With each new device we test against Samsung's Galaxy S7, we see more clearly that Samsung has pushed smartphone photography right up to the edge of the possible. It's a world-beater — it's a tack-sharp, bold-colored, light-smart image maker without a rival. There isn't a single situation where I'd prefer another device in my pocket.
I'm starting to wonder whether any smartphone following the current small-fixed-camera-on-the-back model will ever truly beat this device. Richer and wielding higher-quality glass than the once-dominant iPhone 6s Plus, smarter and better engineered than the most innovative new Androids, the S7 dispatched yet another challenger in our just-released test: the HTC 10.
The S7's f/1.7 lens sits near the maximum aperture you can get before focus issues become a real concern; even DSLR lenses rarely move past f/1.4. Color and contrast look as good as in professional devices. The autofocus system is smarter, faster, and more responsive than the one Hasselblad installed in the $26,000 H6D-50c.
At some point you have to wonder: How much better can these things get?
It's not like the other devices that have come out in the last 12 months are photo slouches. The HTC 10 has an amazing camera, and if the phone had come out just a couple months earlier it would have contended with the iPhone 6s Plus for the title of best in the world. Presumably these manufacturers will look at the S7's success and turn out a new crop of devices that match it or make tiny, incremental improvements. (For example: While the S7 is the best nighttime smartphone camera in the world, the color in low-light settings could be a bit better.)
But to beat the Galaxy S7, manufacturers (including Samsung) are going to have to make some revolutionary, rather than evolutionary, advances.
We saw the first hints of that with LG's dual-camera G5 released earlier this year. The end result was a disappointment, but the South Korean electronics maker has the right idea here. If smartphone cameras are going to improve, they're going to need designs that offer new functionality, not just better specs.
So, what will the best smartphone camera in the world look like four or five years from now? Expect multiple sensors and lenses for multiple focal lengths, sensors that let you tweak focus and shutter speed after the fact, and any one of countless other innovations.
Just don't expect it to look anything like a current smartphone.
