The best smartphone cameras money can buy

We put four leading smartphones known for their cameras to the test so that you can choose the one that works best to show off your skills

- Tushar Kanwar

The best camera is the one that's with you, said ace photographer Chase Jarvis in his 2009 book documenting the beginnings of the smartphone camera revolution. Cut to 2025, and while Jarvis's timeless statement still holds, not all phone cameras are created equal, even among flagship smartphones. We put four flagships—the Vivo X200 Pro, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, the Samsung S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max—through an exhaustive set of shooting scenarios to find out which shooter you should pick.

SPEC FOR SPEC A quick recap of the specs on offer across all four flagships—the iPhone 16 Pro Max has a triple camera setup, with a 48MP main sensor, a 48MP ultra-wide and a 5x optical zoom telephoto lens mated to a 12MP sensor, while the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra lands with a 200MP primary, a 50MP ultrawide, and a one-two telephoto combo of a 10MP 3x and a 50MP 5x optical zoom shooters. The Vivo, on the other hand, offers a 50MP primary, a 50MP ultra-wide and a 200MP telephoto 3.7x shooter, all with Zeiss optics and tuning, and the newest of the lot, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, does one better with a 50MP primary 1-inch sensor, a 200MP 100mm/4.3x zoom telephoto, a 50MP 70mm/3x shooter and a 50MP ultra-wide, Leica-tuned optics. Phew!