A brief history on some of the most innovative camera centric phones
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- In this piece, we're going back down memory lane to uncover some of the most innovative camera-centric phones that pushed the limits.
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Without Sony most these phones wouldn't have powerful sensors. Thank you Sony!
nokia used zeiss optics and panasonic used their own sensors tho
firo mohammed Sony *sensors*.
firo mohammed Panasonic buys all their sensor hardware from sony. They are allowed tot brand them as their own though.
firo mohammed shame Sony never knew how to use these sensors 😂😂😂 their phones can't take decent photos
xz2 premium killed your opinion ;P
Really? No Sony Ericsson K800? And k750 one year before...
Dude I cannot even begin to describe how much I loved my K800i. The cybershot snapped pics so quickly, the xenon flash was freaking amazing and the image stabilization was lightyears ahead of the competition (funnily enough also lightyears ahead of the sony ericsson phones that followed haha)
Years later I had the z3 compact and it was just awful. 24 megapixels and the pics were worse than that of the 3.2 megapixel k800i. Images were always blurry because the stabilization was practically non-existent and a few other downsides. (just the camera, rest of the phone was awesome)
Well with the pixel 2 and galaxy s8 and upwards, google and samsung kind of took the spotlight. I think I'm gonna upgrade my s8 to a pixel 4 in october.
Also, K850 & C905 were both incredible.
This video is incomplete without Sony
@@therealstanyz The flash on that phones was blinding! lol
No mention on the Sony Ericsson K series with xenon flash... Those photos are still good today...
K790i and K850i were hit phones for camera back in the day.
K800 had a really good camera, 3.2MP with xenon! I loved it
K800 had a really good camera, 3.2MP with xenon! I loved it
I think the Sony Ericsson K750 was the first phone with auto focus camera.
Night time shots with xenon flash were crazy..
Dac DT yes, I logged in just to say this.
Sony Ericsson K750i
Sony Ericsson C905i
Sony Ericsson Satio
Iconic
I did own Nokia 1020. Still love that phone 1020. It's in my collection
I've got Nokia 808 Pureview still today I love it too ^^
Nokia got Very impressive camera. Have heard Nokia 8 got very impressive camera
i have both nokia 1020 and nokia 808 its a beast
i still use it as a daily driver
Hackuna MyTatas are you running Windows 10 in it? And also is the app gap a problem with you?
when n95 was shooting HD video, apple iphone not even record video at all.
I had the iphone 5s and n85 and it's cam wa better than 5s
Yeah that’s why people still use nokia, no wait they don’t.
allstar 1995
iphone camera sucks
Huawei’s Leica camera is better
My S10's Camera is also better than the iPhone 11's
@@alreadyalexandre2914 you haven't seen Nokia 9 Pure View.
HTC doing potrait mode, before apple.
And GIFs (a second of video before photo). Lumias were second.
Samsung doing selective focus with ONE cameras before Google, and everyone else
Abdurrahman Alchoughri Wasn't good enough for them to sell it on that though, you didn't see the S8/7 being marketed as can do portrait mode with jus 1 camera for that reason
Very shitty tho
David hunsinger but htc failed to implement it properly
I miss the time when phones were original and not trying to copy everyone else
Yup
HTC creating the best underrated phones till today
hypero123 lg and and sony
Hareesh Devendran and sadly I don't see why that's so. Samsung is not as great a phone brand as people think I mean lg, sony, and htc and even ZTE make or rather can make better phones with actual innovation. Samsung is never first in anything they do
Jordan Nealy yes ur right , but when did I talk about samsung
BTICronox what's wrong with it it's good I am using it now
Hareesh Devendran im just using Samsung as a comparison as it's seen as king of Android with people... In the grand scheme of all the phones out there if you ask a normal person what company with Android they will say Samsung.
The N95 camera is certainly outclassed now by modern phones, but it could still hold it's own against some of the best for years after it was released.
Great video, but where is Nokia N8 ???????
