Best smartphone cameras in 2026

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Beste smartphone camera's in 2026

A good camera is one of the most important reasons to choose a smartphone these days. Want the best of the best? In this blog post, we'll list the best smartphone cameras available right now.

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1. Best Zoom and Macro Photography Smartphone Camera: Google Pixel Pro 9 XL

Google's Pixel series is known for its good cameras. With the Pro 9, Google has once again succeeded in making a smartphone with an excellent camera. The Google Pixel Pro 9 XL has 4 different cameras.

  • Main camera (50 megapixel)
  • Ultra-wide-angle camera (48 megapixel)
  • Telephoto camera (48 megapixel)
  • Front camera (42 megapixel)

The Google Pixel Pro 9 has a very good ultra-wide-angle camera. It has 48 megapixels, while the competition often only has 12 megapixels. In addition, the ultra-wide-angle camera focuses from a distance of 2 centimeters, ideal for macro photography, for example. Are you planning to photograph flowers or insects? Then this is the smartphone camera for you. Thanks to the 48 megapixel periscopic telephoto camera, you can now zoom up to 5 times without loss of quality. This is fantastic compared to the competition. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S24 can only zoom up to 3 times optically before there is a loss of quality.

The Google Pixel Pro 9 can shoot video with 4k at 30fps. In addition, the Google Pixel 9 phones are also equipped with a good camera app. The camera app has, among other things, a handy Add-me function. This allows you to combine multiple photos with a group photo, so that everyone can choose the photo where they look best and then merge them into 1 photo.

2. Best Smartphone Camera for Video: iPhone 17 Pro Max

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has similar photography specs to the Google Pixel Pro 9. The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a:

  • Main camera (48 megapixel)
  • Ultra-wide-angle camera (48 megapixel)
  • Telephoto camera (48 megapixel)
  • Front camera (18 megapixel)

The biggest difference with the Google Pixel is the telephoto lens. The Google Pixel Pro 9 offers up to 5x optical zoom, while the iPhone 17 Pro Max offers up to about 8x optical-quality zoom.

Where the iPhone 17 Pro Max truly excels is video. The Pro Max can record 4K at 120 fps and supports professional video formats like ProRes, while the Pixel excels in AI photography.

This makes the iPhone 17 Pro Max ideal for vloggers, YouTubers, or videographers. In videos recorded with this smartphone, you'll barely notice any difference in quality compared to professional video cameras.

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3. Best Budget Premium Smartphone Camera: Motorola Edge 50 Ultra

Not everyone has 1000+ euros to spend on a good smartphone camera. Fortunately, there are also a number of brands that are still considered premium, but are a bit less expensive.

The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra has a very good camera and costs "only" €650. The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra has the following cameras:

  • Main camera (50 megapixels)
  • Ultra-wide-angle camera (50 megapixels)
  • Telephoto camera (64 megapixels)
  • Front camera (12 megapixels)

The phone scores very well on both photo and video. For example, you can zoom in 3 times without loss of quality. Of course, the phone cannot be compared to the flagship models of Google Pixel and Apple, but for the price this phone performs extremely well.

4. Best Samsung smartphone camera: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

One of the "older" models on this list is the Samsung Galaxy S24. The S24 is almost a year old. Given the speed at which technology is developing, the other models in this comparison deliver better performance in many areas. However, Samsung is a smartphone brand that generally always delivers excellent performance. While the other phones excel in specific aspects of photography and videography, the S24 performs very well in general. The S24 has the main camera with the highest resolution on this list, namely 200 megapixels:

  • Main camera (200 megapixels)
  • Wide angle camera (12 megapixels)
  • Telephoto camera 1 (10 megapixels)
  • Telephoto camera 2 (50 megapixels)

The Samsung Galaxy S24 also has the ability to film 1080p at 960fps. This is ideal for filming cool stunts in slow motion, for example. Just like the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the S24 can also film 30/60/120 fps at 4k. In addition, the Samsung S24 is also one of the few smartphones that can currently film at 8k. However, this is only possible at 24/30 fps.

If you have any questions about smartphone photography after reading this article, please feel free to contact us !

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