The Great Smartphone Camera War of 2019

Cameras are now expected to be a headline feature of the latest smartphones. Apple, Google, Samsung, Sony, and all the other manufacturers are incorporating excellent cameras, backed up by even better software. Now, the smartphone in your pocket can take photos rivaling those of point-and-shoots, and use advanced processing tricks to create photographs that mimic professional systems. The only problem is figuring out which one to get, especially since the companies have a tendency to battle each other for supremacy in the smartphone camera sector.

The One to Beat: iPhone 11 Pro

You either love Apple or hate it, but it is impossible to deny that the iPhone is the standard bearer for what a modern smartphone should be. The iPhone 11 Pro is certainly this company’s most aggressive push into photography yet, with three cameras, Deep Fusion technology, and a Night Mode.

iPhone 11 Pro

In terms of specs, the Pro offers an ultra-wide 13mm f/2.4 camera with a 120-degree field of view, a wide (standard) camera with a 26mm f/1.8 lens and optical stabilization, and a telephoto with 52mm f/2.0 lens and stabilization. All feature 12MP resolution, and the standard wide has 100% Focus Pixels for fast subject acquisition. 4K video is offered at up to 60 fps and you can swap cameras mid-recording if you want. It looks great. Now for the fancy stuff. Apple recently added Deep Fusion, a computational photography technique that captures multiple images to create a single, highly detailed image.