Since the month is already over, our “TOP 10 Smartphones for Selfies” is ready. This is our second edition after the first edition appeared in February. This TOP comes out once every two months, because the frequency of smartphones with first-class front cameras is not very high. However, now we will once again present to you the most attractive smartphones with a front camera.
If you're a selfie lover, and that's why you buy smartphones, you'll need to read all the way through. This list is an update first edition, and subsequent editions will always be an update of their predecessor.
Selfie lovers expect several things from their camera. They want quality images and features usually reserved for the rear camera. The 20MP sensor is the lowest you'll find on many great selfie phones today.
However, there are some devices, especially from Apple, Huawei, Samsung and Google, that use less than 20MP and still deliver great results.
When you're choosing the "best" selfie camera, there are a lot of things that come into play. In addition to pixel size, we look at software optimizations, beautification features, AI features, portrait mode, and many more.
In our opinion, these devices on the list are the best selfie devices. If you're a selfie fanatic or buy smartphones for their selfie capabilities, then check out this list of our top picks.
Huawei Mate 40 Pro
There's a reason why the Huawei Mate 40 Pro ranks first among selfie cameras in DxOMark with a score of 104. This smartphone uses one of the best selfie camera optimizations in the industry. In the previous edition, we wrote about the Huawei P40 Pro+, which also has an excellent selfie camera. With all that, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro offers much more
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- Sensor 13 MP 1 / 2,8 ″
- f / 2.4 is an aperture lens with an equivalent focal length of 18 mm
- Depth camera
- Fixed focus
- Flash display
- 4K video at 30 frames per second
The Huawei P40 Pro comes with a face beautification feature. With this feature, you just sit back and let your phone do all the editing for you. One of the strengths of the Huawei P40 Pro is its noise reduction, good color exposure and excellent bokeh. Thanks to the dedicated IR sensor, pictures in the style of "bokeh" are simply wonderful. This sensor provides accurate depth estimation and masking around the subject while blurring the background. While the trick is great, it's probably the only better thing she has. With all that, the focus works perfectly at close range, but seems to lose detail when the distance gets longer (even with a selfie stick).
Whether you're shooting indoors or out, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro+ packs a punch. Precise autofocus and image stabilization make this camera even more attractive. Overall, there is little or nothing to complain about with the Huawei Mate 40 Pro+
A brief overview of the Huawei Mate 40 Pro specifications
Before you fall in love with any Huawei device, it's important to know that it doesn't come with Google mobile services. This means that you cannot access the Google Play Store. No Gmail, Google Map, YouTube, nothing. So, if you live outside of China, you should consider this before considering this device. Although Huawei has HMS, which is supposed to be an alternative to GMS, it is not quite at the level of GMS and still lacks some relevant applications. However, if GMS is not an issue, this smartphone has some interesting features.
The Huawei Mate 40 Pro comes with a 5nm Kirin 9000 SoC, 8GB of RAM and 128GB / 256GB / 512GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage. In addition, this device uses a 6,76-inch display that supports a resolution of 1344 x 2772 pixels and a refresh rate of 90 Hz.
Under the hood is a 4200 battery magician, which supports 66W fast charging, 50W wireless charging, and 5W reverse wireless charging. Battery options are one of the reasons for the good sales of this smartphone. Today there aren't many smartphones in the industry with 40W wireless charging power.
Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
It is not surprising that the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro flagship made the list. This is because the selfie camera of this smartphone is basically a rear camera. The Asus Zenfone 7 Pro comes with a rotating camera design, so the rear camera module can rotate to the front for selfies. The consequence of this is that the front camera uses the same camera hardware as the rear camera. It's obviously going to be hard to beat.
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- Rotating triple camera
- Primary 64MP 1/1,72-inch sensor, f/1,8 lens with 26mm equivalent focal length, PDAF
- Ultrawide: 12MP 1/2,55″ sensor, f/2,2 aperture lens with 16,6mm equivalent focal length, PDAF
- Tele: 8MP sensor, f/2,4 aperture lens with 80mm equivalent focal length, PDAF
- 4320p video at 30 fps (8K) (tested at 4K / 30 fps)
- Dual LED flash
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ chipset
The front camera of the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro has a triple camera configuration. This includes a 64-megapixel Quad-Bayer sensor, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide and an 8-megapixel telephoto camera. We can see the rest of the details in the specification table above.
