It’s that time of the year where we grab the best camera phones around and take them out for a side-by-side shootout. We have six entrants we’ve been particularly impressed with throughout 2021. The Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra showcase the best that the big two have to offer. We also liked the OnePlus 9 Pro for its ultrawide setup, the Google Pixel 6 Pro as a return to form, and the Sony Xperia 1 III for its novel telephoto technology. We also heard you loud and clear and picked up a Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra as the reader’s choice entry this time around.
First, a little housekeeping. We installed all the latest software patches before heading out for our shootout. Camera apps were left in their out-of-the-box settings, so using Apple’s Standard color profile for example, and there’s no post-editing on any of these images. All we’ve done is resize them to save on bandwidth in this article. Given that most of these phones have been on the market for many months now, this is likely as good as these cameras are ever going to look.
