This year has been an eventful one for cameraphones, carrying over the trend. Some manufacturers made huge strides when it comes to cameras, while others decided to focus on polishing their products. But at the end of the day, pretty much all manufacturers have something to show for when it comes to cameras.
Arguably, vivo ended up leading the pack. The company released the China-only vivo X200 Ultra in early 2025, while the X300 and X300 Pro arrived a couple of months before the end of the year, but made it to global stage. The vivo X300 Pro, didn’t bring that many improvements to the camera hardware, but it remains one of the most desirable cameraphones on the market. It has a potent camera setup, and adds an improved selfie camera for a more complete experience this year.
Oppo’s contributions to this list are just as impressive. We have the Chinese Find X8 Ultra as the best shooter from the company, while the Find X9 Pro is a toned-down version of the next-generation flagship series that was released recently. So if you are looking for a proper flagship camera experience from Oppo and you are outside of China, the Find X9 Pro is your best bet. Not to mention it offers a substantial upgrade over its predecessor, the Find X8 Pro, and upgrades the main, telephoto and selfie cameras with bigger and better sensors.
Xiaomi had the 15 Ultra and unlike vivo and Oppo made it global (we are yet to review the 17 Ultra that arrived last week). It’s perhaps one of the most versatile ones, too. It has two telephoto cameras instead of only one, while the main 1-inch sensor and the 200MP telephoto camera remain among the best in the industry.
And while we are waiting for the next-generation Honor Magic8 Pro, which is scheduled to be officially released next year, this year’s Magic7 Pro will take its place in this year’s list. It holds the best camera system Honor can offer, and unsurprisingly, the notorious 200MP sensor from Samsung is at the helm. It’s paired with a 3x telephoto lens, allowing excellent stills.
One underdog this year impressed with an interesting camera setup that revolves around portrait photography since the main sensor has a 35mm equivalent focal length, making it ideal for portraits. It’s the nubia Z80 Ultra, and the rest of the camera hardware isn’t too shabby.
Another of our favorites is the Realme GT 8 Pro. Realme’s flagships have always focused more on performance, design, display, charging, and pretty much everything except cameras. In fact, we can go as far as saying that the camera experience on flagship Realme phones always felt like an afterthought. This time around, however, the GT 8 Pro felt like it could challenge the big boys. The ultrawide unit is much improved, while the telephoto camera hopped on the 200MP trend train and delivered solid performance.
Huawei’s innovative telephoto camera on the Pura 80 Ultra earns the phone a special place on this list. The zoom sensor is perhaps the biggest one we’ve seen used for a telephoto shooter and has not one, but two lenses. One provides 3.7x optical zoom while the other stops at 9.4x. Additionally, the main 1-inch sensor and the ultrawide snapper both complement the excellent telephoto system.
Last but not least, we have the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max as well as Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL as more conventional choices, especially in markets where Chinese makers aren’t present. These phones won’t impress with exceptional camera performance or anything too innovative, but they remain consistent and still deliver excellent stills and videos.
Speaking of videos, the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are perhaps the most video-feature-packed smartphones on the market and are rarely rivaled in terms of overall video quality.
And as for 2026, we wish to see Samsung and Apple putting up a better fight, while the Chinese smartphone makers keep pushing the market forward.