Looking at camera performance, this smartphone has everything you need for top-notch still images. It has excellent exposure in any environment (light or dark), wide dynamic range, and sharp colors with pleasing skin tones.
The large sensor produces great detail, and the texture exaggerates the front-facing camera. The bokeh effect is perfect, and for each image, the noise level is almost absent on the user's face, but slightly present in the background.
The Zenfone 7 Pro's autofocus system is one of the best in the industry for front-facing cameras. Thus, there is always excellent focus regardless of the shooting distance.
In terms of video quality, this device is the best in the world. This is because it gives great texture and detail.
Even in low-light conditions, it has very good exposure compared to its competitors. Just like in the images, there is almost no noise in the video
Asus Zenfone 7 Pro Concise Specs Preview
For users who want more information beyond the front-facing camera, here's a quick rundown of the other features. The Asus Zenfone 7 Pro comes with a 6,67-inch AMOLED display that supports a 90Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels.
This smartphone has a Snapdragon 865 5G+ SoC (Adreno 650) and supports 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage. This device uses a huge 5000mAh battery that supports 30W fast charging. According to the company, this smartphone gets 60% in 34 minutes and 100% in 93 minutes. Other features include 5G wireless connectivity, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.1.
Huawei P40 Pro
If the Huawei P40 Pro is better than the Mate 40 Pro, it would be because of its double pixel size. The Huawei P40 Pro comes with a 32-megapixel 1/2,74-inch sensor and a 26mm-equivalent f/2,2 lens.
In addition, this smartphone is equipped with a dual camera on the front. This is the latest trend in the smartphone market. The camera has a bokeh mode that uses an additional infrared (IR) camera for depth sensing and also supports autofocus.
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- Dual front camera
- 32-megapixel 1 / 2,74-inch sensor with 0,8 µm pixels
- 26mm equivalent f/2,2 autofocus lens
- 3D IR sensor for depth estimation and autofocus
- Video 4K 2160/30 frames per second
Prior to the arrival of the Huawei Mate 40 Pro, the P40 Pro had topped DxOMark's front-facing camera rankings for months. This smartphone is equipped with a first-class focus without instability. At close and medium range, the capture of user faces is very sharp. At longer distances, faces are sharp, but there is some noise in the background. Despite the loss of background detail from longer distances, the front-facing camera performance of this device is still perfect.
Exposure, color, flash, noise and bokeh are the strong points of this smartphone. Thanks to the dedicated IR sensor of the Huawei P40 Pro, its pictures in the "bokeh" style are very impressive. The depth estimation for this device is good and it does a great job of eliminating all the objects in the background with its blur.
In addition to the front-facing camera's superior image performance, video performance is also excellent. According to users, the 4K video of this smartphone is excellent. It has the best exposures, accurate autofocus, effective stabilization, as well as pleasant colors.
Even in low light, the 4K front-facing camera isn't the best, but it's still top quality. If you want front-facing camera quality in terms of images and videos, the Huawei P40 Pro is the smartphone you should consider.
A quick overview of Huawei P40 Pro specifications
This smartphone features a 6,58-inch AMOLED display that supports a resolution of 1200 x 2640 pixels (~441 PPI density). Under the hood we have the Qualcomm Snapdragon Kirin 990 5G (7nm +) combined with 8GB of RAM and 128GB / 256GB / 512GB of internal memory. A quad camera is used on the back. The Vina has a 50-megapixel main camera, a 40-megapixel ultra-wide, a 12-megapixel telephoto-telescopic camera and a ToF 3D sensor.
This device uses a 4200mAh battery that supports 40W fast charging, 27W fast wireless charging and 27W fast reverse wireless charging. This device comes with EMUI 10.1 on top of Android 10, without Google Play Services.
Live V21
Chinese manufacturer Vivo officially launched this smartphone a few days ago. This smartphone is the company's latest mid-range device and the selfie camera is the main highlight of this smartphone. How many phones do you know that have OIS stabilization on the front camera?
Well, this mid-range phone has it. There is a 44-megapixel front camera with an aperture of f / 2.0. This selfie camera supports OIS, dual LED flash and 4K video recording.
