Two's better than one, and so dual camera phones were born. While they are not new, smartphone makers have been experimenting for years to optimise and find the best combination at different price segments.
While Huawei has broken new ground with its smartphones like the P30 Pro, its competitors like the Pixel 3/XL have shown that great photos can still be captured with just one sensor. On the other hand, there are phones like the Galaxy A9 that fail to match the quality with even four sensors.
There was a time when there were few phones with two rear cameras, but things have changed so much that the trend has entered the budget phone market too.
So, what are some of the popular dual-camera phones that we can find in the Indian mobile market today? Let’s have a look.
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Xiaomi has dominated the budget and entry-level smartphone segments for a long time now. This is no different this year either - the launch of the Redmi Note 7 Pro changed the market dynamics yet again. Offering a high-resolution, premium-grade 48MP camera at budget prices was the primary clincher for the Redmi Note 7 Pro.
As for selfies, the 20MP front camera grabs a decent amount of detail, and you can use the screen as a fill flash to brighten things up and even things out.
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Samsung has introduced a new affordable smartphone this year with the launch of the Galaxy S10e. However, don't go by its affordable price tag - the Galaxy S10e still offers stellar camera performance thanks to the 12MP wide-angle lens and the 16MP ultrawide angle lens. Samsung has optimised the two cameras enough to make the S10e a great performer even under challenging conditions.
Samsung has continued to use a variable aperture which changes as per the situation. Essentially, this means that the low-light performance improves as it lets more light to enter the camera.
Read the full review: Samsung Galaxy S10e
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If you're looking for an all-rounder with a well-above-average camera in its class, the OnePlus 7 might just be your thing. The dual rear camera features a wide-angle lens paired with a 48MP sensor, as well as a secondary 5MP depth sensor. The front camera is a 16MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture.
While OnePlus has struggled with camera performance for a while now, the company has slowly but surely optimised the overall image quality. This reflects in the performance of the OnePlus 7, which manages to take great images in daylight conditions and decent performance in low-light.
Read the full review: OnePlus 7
Realme has essentially shown up out of nowhere to challenge established players like Xiaomi. The Realme X is one of those very well balanced smartphones from the company that offer a lot of value for money.
The Realme X's dual camera setup with a 48MP primary snapper and a 5MP depth sensor works great in daylight conditions. It also captures portrait shots with decent level of expertise. The one area that it does struggle in, like many other smartphones, is low-light conditions. Nevertheless, considering the money that you're paying for it, the Realme X is a noteworthy option.
Read the full review: Realme X
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The Honor View 20 Pro has two rear cameras. But the second is a ToF (time of flight) 3D camera, rather than one that adds a zoomed or wide-angle view. Huawei has also improved the AI mode, offering a much more natural photo when compared to older phones. There’s a multi-exposure mode for night shooting too. It’s very similar to the super night mode introduced in the Huawei P20 Pro.
The Huawei View 20 is a very good option if you are focusing on the image quality. The fact that it uses Sony's hi-res sensors works in its favour, but it also benefits from much of the camera processing development work put into phones like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and P20 Pro.
Read the full review: Honor View 20
As is the trend with many phones at this price point, Sony’s 48MP sensor is the Oppo Reno’s main camera. It has an f/1.7 aperture and in combination, the camera can take high quality photos. The second camera is a 5MP depth sensor with an f/2.4 aperture which is useful for portrait photos. It does particularly well with subject detection and the blurring stays realistic alongside maintaining natural skin tones.
As for the quality of selfies, the camera works best outdoors with plenty of light available. Its HDR is impressive, with portrait mode working well for edge detection too.
What particularly impressed us was that Oppo’s night mode does not necessarily require a tripod for the best results. Except for the absence of an ultra-wide lens and telephoto lens, this camera is stellar.
Read the full review: Oppo Reno
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At first glance it appears that the iPhone XS and XS Max have the same camera as the iPhone X. The dual rear camera module has two 12MP sensors- one wide-angle and one telephoto- with the same f/1.8 and f/2.4 apertures.
However, there are some key differences.
The iPhone XS Max and XS both feature Smart HDR, absent in the iPhone X, which ensures that all areas of the photo are well lit and detailed. You can also edit the level of background blur in portrait shots, something that iPhones have been lacking for a decade.
The 7MP camera has also been upgraded over its iPhone X counterpart. It also gets the new Smart HDR mode as well as portrait mode, and implements the bokeh effect digitally.
If you don't mind shelling out Rs 99,900 and above, then the iPhone XS and XS Max are two of the best camera phones in the market right now.
Read the full reviews: iPhone XS | iPhone XS Max
The Galaxy Note is is currently the best dual camera smartphone in India. The newly launched flagship bears the same camera setup as the Galaxy S9 Plus.
The dual 12MP rear camera uses variable-aperture technology to switch between an f/1.5 aperture for low-light photography and an f/2.4 aperture for normal lighting conditions.