The Xenon Flash / ND filter / Mechanical shutter ....HDMI device....one of the biggest sensors in smartphone history with 1/1.83" and 1.75um
This device was just a jaw drop in its time, short movies, moviea in cinema used it to capture some of their materials
Blue Glitch and Sony Ericsson c905, or Sony Ericsson satio 12mp led and xenon flash
It did 720P@ 30 FPS in 2010
Blue Glitch
XZ P : Super Slow Mo
S7-S9 Dual Pixel
S9 : Variable Aperture
BTICronox They only capture a 480p video , bro
No Both N82 and N95 only did VGA @ 30FS, Trust me I tried all the Mods and SW Updates on my Black N82 Back in 2008-2010
Nokia lumia 1020 still the beast camera
yes i use it
noob
No it's pixel
@@liamsreejith173
Lumia - Hardware
Google - Software
It was 10 years back,😂
Can anyone else imagine one of these being refreshed with the modern high-end specs?
Joshua Sim I wish for the iPhone 4.
N93 and N95. HMD may be crazy enough to do it.
M8 2018! :p
S845 in a Lumia 1020... Or N8 pureview😍😍
I can't believe you didn't mention even ONE of the Sony Ericsson K-series...
No one could touch Nokia for Camera Technology when they were producing phones like the 808 and the 1020. They were the best in the world for their time.
why nokia dont use android ?
Nokia thought of Using a closed or end to end operating system called Symbion for making money ( do you remember we use to pay money for many of the apps) But Android was an open source gave much more added advantage to developers and users to develop it and use it.Nokia in the making of temporary moeny last its fam and Name and couldn't follow the trend. Where in Android OS there were many free apps and game for which Nokia use to charge us. this made the major difference and sold them for Microsoft.
6:05 Hey, there's a phone on your camera!
nokia n8 was amazing too
God I love those windows Nokia phones, their designs were timeless and unique imo, wish they were more popular nowadays
Maybe Nokia N86 with variable aperture, or Lumia 920, the first phone with OIS
.. 10x optical zoom..
Huawei: hold my beer.
They aint touched 10x Optical yet, but I'm sure they will soon lol. Surprised at the Huawei Mate 30 Pro though, 3x Optical Zoom instead of the 5x
@@griffithbowen4590 i heard that they couldnt fit the 5x zoom camera on the p30 pro
@@recruit7416 Bigger phone but more stuff in there, shame they didn't though. I loved my P30 Pro it was a cracking camera,
@@griffithbowen4590 Only having a 1x and 5x camera is stupid. Because the jump from 1x to 5x is too high and that is why the have chosen 3x. But in my opinion they should have chosen 3x and 7x zoom which would be the perfect balance.
Dude those phone with the 10x optical zoom are as slim as current phone and besides the Huawei p30 pro can go 50x with hybrid zoom
The HTC One M8 was the best phone ever released
*Change my mind*
David hunsinger Samsung Galaxy Note 4.
I've said enough.
Agree
The ability to save custom camera modes then swipe to access (in a custom order) is missed on newer phones.
When it comes to a new phone being released and me thinking "wow, this is the ultimate phone, the phone of all phones" ... That would be the N95. As soon as next year, my decision would be way less clear, with Samsung's INNOV8 scoring many wins over the N96. N96 was the first major sign of troubles for Nokia.
Original Nokia 3310 is the best phone ever made
Cool trip down memory lane, John. Thanks!
Nokia 808 and Panasonic CM1, still waiting for the successor... :(
There is the Panasonic CM10. K-Zoom was amazing though... just wish it had better phone specs
Man, I miss my Nokia N90 and N95. They were 2 truly amazing phones. 😢💯
You forgot Nokia N93i which i think was the first phone that had a camera with optical zoom, back in 2007.
Daumex yupp they even had dual aperture like Samsung back in 2008
N93 in 2006. Gary Oldman made an add for it. N93i was its refresh, tried to look classier but IMHO failed. Then, in 2007, there were the N95 and later N95 8GB.
Nokia N86 8MP had variable apperture ... It was only 2.4/3.2/4.8 but decent numbers for its time.
That being said, I think there were phones made to be sold only in Japan that had high megapixel counts and optical zooms long before anything for the rest of the world.
There were soo many N-series phones I wanted to include, and that's one of them. Hopefully I'll have it included in the next video.
