Best smartphones for portrait photography 2024

Most modern smartphones are capable of great portrait photography, with specialist modes and multiple lenses. Amy Davies rounds-up the best on the market.

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Photographs of people – (even excluding oneself) – are surely among the most common things captured on a smartphone. Indeed, pretty much every manufacturer includes some kind of portrait mode, designed to recreate a classic shallow depth of field effect you would normally see when shooting with a standard camera and wide-aperture lens.

In recent years, the quality of these on-board portrait modes, as well as the overall prowess of phones in general, has improved dramatically, and you can get some excellent results – particularly if you pick up one of the flagship models listed here.

The smartphone has made opportunist photographers of most people who have one – the novelty of a decent camera always at hand has given us all an eye for spotting candid portraits of friends and family. These cameras have come to be good enough for dedicated portraits in their own right. You might just be surprised by the results – and if you don’t own specific portrait gear yet, it’s a good way to approach the genre before investing in any.

The phones listed here are the best currently available, and as such are on the expensive side. But, if you’re thinking of upgrading anyway, it can be a good investment for enthusiast photographers. Remember to shop around for various contract deals, and you may also already be able to find some of these models second-hand. Skipping back a generation or two is also a savvy way to save some cash.

How does portrait mode work on a smartphone?

Although you can take portraits with the standard shooting setting on your smartphone, many will choose to use the dedicated Portrait mode (sometimes it will be called something else).

It’s only with these modes that you’ll be able to recreate the effect of shooting with a wide-aperture lens. How this essentially works is the phone will take data from two or more of its lenses to create a depth map and using edge detection to figure out what should be in focus and what shouldn’t.

Machine learning and computational photography helps create the end result, which isn’t as reliably smooth as using real hardware, but can create pretty convincing effects – especially when you’re only viewing images at small sizes or on social media sites such as Instagram. Sometimes fussy outlines can prove to be a problem – such as if someone has fairly fine hair. Sometimes you might also see some features, such as ears, disappear when they shouldn’t.

It tends to work best with humans and animals (pets especially) that smartphones have been trained to recognise easily, while still life subjects can be a bit more hit-and-miss. That said, results have on-the-whole improved a huge amount since portrait modes were first introduced, with smartphones better able to understand they’re looking at as time progresses. As technology continues to advance, we can only assume they’ll continue to get even better.

• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: Buy now
• iPhone 15 Pro: Buy now
• Xiaomi 14 Ultra: Buy now
• Google Pixel 9 Pro: Buy now
• OnePlus 12: Buy now

Continuing reading to find out more:

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Best smartphones for portrait photography

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was our clear pick as the best overall smartphone in 2023, and this year’s S24 Ultra continued the tradition by winning Smartphone Camera of the Year at our 2024 AP Awards.

With its multiple lenses, comprehensive camera app and excellent screen, the S24 Ultra is a fantastic all-rounder. It has a dedicated Portrait mode which you can use to either take headshots or leave a little more context. It puts in a good job with portraits here, creating fairly natural outlines and also works well with other non-human subjects such as pets.

You don’t have to shoot in Portrait mode if you don’t want to, with the standard setting also producing excellent results – albeit without the same kind of shallow depth of field effect you might wish to have. If you want to shoot in raw format, you can, but again not in Portrait mode – head to the Pro mode and enable DNG recording to do that. You can shoot with the 3x telephoto lens in Pro mode to get a typical portrait focal length, while also taking advantage of the flexibility of raw shooting.

As with the S23 Ultra, one of the key headlines of the S24 Ultra is its 200 megapixel main sensor. Images are only actually output in 200MP if you choose a specific mode, otherwise the standard output is 12MP. In theory this sounds useful for portraits, but in practice, extra detail isn’t hugely obvious and unless you want to print your portraits at a huge size, 200MP is overkill.

If you’re shooting after dark, Night and Portrait mode can be combined together to great effect, though here it’s the 1x setting, rather than the closer 3x setting, which produces the best results.

One last useful specification here for portraits is the inclusion of an “S-Pen” stylus, which can be used to remotely trigger the camera shutter. That’s helpful for self-portraits and group-portraits, where you can frame from a distance.

Read our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Review.