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- Primary sensor 44 MP 1 / 3,2 ″, pixels 1,22 μm
- F / 2.0 - an aperture lens with an equivalent focal length of 26 mm
- Dual-pixel PDAF
- Display flash
- 4K @ 30fps, 1080p @ 30fps
This device offers good photos in low light and to make it even better, there is image stabilization. The stabilization function also extends to video. The company has also made some improvements to its selfie camera.
Beauty Mode provides some skin smoothing even when Beauty Mode is off. This is a problem for some people, as it means the front-facing camera doesn't technically take natural-looking images. However, users can edit the images to make them more realistic. Although this usually shouldn't apply to great selfie smartphones.
Brief preview of Vivo V21 specifications
The Vivo V21 comes with a 6,44-inch 2404×1080 Full HD+ AMOLED display. It has some exceptional features including 800 nits brightness, HDR 10+, 90Hz refresh rate and an in-display fingerprint sensor. Unfortunately, you'll have to settle for a teardrop neckline, which I don't find the most flattering. At the back, this smartphone has a triple rear camera setup that includes a 64-megapixel primary camera with f/1.79 aperture and OIS, an 8-megapixel 119-degree ultra-wide-angle camera with f/2.2 aperture and finally a 2-megapixel macro camera with f/2.4 aperture. .
The phone has 8 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and up to 256 GB of built-in memory. Like the iQOO 7, this phone also comes with extended RAM technology that gives 3GB of additional RAM. Vivo V21 uses a 4000mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. The battery is not that big, but the nice thing here is that the device itself is thin and light. The phone is just 7,29mm thick and weighs 176g. It runs Android 11.1-based Funtouch OS 11 out of the box.
OnePlus 8 Pro
OnePlus 8 Pro is quite good thanks to its selfie camera. Although slightly behind the OnePlus Nord, which is part of our first edition, this device is quite good with its selfie features. This smartphone is equipped with a perforated display, which houses a 16 MP front camera.
This 16MP camera uses a Sony IMX616 sensor, but lacks any form of stabilization. However, images are still bright and sharp, especially in bright conditions.
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- Primary sensor 16 MP 1/3.06 ″
- F / 2,5 aperture with an equivalent focal length of 29 mm
- Fixed focus
- Flash display
- 1080p video at 30 frames per second
Front camera exposure is very good and the screen doubles as a flash. However, when the flash is active, there is some loss of detail in the images. Without external light sources, the color effect is good, but with ambient artificial light, a slight yellow-green tint is visible. This device also supports portrait images, but the blur is not very natural and cannot be adjusted.
The OnePlus 8 Pro camera is even more exceptional for taking selfie videos. Regardless of the lighting, the exposure of the OnePlus 8 Pro is excellent. Its dynamic range is good, but bright backgrounds tend to be overexposed. As a general rule, skin tones are usually pleasant and attractive to look at.
On one hand, the OnePlus 8 Pro comes with a fixed focus lens, but the performance is still decent. Its small sensor and moderate aperture (the OnePlus 7 Pro has a faster f/2 lens) help maintain depth of field. In general, there is a lack of detail in low-light conditions, and even in good lighting, some noise is visible. This is a drawback of this smartphone.
OnePlus 8 Pro specifications at a glance
The OnePlus Nord uses a 6,78-inch AMOLED display that supports a 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1440 x 3168 pixels (~513 PPI density). This smartphone comes with Snapdragon 865 5G (7nm+) and supports 8GB RAM and 128GB / 256GB UFS 3.0 storage. It uses a quad rear camera module.
It consists of a 48-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel (ultra-wide), a 5-megapixel (color filter) and an 8-megapixel (telephoto). This device uses a 4510mAh battery that supports 30W fast charging. It also supports 30W fast wireless charging as well as 3W reverse wireless charging. Other features include 5G wireless connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1 and OxygenOS 111 (Android 10 can be upgraded to Android 11).
iPhone 12 Pro
The front of the iPhone 12 Pro houses a 12-megapixel 1/3,6-inch sensor behind a 23mm-equivalent f/2,2 lens. It also features a depth-sensing Structured Light (SL) sensor to simulate background blur. In general, Apple almost always uses a great selfie camera. In fact, we can consider Apple as one of the few brands that has many selfie smartphones.
Although the competition is getting tougher, Apple is still holding its own. On paper, the iPhone 12 Pro's selfie camera might not seem like much. After all, it comes with a 12-megapixel f/2.2 sensor. However, the optimization and quality are top notch.
