You can now find ultrawide cameras on all kinds of smartphones. These extra-large rear cameras snap to an enormous field of view and capture unique looks at landscapes. Ultrawides bring in more surrounding detail. They also give photos a magnified look that can be corrected via editing and modes or used as a stylistic choice on your latest nature hike.
You can find a great device capable of taking amazing ultrawide shots. While some of the best Android phones on the market are on this list, more budget-friendly Android phones have also made their way into the lineup – and maybe even a rogue iPhone. When it comes to ultrawide photography, there are great options for every budget.
Top ultrawide smartphones
Google Pixel 8 Pro
Another excellent Pixel camera
The Google Pixel 8 Pro is the company’s latest flagship, boasting a new Tensor G3 chip, a brighter screen, and a new camera array capable of capturing even more light. As usual, the real power lies in Google’s Tensor chip, which offers even more photo enhancement and image editing features.
- Gorgeous display
- Best-in-class Pixel camera
- Improved build quality
- Charging speeds still leave a little to be desired
- Camera visor scratches easily
The Google Pixel 8 Pro is our top pick for ultrawide photography. Once again, Google pairs powerful sensors with the company’s excellent computational photography models. It features a 50MP main shooter, a 48MP 5x optical telephoto lens, and a 48MP ultrawide sensor, giving users all the necessary tools. If you can’t capture the image you want with a Pixel 8 Pro, consumer-grade photography equipment is not what you’re looking for.
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As expected, the physical lenses and sensors only tell half the Pixel camera’s story. With the company’s new Tensor G3, Google improved its computational photography and added new AI-enhanced options for the creative photographer. If you didn’t quite capture the ideal group photo on the first try, Best Take will create a composite image, giving you several options to choose from. Magic Eraser is carried over from previous years, allowing you to remove any imperfections in an image. All told, the Pixel 8 Pro gives users the most versatile camera system from top to bottom.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
All the cameras for all the money
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra might not be the most exciting upgrade we’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t take away from how excellent it is overall, featuring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 complemented with 12GB of RAM. Samsung promises seven years of software support for the S24 Ultra, matching Google’s Pixel 8 Pro support.
- Long software support
- Excellent build
- Great performance
- Relatively slow charging
- Expensive
If you have an unlimited budget and want the best of the best, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is hard to beat. It features the fantastic Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with 12GB of RAM, allowing you to chew through more intensive tasks like photo and video editing. It also gets excellent frames at high settings on AAA mobile games.
Samsung didn’t skimp on the design, fitting the Galaxy S24 Ultra with a titanium frame and Gorilla Armor protecting the display. Old Galaxy Note fans will feel right at home with the S24 Ultra’s boxy design. The S-pen allows users to take pictures remotely and control actions on the screen. Samsung promises seven years of software support for the S24 Ultra, ensuring it retains value and runs well for a long time.
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You certainly pay for the privilege, but the S24 Ultra has one of the most versatile camera systems available, with four lenses fitted to its rear: a 200MP main shooter, a 10MP telephoto, a 50MP periscope zoom lens, and a 12MP ultrawide camera. When you add in Samsung’s various computational aides, the output is stunning, with sharp detail and saturated colors. Night photography is also excellent on the S24 Ultra, with details not lost in grainy photos. If you’re serious about your photography and don’t like owning a Pixel, the S24 Ultra is hard to beat.
Google Pixel 8a
A fantastic Pixel camera for less
The Google Pixel 8a is an affordable alternative to the Pixel 8, featuring the same Tensor G3 power and 8GB of RAM. You get a plastic build but still an aluminum frame, making the Pixel 8a feel good in the hand. As always, the Pixel 8a’s cameras are excellent, providing the consistent output we’ve come to expect from Google.
- Improved display
- Excellent camera
- Great software support
- Slow charging
- Somewhat quirky design
Google made important improvements to the Pixel 8a, making it a worthy upgrade from its predecessor. Gone are the dim, dull displays of old Pixel A-series devices, with the company trading those lackluster panels for the newly-minted Actua display. There is a significant difference, with the Pixel 8a display noticeably brighter and more saturated than the outgoing Pixel 7a.
But that’s not all; Google also fitted the Pixel 8a with a 120Hz refresh rate and a Tensor G3, giving it the same power plant as the more expensive Pixel 8. That added performance fuels features like Night Sight and Top Shot, which provide excellent low-light photography and ensure decent images, even with moving subjects.
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Magic Editor and Magic Eraser add versatility to your photos, allowing you to eliminate any interlopers that have ruined your perfect shot. Even though the 64MP main sensor on the Pixel 8a is dated, Google’s computational photography still works its magic, outputting sharp point-and-shoot images. It’s hard to beat a Google Pixel for photos, but the value proposition gets even better when those tools are brought down to a $500 price point.
OnePlus 12
OnePlus photography is no longer a joke
The OnePlus 12 builds on the OnePlus 11 with an excellent display and improved performance. OnePlus fitted the 12 with a retina-bursting 4,500 nits of peak brightness, making it one of the brightest you can buy. In addition, the company added 100W fast charging to its already impressive 5,400mAh battery.
