The best camera smartphone of 2015

The best smartphone camera

And the best smartphone camera for 2015 is …

The Apple iPhone 6s Plus is the best smartphone camera for 2015. It’s not perfect, but it does the best overall job. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 comes a very close second, with better image detail in good light, but it doesn’t do as well in low-light, panoramas and video. Plus, the iPhone 6s Plus’ optical image stabilization (OIS) is surprisingly good, and makes a difference when you shoot both stills and videos.

Here’s a quick recap of which smartphone does best in what, with a short conclusion for each.

Apple iPhone 6s Plus

The iPhone 6s Plus is the best overall performer. Its optical image stabilization is best of class, giving you steady photos even in low light, and smooth video that doesn’t make viewers dizzy. It shoots the best panoramas out of the lot.

But it’s also not perfect. When looked up close, the iPhone 6s Plus’ images lack fine detail, especially when compared to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5. Its camera user interface is the easiest to use for most people, but lacks advanced features for more demanding users. HDR images actually don’t have that much of a dynamic range, when you place them against images from the Nexus 6P or the Galaxy Note 5.

Still, its overall strengths, and lack of critical weaknesses shared by its competitors, confer the iPhone 6s Plus first place in our shootout — even if it’s not by a wide margin.

Huawei Nexus 6P

The Nexus 6P does good stills in both good and low light, and has a totally random distinction for making the best HDR images. But its odd Panorama UI makes getting good panoramas nearly impossible, and the lack of OIS really hurts its videos. The camera UI is cold and barren, and if you get the 6P, our first advice is to ditch the native app, and find a good third-party camera app to shoot with instead.

LG V10

The LG V10 does well in good light, its images are full of detail, and it also shoots good HDR images. Unfortunately, there’s some ghosting in those HDR images, which makes it really good for still subjects only.

In low light, there tends to be a fair bit of noise. In both good and low light, colors lack saturation, which make images look flat. Rolling shutter is evident in its videos, and OIS isn’t available for 4K resolution. It’s too bad the camera UI lacks Auto ISO in Manual mode, as that would have given it the best ‘pro’ UI among the five smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 comes a close second behind the Apple iPhone 6s Plus, and is the best Android smartphone camera in our shootout. It has the best camera UI for both basic and advanced users. In good light, its images are full of detail, it does better HDR images than the iPhone 6s Plus, and its OIS works well on video.

Unfortunately, OIS is not available for 4K video, and rolling shutter is obvious on all video resolutions. In low light, the Note 5 applies noise reduction aggressively, smearing image details along the way. Its panoramas aren’t as evenly exposed as the iPhone 6s Plus’.

Even though these weaknesses place it behind the iPhone 6s Plus, I think that anyone who’s bought either the iPhone 6s Plus or the Galaxy Note 5 will be happy with the images they get out of either camera.

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium 

The Xperia Z5 Premium’s saving grace is its video camera, which actually does quite well. Despite not having optical image stabilization, its digital image stabilization manages to smoothen out the jerkiness on handheld, 4K video.

But its still images are plagued by harsh noise, even in good light. HDR images don’t look very different from normal stills, and panoramas are reduced to small, low-quality 3MP images for some reason.