With so much advice available from manufacturers, users, and experts, it can be challenging to sift through the piles of information when you’re choosing the best camera smartphones. A great camera is one of the things at the top of the list of priorities while buying a new smartphone

For those who frequently take selfies, this can be the deciding factor. For others, the demands of social media can play a big role in the selection of smartphones.

It’s good to take a backward glance at the history of camera phones while considering the best camera smartphones. One of the first camera smartphones was by the Japanese company Olympus that released the DELTIS VC–1100 in 1994. Canon and Apple also experimented with digital camera-cellular phone combos.

Sharp and Kyocera were working simultaneously on competing products. While Sharp’s priority was on sharing instant pictures, Kyocera was working on a peer-to-peer video phone. In 1995, two engineers at Kodak patented a camera phone.

In June 1997, Philippe Kahn an engineer at Sharp shared pictures of his new-born daughter from the hospital ward with 2000 friends, family, and associates worldwide, making it the world’s first publicly-shared cell phone photo.

The very first commercial camera phone was released in Japan in May 1999. The Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210 was then called a mobile videophone” and had a 110,000-pixel front-facing camera.

The rest, as they say, is history!

Most people already possess a smartphone with a camera, and when looking for new products and upgrades, they want to do better than the last. A few key features to look for include the following:

1. Megapixels
The number of megapixels can be a useful deciding factor, but does more mean better? Not always. Megapixels can gobble up space, based on what your plans are for your pics. If you’re planning to upload on social media and do not want to print these pictures, megapixels may not be a crucial factor.

2. Aperture
Image quality is enhanced with a wider lens aperture. In smartphone-jargon, the f-number is the ratio of focal length to aperture diameter. The lower the f-number, the greater the amount of light entering the lens, and the more the background blur. The wider the lens, the less the f-number and more expensive it is.

3. Screen size
Since we hold the phone with both hands and use the screen as the viewfinder and shutter release, a bigger screen gives you a better view. Make sure the screen is made of Gorilla glass so that it stays scratch-free.

4. HDR
High dynamic range has been a feature of regular cameras, and now the best camera smartphones also incorporate it. It is a great feature to have while capturing landscapes, heavily backlit images, outdoor portraits in excessive sunlight, etc.

5. Control options
Apart from the standard point-and-click, mid to high-end smartphones offer manual and pro modes on cameras. Filters and other options help you click panoramas, slow motion, timelapse, square-cropping, and videos.

6. Video
If you opt for a phone with 4k video, ensure that it has large storage capacity or memory card options. Also, high-speed and slo-mo are some of the fun and creative aspects you may want in your smartphone’s camera.

Apart from these features, make sure your phone is water-resistant, has a decent battery life, supports a variety of photo apps, has expandable memory, and a good range of accessories.