I have a Nokia N93 and N93i in my collection. I even used the N93 as my main camera :D
exactly i got n93
1:50 SCP 5300- some random Sanyo Phone. Class: Keter.
I loved the N95. It was such a great phone for filming video and taking pics
You missed one of the biggest of them all. One word "CyberShot"
Xperia 1 with eye-af is deserving of a spot
If this was done today, the oppo find X would be there (Pop up camera), P30 pro would be there (Insane low light and multi-second capture with no blur), S9+ would be there (Dual aperture and 960 FPS hyper slow-mo), Oppo N1 would be there (Rotating camera for selfies and normal shots), Nokia 9 pure view would be there (5 cameras allowing you to change the amount of blur and even refocus on one of the other parts of the picture after the fact), Samsung A80/ s105G (Built-in time of flight sensor that allows them to blur the background in video live like a portrait mode), RED Hydrogen One phone would be there (Allows you to capture video in a new age 3D format), LG V10 would be there again (The first phone, that I know of, that allows you to natively shoot in RAW format), Oppo not sure what phone (5X optical zoom smartphone that has no bump), Oppo later this year would be there (Not sure what phone. 10X optical zoom with no bump), CAT Phone S60 would be there (First phone to shoot in Infrared), and so on and so forth.
Nokia N8 is the Beast
Then the N9 came out and beat it lol
@@SytanOfficial No
Ahhhhh.... The early 2010s' 3D feature craze. It was a time when TVs with 3D features were sold at almost pretty much every electronics store I've ever been to. Most stores would actually give a demo for the 3D feature which I thought looked really cool at the time.
NOKIA 1020 Best camera phone
I am still using my HTC desire Eye in 2018, i couldn't live without a proper stereo speakers anymore. It's still a solid phone. It ages great
I think they could also have spoken as they already said here in the Sony Ericson K800i, Nokia 90 and the lenses Sony G QX10 and QX100.
Thanks for the recommendations, definitely will try to get another video out in the future when I revisit it.
First Nokia Flash Xénon N82
I had (and still have) both the 7650 and the N95. The N95's camera is so good you can still use it today. It's also quite amazing when you compare it to the first iPhone's camera which was truly terrible.
Nokia lumia 1020 is a legend
Great video. I think Omnia HD deserves an honorable mention as it was the first one to be able to record 720p.
Own the LG G5
Zack Marchington same
Yeah ,me too ...
Had it, horrible battery life, even with extra battery. Switched to iPhone 7 plus. Battery life is much better.
Not that camera though
i did. I upgraded to a pixel
Omnia hd-first 720p video camera in a phone, nokia n86 award wining camera, sonyericsson k800-first xenon flash, n93-rotating camera with 3x optical zoom
Amazing of phone technology has come could you imagine what it would be like in 20 to 30 years
I remember my SonyEriccson k800i with Cybershot, it took incredible photos back then in 2008
What About the HTC 10 with OIS in The Front Camera and the U11 with the Acoustic Noice.
I'm an android user and have been for a while but every time I see the iPhone 4 I just think wow, what a beautiful phone. Iconic.
go look at huawei phones.
Samsung innov8, LG viewty , Sony Ericsson k750,w810. Nokia N82..
Suman Karanam n82. I’m going to buy one and place it in a glass frame in my living room. That phone served me the longest.
Marx Domah xenon flash, superb camera for the time, boom box like speakers and rugged looks like a pocket able tank.. Yup I need one for my collection as well.
Brilliant !! You have done a really great job by collecting these Old cellphones.. Which are very difficult to get in this present time..😍👌👌
Sony Ericsson k800 had best camera on its time.
LG Viewty KU990i also had a 5MP cam in 2007, except it already had 120fps! slowmotion
You have missed Huawei P20 pro, 1st phone to introduce 3 camera (rear)
but it sucks
@@HMDPlays Do you have one?
ive owned 2 huawei devices. the 6x was my first one which was good and the p20 pro was my last phone. It wasnt that great.
