The Camera Battle Among Flagship Phones This Year Was Easily the Fiercest and Most Exciting

I have to say that this year's camera battle among flagship phones was something else entirely. As a cameraphone enthusiast, I was excited to see how each device would perform in different lighting conditions, with various focal lengths, and in terms of portrait mode quality. And let me tell you, it was a wild ride.

One of the things that impressed me the most about the cameras on these flagship phones is how they preserve the natural look in terms of skin tone. For instance, I have to give a shout out to Google's updated camera interface - it's simple enough for casual users but there are a ton of pro controls that I can get to with a few clicks as well. That's so cool.

The ultra-wide-angle shots were another area where these phones really impressed me. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra, in particular, caught my attention here. I know it was not as consistent at first, but Xiaomi has really figured it out with all the updates since then. The amount of detail it captures is just fantastic - which may also be because of the fact that the 14 Ultra literally has the fastest ultra-wide angle lens out of all the other phones that I have here with me.

The 3.2x telephoto camera on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is something else too, with a f1.8 lens. Xiaomi once again has the fastest telephoto shooter in the market, and it can capture stunning images - be it during the day or the night. That sharpness that natural bouquet you get in Xiaomi 14 Ultra photos feels straight out of a high-end digital camera. And if you're someone who's into macro photography, well then you will be glad to know that this guy is the best of the bunch as well. It catches focus so damn well and there isn't much noise in the images either.

One of the trends that I've absolutely loved this year is how we went from shooting portraits with 60 and 70 mm lenses to 100 and even 120 mm ones. I guess we have Apple to thank for all this, because after the iPhone 15 Pro Max made its debut with that 5x Tetra prism Periscope camera, practically every other brand followed. And yes, the iPhone's 5x portraits are indeed outstanding - from subject focus to how it tries to render the subject skin tone in such a natural way.

However, if I had to stick to one phone to take portraits, it would be the Vivo x00 Pro. I agree that it tends to shoot a bit brighter and a bit saturated photos in general, but its portraits are simply way too good in every possible way - especially with that pinpoint edge detection and sharpness. And I love how I can play around with different bokeh styles that mimic different professional lens sizes.

When it comes to zoom photography in general, though, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is still the king. I took some amazing Zoom shots with the Honor Magic 6 Pro and the Oppo 5x7 Ultra as well, but that degree of flexibility I have that level of consistency I get from the S24 Ultra is not something other phones can manage quite well.

The self-timers on these phones were also something to look forward to. I like the selfies from both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Pixel 8 Pro - maybe a bit more from the iPhone, cuzz pixel tends to take somewhat contrasty selfies in challenging conditions, and when it gets dark, the Honor Magic 6 Pro shines the brightest of all three cameras capture so good-looking low-light charts. It's just crazy.

Zooming in for the details, they don't look overdone - I look at how it preserves colors and contrast, that's perfect too. The Honor Magic 6 Pro also renders the night skies the best with accurate white balance, which is something I've seen so many other Flagship phones struggle with.

So to sum it all up, the camera battle among the flagship phones this year was easily the fiercest and most exciting. I know that the OnePlus 12 and the Oppo Find X7 Alta didn't rank the best in any of the categories, but that does not mean that their cameras are mediocre or anything like that. The OnePlus 12 literally cost half as much as other Flagship phones, and for that price, its cameras are more than fine - trust me.

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra's cameras are right up there too, but it's just that some other phones do it a little better all right? I guess I better wrap up things now. Here's a quick recap of which phone won in what category - and as I said in the very beginning, the Chinese phone makers really gave it all this year, clearly to the point where Apple and Samsung should be seriously worried about their future in the premium smartphone category.

And I can just hope and pray that things get even more aggressive next year, cuz at the end of the day, all this competition is good for us - us being the consumers who want the best cameras on our smartphones. And one thing's for sure, it's going to be a wild ride from here on out.

