What's the best phone for video recording? It's a question more and more people are asking, as social media becomes increasingly dominated by video. As TikTok grows in importance, and Facebook and Instagram put more and more emphasis on video in retaliation, you need to know which phone will help you capture the best quality footage, right out of the box.
You might think that the best camera phone for stills would automatically be the best phone for video too, but that's not necessarily the case. Because great video doesn't just mean having a great lens: it also means having a lot of computational power and smart software to produce a good-looking finished product.
Best for pros: Sony Xperia Pro I
Best value: Oppo Find X5 Pro
Best for most people: iPhone 14 Pro Max
For many years, Apple has led the way in delivering cutting edge, high-quality video recording capabilities. But more recently Samsung, Oppo and others have placed more emphasis on video, closing the gap significantly.
So what's the best phone for video, right now? Read on, as we reveal our choices, and what makes them so good for recording and streaming video.
Best phone for video recording in 2023
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Since the launch of the iPhone 5S, Apple’s flagship phones have been a consistently popular choice for filmmakers. Each generation has built on the success of the last and the iPhone 14 series is the best yet. Not only do you get 4K resolution, 60fps and 10-bit HDR video capture as you did with the 13s, you now get a wider ISO range for better low-light capture and a new Action Mode that does an amazing job as image stabilization, whether or not you use a gimbal. For anyone who's had issues with shaky footage in the past, this is a true game changer.
A more general benefit of choosing an iPhone is that third party manufacturers prioritize making accessories specifically for them. Plus, because iOS is a single platform, apps like Instagram and TikTok are optimized primarily for it, which generally leads to fewer issues with compression ruining the quality of the content you upload. For more information, read our iPhone 14 Pro Max review.
In a world where phones are so samey, the Sony Xperia Pro-I goes its own way. It has a boxy form factor, with a 6.5-inch 21:9 4K HDR OLED display, one of the sharpest available on any smartphone right now. It also has a dedicated button for opening the camera app and another right beside it for opening one of its three video recording modes.
And there's more. The Xperia Pro-I has a 3.5mm headphone jack and expandable memory via microSDXC support up to 1TB; two things no other major flagship offers right now. When it’s time to record video, the Sony Xperia Pro-I offers full manual controls, optical image stabilization, subject tracking and eye autofocus and a physical aperture that switches the lens from f2 to f4. Videography Pro mode allows you to control every aspect of exposure and focusing, even allowing you to make cinematic manual focus pulls.
Sony says it designed this smartphone’s video UI around the same menus and functions it deploys in its pro camera bodies, so it will feel familiar to Sony shooters in particular. However, that also means that the wealth of settings, cinema picture profiles and controls may feel daunting to the uninitiated.
Sony has also produced some interesting accessories for this device that allow you to add a vlogging monitor via USB-C and a Bluetooth remote grip with physical controls. This combo allows you to plug in a microphone and use the main rear camera for vlogging. And if you have a Sony mirrorless camera, you can also use the Xperia Pro-I as an external 4K HDR monitor. For more details, see our Sony Xperia Pro I review.
Pixel devices have been very innovative when it comes to video capture and the Pixel 7 Pro is the company’s best yet. Highlights in this area include a new Cinematic video mode introduced to bring the line up to speed with the iPhone 14 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S22. This blurs out the background, kind of like a portrait mode but for videos not stills. There's also enhanced electronic image stabilization, using computational photography to sharpen shots. Plus all three cameras on the Pixel 7 Pro support recording in 4K up to 60fps. For more details, see our Google Pixel 7 Pro review.
Samsung’s Galaxy S-series phones have received a significant bump in video-recording capabilities since the launch of the Galaxy S9 Plus. Since that benchmark release, Samsung has consistently delivered year-on-year improvements to both photography and video recording, making Samsung flagship devices a go-to choice for content creators.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra has some eye-catching headline specs, including 8K video recording at up to 30fps, 10x zoom, and 480fps Full HD slow-motion capture. It also has a quirky mode called “Director’s View”, which is only available when you use the dedicated Samsung Galaxy camera app. Director’s view is aimed at vloggers and YouTubers, enabling you to record video from all of the device’s cameras simultaneously. It’s not a tool that will appeal to everyone, but it could be great for filming something taking place while capturing your reactions and commentary.
Video from the S23 Ultra is punchy, crisp, and stable, thanks to its optical image stabilization system. It also has a large battery, which is ideal for those of us who want to stay connected and enjoy heavy camera use. It also still holds its own when it comes to video and camera performance. If you’re on a budget, maybe Samsung’s previous Galaxy S22 Ultra flagship is worth considering too.
The Oppo Find X5 Pro’s camera is built around the 50MP Sony IMX766 camera and its proprietary MariSilicon X chip, which is designed to deliver greater levels of picture detail, color depth and low noise.
The main camera is capable of recording up to 4K/60p video and FullHD video at an impressive 240fps, for those of you who are interested in capturing slow motion content. Its front-facing, or selfie camera is limited to only FullHD/30p. Oppo has identified night time video recording as one area where most smartphones typically let people down. With that in focus, Oppo has created an advanced noise reduction algorithm to eliminate grainy footage. It works by using artificial intelligence to scan each frame for and reduce image noise in low-light videos, pixel by pixel. The advantage of taking this approach is that the phone cleverly manages to deliver cleaner 4K footage in low light, without heavily destroying details and compromising color accuracy.
The autofocusing and auto-exposure of the Oppo Find X5 Pro is another area where its neural processing unit performs well. The Find X5 Pro detects subjects, including faces quickly and adjusts the exposure to deliver a pleasing look, depending on what it thinks you’re filming. The only major set back here is the device’s humble telephoto capability, which taps out at limiting 2x optical zoom.
How we test Android phones
As a photography website, we pay special attention to the photo and video quality of Android phones. Camera phones are all-around digital assistants too, of course, so we will also check general handling, usability, and practicality – such as battery life.
For Android camera phones we rate resolution, noise and color rendition in the context of what rival Android phones can do, and where there are any special features, such as ‘night modes’ or ‘portrait modes’, we check that these perform as the makers describe.
