You told us: Truly terrible camera phones are tough to find nowadays

Modern smartphones pack pretty adept camera systems that perform well in most scenarios. Sure, older devices may struggle to keep pace with newer phones in this department, but even modern budget devices snap adequate shots. But do you believe the smartphone you currently own shoots great photos? We posed this question to our readers in a recent poll, and the results are now in.

Do you think your smartphone takes great photos?

Results

This poll saw more than 1,600 votes since it went live on December 22. Unsurprisingly, most (46.7%) of respondents feel their current smartphone is capable of “great photos.” A similar number of voters think their phones shoot “good” or merely “okay” photos, with a combined 48.2% of the vote. Only 5.1% feel their phone no longer stands up to scrutiny. Considering how difficult it is to find a modern phone with an awful camera, this slim figure is entirely understandable.

Of course, feeling your device takes “great” shots is entirely subjective, but that’s what matters most. We can only really tell the difference between two phones’ photographic prowess when viewing their images side-by-side. This isn’t something you’d be doing daily, either.

See also: How to pick a smartphone with a great camera

Your comments

• Martin Pollard: My OnePlus 7 Pro with LineageOS 18.1 takes pretty good pictures (when combined with a Google Camera port). I’d never compare them to a professional rig, naturally.
• TheLastBattalion: I voted for good. Depending on your standards, my LG G7 would take great to okay photos (okay if are used to DSLR cameras). I voted for good as I can use the manual settings and get better photos than most of the auto settings on other cameras, I particularly like how easy it is to tell if something is in focus and it gives you a lot of control over the settings (including in videos which I am a fan of). On auto, it is decent but I mainly use the phone in manual settings. Most phones are good enough for the average person (particularly in 2021 compared to 6+ years ago), so I guess that the majority of the people who will vote will say that their phones take great photos.
• Alpha Bravo: I’m not too happy with my OnePlus 8 photos, I even think that a Midrange phone can take better photos.
• Radiohedgefund: Buying a smartphone is like buying a TV. Constantly compare it to the others in the showroom and you will never be happy; live with it on your own merits and you will be. I have an Xperia 10 iii which on paper isn’t a great camera phone and yet coming allegedly down from a OnePlus 7t Pro I found the images to be a lot less noisier. I am also a semi-professional photographer so I compare phones to a proper camera and I’ve only ever found Sony handsets to allow the user to actually take the photos themselves instead of being babysat by algorithms doing it for them.

That’s it for this poll. Thanks for your votes and comments. If you have any additional thoughts about your smartphone’s camera capabilities or the poll results, be sure to drop a comment below.