Some of the most popular smartphones—including the Samsung Galaxy S21, iPhone SE, and Google Pixel 6 Pro—failed to make the top 10 list below. (The same goes for the Sony and Samsung phones we cited above for their memory card slots.)

But just because a phone doesn’t make the cut here doesn’t mean it has poor cameras. Our head of electronics testing, Richard Fisco, says that from a camera-quality standpoint, there’s little variation among the top-tier smartphones.

In fact, the differences among this group are so small that they could be chalked up to variations in our test samples, he says.

In computing the score for cameras, our expert testers rate the quality of the still images taken with a smartphone’s rear cameras, examining resolution, dynamic range, color accuracy, and visual noise. They also evaluate the quality of a phone’s front, or selfie, camera and the rear camera’s video quality.

Many models, including the iPhone 14 Pro, can shoot in 4K ultra-high definition, giving your home movies a professional touch. And the Samsung Galaxy S21, S22, and S23 phones can even shoot in 8K, though you can play back the footage at that resolution only on the phone itself or on one of Samsung’s 8K TVs.