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iPhone 15 Pro

It goes without saying that Apple’s smartphones are incredibly popular. This flagship sees a 3x lens setup, with the main offering a 48 megapixel resolution. It’s available in two sizes, the standard Pro and the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max, without sacrificing on camera quality if you opt for the smaller device. This is something other manufacturers don’t offer, with smaller devices tending to come with a camera sacrifice of some sort. This may mean that the iPhone 15 Pro better suits those with smaller hands or who don’t want a cumbersome smartphone to fit in their pocket.

In terms of portraits, the iPhone 15 Pro/Max has a dedicated Portrait mode which gives you the opportunity to shoot at 1x, 2x or 3x, depending on how you want to frame your shot, while also creating a blurred backgrounds. Portrait has been improved for the iPhone 15 Pro series. Called “Next generation portrait mode”, the big news here is the ability to automatically recognise portrait subjects (humans and pets) when shooting in the main camera mode. This means you can turn it into a portrait after the fact if you want to – again, this isn’t something that has so far come to iPhone 14 Pro and older.

Critics of the iPhone often point to its relatively simple native camera app, with no Pro or Advanced mode available. However, you can shoot in Apple’s ProRAW format if you want some increased flexibility – though as with other smartphones, not in the Portrait mode. Again, shooting with the telephoto lens and raw switched on is a way to get around that somewhat.

We again here have a Night mode which can be combined with the Portrait mode for good portrait shots after dark, but, here again it’s the 1x setting which produces the best results in such conditions.

If you want to save some cash, skipping back further down the line to the iPhone 14 Pro/Max, iPhone 13 Pro/Max or even the iPhone 12 Pro/Max will see very similar portrait results, so it’s worth looking into those too.

Read our iPhone 15 Pro Review.

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Xiaomi 14 Ultra

One of the newest models on the list, here’s another smartphone which has been made in collaboration with a traditional camera manufacturer – Leica. This has four cameras – Up one from its predecessor – all of which have high-resolution 50MP sensors, which are fronted by Leica Summilux branded lenses: a fine marker of quality. Not only that but the main sensor is a large one-inch type: much larger than those found in almost every other smartphone out there 

Portrait mode further plays on the Leica idea, providing the option to shoot in different focal lengths – 23mm, 35mm, 50mm and 75mm. Or, alternatively you can choose the slightly different “Standard” (23mm), “Documentary” (35mm), “Swirly Bokeh” (50mm), “Portrait” (75mm) or “Soft Focus” (90mm) options which are packaged together as the “Master Lens System”.

This is another smartphone which offers a Pro mode with raw shooting, but once again, you can’t shoot with Portrait mode activated. Selecting the tele lens while in Pro mode is a good way to get around this.

Leica also steps in again with the ability to switch between “Authentic” and “Vibrant” colour in Portrait, Photo and Pro mode, as well as a set of other filters including “BW Natural” and “BW High Contrast” which can be used in Pro and Photo mode – but are worth trying out for portraits too.

Xiaomi has been producing some excellent smartphones for some time now, but the 14 Ultra truly does sit at the top of its line-up in terms of quality of results. Portrait mode works very well and produces fantastic results. We often see some outlining around fine areas of hair under close scrutiny – but far less so than with other models. A tremendous camera phone – for £1,299.

Read our Xiaomi 14 Pro Review.

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Google Pixel 9 Pro

Pixel phones were early exponents of excellent portrait modes, with the company working with machine learning to produce fantastic results for some time. It’s worth mentioning that Google has made a point of building its training set with a multitude of nationalities and skin-tones for what it says is better face-recognition and tone-processing than some of its rivals for non-white subjects, which is something other manufacturers can sometimes struggle with.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro has a triple-lens camera setup, featuring a 1x, 0.5x ultrawide and a 5x telephoto lens. For those digital zoom options, Google uses Super Resolution zoom multi-shot technology. The 1x lens sits in front of a 50MP 1/1.31-inch sensor, and has an f/1.68 aperture. It offers an equivalent of 24mm.

It’s a shame not to see a larger sensor coming to a Pixel phone yet. The ultrawide has a 48MP 1/2.55” sensor, with a slightly improved f/1.7 aperture (it was f/2.0 for the Pixel 8 Pro) and a 12mm equivalent focal length. The telephoto also has a 48MP 1/2.55” sensor, with an f/2.8 aperture, the zoom is a 5x zoom, with the equivalent focal length displaying as 110mm (which is just shy of 5x). It should be noted that despite all of these high-resolution sensors, the standard output is 12MP from each, due to pixel binning.

