The best smartphones with a camera, like the iPhone

If you buy iPhone because you love Apple’s approach to the design and logic of system management, you are doing everything right and this text is not for you. But if you believe that Apple always produces smartphones with the best camera for their money, be prepared to be surprised and indignant.

What alternatives can not exactly find the iPhone?

The iPhone is certainly not a “god-like” technique, as Apple fans imagine them, but there are features that can only be found in the iPhone. For example, to find something on Android with a good camera and 4 inches of display is impossible in principle. And even for the 4.7-inch iPhone, really compact replacements have not been released for a long time.

You can, of course, get out and say that there are Japanese rarities like Sharp in nature, but we will be realistic – almost no one needs adventures and attempts to order a Japanese mobile phone unlocked from the operator, then to have problems with its reloading, and to throw out the smartphone after the first breakdown. Because neither batteries nor screens are sold for it.

iPhone 5s – when you’re old and frail, but still a rock star

 

From love, at first sight, there is a cure – to look a second time. And most of all, the objects of adoration will disappoint you. Masterpieces, as it seemed in childhood, seem to be naive and idiotic, they are ashamed to look at the fashionable clothes of the old years, and from music, the “pop” of the past years makes you sick even before you hear the refrain. What can we say about old mobile phones?

And with them, everything is not so bad, as one would expect from the height of 2018. For example, the last of the viable iPhone, which lives out its hands on economical Russians, the iPhone 5s, is now selling for 10-12 thousand. And, you’ll laugh, the five-year-old flagship Apple still photographs better than most smartphones for the same money.

Firstly, because in 2013 it was a class camera “cooler nowhere”, as well as Samsung Galaxy S4. Secondly, the manufacturers of cheap mobile phones do not care about the quality of the cameras and are busy re-training smartphones in screens 18: 9 or glass cases instead of useful activities. And “anti-crisis Chinese” like Xiaomi and Meizu have always been installed in low-end smartphones from the “high-end” processors.

So it turns out that the iPhone 5s has not become outdated either (the most beautiful compact smartphone and the “gold standard” of iPhone’s appearance, which the iPhone 6 and later can only be considered “with a scratch”), nor the quality of the camera for 10-12 thousand.

But it is completely obsolete in terms of autonomy, speed, and quality of the self-camera. Therefore, even though the iPhone 5s photographs better than Xiaomi Redmi 4X / 5A, Meizu M6, Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 and Sony Xperia L2, for 10 thousand on Aliexpress or 15-17 thousand in Russia you can buy smartphones that will be better in all.

Focus on the camera of modern low-cost premium “Chinese” in the face of Xiaomi Redmi 5 / Redmi 5 Plus, if you want to get about the same (sometimes slightly better, sometimes slightly worse) camera at the lowest price.

The very uncomfortable feeling when you have to take out the verdict of the iPhone 6. On the one hand – it’s the same, damn, mobile phone 2014 model year! Where now its peers – LG G3, Sony Xperia Z3, Xiaomi Mi4i, ASUS ZenFone 5, Honor 6, Meizu MX4 Pro, HTC One M8 and Huawei Mate 7? In a coffin!

Among the smartphones of those years, there was a small amount of scruffy Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which after replacement of the battery and reflashing can still be used with the same convenience as the old iPhone 6 without flashing.

And even more, fun to choose a replacement for the iPhone 6 among mobile phones in the official retail. Because to find an alternative that would have been good at photographing at night for 22,000, it’s almost unreal to cheaper than 28-30 thousand in cellular salons. Moreover, the quality of video iPhone 6 is also better than almost all comparable in the retail price of alternatives, while it “merges” the quality of shooting competitors only in Selfie.

Just do not think that the camera in the iPhone 6 is all-conquering. On a sunny day, you can make more colorful and clear shots on the Honor 9 / ASUS ZenFone 4. But on the ability to “pull” the colors to a believable level and the precision of the automation work, the old iPhone is better than most smartphones-mid-range.

But do not forget that the iPhone 6 is very slow and very “dead” in terms of the duration of the smartphone. And for not a little more hardy iPhone 6 Plus asking inadequate 28-32 thousand rubles. Inadequate because the trio of Samsung Galaxy S7 / LG G6 / HTC U Ultra in the same budget is better on all fronts. And even mid-range smartphones of the 2018 model year, such as the ASUS ZenFone 5 and Nokia 7 Plus, almost always take better photos and video, last longer on battery power and are much faster on their own.

Conclusion? Looking for a smartphone for the price of the iPhone 6 (20-24 thousand rubles) with a steeper camera in the Russian Federation – spend time in vain. Because the “next level” today starts from 27-28 thousand rubles and more.

