Mid-range smartphone camera shootout 2024: you don’t need to spend a fortune for great photos

Each year, after the dust has settled on the iPhone and Pixel launches we do a smartphone camera shootout of the best phones in the business.  That’s all well and good except, every single manufacturer of smartphones, aside from Apple, will tell you that a majority of their sales are in the mid-range segment of the market.

So what are you getting with a mid-range smartphone?  Normally you get a phone that has extremely similar software capabilities to the ultra-premium devices but the hardware included will normally be more mid (as the kids say).

The chipset may be slower and have less AI capabilities, the camera hardware is nearly always older, less capable with less software features than the ultra-premium smartphones.  But if so many people are buying in this segment it makes sense to compare some of the best from that price bracket and see which phones come out on top.  

For this reason we are introducing the very first inaugural mid-range smartphone camera shootout.  

So what constitutes a mid-range smartphone?  Something in the vicinity of $600 to $1,000 we think here at EFTM.  The mid-range has changed in recent years with prices increasing but we think you get more bang for your buck with a lot of these, especially with their camera chops.

We put the cameras through their paces with daytime and night-time shots, closeups/macro images, portrait and selfie images to see how they all fared.  

The competitors

Phones included in the shootout are:

• Google Pixel 8a – $849
• Samsung Galaxy A55 – $599
• OPPO Reno 11 F – $499 (currently on sale!)
• Motorola Edge 50 Fusion – $599
• Google Pixel 8 – $1,199

The Pixel 8 doesn’t quite fit the price range but we thought it was worth including because it is close to the right price and it is good to see what extending your budget a few extra hundred dollars gets you and if it is worth it.

As I’m sure most of you are aware, Apple does not sell a mid-range smartphone so there were no iPhone’s included in the shootout.

The hardware differences

Although at the top end of the smartphone market there really is not much difference in the camera hardware, in the mid-range there most certainly is, with companies also trying to push the AI features into their camera software.

Here are the hardware details, for those who care (for me it is more about the final result seen in the images below):

Google Pixel 8a	Samsung Galaxy A55	OPPO Reno 11 F
Wide: 65MP, f/1.9 Ultra-Wide: 13MP, f/2.2 Selfie:13MP, f/2.2, UW	Wide: 50MP, f/1.8 Ultra-Wide: 12MP, f/2.2 Macro: 5MP, f/2.4 Selfie: 32MP, f/2.2	Wide: 64MP, f/1.7 Ultra-Wide: 8MP, f/2.2 Macro: 2MP, f/2.4 Selfie:32MP, f/2.4

Motorola Edge 50 Fusion	Google Pixel 8
Wide: 50MP, f/1.9 Ultra-Wide: 13MP, f/2.2 Selfie:32MP, f/2.5	Wide: 50MP, f/1.7 Ultra-Wide: 12MP, f/2.2 Selfie:10.5MP, f/2.2, UW

As I’m sure many of you are aware, specs aren’t everything, with Samsung and OPPO having what looks like better specs on paper but let’s see how they go in real world scenarios.

Daylight

These images give a fairly good overview for what I saw with all the photos. The OPPO Reno11 F colours were a bit muted, the Moto Edge 50 Fusion was the opposite with colours slightly over-saturated (which a lot of folks prefer), The Pixel 8a has the most realistic colours of the mid-range smartphones but you can easily argue that the Samsung Galaxy A55 images were the most pleasing with a nice balance of colour accuracy with some improvement in colour saturation.

Another close run contest with the OPPO Reno11 F and the Samsung looking best in these images for me. The Edge 50 Fusion just seems to be enhancing the colours slightly off but the Samsung and OPPO have it just right.

Pixel 8a takes the cake on this one with realistic colours and great detail. Edge 50 Fusion once again has its colour enhancement a bit off compared to the others, something that I’m sure can be fixed with a software upgrade — if they wish to. It is entirely possible that this is a design and style choice by Motorola, adding brightness to the images. As you can see in the photos it produces they aren’t bad images, just a different focus on brightening colours.

Once again these are so close. The OPPO Reno11 F really does pack a punch, as does the Galaxy A55 although on this one it seems the greens are a bit off for Samsung. Once again the Motorola offers brighter colours which, when asking around the EFTM office, some folks prefer. The Pixel 8a excels once again but is the difference worth that $250 RRP difference?

If you zoom up on these you can see that the Pixel 8a excels, and in fact blows the others out of the water when it comes to detail visible in the image. The brickwork detail and writing is well visualised. Colour-wise I’m coming down on the Reno11 F but both the Galaxy A55 and Edge 50 fusion are not far behind.