I'm excited to see how these phone manufacturers will continue to innovate and improve their camera technology in the coming months and years. It's always great to have options when it comes to choosing a smartphone with a good camera, and I'm confident that we'll continue to get even better cameras with each new generation of phones.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone it's me pratima and as you can probably tell from what I have on the table right here today's video is going to be a super exciting one since I'm going to be going through literally all of the best Flagship phones of 2024 including the iPhone 15 Pro Max Galaxy s24 Ultra pixel 8 Pro OnePlus 12 Vivo x00 Pro honor magic 6 Pro Oppo 5 X7 Ultra and the xiaomi 14 Ultra this year I'm so glad to see just how aggressively Chinese smarton maker stepped up their Flagship game I mean seriously whereas Apple and Samsung have been getting a bit boring lately and it was quite refreshing to see the dynamic shift towards Chinese phones this time don't get me wrong the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the s24 ultra are still excellent excellent premium phones but all the progress that Chinese brands have been making especially when it comes to Hardware I really think they deserve way more credit than they get with all that said I am going to transy some Mize my experience with all of these phones the best I can by sorting them into different categories since there can obviously be no one clear winner here right so let's kick things off with the display and as I said before there is no catching up to Chinese Brands as far as Hardware goes from high frequency pwm dimming to insane Peak brightness numbers and all sorts of display certifications they're just jam-packed with features but in this category I am still going to have to go with the s24 ultra for the best display on a smartphone it's not perfect by any means and I really wish Samsung could have included something like Dolby Vision support and faster pwm dimming but man this is a great display it's big bright fast and flat which is pretty much my preferred recipe for a fantastic display while the way Samsung calibrates colors and contrast is as good as it gets and my favorite thing about the s24 Ultras display has to be its new gorilla glass armor protection which means the way it handles reflection so freaking well is the real real deal for me so when I'm Outdoors under the sunlight or somewhere with a lot of Bright Lights the s24 ultra maintains an almost 10 on 10 visibility I know it sounds like such a small thing but trust me this is one of those things that once you get used to there is simply no turning back anyway the xiaomi 14 Ultra is an easy pick for me for the best speaker phone of 2024 if you ask me it gets loud it sounds full and it preserves the details of what you're listening to pretty well the honor magic 6 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max put up a tough fight with their speakers yes but the only problem is honor does not get loud enough whereas iPhone just does not sound as resolved as I like so what about battery life then well if you watched my battery drain test video that I uploaded a couple of weeks ago then you know exactly which phone I am going to pick here the honor magic 6 Pro and when you think about it this isn't that surprising either considering everything honor has done on the battery side of things here it includes a more efficient silicon carbon battery instead of the usual graphite ones a separate chip to regulate battery usage and to top it all off a massive 5,600 milliamp battery itself but things aren't as straightforward as far as the performance is concerned I mean we're talking about Flagship phones here so things like topof the light processors and all of that are pretty much a given no matter which phone you go with except for the pixel 8 Pro maybe because of its custom tensor chip it's just too far behind in terms of raw benchmark scores and thermals but then if I have to pick the best one I am going forward with the iPhone 15 Pro Max for the best performance Flagship of 20124 because the way IOS app optimization and system animation works is just simply unmatched even in 2024 everything is just so well thought out on this thing and the iPhone 15 Pro Max is still the goat when it comes to Mobile gaming yes both qualcom and mediate Tech's latest processors have technically stronger gpus but at the end of the day most of the flagship AAA games are better optimized for the iPhone and that's what matters more than raw horsepower alone okay so it's time to get into the cameras now and in this aspect too there isn't one best camera phone so I have divided this into multiple subcategories so that you have a clear idea of which phone is great at what and if we're talking about videos here too nothing comes close to the iPhone 15 Pro Max really it's incredible how Apple has maintained its lead in the videography department for all these years and that lead has only gotten wider with the iPhone 15 proax all four of its cameras can shoot 4K 60fps videos with the best stabilization you could find on a smartphone uh switching between the lenses is also damn smooth and it handles things like colors and dynamic range very well too whereas with the