Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission.Learn more.
We asked, you told us: This phone takes the best shots so far in 2021
August 20, 2025
We’re well past the halfway point of the year, and our own Rob Triggs thought it would be a good time totest the photographic capabilitiesof some of the most popular phones released in 2021 so far.
Rob compared several high-profile flagships available in the US, namely the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, OnePlus 9 Pro, Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, and Sony Xperia 1 III. He felt that Samsung’s device was the “marginal” winner purely because it didn’t have major weaknesses. We asked readers to pick the phone that took the best photos too, and here’s how you voted.
Which phone takes the best pictures?
We posted the poll on July 31, and it received an enthusiastic response fromAndroid Authorityreaders. Over 3,700 votes were counted as of writing and the most popular pick was easily the SamsungGalaxy S21 Ultra, accruing almost 46% of the vote. This means the most popular reader’s pick is in line with our own winner.
Second place goes to theiPhone 12 Pro Max, with almost 26% of respondents voting for Apple’s phone. We thought it was pretty handy too, but took umbrage with the long-range zoom capabilities, HDR, and low light performance.
Sony’sXperia 1 IIItook the third step with just over 15% of the vote, while theOnePlus 9 Prorounded out the poll with fourth place and almost 13% of all votes.
That’s it for the results of our camera shootout poll. Thanks for voting and for leaving comments. Are you surprised by these survey results?
Thank you for being part of our community. Read ourComment Policybefore posting.