@@HMDPlays what was bad about it
not necessarily bad, but not good. The camera was okay. The design, i liked the back but the front was ugly. I dont mind the notch but the chin bothered me. The battery was the only plus I can think of. There is a ton of bloatware, but not as bad as samsung. last, it cost 1100 to ship the highest model to the us
The LG Arena KM900 is missing on that list, launched in 2009, it had an amazing sensor, it produced amazing photos in daylight conditions, the Wide vga resolution in its videos was outstandingly clear, it recorded in 30 fps, not 25, also. It recorded in 240fps, it was the 2nd phone that was able to do that, the first one being the prior model from LG.
Nokia 808 or Nokia N93 rather than iPhone 4
A list without any Xperia phones is automatically void
This video is so well compiled. Thank you :)
Most of these phones are flagships. I think Moto G3 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 started the trend of good quality photography even on a budget.
Definitely
Wasn't Samsung the first who introduced a camera phone in 2000
I believe it was Nokia
Tiara Game
Samsung introduced their camera phone in 2000
The rest after 2001
I thought it's SHARP. Yeah, but you're right, Samsung started selling their camera phone in June 2000, whereas Sharp started selling their J-SH04 in November 2000.
I think that's is not copying. Four months should not be enough for a company to engineer a camera phone with the tech in 2000. And not to mention that the J-SH04 is much more sophisticated. It's just Samsung decided to rush and Sharp decided to make a better phone
Tsz Fung Li and how do you know if they rushed? lol
They are not successful at that time so nokia.....
I kinda feel old.. I remember all these kinda of phones in middle school and high school. jeez.
I am still using my htc one m8...i love it
Great phone i had the M8 and M9
The special thing about pixel2 camera is split pixels( every pixel is made out of 2 sub pixels, that way it can take two different pictures and perceive depth of field with only one camera)
M8 was so far ahead of its time
My brother had a HTC Evo 3D. It’s a really great phone even without the 3D aspect. I had a HTC One M8. It’s still probably the best phone I ever owned.
And where is Samsung Galaxy Zoom? Or K Zoom?
You forgot the k750i, k800i and the nokia n8. Three phones that paved the way for serious photography enthusiasm through cell phones.
Se t300, nokia n82, se k800i, nokia n8, nokia 808, htc evo 3d, nokia lumia 920, nokia lumia 1020... Htc u11. Best of the best.
Missed the LG v10/20... That camera's manual settings really made it a competitive creator's camera
lumia 1020 best, till 2019 ending no phone can beat
My Galaxy S10 can;)
I almost got a HTC Desire Eye back in 2015, was not expecting to see that on this list
iPhone 4 should not be in here LOL
Kartik Gada I guess he had to include an iPhone somewhere so people wouldn't get mad 😂 *Edit: I'm just joking
Harpitron i mean, personally i think the 4 and 4s were too advanced at the time
Especially in design
The 4s has a stainless steel bands with glass from and back
Not introduced until the galaxy s6 and the iphoneX. The 4s also had an amazing photo. And odly enough, the fromt facing camera (it had a lot of noise) somehow legs more light in then the camera on my iphoneX. Which is weird
Think about it. The 4 had the 2017-2018 design but in 2010 and the M7/m8 had the design that the 5 and every other andrioid phone held onto, with the aluminum body, and then dual cameras. HTC did it first lmao
OverKnight 52 I agree, I liked the 4/4S too they were basically the last generation Steve Jobs was still around. I was kinda joking when I posted that comment 😀
Harpitron I believe Steve Jobs last iPhone was the 5
Daryll Dionisio yep, it was heavily inspired by the 4 though. That's what I should have said 😀 *edit: I really liked the design of the 4/4S and 5/5S so it's nice to see Apple combining the design of the 6 and 4/5 in the iPhone X
Why can’t HTC go back to the good ol days. The HTC One M8 was such a good phone.
M7 was also better
The U12+ has a good camera and its a good Phone but the Software is bad and its too expensive
The video should include photo samples ;(((
Owned a Siemens mc60 in 2004. I cant describe how it felt to own such a machine in those times. In 2006 i got the samsung z400 with front cam i was the king at my school.
Oh Nokia and Sony. How you've fallen behind.