iPhone it's just not about what you can cat on device the absolute level of creative control you get with stuff like PR and log recording on the iPhone 15 Pro Max is even more promising actually mostly to professional content creators so yeah there is really no two questions that the iPhone is the Undisputed King in the video gripy Department although I've got to go with the pixel 8 Pro for the best main camera on a flagship phone this year it's 50 megap white sensor is pretty basic compared to what you get on some other phones I have here while Google does not have like a z or hassle blads help either but what the pixel 8 Pro manages with computational photography alone is nothing short of magic it's got the same gn1 sensor as the pixel 7 Pro and the pixel 6 Pro but Google has really figured out how to get the best out of this the way it processes dynamic range and exposure in particular really stands out to me and how it preserves the natural look in terms of skin tone is also something I really really love I also want to give a quick shout out to Google's updated camera interface it's simple enough for casual users but there are a ton of pro controls that I can get to with a few clicks as well that's so cool as for the ultra wideangle shots the xiaomi 14 Ultra impressed me the most here I know it was not as consistent at first but xiaomi has really figured it out with all the update so far the amount of detail it captures is just fantastic which may also be because of the fact that the 14 Ultra literally has the fastest Ultra wide angle length out of all the other phones that I have here with me it 3.2x telephoto camera is something else too with that f1.8 lens xiaomi once again has the fastest telephoto shooter in the market and it can capture stunning images be it during the day or the night that sharpness that natural bouquet you get in xiaomi 14 Ultra photos feels straight out of a high-end digital camera to be honest and if you're someone who's into macro photography well then you will be glad to know that this guy is the best of the bunch as well it catches Focus so damn well and there isn't much noise in the images either uh not just photos but the xiaomi 14 Ultra can even shoot incredible macro videos okay so one of the trends that I've absolutely loved this year is how we went from shooting portraits with 60 and 70 mm lenses to 100 and even 120 mm ones uh I guess we have apple to thank for all this because after the iPhone 15 Pro Max made its debut with that 5x Tetra prism Periscope camera practically every other brand followed and yes the iPhone's 5x portraits are indeed outstanding from the subject Focus to how it tries to render the subject skin tone in such a natural way the iPhone 15 Pro Max takes terrific portraits but if I had to stick to one phone to take portraits it would be the Vivo x00 Pro I agree that it tends to shoot a bit brighter and a bit saturated photos in general but its portraits are simply way too good in every possible way especially with that pinpoint Edge detection and sharpness and I love how I can ALS Al mess around with different bogy styles that mimic different professional size lenses too when it comes to zoom Photography in general though the Galaxy s24 Ultra is still the king I took some amazing Zoom shots with something like the honor magic 6 Pro and the Oppo 5x7 Ultra as well but that degree of flexibility I have that level of consistency I get from the s24 ultra is not something other phones can manage quite well on the other hand I like the Selfies from both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the pixel 8 Pro um maybe a bit more from iPhone cuzz pixel tends to take somewhat contrasty selfies in challenging conditions and when it gets dark the aom magic 6 Pro shines the brightest all three of its cameras capture so good-looking low light charts it's just crazy I zoom in for the details and they don't look overdone I look at how it preserves colors and contrast and that's perfect too so you get the point right the honor magic 6 Pro also renders the night skies the best with accurate white balance which is something I've seen so many other Flagship phones struggle with so to sum it all up the camera battle among the flagship phones this year was uh easily the fiercest and the most exciting I have ever seen now I know the OnePlus 12 and the Oppo Find X7 ala didn't rank the best in any of the categories but that does not mean that their cameras are mediocre or anything like that the OnePlus 12 literally cost half as much as other Flagship phones and for that price its cameras are more than fine trust me whereas the Oppo fx7 Ultras cameras are right up there too but it's just that some other phones does it a little better all right I guess I better wrap up things now and here's a quick recap of which phone W in what category and as I said in the very beginning the Chinese phone makers really gave it all this year clearly to the point where Apple and Samsung should be seriously worried about their future in the premium smartphone category and I can just hope and pray that things get even more aggressive next year cuz at the end of the day all of this competition is just great for us the consumers all right everybody that was all for this video I hope you liked it and if you did don't