Looking for a replacement for the iPhone 6 with about the same camera, but the normal autonomy and speed of work – cook at least 20 thousand, for example, on ASUS ZenFone 4 ZE554KL, while they are still on sale. Or on the Samsung Galaxy S7, to get an analog iPhone 6s for speed/analog iPhone 7 for the quality of the camera.

About the “gray” retail and those of your “aliexpresses” you should not even talk – Xiaomi Mi Note 3 for 19-20 thousand rubles, of course, sometimes disgraceful in the night shooting because of the idiocy of the Chinese algorithms of shooting in the camera, but after the deficiencies of the elderly iPhone cosmically steep model.

iPhone SE – beyond competition, wherever you look

The only iPhone that is respected even by the most violent Android fanatics is the iPhone SE. Because no one has re-issued the old flagship with a new, improved filling.

And even the iPhone SE – a monument not made by handsets to all compact mobile phones and, suddenly, one of the best “budget” (more precisely, at the junction of budget models and middle class) camera phones!

Such luck to SE did not come right away, but a year and a half after the debut, when the stocks of iPhone 5s fell sharply, and Apple “demoted” SE from an expensive toy for retro fans to “just a budget iPhone”. And here the guts from the iPhone 6s with its best (one of) the camera of 2015 are very useful! If you suddenly forget, the camera and processor in the iPhone SE, for a minute, are close in level to the Samsung Galaxy S6, Huawei Nexus 6P, LG G4, HTC One M9 and other “grandees”! And, no matter how annoying, the best budget smartphones (the notorious Redmi Note 5) only in the middle of 2018 began to be selected for this quality of shooting.

And all other inexpensive alternatives are divided into “try to find on sale” Huawei P9 and “our cameras are the coolest, but the hands are not getting out of that place” ASUS ZenFone 3 and ZenFone 4.

With all its shortcomings SE – this is not a “museum geek”, but quite a combat smartphone with a still good processor and camera, which “will give a light” to almost all competitors cheaper than 20 thousand rubles. There are no contra-indications, except horrible selfies, there is no purchase for iPhone SE, so you can safely buy it if you want iPhone. And if you do not want Xiaomi Mi Note 3 or ASUS ZenFone 4 ZE554KL without any problems will replace you with the coolest iPhone from cheap ones.

iPhone 6s / 6s Plus – too good to sell; too bad to buy

If you do not track what has changed in mobile phones since you bought your previous smartphone, just remember that the camera in the iPhone 6s is about the same as in smartphones, for which now ask for 27-30 thousand rubles in the official retail. But, if you have any guidelines for the “steepness” of smartphones, remember that the iPhone 6s / 6s Plus camera is “like in the Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge, but it’s always a little worse .”

It is with this definition that it is most convenient to select a smartphone with the same or better quality of shooting.

Pandemonium competitors in the table above many embarrass, but the point is that each of the competitors in some scenarios of shooting is better, and in some – worse. For example, almost all the “roughly the same” for the quality of shooting the model, except for LG G6 and OnePlus 3 / 3T, in the afternoon, then the iPhone 6s, at night they photograph the same way, or slightly worse, and they shoot the video always less qualitatively. And there’s nothing to be done about it, because Mi6 / Mi Note 3 and ZenFone 5 are smartphones with good cameras and idiotic shooting algorithms, Moto Z has good optics and more or less reasonable “brains”, but a cheap sensor, and Honor View 10 sometimes “Lame” because it did not receive optical stabilization .

Smartphones with a “better” camera also crowd in the same cell of the table, although they differ markedly. The closest competitors to the iPhone 6s / 6s Plus are the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG V30 and OnePlus 5. All of them are slightly better photographed in any shooting conditions. In the Samsung S7 and S8, it is also the coolest self-camera among all competitors of the iPhone 6s.

HTC U11 is still half a level steeper, and Huawei P10 in quality of shooting is sometimes equal to iPhone, but in rare cases jumps above the head and argues on an equal footing with the Galaxy S7.

What of all this follows? The iPhone 6s is not that old to rush to sell it.

Cheaper than 40 thousand rubles in the office in the summer of 2018, you either get a mobile phone that takes better photos, but takes a video worse. Or a model that takes a little better pictures and also shoots video, but also brakes about the same as your old iPhone. And yet it’s worth to ruin one of the four Chinese “kings” of high-quality shooting (Xiaomi Mi8, Mi Mix 2s, Huawei P20, Mate 10) instead of buying a brand new iPhone 6s / 6s Plus.

iPhone 7/7 Plus – an honorary laureate of the award “neither fish nor meat-2018”

Best the enemy of the good. I still do not quite understand why the Apple fans met well in all respects the iPhone 7 / iPhone 7 Plus with such hatred at the end of 2016. A dual camera (albeit only for the older “shovel”, but the story showed that Samsung has tweaked the same trick with the Galaxy S9 / S9 Plus), waterproof, stereo speakers, cool processor, black, pancake, matte case – or do you think the Galaxy S7 updated in comparison with the Galaxy S6 more thoroughly? Or, perhaps, “flagship from the waste products of HTC” Google Pixel differed at least something, except the camera, for the better? Yes, iPhone 7 amputated a separate headphone jack, but Apple did great AirPods. In this case, the iPhone 7 after amputation is not fattened in comparison with the iPhone 6 for no apparent reason, like the Xperia XZ2 in comparison with the XZ1.