Other improvements compared to the Pixel 8 Pro come largely to software. That includes an updated HDR+ feature for better colours and skin tones, improved exposure, sharpness, detail, contrast and more. Great news for portraits. Google also claims there have been improvements to low-light shooting, with some new functionality including Night-sight panoramic photos.

If portraits and people is your favoured subject, it’s hard to beat the vast array of tools that the Pixel offers. Portrait mode is very good, though I’d like to see a few more options available – such as being able to shoot at a longer focal length, or have different blur or lighting modes, such as we see from most other smartphones. What is created though has fairly realistic outlines, especially if you don’t scrutinise your images too closely.

At launch, the Google Pixel 9 Pro price is £999 for the lowest storage option, rising up to £1219 for the 512GB option (1TB is not available for the 9 Pro, only the 9 Pro XL).

Read our Google Pixel 9 Pro Review.

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OnePlus 12

The cheapest smartphone in our group, OnePlus prides itself on providing flagship specifications for mid-range pricing. They pride their phones on their cameras, which makes them very appealing to photographers who may be less fussy about other aspects of a smartphone that add to their cost.

The main camera has a 50MP Sony LYT-808 1/1.4” sensor, a sensor which is brand new and used here in the OnePlus 12 for the first time in the smartphone market. It’s fronted by a 23mm equivalent f/1.6 lens, which includes optical image stabilisation. This sensor is bigger than that found in the OnePlus 11 and is therefore said to be better for low-light shooting.

A further two cameras comprise of a 48MP Sony IMX581 1/2” sensor with a 14mm f/2.2 equivalent ultra wide lens, plus a 64MP Omnivision OV64B 1/2” sensor with a 70mm f/2.6 equivalent 3x zoom lens which also has the ability to 6x zoom digitally in-sensor, and 120x digitally overall. This 3x length is longer than the 2x length of the OnePlus 11,

The specific “Hasselblad Portrait Mode” is retained: designed to recreate the look of Hasselblad XCD 30mm and 65mm lenses (1x and 2x, respectively). This creates shallow depth of field effects; designed to recreate the look from using certain Hasselblad lenses. You can shoot at 1x, 2x or 3x focal lengths, to give the effect of using 30, 65 or 90mm Hasselblad lenses. Consider this an “impression” rather than the real thing and you won’t be disappointed.

The lenses in the OnePlus 12 benefit from a special lens coating which is designed to reduce flare. You can also choose to use Portrait mode in selfie orientation if you want a shallower depth of field job.

Read our OnePlus 12 Full Review.

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Tips for shooting portraits with your smartphone

Try these ideas with your smartphone next time you’re giving portraits a go

Use portrait mode for non-human subjects

Remember that portrait mode can generally be used for non-human subjects. This is great for photographing pets to really bring out their character. You can also use it to create shallow depth of field effects with other subjects, such as still life too.

But don’t just use the dedicated portrait mode

As mentioned in our round-up, try using other modes, rather than just portrait mode. This way you can achieve other things, such as shooting in raw mode for example.

Try different lighting and blur effects

Lots of Portrait modes have different effects you can experiment with, including different levels of blur, different types of blur/bokeh and different lighting effects. It’s worth getting to know all of these so you can approach your portraits creatively. Digital filters, such as black and white, also come in handy too.

Give burst mode a go

When photographing fast-moving people (such as children), activating a burst mode can be a good way to get a candid portrait that occurs in a split second. Usuallly this involves holding down the shutter button to take several shots in quick succession. Most modern smartphones will even automatically choose the best result for you.

Include some context

Using some of your subject’s background is a good way to show more personality in your portraits rather than just a straightforward headshot. That’s especially true if you can include some kind of environment which means something to the sitter – such as a place of work or favourite location. Be sure to try switching to 1x mode and see what results you get.

Consider accessories such as reflectors and ring lights

There are a number of useful portrait accessories that can work very well with smartphones, including reflectors – to bounce light (including of different tones) back at your subject for more even coverage, and ring-lights, which work particularly well for selfies.

Treat the smartphone like any other camera

We can often get hung-up on thinking of a smartphone as not a “proper camera”. Remember it’s you that makes the pictures and approach a portrait sitting just as you would with anything else, remembering composition, direction, and even other elements such as costumes, make-up and props.

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Read our latest smartphone reviews and find out how to take better smartphone photos. On a budget? Have a look at our The best budget camera phones list.

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