A phone with a good camera? What smartphone for photos? We choose the best phone for photography!

Can a smartphone replace a camera?

I decided to start by asking myself this question, because the answer to it will tell us if it even makes sense to consider looking for the phone with the best camera.
It all depends of course on what and when you are going to shoot.
If you want to take photos, for example at the stadium, photograph football actions from the height of the stands, then on your phone you will at most receive beautiful photos of green grass with small colored spots, in the form of players' silhouettes. The phone won't do it here.
If you want to take a photo with a shallow depth of field, where only a small area will be in focus and the rest will be blurred, then the phone will not be able to do it either. It's just that the physical design parameters of the camera phone make it impossible. You can't fool physics. The cameras that I will propose below deal with it by adding blur in an artificial way (programmatically). Some deal with it really well, but you have to be aware that this is not a natural effect and mainly concerns the background, not e.g. the foreground.
If, on the other hand, you want cool, souvenir photos from your vacation, this is where you make room for your phone. A phone with a good camera will meet the expectations of most amateurs who want to bring back memories from their holidays in the form of photographic souvenirs. It is worth noting, however, that choosing a good camera is important here.
At the moment, all smartphones have a camera, but only some of them can be considered good. Most have a camera, because without a camera, no one would buy them. At the same time, in most of them, the cameras do not have the quality that we would expect from a device on which we are to capture the best moments from the holidays.
Summarizing this short argument: for the casual traveler who wants to have cool vacation photos, the phone can become the main camera. However, it must be chosen deliberately, not at random. That's what this article was for. To make it easier for you to choose a smartphone that guarantees good quality photos. I will say more, a phone with a good camera can successfully serve even content creators, e.g. for publication on the web!
How do I know that?

Experiment with a smartphone

I did a little experiment with a smartphone. During one of the trips (to be exact, a trip to Majorca) something tempted me and I decided to try to handle the trip as much as possible with a smartphone. Of course, I also had a DSLR with two lenses on my sleeve (you can use my equipment see at this link - [click]), but as it was supposed to, I only reached for it when I thought that the phone would not work.
I wanted to check:
- first: is it possible to make a material that will be satisfactory in this way,
- Secondly: How many times will I really have to reach for an SLR camera.

Only checking this in practice could give me a real answer about the real usefulness of a camera in a mobile phone.
A risky experiment with a rather unexpected effect. The phone handled surprisingly well. I admit that I did not expect him to do so well. Especially since I didn't have any special equipment.
The phone took a lot of nice photos, and the longer the experiment lasted, the less often I used the SLR.
Eventually, the next time I left the SLR stayed home and instead showed up in my luggage very good quality compact camera and phoneas a solid support for the compact. Since then, the SLR hasn't gone anywhere with me anymore. The suitcase became lighter by more than 2 kg and there was a lot of new space for clothes in it. It is all the more valuable as a suitcase in the form of hand luggage is usually the only luggage I travel with.

The effects of the experiment

Pictures are the result of the experiment. I could refer you to articles from Majorcawhich are hanging on the blog, because the photos in them come mainly from the phone, but to make things easier, I present a few below. The photos you see were taken with the phone. To make it more interesting, it was a phone from the previous era, to be exact Xperia XA. He made his debut a few years ago and I haven't had it for two years. Another, newer one has replaced it.
The phones that I will recommend are several classes better than the one on which the photos below were taken. This means that technically they are incomparably more advanced and versatile. This definitely makes it easier, and even guarantees taking really great quality photos.

Time for specifics

Below I will present a list of phones with short descriptions. In the descriptions, I will not delve deeply into the technical meanders of the equipment. I will only describe what is important for you from the point of view of use and the expected effect in the form of nice photos.
The phones I have selected can be divided into four groups:
- cheap phone with a good camera up to 1000 PLN
- cheap phone with a good camera up to 1500 PLN
- a phone with a good camera up to PLN 2000
- phone with the best camera above PLN 2000

I will present the phones in the order from the cheapest to the most expensive (i.e. opposite to most rankings). Each subsequent one will be a bit more expensive than the previous one. If you have an unlimited budget and can spend as much as you like on a phone with a good camera, go straight to the end. The camera at the very bottom is now almost unrivaled.
I chose not to post pictures of what the phones look like, because they all look the same: a rectangular, glossy tile with buttons (lenses) on the back.
If you miss the pictures of identical tile phones, please let me know in the comments below the article, then I will complete them.
Instead, as a short break from the text, I will throw in a few photos taken with my phone. This text is not about what the phone looks like, but what photo can be taken with the phone 🙂
Links placed next to each phone lead to the price comparison website, where you will find the cheapest offers for the model you are interested in. Links are dynamic and price statements are generated at the time of clicking, so the result is always up-to-date.

Xiaomi A3 - the phone with which I am currently taking photos

Be clear: my current phone (