The main reason for the hatred was not in the “bells and whistles”, but in the fact that “they meet on clothes”, and the clothes remained the same – the many time’s tuned body of the old iPhone 6 of the sample of 2014, but under a new sauce.

And the increase in the quality of camera shooting was also symbolic. Remember, we hung the label “slightly worse than the Galaxy S7” on the iPhone 6s camera? So, in the iPhone 7, the camera is “slightly better than in the Galaxy S7”. And that’s it!

It’s much worse than it is “slightly better than the previous iPhone”, and such impudence is only allowed for the “S-version” when moving from iPhone 5 to 5s or from 6 to 6s. But not for “numbered” iPhone.

In the end, we get a smartphone, which at a price closer to the iPhone 8, and the quality of the camera is not so far gone from the iPhone 6s. And now it is difficult to find at least one good reason to buy namely the iPhone – the “seven”, and not something radically steeper with the delivery from abroad or a good Chinese flagship at the prices of Russian officials.

iPhone 7, now there is no special sense to spend money for the “seventh iPhone” because much more classy iPhone 8 will cost only a little more. Unless you are a fan of the principal maximum savings ( “where you, sir, to hell, Newbie ? Surely you can not afford to Android?”), Or very hate smartphones in a glass case.

iPhone 8/8 Plus – the best new iPhone for which you do not want to overpay

iPhone 8 on the genus was written to become the “second-class” iPhone – mobile phones that came out simultaneously with the revolutionary iPhone X, which were released only as a consolation prize. Like, if you do not have enough money, then at least for such half measures, shell out.

Marketers have calculated everything correctly – the audience of buyers was divided into those who are willing to pay extra for framelessness and prestige (laugh-laugh, but Vertu long ago in the grave, and no other options to flash a cool smartphone except the iPhone X, there are no), and those who ” and I have a new processor and almost the same camera, but at 24 thousand rubles cheaper! “.

Since you want to get the “whole mince” iPhone at the lowest price, take the iPhone 8 for 46 thousand and be happy. No sarcasm is a very fast smartphone with a power reserve, autonomy for a day and cameras in the top four smartphones in the world. Yes, in the top three – after universally good Samsung Galaxy S9 / S9 Plus, Huawei P20 Pro, HTC U12 + and iPhone X. Not a very romantic title? But 24 thousand rubles saving!

And against the backdrop of these 24 thousand fade in the “white” retail. On which you need Huawei P20 for 40 thousand, if iPhone 8 does “Chinese” for the quality of the screen, the detail of the video and, what really there, the speed of work too?

For the sake of justice, Huawei works longer on battery and at night it’s better to take photos, but as a photo the difference is tiny, and Android with EMUI shell is Chinese Android, not iOS, hand on heart. And Samsung Galaxy S9 with its “recommended” 60 thousand rubles in the official Russian retail is simply stepping on the forest because it is not so much better as it is more expensive.

Another thing – the “gray” retail. If the Chinese with their idolatry towards Huawei P20 Pro completely insolent (55-60 thousand! On Aliexpress!), The Germans offer to snatch Samsung Galaxy S9 for 38-39 thousand rubles with delivery to Russia! And this means that you get a steeper screen, a headphone jack, a memory card slot and an iPhone X level camera at 6,000 rubles cheaper than the most “dead” iPhone 8 in Russian cellular stores!

Never forget how “Samsung’s alternately gifted” developers of firmware – powerful and steep Galaxy begin to “brake” and “hang” soon after the next generation of flagships. But here and now S9 with delivery from Germany looks more sensible investment of means, than the “minimal” iPhone with a decent camera in 2018.

All the other alternatives, no matter how much the reviewers criticize the iPhone 8, are called “to spite my grandmother’s ears” – the co-payment for Huawei P20 Pro will give you the perfect “automation should do beautifully” the rear camera, but a less qualitative front + less quality self-camera and a pack of glitches Android (some – specific to the Huawei P20 / P20 Pro), and investing in the “living corpse” HTC U12 + – even more strange idea.

iPhone X – you would not be chasing, pop, for a unique user experience

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