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- Dual front camera
- 12MP 1/3,6-inch f/2,2 sensor with 23mm diameter
- SL 3D sensor for depth estimation
- 4K 2160p Dolby Vision HDR video at 24/30/60fps, 1080p up to 120fps, Gyro EIS
This device is great for quality portrait shots with a depth sensor. The night mode function is quite good even in low light. Its autofocus function provides an extremely sharp face, but its performance is optimized for the 30-90cm range. However, above 90cm, at say 120cm, the depth-of-field sensor ensures that the selfie remains sharp enough. Looking at bokeh, stabilization modes, and other features, the iPhone 12 Pro is clearly one of the top-notch selfie smartphones out there.
iPhone 12 Pro specification preview
The iPhone 12 Pro comes with a 6,1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED that supports a resolution of 1170 x 2532 pixels and a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Under the hood, this smartphone uses Apple's A14 Bionic 5nm chip. This device uses 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB / 256 GB / 512 GB of internal storage.
A triple camera is installed on the rear panel, all sensors are 12 megapixels. It includes a wide-angle, telephoto, ultra-wide angle and TOF 3D LiDAR sensor. The battery size is only 2815mAh and it supports 20W fast charging and 15W wireless charging.
Vivo X60 Pro
There is no doubt about Oppo's achievements in the selfie camera department. In fact, this company, like Vivo, puts more emphasis on the work of the front camera. Oppo hardly ever uses a selfie camera below 20MP these days. Vivo X60 Pro is equipped with a 32-megapixel front camera, and the result of its work is simply excellent.
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- 32 MP module
- F / 2,5, 26 mm (wide), 1 / 2,8 ″, 0,8 µm
- HDR
- 1080p@30fps
The front camera supports HDR and 1080p @ 30fps video. However, it does not support 4K video, which is a drawback of this device. However, this device has some interesting features like portrait video, color pop mode and night mode tripod settings that make it stand out. Interestingly, the video mode of this device supports Ultra Steady algorithms for stabilization and anti-shake. Not many manufacturers include stabilization functions for the front camera. The end result is quite lovely with a nice focus on the face.
Like other Vivo devices, this smartphone is equipped with an aggressive EIS algorithm. So its 1080p video is fully with this feature. While there are several other selfie smartphones above this device, it has enough merits to make it onto this list.
Brief preview of Vivo X60 Pro
This smartphone features a 6,56-inch AMOLED display that supports a resolution of 1080 x 2376 pixels. This smartphone comes with Snapdragon 870 5G (7nm) and supports 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage. It uses a triple rear camera. It has a 48-megapixel main camera with 13-megapixel (ultra-wide), 13-megapixel (telephoto) sensors.
This device uses a 4200mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging. Other features include 5G wireless connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1 and Funtouch 11.1 (Android 11).
Google Pixel 5
Some readers will finally breathe a sigh of relief to see the Google Pixel 5 on this list. Not that there is anything special about the Google Pixel 5, but there is something special about the Google Pixel cameras. Anyone who knows smartphones should know that when it comes to camera optimization, Google is the best in the business. The front camera of the Google Pixel 5 does not disappoint, as expected.
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- 8MP 1 / 4,0″ sensor
- An f/2,0 aperture lens with a 24mm equivalent focal length
- Fixed focus
- Flash display
- 1080p video at 30 frames per second
This smartphone has only 8 MP and the smallest pixel size on this list. However, its software optimization is second to none. This smartphone is supposed to be Google's flagship, but the company had to cut some corners to keep the cost down. This of course affected the overall camera performance of this device.
In general, there is not much to complain about with the front camera of this device. Color output, white balance, focus and other functions are quite decent. More importantly, this camera keeps noise under perfect control, even in low-light conditions.
According to DxOMark, “the Pixel's simulated bokeh offers good depth estimation, with only minor artifacts around the foreground subject. However, there is no gradient blur and the spotlights in the background are rendered with low contrast, resulting in a slightly unnatural effect."
