[Discussion] Best Android Phone Camera?

[WanderingAries]

I'm sure most people will bounce between Apple and Samsung on average, but I have a slightly different direction I'd like to get into. This time around, since LG stopped making phones, I'm looking at new phone brands (to me) and it's a little hard to tell which way to go. And since I'm the one who takes care of the cellphones in the family (lines, phone upgrades, etc), then I get the fun of choosing what to get (based on how we used the previous phones). I'm not including dad's phone because, well, he passed last year and I was lucky to get him to use anything more than a Nokia brick phone.

 

What we have now:

 

Spoiler

• Network: T-Mobile, 4G LTE
• LG G7 ThinQ (LM-G710)
• Android 10
• 64 Gb ROM
  • 18 Gb for OS
  • ~23 Gb for Apps
  • User created content goes to SD card directly
• 4 Gb RAM (3~3.5 Gb Realistic)
• Snapdragon 845
  • Octacore (4x 2.8GHz / 4x 1.8GHz)
• Display
  • 6.1" QHD+
  • 3120 x 1440 @ 564 ppi
  • 19.5:9 Aspect Ratio
  • 1000 nit brightness
• Battery: 3000 mAh
  • Mom
    • 0.5~1.5 day use at likely 50%+ brightness
    • Tells me that the USB port is no longer charging, so stuck with wireless charging
  • Me
    • 1.5~2 day use at 33% average brightness
• Cameras
  • Rear
    • 16 MP
    • f/1.6
    • Image Sensor: 1/3.1"
    • 8x Zoom (unsure how much is optical)
    • Video: Up to 4k @ 30 fps w/ HDR10
  • Rear Wide Angle
    • 16 MP
    • f/1.6
    • 80 degree fov
  • Front
    • 8 MP
    • f/1.9
    • Video: 1080p
• SD Cards
  • Mom: 128 Gb (30ish Used / 120ish Usable)
    • Mix of photos and APK backups
  • Me: 200 Gb (145ish Used / 183 Gb Usable)
    • Music: 111 Gb (personal library at HQ)
    • LG Backup: 15 Gb
    • Photos/Videos: 9 Gb
    • APK backups
• Usage:
  • Mom
    • Email/messaging, facebook, games, photos/videos, navigation
  • Me
    • Email/messaging, facebook (etc), games, photos/videos, IT utilities, music, navigation

 

What I've narrowed things down to are the Pixel 7 Pro, Samsung s22 Ultra, and the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G. Note: I'm ultimately focusing on specs before price as we don't eat through phones quickly. On my initial research, I'd decided on the OnePlus because of the overall specs (and nice price), but today I went back and decided to checkout camera comparisons and now I'm worried that may be the wrong choice. Looking at youtube comparisons, it seems like the Pixel is the winner by a margin over the Samsung, and the OnePlus is left with saturation issues and a noisy mic due to no (?) noise cancellation during videos. The Oneplus seems to have the better display tech overall though as it can even throttle down to 1 MHz refresh (saves power I imagine) and is more comparable to the LG in terms of resolution, pixel density, etc which are important when viewing what you just took. It also seems to charge the fastest of all.

 

All of the above will be upgrades to what we have now and while we won't be doing anything professional, I also don't wanna go Too cheap on the one thing we Do use, hardware wise. Keeping in mind that I likely won't set the cameras above 4k for video and the still shot raw MP numbers are almost pointless for cameras now a days unless you're someone who prints or displays on a large format. Storage capacity became something to look at as well (mostly for me) and will force me to purchase the international/unlocked version of the Oneplus or Pixel (for the 256 Gb model), if that's the way I go. She's been using the wireless charging a bit now too as her car has it (but oddly enough has to use USB-C for android auto).

 

I thought I had a winner based on specs alone, but now IDK what to do. I'm not a fan of locked-down OSes (granted, some of that is now Google's fault) that hide/block features/settings. It's bad enough that I can no longer use my SD cards, but I also can't get every capacity at my carrier. What has your experience been with these models?