- Excellent performance
- Premium build
- Fast charging
- OxygenOS still needs work
It wasn’t long ago when you would’ve been laughed off the stage for suggesting that OnePlus was good at photography. The OnePlus 8 produced downright awful photos, with dull colors and soft details. While the OnePlus 11 was a noted improvement, the OnePlus 12 takes things a step further with a highly capable triple camera setup: a 50MP main shooter, a 64MP periscope telephoto sensor, and a 48MP ultrawide lens.
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OnePlus’ collaboration with Hasselblad seems to finally be paying off, with solid color reproduction in photos on the OnePlus 12. Even though it’s still a step behind offerings from Samsung and Google, the OnePlus 12 is still a great value. In addition to a premium build, the OnePlus 12 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen with up to 16GB of RAM, making it an absolute powerhouse, capable of sailing through complex photo and video edits. If you’re a gamer, the OnePlus 12 is hard to beat for the money, allowing you to play on max settings while maintaining high frame rates.
No one will ever confuse a photo from a OnePlus 12 with one from a Pixel 8 Pro, but the gap is narrowing, and when you factor in a starting price of $800, the OnePlus 12 becomes an attractive package.
iPhone 15 Pro Max
Consistent results for point-and-shoot photography
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is the latest and greatest from Apple, with a slick new SoC that can handle console games and a new telephoto camera that finally uses periscope technology. It also finally adds USB-C, so you won’t be carrying a Lightning cable around anymore. These upgrades all converge to make one compelling package.
- Excellent build quality
- Outstanding battery life
- Many years of software support
- Slow charging
- Expensive
Even though Apple’s video quality usually wins the most praise, the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s still photography is no slouch. Images from the phone’s 48MP main shooter are colorful with good depth. With the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple’s post-processing immediately focuses on lighting, bumping the brightness of images taken in less-than-ideal conditions.
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Unfortunately, the 12MP periscope lens can get noisy in low light, with the 5x zoom useful only in prime daytime conditions. Its 12MP ultrawide lens suffers the same fate, and you’ll instantly notice a drop-off in color accuracy and quality. The iPhone 15 Pro Max will rarely produce the best image out of all the phones listed, especially compared to the Pixel 8 Pro, but it will be the most consistent. Point-and-shoot photography yields similar results even in varied conditions, and Apple knows its customer base approves of the camera’s ease of use.
Sony Xperia 1 V
4K on a phone display
Sony’s 2022 Xperia phone is an incredible video-taking machine with added ultrawide camera capabilities. Sony throws in a ton of manual camera controls and an impressive 4K panel for the ultimate media-creating device.
- One of the grippiest phones around
- Headphone jack and microSD card slot
- DSLR-style manual camera modes
- Design feels dated and is tough to use one-handed
- Cameras can’t match auto modes on Samsung or Google phones
- Fingerprint sensor issues remain present
Sony always offers something different with its Xperia lineup, and the Xperia 1 V is no exception. It features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and 12GB of RAM, still a perfectly capable combination in 2024. What’s more, Sony includes creator-friendly tools with its software, allowing users granular control over photos and video recording.
Sony fitted the Xperia 1 V with a triple camera setup: a 48MP main sensor, a 12MP continuous zoom telephoto lens, and a 12MP ultrawide camera. The results are impressive, especially if you like tweaking images. You won’t get the low-light performance of a Google Pixel, but it’s respectable, especially when you factor in what else the Xperia offers.
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It sports a gorgeous 4K OLED display refreshing at 120Hz. And don’t let anyone tell you 4K doesn’t matter on a smartphone; it’s a noticeable difference, and feature films that can take advantage of the taller aspect ratio and higher resolution look magnificent. And even though its price of nearly $1,200 might be hard to justify after a year, the Xperia 1 V does offer a different experience for those tired of the same old smartphone choices.
Phones we’d love to see stateside
While our list features excellent photography choices, it’s worth noting that the US smartphone market is a bit limited. Fantastic phones from Vivo, Xiaomi, and Oppo sport top-of-the-line camera systems, giving users overseas a more competitive smartphone landscape. And while it’s possible to import, you’ll want to confirm your carrier supports the phone.
The Vivo X100 Pro is an impressive device, powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 9300 complemented with 12 or 16GB of RAM — enough to process photos in a blink. Vivo fitted the X100 Pro with a triple camera setup: a 50MP main shooter, a 50MP telephoto with 4.3x optical zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide sensor. The output is positively stunning, with the X100 Pro producing vivid, sharp images that go toe-to-toe with the best flagships. If you’re bold enough to import one, you’ll be pleased with its camera versatility.
Oppo’s newest flagship release, the Find X7 Ultra, goes one step further, adding a fourth lens to its camera array. It features a 50MP main camera, 50MP ultrawide, and two telephoto lenses — a 2.8x optical zoom and a 6x zoom, giving shutterbugs multiple options to capture the best image. The Find X7 Ultra has a gorgeous design and premium build quality, but it’s more than just a pretty face; it’s powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, giving it top-tier performance. With Oppo’s close ties to OnePlus, it’s even more disappointing we won’t see a US release, even if it’s a rebadged device from OnePlus.
