Have we hit peak phone?

Not a hughe mobile fan myself but recently with whatsapp and chat its become more used then the laptop has, but It wont' fully replace a laptop or desktop pc imo.

The one thing that gets me though is you have so many new £200-300 mobile phones yet their cameras recording ability can't compete with older Samsung and Iphone models from 2-3 years ago ?

They really are behind in technology, maybe one day they will product a phone around £200 with good battery and a good camera !

The Lenova P200 is closest I have seen but not the best camera video quality, just waiting on the nokias.
 
IvanDobskey said:
Thing is, no mobile phone camera is ever going to be better than a dedicated camera. So if you really care about the best quality pictures then you will use your dedicated camera.

As long as a phone camera is half decent for the odd quick snap then that's all that matters in my mind.

Not quite sure why people are so obsessed with smart phone cameras?
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I had that attitude, I own a dslr and have done for quite a while. Mobile cameras have made massive strides and whilst the foundations of this begin with a small sensor - the post processing that Google have on their phones is quite astonishing. My honeymoon photos from the Maldives last year were 80% Nexus 6P. My 7D was mostly for wide angle shots.

I very rarely used phone cameras until I got my 6P. I find myself realising that my 6P replacement in future will be mostly based on how good the camera is.
 
Ive just got an S7 Edge, its pretty epic, i doubt i'll be upgrading for a very long time as i doubt ill need better even if the cameras vastly improve to the point of equaling DSLR. I think ive hit that plateau unless they start making your dinner for you :D
 
Kainz said:
I had that attitude, I own a dslr and have done for quite a while. Mobile cameras have made massive strides and whilst the foundations of this begin with a small sensor - the post processing that Google have on their phones is quite astonishing. My honeymoon photos from the Maldives last year were 80% Nexus 6P. My 7D was mostly for wide angle shots.

I very rarely used phone cameras until I got my 6P. I find myself realising that my 6P replacement in future will be mostly based on how good the camera is.
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No doubt it is handy to have a decent camera in your pocket at all times.

I have taken a few snaps with my s8 and been very impressed with the quality. For me it is plenty good enough.
 
R3X said:
Not a hughe mobile fan myself but recently with whatsapp and chat its become more used then the laptop has, but It wont' fully replace a laptop or desktop pc imo.

The one thing that gets me though is you have so many new £200-300 mobile phones yet their cameras recording ability can't compete with older Samsung and Iphone models from 2-3 years ago ?

They really are behind in technology, maybe one day they will product a phone around £200 with good battery and a good camera !

The Lenova P200 is closest I have seen but not the best camera video quality, just waiting on the nokias.
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Try Sony Xperia XA1.

It's got (I believe) the Sony flagship mobile camera on an otherwise mid-range phone.
 
Depends what you want from a phone, if you want the best display, camera and additional features like wireless charging and water resistance then you have to look at the high end devices which do offer a better experience and of course, better low light performance.

If all you just want a smooth experience then the £300 phone from 2016 like the Axon 7 and OnePlus 3 are more than good enough, spending more won't necessarily make any real improvement there and could even make it worse with the 3rd party skins.

The only phone on the market that really provides both are the Pixel phones, but they are expensive for a reason.

Such a shame Google edition devices didn't continue.
 
ubersonic said:
The thing that annoys me, is that nobody makes regular size phones with decent specs anymore, if you want high end you HAVE to go with a plusphone or phablet.

When my 2010 Nokia Lumia 920 died back in 2014 the only phone on the market with comparable specs was the Sony Xperia Z3 compact so I had to buy that (don't regret it, great phone), it's now 2017 and there isn't a normal sized phone out that is a worthwhile upgrade from the Z3 compact, even Sony's Z5 compact and X compact are glorified sidegrades (and even miss decent features).

/sigh
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I went from a Z3C to a normal sized Pixel and have been happy with the move. It's still bigger, but not huge imo.
 
R3X said:
The one thing that gets me though is you have so many new £200-300 mobile phones yet their cameras recording ability can't compete with older Samsung and Iphone models from 2-3 years ago ?

They really are behind in technology, maybe one day they will product a phone around £200 with good battery and a good camera !

The Lenova P200 is closest I have seen but not the best camera video quality, just waiting on the nokias.
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It's not actually the hardware that is a problem, many of them have the same or similar lenses/sensors as the big boys, but the big boys have invested huge amounts in to integration of that hardware with the software.

The smaller players just don't have the software know-how or funding to match them, even though the physical hardware is on par. Certainly helps having a dedicated digital camera division like Samsung do as well.
 
krooton said:
It's not actually the hardware that is a problem.
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In most cases its a hardware limitation, software is important of course, but this will only help so much with a mid ranged camera.

OnePlus 5 for example is a mid range camera, will never be as good as the cameras in last years flagship devices, nevermind this year.

They can only do so much with software.

It's one of the more important things to consider when buying a phone, software can be updated, hardware can't.
 
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cheesyboy said:
Try Sony Xperia XA1.

