Top 10 cameraphones

If you need a mobile phone that mixes top quality photography with mobile internet and apps, our run down of the 10 best cameraphones will help make your choice.

By James Sherwood - 27/09/2010 print

Mobile phones with a high quality camera are a great way to cut down on the amount of gadgets you need in day-to-day life.

Camera picture quality is primarily centred around megapixels (Mp) and some of the best cameraphones now offer 12Mp cameras – not far off the quality offered by digital cameras at 15Mp.

The best cameraphones also have cutting-edge functionality including:

Auto-focus: tap on-screen or press a button to instantly focus the image
Camera shortcut: quickly and easily take photographs just by pressing a single button
Scene modes: capture good quality photos by easily adjusting the phone’s camera settings to suit your surrounds, such as bright sunlight
Stabilisation: produce super-sharp images, even with shaky hands.

The top 10 cameraphones are:

1. Sony Ericsson Satio

The Sony Ericsson Satio 12Mp lens makes it one of the most powerful cameraphone on the market.

The Satio produces beautifully crisp and clear images. The integrated flash helps brighten pictures taken in dark surroundings, like bars.

A metal cover slides across Satio’s camera lens to keep it free from dirt and grime that could ruin your treasured moments.

Read the Mobilechoices Sony Ericsson Satio review, or compare Sony Ericsson Satio deals.

2. Nokia N8

Although the Nokia N8 and Sony Ericsson Satio have the same quality cameras - 12Mp, the N8 adds an HDMI port for displaying images on TV screens where all your friends and family can enjoy them.

The N8 can also capture HD videos that can be easily edited scene-by-scene directly from the cameraphone’s touchscreen.

Read the Nokia N8 review, or compare Nokia N8 deals.

3. Apple iPhone 4

The iPhone 4 5Mp camera is best suited to capturing everyday pictures, like the kids in the park.

However, the cameraphone has a photography ace up its sleeve; “High Dynamic Range” which automatically improves an image’s overall quality without requiring you to fiddle with complicated camera settings.

Emailing and uploading images to social networking websites, such as Facebook, is also straightforward on the iPhone 4.

Read the Apple iPhone 4 review, or compare iPhone 4 deals.

4. HTC Desire HD

If you don’t need the professional 12Mp camera of the N8 yet still want a higher quality camera than the iPhone 4’s 5Mp lens, the HTC Desire HD with its 8Mp camera could be the one.

The Desire HD also has a large 4.3in touchscreen - the perfect size for showing off your snaps to friends and family.

It can also automatically “tag” pictures with the physical location they were snapped in, such as Brighton.

Read the HTC Desire HD review, or compare compare HTC Desire HD deals.

5. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

A facial recognition gizmo on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 ensures you can quickly find images of specific people that you photographed using the 8Mp cameraphone - ideal if you plan on taking lots of photos.

Overall image quality isn’t bad with the X10, but in a Mobilechoices review the cameraphone sometimes produced blurry images when shooing fast-moving subjects, like dogs and cars.

Read the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review, or compare Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 deals.

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6. HTC Legend

The HTC Legend is an “educational cameraphone” because it runs an Android app (Google Goggles) that helps you discover more information about the famous landmarks, books and logos you photograph.

For example, you could take a picture of St Paul’s Cathedral using the Legend’s 5Mp camera and then send it to Google Goggles, which will try to recognise the image and pull historical information about it off the internet.

Legend’s camera takes average quality images and in our review some images were slightly pixelated or blurred.

Read the HTC Legend review, or compare HTC Legend deals.

7. Google Nexus One

The Google Nexus One is a great all-round cameraphone, sporting a 5Mp lens that takes admirable quality photographs both indoors and out.

A flash means the Nexus One cameraphone’s images are bright, but the lack of a camera shortcut key (a feature of many cameraphones) makes it difficult to snap pictures at short notice.

Compare Google Nexus One deals.

8. Samsung Galaxy S

The Samsung Galaxy S is the ideal cameraphone for holidays because its relative lightness and slim proportions mean it won’t weigh your pocket down. You may even get a full day’s worth of photography thanks to the long mobile phone battery life.

The 5Mp camera produces reasonable pictures, but the lack of a flash means some could suffer from dark edges and bad lighting.

Read the Samsung Galaxy S review, or compare Samsung Galaxy S deals.

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9. Sony Ericsson Vivaz

Photography is fun on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz because the cameraphone has several pre-set shooting modes that take the effort out of capturing high-quality and memorable images.

For example, “Panorama Mode” stitches multiple images of, say, a big landscape together into a single image - great for putting on your PC’s desktop.

Vivaz also films beautifully crisp and clear videos in 720p resolution.

Read the Sony Ericsson Vivaz review, or compare Sony Ericsson Vivaz deals.

10. Alternative options

Other cameraphones to consider include:

Compare the latest cameraphone deals

Top Orange cameraphone deals

Galaxy S2(black) £0.00	100 min Unlimited texts	£20.50
Galaxy S2(black) £0.00	200 min Unlimited texts	£26.00
XPERIA S(black) £0.00	100 min Unlimited texts	£20.50
Galaxy S3(blue) £0.00	600 min Unlimited texts	£36.00
Galaxy S3(blue) £0.00	400 min Unlimited texts	£31.00