The ongoing year has proved to be one of a generational leap when it comes to smartphone photography. The Galaxy S20 Ultra introduced the crazy 100X space zoom tech, more phones with a monstrous 108-megapixel camera arrived, and periscope lenses are now becoming a norm for high-end phones. If you are looking for a smartphone that offers the best photography experience in 2020, here’s our list to help you out:

Samsung GalaxyS20 Ultra

Samsung went all out with the imaging hardware of the Galaxy S20 Ultra, and with the results it produces, the wait was worth it. The Samsung flagship features a 108-megapixel (f/1.8, 26mm) wide-angle primary shooter, a 48-megapixel periscope (f/3.6, 102mm) telephoto sensor, a 12-megapixel (f/2.2, 13mm) ultra-wide-angle snapper and a ToF camera for 3D sensing.

This camera’s Space Zoom will give you 10X Hybrid Optic Zoom and Super-Resolution Zoom up to 100X. (Here’s how the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s 100X Space Zoom feature works) And to top it all off, it also includes an impressive 40-megapixel selfie camera. You can check how well the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s cameras perform in our review below:

OPPO Find X2 Pro

OPPO Find X2 Pro is the latest flagship from the Chinese smartphone maker, and the ‘Pro’ moniker is an indication in itself that the camera hardware is going to be killer. It features a triple rear camera setup that consists of the 48-megapixel wide-angle Sony IMX 689 lens with an f/1.7 aperture, 1.12μm single-pixel size, and OIS.

The second lens is a 13-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with a 10X hybrid zoom and up to 60X digital zoom support. It has an aperture of f/3.0 and OIS as well. The third sensor is a 48-megapixel Sony IMX 586 ultra-wide-angle camera with an f/2.2 aperture, 120-degree field of view and 3cm macro mode. Plus, there’s a colour temperature sensor as well. On the front lies a 32-megapixel selfie shooter. Have a look at our Oppo Find X2 Pro impressions in the video below:

Xiaomi Mi 10Pro

Shedding its image as an exclusively budget segment player, Xiaomi launched the Mi 10 Pro flagship this year and packed it with the best hardware it could lay its hands on. Just like the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the Mi 10 Pro also comes equipped with a 108-megapixel main camera with an 8-element lens, a 1/1.33-inch sensor size, and OIS for stabilisation. The main camera is accompanied by a 20-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 117-degree field of view, a 12-megapixel portrait camera with an f/2.0 lens and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with f/2.0 lens, 10X zoom output, and OIS support.

Xiaomi Mi 10

On the front is a hole punch that houses a 20-megapixel selfie camera. Notably, the Mi 10 Pro is currently the highest-ranked smartphone in DxOMark’s smartphone photography rankings, an accolade it shares with the Oppo Find X2 Pro. The best part? All that camera hardware on the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro costs half as much as the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

Sony Xperia 1 II

Sony used to make awesome phones with a great camera a few years back, but lost steam somewhere down the road. The company is now looking to stage a comeback with its new flagship – the Xperia 1 II. On the SONY Xperia 1 II, you’ll find a quad-camera setup that includes a 12-megapixel (f/1.7, 24mm wide) primary camera with Dual Pixel PDAF, a 12-megapixel (f/2.4, 70mm) telephoto camera with PDAF and 3x optical zoom output, another 12-megapixel (f/2.2, 16mm) ultra-wide-angle camera with Dual Pixel PDAF, and a 0.3-megapixel ToF 3D depth sensor.

More to come

Notably, we are less than three months into 2020 and we already have highly capable smartphone cameras up for grabs. The HUAWEI P40 series will go official later this month, and if the Huawei P30 Pro is any indication, the upcoming HUAWEI flagship will set new benchmarks for smartphone photography. Later down the line, we have the Motorola Edge+ coming our way packing a 108-megapixel camera, the Google Pixel 5, iPhone 12 series, OnePlus 8 series, the highly anticipated Nokia 9.1 PureView, and the Galaxy Note 20 to name a few.

Honourable mentions

However, if you are fine with 2019 flagships, the Google Pixel 4 and the iPhone 11 Pro are the ones you should consider. Both phones offer a fantastic camera. The Pixel 4 gives you the most natural photos and an impressive night mode, while the iPhone 11 Pro offers unparalleled video capture experience and equally spectacular photos. However, if Google services don’t matter much to you, the HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro might well be one of the most powerful smartphone cameras you’ll find out there.