The secondary lens enables 2x optical zoom, which helps to capture sharp telephoto snapshots for distant subject. It has a fixed f/2.4 fixed aperture, and it retains the optical image stabilization like the primary lens. It works well, and it's very useful for those with shaky hands. There was ample of noise in the night-time shots with the telephoto lens, everything else remains perfectly crisp.
Front camera does selfies at 8MP and has autofocus, which is a first for a Galaxy Note phone. The camera app is filled with tons of mode options like AR stickers, wide group selfies, HD Super Slow Motion at 960fps and more. The camera app is dense, but it's still very easy to use and fast.
On top of everything, users get to opt for multiple storage variants as huge as 512GB storage with microSD card support.
Read full review: Samsung Galaxy note 9 review
Comparing the iPhone XS and iPhone X with the same photo, it’s clear that the Smart HDR mode is the key difference here. While the overall quality of the snap is largely the same, the detail and brightness throughout is improved, which bodes well for when your photography skills are poorer but you still want to get a great picture.
Apple is talking up the improved portrait mode too, with both the ability to take better pictures of people (with smarter capabilities of working out where the edges of their head lie, so they stay sharp against a blurred background) and the capability of adjusting the level of blur behind them.
Read the full review: iPhone XS
The LG G7 ThinQ is an impressive little phone from the brand (irritating name aside), bringing with it a strong package and a decent price in many regions. There's an attempt to right the wrongs of the LG G6 - and it's resulted in a good alternative to the traditional big hitters.
The smart camera here is great if you want to capture more of the picture, with a much wider field of view bringing in more information. The smart sensor tries to work out what's in front of you - with great results, but only when it gets things right. It's not the best camera out there, but you can take some stellar shots.
Read the full review: LG G7 ThinQ review
The OnePlus 6/6T doesn't feel out of the place alongside the likes of Samsung, Sony or LG. In fact, the company has made a better value for money device when compared to most flagship currently. While the OnePlus 6T is a complete powerhouse in the performance department, it's no less in the optics department too.
It has the same camera configuration on paper as its predecessor, but OnePlus has increased the size of the sensor on the main 16MP camera by 19%, and it now has a 1.22um pixel size (up from 1.12um), enabling it to pull in more light and thus perform better in low-light conditions. Which makes it one of the better phones for photography in its range.
Read review: OnePlus 6T
The Honor 10's camera is actually the area where you can expect the it to perform better than its expensive alternatives. On the back of the Honor 10 sits a bug-eyed pair of camera lenses. One uses a 16MP colour sensor, the other a 20MP monochrome sensor.
Huawei and Honor have used a similar setup before, the higher-resolution 20MP camera being used to let you zoom at 2x and see more detail than you would from simply cropping into the standard 16MP image.
The camera performance is commendable and there's virtually zero shutter lag. Focusing is reasonably fast and you can use Auto mode and get the best possible shot in most cases.
Read the full review: Honor 10 review
The recently announced Mi A2 is the second generation of Xiaomi's Android One device. After the success of the Mi A1 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro, Xiaomi has announced the slightly costlier Mi A2.
Since its partnership with Xiaomi for the Mi A1, search giant Google has partnered with Nokia, Motorola and other OEMs for premium Android One devices. Now, the two companies have partnered once again for the Mi A2.
The Mi A2 offers several upgrades over its predecessor, including an all new 18:9 display, improved cameras and an upgraded SoC. While these upgrades are good, the company has also taken some steps back by slightly reducing the battery capacity instead of increasing it and removing the 3.5mm audio jack.
Read the full review here: Xiaomi Mi A2 Review
The Honor Play is one of the most powerful devices from the company in the country and has been priced very competitively. The main highlight of the device is the Kirin 970 SoC, which is the company's current flagship SoC.
The Honor Play is gaming centric device and has been equipped with the company's GPU Turbo, a software and hardware solution that is claimed to increase the device's performance by up to 60% while reducing the battery consumption by up to 30% while gaming.
Coming to the cameras, the device sports a dual rear camera setup consisting of a 16MP primary sensor and a 2MP secondary depth sensor. The cameras come with features such as phase detection autofocus and EIS. Honor has said that it will push an OTA to enable AI stabilisation on the device in the coming days.
Similar to the MI A2, the Redmi Note 6 Pro also succeeds to an already great smartphone and brings enhanced cameras as the key update over its predecessor. It is also the first Xiaomi phone to have two cameras on the front for selfies, meaning it can click bokeh photos from both the sides.
The Redmi Note 6 Pro is capable of capturing impressive shots in both low and good light situations. Even in low light scenarios, the phone clicks clear pictures with a decent amount of details. Another thing that we specifically like about the Redmi Note 6 Pro camera is how well it captures colours even in low-light. Pictures clicked in low light with the Redmi Note 6 Pro doesn’t show heavy noise or grain, and that's something rare on smartphones of this range.
The only downside is the inconsistent edge detections in bokeh shots.
By: TechRadar
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