forget to hit that like button to see that cool animation and while you're there don't forget to subscribe to our Channel this is me pratim adikari signing off thanks so much for watchinghey everyone it's me pratima and as you can probably tell from what I have on the table right here today's video is going to be a super exciting one since I'm going to be going through literally all of the best Flagship phones of 2024 including the iPhone 15 Pro Max Galaxy s24 Ultra pixel 8 Pro OnePlus 12 Vivo x00 Pro honor magic 6 Pro Oppo 5 X7 Ultra and the xiaomi 14 Ultra this year I'm so glad to see just how aggressively Chinese smarton maker stepped up their Flagship game I mean seriously whereas Apple and Samsung have been getting a bit boring lately and it was quite refreshing to see the dynamic shift towards Chinese phones this time don't get me wrong the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the s24 ultra are still excellent excellent premium phones but all the progress that Chinese brands have been making especially when it comes to Hardware I really think they deserve way more credit than they get with all that said I am going to transy some Mize my experience with all of these phones the best I can by sorting them into different categories since there can obviously be no one clear winner here right so let's kick things off with the display and as I said before there is no catching up to Chinese Brands as far as Hardware goes from high frequency pwm dimming to insane Peak brightness numbers and all sorts of display certifications they're just jam-packed with features but in this category I am still going to have to go with the s24 ultra for the best display on a smartphone it's not perfect by any means and I really wish Samsung could have included something like Dolby Vision support and faster pwm dimming but man this is a great display it's big bright fast and flat which is pretty much my preferred recipe for a fantastic display while the way Samsung calibrates colors and contrast is as good as it gets and my favorite thing about the s24 Ultras display has to be its new gorilla glass armor protection which means the way it handles reflection so freaking well is the real real deal for me so when I'm Outdoors under the sunlight or somewhere with a lot of Bright Lights the s24 ultra maintains an almost 10 on 10 visibility I know it sounds like such a small thing but trust me this is one of those things that once you get used to there is simply no turning back anyway the xiaomi 14 Ultra is an easy pick for me for the best speaker phone of 2024 if you ask me it gets loud it sounds full and it preserves the details of what you're listening to pretty well the honor magic 6 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max put up a tough fight with their speakers yes but the only problem is honor does not get loud enough whereas iPhone just does not sound as resolved as I like so what about battery life then well if you watched my battery drain test video that I uploaded a couple of weeks ago then you know exactly which phone I am going to pick here the honor magic 6 Pro and when you think about it this isn't that surprising either considering everything honor has done on the battery side of things here it includes a more efficient silicon carbon battery instead of the usual graphite ones a separate chip to regulate battery usage and to top it all off a massive 5,600 milliamp battery itself but things aren't as straightforward as far as the performance is concerned I mean we're talking about Flagship phones here so things like topof the light processors and all of that are pretty much a given no matter which phone you go with except for the pixel 8 Pro maybe because of its custom tensor chip it's just too far behind in terms of raw benchmark scores and thermals but then if I have to pick the best one I am going forward with the iPhone 15 Pro Max for the best performance Flagship of 20124 because the way IOS app optimization and system animation works is just simply unmatched even in 2024 everything is just so well thought out on this thing and the iPhone 15 Pro Max is still the goat when it comes to Mobile gaming yes both qualcom and mediate Tech's latest processors have technically stronger gpus but at the end of the day most of the flagship AAA games are better optimized for the iPhone and that's what matters more than raw horsepower alone okay so it's time to get into the cameras now and in this aspect too there isn't one best camera phone so I have divided this into multiple subcategories so that you have a clear idea of which phone is great at what and if we're talking about videos here too nothing comes close to the iPhone 15 Pro Max really it's incredible how Apple has maintained its lead in the videography department for all these years and that lead has only gotten wider with the iPhone 15 proax all four of its cameras can shoot 4K 60fps videos with the best stabilization you could find on a smartphone uh switching between the lenses is also damn smooth and it handles things like colors and dynamic range very well too whereas with the iPhone it's just not about what you can cat on device the absolute level of creative control you get with stuff like PR and log recording on the iPhone 15 Pro Max is even more promising actually