I think the xperia z3 was their downfall
a new phone every 6 months just underwhelmed people when they realised the differences weren't huge
Awesome video!!!
Won't be surprised if you've shot it on LG V10, V20 or V30 👌👌👌
Watching with my htc one m8 still love this phone😍
i used the sony Erricson k800 and i remember that as a great phone/camera on my work at real estate.
Phone cameras are constrained by physics. I believe a sensible approach would be to make add-ons like MotoZ mods that would facilitate computational photography using multiple sensors/lenses, similar to that of Light L16 camera (which was a nice proof-of-concept, although a flop). Consumers do like to have the convenience of multiple focal lengths (ultra-wide, standard, telephoto). The vast majority, however, are already perfectly happy with what they get with current flagship cameras.
ignasb add on phones always fail, that’s why they’re not made anymore
Loved that you included the HTC Evo 3D such a under-rated phone...
even now, 3D pictures on my large 3D TV, and on VR headset STILL surprises people, and ask how i did it !! and thats in 2018 ! why they never pursued it i dont know ! :(
and glad you included the HTC eye too, again a underrated phone... still use that today, one of the very few GOOD phones WITH waterproofing too ! ...
such a shame HTC fell of the ball ! ...
both those in one phone with some of the magic from wireless charging, and headphone jack would of been amazing ! and actually been a forward step in tech !
Mick Long I still have my HTC Evo 3D. I remember playing NFS Shift on it. I loved the dual camera system of it, and still enjoy it. I'm watching it on my HTC EVO 3D btw lol. #HTCFORLIVE
Galaxy S7/edge with f1.7 aperture and dual pixel autofocus
57 Pixels s9 plus
Dual Pixel PDAF is no joke!
I think, you missed the Nokia N8, it was the first phone with a camera bump that delivered great shots
Please make a brief history of most innovative phones. Thank you! Love you vid!
Very nice video thanks for that brief smartphone camera history
Nokia 808 !!!!
Legend says that PhoneArena need another ten more decades to earn a million subscribers..
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom also must have been included.
it was wasn't it?
I loved my One M8, first proper smartphone I ever owned and it was great
What about LG KU990 Viewty from 2007?
i had that too! my first camera phone!
You forgot about Oppo N1, which had a rotating camera in 2013.
Sony Ericsson k series k800i proper flash and proper shutter
That LG V10 looks gorgious!
Start of 2019
Huawei p30 pro comes along....
Do I even need to say why
Just becuz it can zoom doesn't make the camera any good
@@Retronyxdid I say zoom
It's also got one of the best if not the best night mode and regular quality alone is great
@@hypervortex5930 You didn't said anything. You were expecting from us to know what you are thinking about. Huawei didn't made such revolutionar phone such as HTC in 2014 (M8)...
huawei has just good zoom and bright (doesn't mean good) night shots, but this is available for most companies. They are just brighter. Huawei night shots are unrealistic unlike pixel, samsung, iphone
@@hypervortex5930 Not as good as my Galaxy S10's Camera;)
When you realize that the Moto Hasselblad modular thing is a 2016 rehash of the very first camera innovation in phone history.
On a side note, I used to own the HTC One M8. It was really good phone that served me well for many years until I bought the Oneplus 5. It also made me the de facto cameraman at every family function until my cousin bought an iPhone 7. And then I bought my Oneplus 5, so I'm back to being the cameraman again.
Htc one m8 was awesome at that time, and also nokia n79
10minute video on UA-cam is not always brief!but great video worth watching
and 2019, there is a night mode trend
Loved the video, great information
the nokia n8
Sony Ericsson K800i the world best phone camera at the time of release at 3.2MP. Amazing design and very sturdy with a shift stick that ALWAYS worked. I loved that phone.
Zenfone zoom?
It has optical zoom without the extending lens
Lanz Vathan it was great (and my father used that)
Damn... First camera on a smartphone was in 2002... 5 years later, the iPhone came out. Tech really does move fast
Pixel 2 XL REPRESENT
Galaxy S10 is its Master
Nokia lumia 808 & 1020 has still the best camera set-up on a mobile phone ever