow firmware upgrades after 3 years! It's still a good camera, but useless as a phone/data device. Not sure if this is an Android issue or just Google. iPhones seem to be supported for many years, and I now have aniPhone 11 with a great dual camera.

For those of you that still don't believe cell phones have 'serious' cameras, visit the Mobil Phone Awards website at
https://mobilephotoawards.com/ or similar awards sites. Absolutely stunning photos. It's all about learning the tools available.

The cell phone designers seem to be well ahead of the traditional camera designers is using AI image processing. I have ceased to care much about the specs of the device and more about the actual image quality that comes out of it. I'm braced for the flame war that I'm sure will follow.......

kufengler Loc: Meridian, Idaho 83646

I plan on getting a Galaxy S22 or S22 Pro.
I was also looking at the Pixel 6 but decided to wait another month or so for the S22 line becomes available.
When I take shots with my present mobile phone the picture ends up on my Google Photos and phone.