It's got (I believe) the Sony flagship mobile camera on an otherwise mid-range phone.
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thanks, looks nice camera quality but reviews suggest its let down by bad software. Also the video quality is not that good overall looking at video test on yt.
its got a weak battery compared to todays 4000-5000mAh batteries there almost double battery life.

Its that ratio I was going on about earlier, big battery + good camera for pictures & videos, so far its non existant. Mind you even Samsung/Apple
miss the big battery but they are still way ahead of everyone be it hardware or software for camera performance.

One day......

ebilcake said:
In most cases its a hardware limitation, software is important of course, but this will only help so much with a mid ranged camera.

OnePlus 5 for example is a mid range camera, will never be as good as the cameras in last years flagship devices, nevermind this year.

They can only do so much with software.

It's one of the more important things to consider when buying a phone, software can be updated, hardware can't.
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Yeah hardware and software surely has to be both be spot on for a good camera quality and performance, no doubt we probably do have excellent phones held back by software or phones let down by hardware even. Oneplus 5 is £450+ and they still can't get a decent camera done right, shocking to pay that much frankly.
 
I don't want anything better than my s7edge
I don't think manufacturers want better batteries, it's the only reason to upgrade lol

I don't see anything on the horizon to change my s7edge for at all. Even my phone before this was never slow

With finger print, fast charge, waterproof, lens kit there's no more I want.

On the dslr thing. I'm thinking of selling everything! I'm in Italy and I have brought a few lenses. If I don't use any of them I'll sell it all (apart from a super Zoom)

It's more insurance, more hassle, more risk. Main thing is I'm in Italy and I have to carry around a big heavy camera in the heat.

Apart from telephoto I think phone cams are able to supercede dslrs for casuals.

The only upside is quality. And how many people print pics out now
 
Kainz said:
Urgh, don't tempt me. I've been thinking of doing this with my 7D and lens for a good while now :/ They hardly get a look in these days.
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Snap, probably two years I've been thinking about it. Just keep my macro and tele lens

It's sad really. Phones get better and better. In every way. Especially the hassle factor. And post processing my phone can get to what I like in a picture instantly what would take me many minutes. While dslrs progress slowly and obviously don't get updates.
I'm also wondering if it's a dying market and I should sell soon anyway. I've definitely got at least 2k of kit I haven't used more than twice in a year!

So off to the park in Rome soon, and I know it's going to be hot. I'm going to take my phone and lens kit. The dslr will stay at home.

Sad times
 
413x said:
Snap, probably two years I've been thinking about it. Just keep my macro and tele lens

It's sad really. Phones get better and better. In every way. Especially the hassle factor. And post processing my phone can get to what I like in a picture instantly what would take me many minutes. While dslrs progress slowly and obviously don't get updates.
I'm also wondering if it's a dying market and I should sell soon anyway. I've definitely got at least 2k of kit I haven't used more than twice in a year!

So off to the park in Rome soon, and I know it's going to be hot. I'm going to take my phone and lens kit. The dslr will stay at home.

Sad times
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Snap for your situation. The instant taking of photos and automatic uploading to Google Photos allows me to catalogue images into albums so easily on a mobile. It is a different workflow to what I have with my DSLR and Lightroom. With the latter I have to manually (how hard is it for built in wifi fs) transfer photos to the PC and add them to lightroom - I am tiring of that.
 
ebilcake said:
In most cases its a hardware limitation, software is important of course, but this will only help so much with a mid ranged camera.

OnePlus 5 for example is a mid range camera, will never be as good as the cameras in last years flagship devices, nevermind this year.

They can only do so much with software.

It's one of the more important things to consider when buying a phone, software can be updated, hardware can't.
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Dunno how much things have changed, but when the alt-flagship chinese phones first got big, part of their sales tactic was highlighting that they were using the same sensors and lenses as the much more expensive big brand flagships.

This made sense given that there are only really a handful of manufacturers of those items, and they aren't expensive in the grand scheme of things.

It was the extra work that Samsung/Apple/Nokia put in to getting the most out of the hardware (with the software) that gave them the edge. Kinda like how crappy drivers can make even great hardware suck.
 
krooton said:
Dunno how much things have changed, but when the alt-flagship chinese phones first got big, part of their sales tactic was highlighting that they were using the same sensors and lenses as the much more expensive big brand flagships.

This made sense given that there are only really a handful of manufacturers of those items, and they aren't expensive in the grand scheme of things.

It was the extra work that Samsung/Apple/Nokia put in to getting the most out of the hardware (with the software) that gave them the edge. Kinda like how crappy drivers can make even great hardware suck.
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Can't say I've seen that, any examples? I'd imagine if you looked closer into it they will have made compromises elsewhere which software wouldn't have been able to compensate for.
 
short term I feel like we hit it a year or to back, I have no desire to buy a high end phone. Very happy with my Lenovo p2/

however when foldable screens become a thing (predicted 2018 or 2019 iirc) or someone actually manages to get an insane camera on a phone. Then I think we will see it evolving fast again with features people want, with massive improves year to year until they revolve around one single fold out design.

I dont think phone cameras need to be as good as DSLRs but I think they need to b great in all conditions which they aren't yet. They also seem static it the moment, no real improvements year to year.
 
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