Android phone - any with decent cameras?

Dogbreath · 10 Dec 2011 at 11:38

My wife has had a Sony Ericsson Satio for a few years now and it's had a hard life and is looking very shabby though still works. I bought her this model on the strength of the camera which is very good for a phone, shame the rest of the phone is pretty mediocre!

I'd like to get her a new phone for Christmas, preferably an Android phone, but other suggestions welcomed. The main priority is a half decent camera, followed by good battery life.

BTW, I bought her a decent P&S camera a while back but she's not keen enough to carry it and a phone around, so she still uses the phone for the majority of pics.

Edit: any comments on the SE Xperia Arc and Motorola Atrix 2? Both seem to get decent reviews for camera and battery life, unlike most of the HTC and Samsung offerings.

DIABLO · 10 Dec 2011 at 11:45

What do you call decent battery life? GalaxyS 2, Galaxy Nexus both have decent cameras, but will need charging every 1-2 days.

Robbo · 10 Dec 2011 at 11:47

I know you prefer Android, but the iPhone 4S has a brilliant camera and tends to have better battery life than most Android phones.

A Galaxy S II with the extended battery kit would probably be a very good bet as well.

The Xperia Arc S is worth a look too, very good camera but a little older when it comes to internal hardware.

Dogbreath · 10 Dec 2011 at 12:16

Battery life - she does occasional web browsing and email but usage will be mainly SMS and a small amount of call time. I think at least 2 full days would be good. FWIW with similar use I get an easy 4 days out of my Sanfrancisco as I only enable 3G when I need it. However, my daughters VTECH kids camera is like a DSLR in comparison to the SF!

I've had a play with the iPhone 4S, a few people in work have them and whilst it's a lovely phone I didn't feel the camera was particularly special to be honest. Perhaps I am expecting too much after the Satio?

Probably should have mentioned that this will be a SIM free purchase as well (we and a lot of our friends and familly are on GiffGaff), so the iPhone 4S is going to hurt the pocket a bit.

Robbo · 10 Dec 2011 at 13:15

The Satio and the N8 are the only smartphones with 'proper' cameras really, the iPhone 4S is the best of the 'new' top end camera phone bunch. You aren't going to find a phone with a better 8MP camera, which is the maximum on the top phones.

mrochester · 10 Dec 2011 at 13:29

Robbo said:
The Satio and the N8 are the only smartphones with 'proper' cameras really, the iPhone 4S is the best of the 'new' top end camera phone bunch. You aren't going to find a phone with a better 8MP camera, which is the maximum on the top phones.

This. The Nokia N8 may be your only option if you're after a 'proper' camera in a phone, otherwise the iPhone 4S and Galaxy S2 are the next best down

Dogbreath · 10 Dec 2011 at 14:00

Just found this which suggest the Arc isn't especially great. The Galaxy S2 looks better, but it's a very large phone and I'm not sure would be comfortable with it but will try to find out.

A sim-free iPhone 4S seems to be around £500. It's her birthday on 30th December so maybe I could get it as a combined xmas/birthday present.

Thanks for the tips. I'm a little surprised that there are still no real replacements for the Satio and N8 though (with the possible exception of iPhone 4S; the example pics I've found online look better then I remember from colleagues phones).

Robbo · 10 Dec 2011 at 14:11

Conditions are very important when it comes to phone cameras. In ideal conditions, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the N8 and the 4S really.

The next wave of hardware should improve cameras a considerable amount with 12-20MP (and obviously better) sensors being the new standard. However, whether things like a Xenon flash will be incorporated is yet to be revealed (probably not, as it goes against the slim form factor).

Your wife would probably enjoy the other benefits of the iPhone as well, it's not all about the camera, so remember that! The quality of the software and hardware is a world apart from a Satio!

"andy" · 10 Dec 2011 at 19:55

I would even consider the iphone 4 . i didnt notice much difference between mine and my 4s . both where certainly better than the galaxy s2 im using now. Apole habe definetly got somethong right on the software front to get such good images out of such a small sensor

None will match the xenon on the satio if your taking photos in not so good light though

maube wait to see what sony and nokia come up with next ? I would expect an n8 quality windows phone for sure and the top se android phones have good cameras