P hones today record special moments with such vividness and depth that you can relive them over and over again. To top it, they are handy, unlike, say, a bulky DSLR. From videos shot underwater or stills clicked in the light of fireflies, every capture on a smartphone can be truly breathtaking. Come festival season, and the activity of picture-taking and posting on Instagram and other social media increases to a frenzy. Here’s a guide that will help you pick a smartphone that will give you the most Instagram-worthy images you can imagine.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro, starting from ₹99,900
Of all the features that Apple pushed during the launch of the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 11 Pro, the camera bump with its new design grabbed the headlines. The three cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro have set a new design standard. The first of the three is the telephoto camera, which captures your standard angles just right with a basic sensor and an f/2.0 lens. The wide camera comes with an f/1.8 lens and packs a better sensor. And then there’s the ultra-wide camera, which is the highlight of the iPhone 11 Pro, and is nearly twice as wide as the wide camera lens with f/2.4. The new improved HDR adds detail in colour and pixels to images even when zoomed into, which gives the Pixel 3 a run for its money. The night mode switches on automatically in the dark, capturing images with high detail, even when poorly lit.
The front 12-megapixel TrueDepth camera captures videos in slow motion so that you can flash your hallmark poses and stylise it the way you want. This camera also captures wider angles than we’ve seen on any selfie camera till date. What’s admirable about the iPhone 11 Pro is that it captures images and videos the way it should be. It doesn’t overly dramatise images, retains natural highlights, celebrates the blacks and preserves detail under any lighting condition. It’s clearly the best we have seen in a smartphone camera for a while.
OnePlus 7 Pro, starting from ₹47,249
Arriving with the triple-camera setup, the OnePlus 7 Pro really set itself among the top seeds of smartphone cameras. With the ability to shoot 4K videos at up to 60 fps, you can make everything look professionally shot, even when reviewed on larger viewing devices. The shutter lag while clicking images isn’t the fastest, in case of the 7 Pro, which may lead you to miss an important moment. Up front, it has a 16-megapixel camera that pops up, so that it doesn’t take up screen space and can be stashed away when you’re not using it.
The OnePlus camera interface has always been convenient to use. Without changing too much from its previous renditions, it makes it easy to switch from the camera modes with a mere swipe. The Pro Mode allows you to play with the ISO, white balance, shutter speed and exposure, giving you greater control over the images you’re shooting. If you’d like things to be simpler, then the automatic mode is highly reliable.
The colour-capture by the 7 Pro isn’t too impressive, as compared to its contemporaries. However, the lighting is. You can easily adjust the brightness levels as you click a picture. The Portrait Mode is great. Low lighting photography isn’t too impressive, with even the Nightscape mode causing a lot of noise. Simply put, you wouldn’t be able to tell a glass of whiskey from rum, in the pub.
Huawei P30 Pro, starting from ₹63,990
Here’s a 20-megapixel ultra-wide camera you could pack with you and not worry about it letting you down, no matter where you’re travelling to. The depth of colour is stunning, and the video stabilisation is impressive. It comes with a periscope camera that offers great clarity up to 10x but also allows you to explore up to 50x, making it fantastic for your wildlife escapades. The phone has an exclusive depth camera, which is added at the back of the phone to make your portrait images look professional, no matter how sharp or soft the edges. This means that you could shoot everything from a tree to a popsicle with the background distinctly blurred out.
The real champion feature of the P30 Pro is its ability for night photography. Both videos and stills look pretty detailed and seem to retain the original hues of things. If you’re planning to unleash yourself in the night-life havens of the world then the ultra-low light captures of this phone will live up to its deal of the bargain. The Night Mode makes everything even better.
Google Pixel 3, starting from ₹49,999
Known for its camera, more than anything else, the Pixel 3 does tick nearly every box in your chart of requirements. It feels like a phone that is made for Instagram captures. Google has conjured up a brilliantly intelligent device that manages what is arguably the best Portrait pictures with just a single camera at the back! The Super Zoom is fantastic and captures the best details you can imagine, even at 3x and 5x zooms. Zooming in not only gives great clarity and definition to pictures, but is quite stable as well.
Google has made the interface simple and switching between modes is a breeze. Your selfies will be delightful with the front camera that shoots as soon as it detects smiles and other expressions, especially group selfies. You can throw in some AR characters who make themselves at home in your images and videos.
If you plan to take your images to a professional after shooting, then the raw images made available by the Pixel 3 may be handy. The processing is good enough to capture fast-moving images. It’s the phone you could march out with to an animal safari, a football stadium or even a sombre cathedral, and it wouldn’t let you down.
Dhiram Shah is the founder of LuxuryLaunches.com