Shootouts

2022 flagship phone camera battle royale showdown

By Trevor Tan & Liu Hongzuo - 7 Sep 2022

Scoring, choosing our winner

And our winner is...

In any comparison tests, there are bound to be winners and losers. However, we do think all the contenders here are solid shooters in their own right. And for everyday use whether you are shooting landscape or food, you will not do much wrong when you use any of these flagship smartphones. 

In fact, the winner here just happens to accumulate the most points through our extensive and grueling tests. At times, the category winner only narrowly wins its respective shooting scenario by a thin margin or by a certain criterion.

It is just for the purpose of this test, which involved hours of comparing photos and pixel peeping on a monitor, that we have to decide on a winner.

By giving a point to each category winner, we have managed to narrow down the shootout winner that has accumulated the most points.

Tallying all points in every category
  Main Camera 10x Zoom Ultra-wide Low-light Macro Selfie Video  Total Tally
Apple iPhone 13 Max -- -- -- 4
Google Pixel 6 Pro -- -- -- -- 3
Huawei P50 Pro -- -- -- -- -- 2
OnePlus 10 Pro -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0
Oppo Find X5 Pro -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra -- -- 5
Sony Xperia 1 IV -- -- -- -- -- -- 1
Vivo X80 Pro -- -- 5
Xiaomi 12 Pro -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0

 

Four good phones for photography and videography

If we look at how each phone was competent (or not) relative to other phones, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Vivo X80 Pro edged out excellent options like the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max and Google Pixel 6 Pro. We'd say you would be satisfied with the imaging quality provided on these four models, with the Korean and Chinese phone brands offering wider competency across more shooting scenarios.

 

Forcing a winner

A very close call for the Vivo X80 Pro, but a win's a win.

We'd give the tie-breaker to the Vivo X80 Pro between the high-scoring Samsung and Vivo phones for a simple reason.

While the Vivo X80 Pro did not score a point for macro performance (Samsung did better), Vivo scored a crucial point in its Main Camera performance, which Samsung had to let go to the likes of Apple and Google.

Now, for those who aren't very familiar with what else Vivo's top phone packs besides a great set of cameras, head over here to check out its highlights. If you're interested make the leap to the Vivo X80 Pro as your next smartphone, it's officially available via our major telcos (M1, StarHub), the Vivo official store on Lazada and Shopee, as well as in major electronics stores.

 

Choosing phone cameras that work best for you

Regardless of your choice, the best camera is still the smartphone camera you are carrying, because it is still better than not having any camera at all.

In fact, if you prefer highly stylised and post-processed images right out of the camera, you may not even agree with our choice of four handsets selected from our nine test models.

This also doesn't yet factor in your preferred mobile operating system. After all, they are also phones too. An Apple user might still prioritise its operating system over Android alternatives, seeing how Apple users are pretty much locked into its ecosystem.

Even among Android options, the cleanliness, safety, and intuitiveness of the phone also affect your final Android choice. For example, some users would still pick Samsung for its UI, while others who don't really care for the phone's productivity hacks might pick the Vivo mobile instead. Those that detest either option for their modifications might end up picking the Google Pixel 6 Pro, thanks to its "stock Android" experience, which going by our test outcome, is also a pretty decent shooter.

In essence, looking at a smartphone through its camera lenses only makes up one part of the full phone experience. We hope our feature article would have sate your curiosity around 2022 flagship phones that fare better for photography and videography.

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