mostly to professional content creators so yeah there is really no two questions that the iPhone is the Undisputed King in the video gripy Department although I've got to go with the pixel 8 Pro for the best main camera on a flagship phone this year it's 50 megap white sensor is pretty basic compared to what you get on some other phones I have here while Google does not have like a z or hassle blads help either but what the pixel 8 Pro manages with computational photography alone is nothing short of magic it's got the same gn1 sensor as the pixel 7 Pro and the pixel 6 Pro but Google has really figured out how to get the best out of this the way it processes dynamic range and exposure in particular really stands out to me and how it preserves the natural look in terms of skin tone is also something I really really love I also want to give a quick shout out to Google's updated camera interface it's simple enough for casual users but there are a ton of pro controls that I can get to with a few clicks as well that's so cool as for the ultra wideangle shots the xiaomi 14 Ultra impressed me the most here I know it was not as consistent at first but xiaomi has really figured it out with all the update so far the amount of detail it captures is just fantastic which may also be because of the fact that the 14 Ultra literally has the fastest Ultra wide angle length out of all the other phones that I have here with me it 3.2x telephoto camera is something else too with that f1.8 lens xiaomi once again has the fastest telephoto shooter in the market and it can capture stunning images be it during the day or the night that sharpness that natural bouquet you get in xiaomi 14 Ultra photos feels straight out of a high-end digital camera to be honest and if you're someone who's into macro photography well then you will be glad to know that this guy is the best of the bunch as well it catches Focus so damn well and there isn't much noise in the images either uh not just photos but the xiaomi 14 Ultra can even shoot incredible macro videos okay so one of the trends that I've absolutely loved this year is how we went from shooting portraits with 60 and 70 mm lenses to 100 and even 120 mm ones uh I guess we have apple to thank for all this because after the iPhone 15 Pro Max made its debut with that 5x Tetra prism Periscope camera practically every other brand followed and yes the iPhone's 5x portraits are indeed outstanding from the subject Focus to how it tries to render the subject skin tone in such a natural way the iPhone 15 Pro Max takes terrific portraits but if I had to stick to one phone to take portraits it would be the Vivo x00 Pro I agree that it tends to shoot a bit brighter and a bit saturated photos in general but its portraits are simply way too good in every possible way especially with that pinpoint Edge detection and sharpness and I love how I can ALS Al mess around with different bogy styles that mimic different professional size lenses too when it comes to zoom Photography in general though the Galaxy s24 Ultra is still the king I took some amazing Zoom shots with something like the honor magic 6 Pro and the Oppo 5x7 Ultra as well but that degree of flexibility I have that level of consistency I get from the s24 ultra is not something other phones can manage quite well on the other hand I like the Selfies from both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the pixel 8 Pro um maybe a bit more from iPhone cuzz pixel tends to take somewhat contrasty selfies in challenging conditions and when it gets dark the aom magic 6 Pro shines the brightest all three of its cameras capture so good-looking low light charts it's just crazy I zoom in for the details and they don't look overdone I look at how it preserves colors and contrast and that's perfect too so you get the point right the honor magic 6 Pro also renders the night skies the best with accurate white balance which is something I've seen so many other Flagship phones struggle with so to sum it all up the camera battle among the flagship phones this year was uh easily the fiercest and the most exciting I have ever seen now I know the OnePlus 12 and the Oppo Find X7 ala didn't rank the best in any of the categories but that does not mean that their cameras are mediocre or anything like that the OnePlus 12 literally cost half as much as other Flagship phones and for that price its cameras are more than fine trust me whereas the Oppo fx7 Ultras cameras are right up there too but it's just that some other phones does it a little better all right I guess I better wrap up things now and here's a quick recap of which phone W in what category and as I said in the very beginning the Chinese phone makers really gave it all this year clearly to the point where Apple and Samsung should be seriously worried about their future in the premium smartphone category and I can just hope and pray that things get even more aggressive next year cuz at the end of the day all of this competition is just great for us the consumers all right everybody that was all for this video I hope you liked it and if you did don't forget to hit that like button to see that cool animation and while you're there don't forget to subscribe to our Channel this is me pratim adikari signing off thanks so much for watching\n"