Not to be outdone, the Xiaomi 14 Pro produces beautiful photos from its triple camera array. In addition to the 50MP main shooter and ultrawide lenses, the 14 Pro utilizes a 50MP telephoto lens with 3.2x optical zoom. It’s not just the megapixels that make the 14 Pro impressive; it’s the size of the sensors. The 50MP main shooter is 1/1.31 inches, bringing in plenty of light to capture the best photos. Night photography is impressive on all three of these devices, with larger sensors playing a huge role. While using imported smartphones in the US brings its own challenges, it might be worth it given the quality options from overseas.
Important ultrawide smartphone features and why they matter
If you’re relatively new to ultrawide camera technology on smartphones, there are several important concepts to know about these advanced, compact lenses.
- Wide-angle vs. ultrawide: Wide-angle cameras have more traditional fields of view that typically max out around 84 degrees or less. They have key advantages, including a lack of distortion that ultrawide lenses may create and a greater focus on specific details. However, they can’t capture those extra-wide, immersive shots like ultrawide lenses, which typically start at a 90-degree field of view. If cameras have multiple lenses, one is often a wide-angle lens, and the others offer ultrawide capabilities. Depending on the type of photography you do, you may only need a wide-angle lens.
- Megapixel (MP): Megapixel is a spec that measures how much visual data a camera sensor can capture. One megapixel equals around 1,000,000 pixels. The higher the megapixels, the better the resolution. Megapixels are important for quality images, to an extent. They’re also why image formats take up so much room in your storage. Because ultrawide shots tend to capture a lot, it’s a good idea to pair them with a high-megapixel sensor that can push these photos to the limit.
- Aperture (f/): Aperture specs indicate how wide the lens can open, typically showing the maximum open size via the f-stop measurement. The smaller the f-stop, the wider the lens opening. Wider openings let in more light, while lenses with higher f-numbers are better at taking sharper action shots with a deeper depth of field. Smaller f-numbers that allow for larger apertures are often preferred since they allow for better low-light work, but there are trade-offs. Generally, ultrawide lenses have higher f-numbers than the other lenses on the phone (due primarily to manufacturing and design constraints), which means they’re not as great for taking pictures in low light.
- Autofocus: Autofocus identifies subjects and correctly focuses the camera, making the right subjects clearer with improved contrast. All digital cameras use autofocus methods, and new smartphones are very good at it. Along with megapixels and aperture, the autofocus options on your smartphone are set in stone when you buy it, and you can’t usually upgrade them.
- Macros: Macro shots are photos where the subject is a close focus that spans most or all of the sensor’s reach. True macro shots require dedicated lenses and sensor capabilities. However, an effective autofocus allows ultrawide lenses on smartphones to take macro shots, which wasn’t possible until recent years. But it’s an important option on the latest ultrawide models.
- Bokeh: Bokeh means slight blurring on the areas outside the maximum depth of field, a common part of the ultrawide effect. The largest ultrawide lenses on smartphones can produce bokeh, which is a desired trait for photographers working with more stylistic shots. This is also one reason (among many) that ultrawide shots usually place the subject in the middle of the frame.
- Fish-eye: A fish-eye lens produces a recognizable magnification effect (a little like looking through a fishbowl). While ultrawide lenses are not technically fish-eye lenses, they can produce similar “bendy” effects at the edges because of their wide field of view. Sometimes this style is exactly what you’re looking for and an advantage in ultrawide shots. Other times, you may want to correct it through software or different angles.
Max out your photography with the best ultrawide phone
Whether you are taking pictures of a beautiful landscape or something else, getting great ultrawide photos doesn’t have to be a difficult endeavor. While not all phones are created equal, the phones provided in this list are particularly excellent at capturing just about any ultrawide shot you need.
When it comes to the power, performance, and versatility of the camera system, the Google Pixel 8 Pro is a great choice. Google’s post-processing image prowess has been well-documented over the years and is second to none. It also features a 120Hz LTPO display, great overall performance from the Tensor G3 processor, and years of software updates.
If you have a bit more to spend and want the most versatile phone on the market, then the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is a great choice. This powerhouse has a 200MP main camera and a 120-degree ultrawide that can take some amazing photos. Throw in the S Pen and you have a unique device with all the bells and whistles.
If you want fantastic ultrawide shots but are on a budget, then the Google Pixel 8a is the ideal device. Sharing much of the same computational DNA as its bigger Pixel 8 Pro sibling, Google has truly delivered exceptional value with the 8a. Its build isn’t as good, and it doesn’t offer the same level of battery life, but the Pixel 8a costs a few hundred dollars less and takes the same great photos.
Google Pixel 8 Pro
Still the best option for smartphone photography
The Google Pixel 8 Pro is an easy choice for photographers, with its spectacular camera array, including everything from a 50MP main shooter to a 48MP ultrawide sensor. This phone also has a new Tensor G3 chip, brighter screen, and more.