The Reno11 F has the best colour reproduction on this one. Interestingly the Pixel 8a is very different in its blue reproduction to that of the Pixel 8. The Pixel 8a has more detail than the three other mid-range smartphones but they are all acceptable for this dimly lit scene. This is where the Motorola Edge 50 fusion is coming into its own — its brightening of images can only help improve its photos in low-light scenery.

The habit of the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion at brightening the photos excessively seems to work well here with it possibly display the most pop of the colours compare to the other mid-range phones. Is that how red the billboard was though? Not quite but people normally prefer saturated colours. No one does night time imaging like the Google though with the Pixel 8a excelling in all areas.

The OPPO Reno11 F really struggles with the ligthing in this night image with the colours incredibly muted. Motorola has gone the other way with oversaturation of all colours — possibly too much in this one. The Pixel 8a has the best detail while the Galaxy A55 slightly better colours.

The OPPO Reno11 F just over brightens everything which affects its colours. The saturation of colours of the Moto works in its favour here with all the sbutle lights and colours enhanced to produce a beautiful picture — they are all great images though.

This was a bright sunny day with some shading over the mural on the wall. For me, the Pixel 8a is far better than the others here with more detail and much better colouring with the Edge 50 fusion not far behind. This is a strange one with the Pixel’s colours more saturated than all the others, something unseen in any of the other images.

Google focus a lot of their AI on true facial colouring and it shows here with the Pixel 8a demonstrating my face the best. It also has the best detail.

Guess which smartphones have dedicated macro lenses? Not hard to tell with the Reno11 F and the Galaxy A55 far and away better than the other two. I was unable to get any decent image up close on the Moto and the Pixel 8a couldn’t focus that close. Both of those smartphones you’d have to take from further back and zoom up — not great if you want the full resolution. This is a major issue with the Pixel 8a which we noted in our reviews of it.

Interestingly though, macro mode in the Pixel 8 works just fine but then it does have upgraded camera lenses than that in the Pixel 8a which is probably why Google did not include a macro mode in the Pixel 8a.

ALBUMS

Google Pixel 8a

Samsung Galaxy A55

OPPO Reno11 F

Motorola Edge 50 fusion

Final thoughts and conclusion

The mid-range smartphone is the best seller for Android manufacturers, so it is no surprise that these manufacturers have focused heavily on improving the camera experience. Judging from the images above you can see that as a general rule the images are excellent capturing decent lighting in all conditions with colours that pop.

The mid-range hardware improves each year, just as the ultra-premium hardware does. This year’s mid-range camera is probably the equivalent of an ultra-premium smartphone camera of 2-3 years ago. The software on the other hand normally trickles down within a year or so, often quicker which is why the mid-range is so good. The AI chops of each smartphone are excellent and drastically improve the photos.

In the examples above as a general rule the Pixel 8a performed the best with near-perfect colour reproduction in most cases and great detail which was better than the other offerings. Next up I think was probably Samsung with the Galaxy A55, mostly because its night imaging was better than that from the OPPO Reno11 F.

The Reno11 F more than held its own in daylight conditions though, often producing more realistic colours than the Samsung — OPPO don’t seem to saturate the colours much at all. They need to saturate their night time colours though or at least show the true colour because what they show at night is not it..

The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion took great images but I think it needs some software tweaking from Motorola to improve their colouring with some things such as sky and grass not entirely accurate. I have no doubt that will arrive in the coming months. If they fix this then I think it could be even better than the OPPO and Samsung — but that is my opinion on what I want to see in images. Some in our office prefer the Motorola images over the others.

In the end though people buy the mid-range because they are great value for money, and these images prove that. They are a third of the price of an ultra-remium smartphone but their images are not that much worse. Even in the mid-range there is a difference in pricing. The Pixel 8a costs $250 more than the Samsung and OPPO but are the images that much better? It depends on what you want the phone for. If you take a lot of photos then it may well be worth the extra money but if you just take the occasional photo then the Samsung or OPPO are easily acceptable and even better value for money.

At $599 for both the Samsung Galaxy A55 and Motorola Edge 50 fusion and $499 (currently) for the OPPO Reno11 F these phones are amazing value and produce high quality images. You really couldn’t go wrong with any of these, especially if you have a hard budget ceiling of $600ish. Which camera you think is best out of these three depends on what you look for in your images. Hopefully the samples above help you decide.

My final thoughts are that, yes, a mid-range smartphone can produce high quality photos in many scenarios but they just lack the versatility of the ultra-premium devices. Do not think you are getting a sub-par imaging device when you buy in the mid-range, they can definitely take great quality photos. Just see above!