Best smartphone cameras under €500 in 2025

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Beste smartphone camera's voor onder €500 in 2025

Whether you're a professional vlogger or just love photography, a good camera is essential. Not everyone has the space or budget for an expensive camera. Fortunately, these days, smartphone cameras are excellent for taking beautiful photos and videos. To help you get started and make a well-informed choice, we've compiled the top 4 best smartphone cameras under €500.

In this blog post, we'll compare the following four smartphones: Google Pixel 9A, Samsung Galaxy A56, Xiaomi 12 Lite, and TCL 50 Pro NxtPaper. Each of these smartphones excels in certain areas. Because of this, no one smartphone camera is better than another. It all depends on what you plan to use the smartphone for.

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Best all-round smartphone camera: Google Pixel 9A - €499

Google smartphones are known for their excellent cameras. This doesn't just apply to their flagship models, of course. The Google Pixel 9a is a prime example.

The Google Pixel 9a has a 13MP selfie camera and a 64MP rear camera. It can also record 4K video at 30fps.

The photos you take with the Google Pixel 9a are incredibly detailed thanks to its 64MP sensor with optical image stabilization. This allows you to take stunning nature photos or selfies with this phone. The phone's 6.1 inches make it easy to use and still fit in your pocket, so you can take beautiful photos anywhere, anytime.

Planning on spending a whole day taking photos? Don't forget to bring a power bank !

The photos have beautiful, vibrant, and natural colors. The camera quality of the high-end models is obviously better, but for a phone in this price range, the Google Pixel 9A is one of the best options. The Google Pixel 9A is available for just €499.

Best phone camera in the dark: Samsung Galaxy A56 5G - €349

Another budget phone with a very good camera is the Samsung Galaxy A56 5G. The Samsung Galaxy A56 5G has a 50MP main camera combined with an ultra-wide angle and a depth sensor. Thanks to improved image processing, the Galaxy A56 5G's main camera takes beautiful photos with plenty of detail.

The camera app is also fast and smooth, allowing you to capture excellent action shots. The camera also excels at night photography, thanks to Samsung's Nightography mode. This allows you to take beautiful photos or recordings even during evening walks.

Besides the 50MP main camera, the phone also has a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 5-megapixel macro lens. These are less impressive than the main camera. The wide-angle lens delivers significantly less detail, and the macro lens is good for close-up shots, but remains limited in quality.

The phone is slightly larger than the Google Pixel 9a, at 6.6 inches. The Samsung Galaxy A56 5G also supports 25-watt fast charging, allowing the phone to be fully charged in about an hour, allowing you to quickly resume taking photos. The Samsung Galaxy A56 5G is available for around €349.

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The best selfie camera: Xiaomi 12 Lite - €220

Within this price range, there is a clear winner in the field of selfie cameras and that is the Xiaomi 12 Lite. This phone is one of the few with a 32MP selfie camera. This allows you to take sharp and detailed selfies with this phone. In addition to the good selfie camera, the Xiaomi 12 Lite also has a main camera with 108MP.

This camera can take beautiful detailed photos. Even in low light, the camera can take excellent photos with good contrast. The Xiaomi 12 Lite does not have optical image stabilization, so it is very important to keep the phone still and stable.

If you have trouble with this, you can of course use accessories that keep the phone stable, such as a Gimbal .

The Xiaomi 12 Lite is on the large side, the phone has a 6.55 inch screen. The battery is relatively disappointing for the size of the phone, because it is only 4300 mAh. This will cause the phone to run out of power faster than the other phones on this list. The Xiaomi Lite 12 is available for € 220.

For long photo sessions: TCL 50 Pro NxtPaper - €260

The TCL 50 Pro NxtPaper is also an interesting option if you're looking for a good smartphone camera. The TCL 50 Pro has a total of three cameras: a 108MP main camera, an 8MP wide-angle lens, and a 2MP macro camera. These allow you to take various types of photos. The main camera takes very detailed photos with good contrast. The colors are vibrant, although they can sometimes look a bit saturated – especially with the wide-angle lens.

The main camera also lets you zoom in without much loss of quality, making close-ups look sharp and clear. Thanks to the large sensor and NxtPaper technology, it's also comfortable to shoot in bright light, as the screen reflects less and is easier on the eyes.


The TCL 50 Pro NxtPaper's camera sometimes struggles to capture enough light in the dark. If you're looking to take the best photos at night, you're better off choosing a different device on this list. The TCL 50 Pro's 6.7-inch screen is relatively large, making it harder to use one-handed if you have smaller hands.

On the other hand, the TCL 50 Pro has a large 5010 mAh battery, allowing you to shoot for extended periods without recharging. The TCL 50 Pro NxtPaper is available for around €259.

Conclusion

All the phones in this blog are ultimately capable of taking good photos. However, each smartphone camera excels in a different area than the next. Therefore, you need to understand what you want to use your smartphone camera for. Here, we've summarized the advantages of the different smartphone cameras once again:

The Google Pixel 9A performs best overall and is therefore best for all-around use.

The Samsung Galaxy A56 takes the best photos in the dark, making it a good choice if you often want to take photos at night.

The Xioami 12 Lite has the best selfie camera.

The TCL 50 Pro NxtPaper has the best battery life and can therefore take photos for longer periods of time without running out of power.

If you have any questions about smartphone photography after reading this article, please don't hesitate to contact us !

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