Google Pixel 5 Specs Brief Preview
To keep the cost down, Google decided to use the Snapdragon 765G, which isn't a bad thing. However, compared to the competition, this is a step back. This smartphone is equipped with a 6-inch display that supports a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels and a refresh rate of 90 Hz. This device offers 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal memory. In addition, it is equipped with a 4080mAh battery, and supports 18W fast charging, 12W wireless charging and 5W reverse wireless charging.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has entered our first edition. However, this does not mean that the previous generation of the Galaxy S20 Ultra is bad. In fact, Samsung made the front camera of the Galaxy S20 Ultra in such a way that it is not much different from the S21 Ultra. Namely, so that it can shoot both cropped and full-frame formats. By default, it renders images in its cropped format, but this format has a lower resolution image.
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- 40-megapixel 1 / 2,65-inch Quad-Bayer sensor with 0,7 µm pixels
- 25mm f/2,2 equivalent lens (no OIS)
- Default 6,5MP cropped output with 32mm equivalent focal length
- Optional 10MP wide-angle output with 25mm equivalent focal length
- Automatic wide-angle switching for double or group selfies
- AI is enabled by default
- PDAF autofocus
- 4K / 60fps (1080p / 30fps default)
Whatever feature you can think of such as portrait mode, night mode, stabilization and others, this device will provide you with it all. The video quality is also great, but Samsung has added something to make it better. The South Korean manufacturer calls it the “Director's View”.
This smartphone doesn't have a dual front camera sensor like many of the devices on the list, but it can take pictures with a longer focal length. Its 40-megapixel 1/2.65-inch Quad-Bayer sensor with 2 × 2 pixel binding outputs 10-megapixel images with a 25mm equivalent focal length in its wide-angle mode. This sensor automatically selects when there are two or more faces in the field of view.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Concise Specs Preview
This device comes with Exynos 990 (7nm+) SoC. It uses a 6,9-inch dynamic AMOLED display that supports a 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1440 x 3200 pixels. It also has 12GB / 16GB of RAM and 128GB / 256GB / 512GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage.
On the back, there is a quad camera with a 108-megapixel main sensor that supports 8K video. Additionally, this device is powered by a 5000mAh battery that supports 45W fast charging, 15W wireless charging and 4,5W reverse wireless charging.
Huawei nova 6 5G
The interesting part about the Huawei nova 6 5G is that it is the cheapest smartphone on this list. In fact, it costs less than half of many of the devices in this "Top 10 Best Selfie Smartphones." On the front, this device is equipped with a dual camera, just like many other devices in the market. The main camera is a 1 / 2,8-inch 32-megapixel image sensor. This camera has a 26mm equivalent field of view and an f/2,2 aperture lens. Like most devices on the market, it supports 4K video.
The main characteristics of the front camera:
- Dual front camera
- 1/2,8-inch 32-megapixel sensor with f/2,2 aperture, 26mm equivalent
- 8 MP, f / 2,2, 17 mm (ultra-wide)
- Secondary wide-angle and depth camera
- PDAF
- 2160p at 30fps (4K)
Regardless of the lighting conditions, the Huawei nova 6 5G provides a fairly acceptable exposure. This is the result of wide dynamic range and good HDR processing. These features also allow this device to produce good images in high-contrast situations
White balance and skin tones are fairly accurate, but there are some color casts for indoor images. Interestingly, thanks to its optimizations, the device manages to keep the noise under control. In addition, this device has an enhancement filter that smoothes the skin. Despite the smoothing, it still retains the details and natural features of the face.
Huawei nova 6 5G short specs preview
This device comes with Kirin 990 (7nm) SoC. It uses a 6,57-inch LTPS IPS LCD display that supports a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. In addition, it has 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB / 256 GB of internal memory. At the back, it has a triple camera setup with a 40MP primary sensor. Additionally, this device is powered by a 4200mAh battery that supports 40W fast charging.
Visnovok
Here's our list of the "Top 10 Best Selfie Smartphones" for March and April. Note that these are the smartphones we think are great for selfies. There is no particular order of placement, so we do not consider the #1 smartphone to be better than the #10 listed smartphone. However, if you get any of these devices for selfie purposes, we're sure you won't regret it.
In June, we will have the third edition of "TOP 10 Smartphones for Selfies". Obviously, there will be some new devices on the market that will make the list by then.
Feel free to check our first issue, if you want more features and we'll be back in June!
As we said in the first edition, our goal is not to simply list smartphones, but to add as much detail as possible to prove our point. If you have something to contribute to this list, let us know in the comments section below.
