Snapchat has taken the social media world by storm, and if you want to get the most out of it you’re going to need a phone that has great cameras on both the front and back, and ideally a good screen too, so you can see other people’s snaps in all their glory.
That can be a big ask, but there are a number of handsets that fit the bill and we’ve listed the best options below.
These include everything from the reasonably affordable OnePlus Nord, to the super-premium Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, the iOS-packing iPhone 12 Pro Max, and more besides. So read on, see which phone you most like the sound of, and get Snapchatting.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is one of the most high-end Samsung phones you can buy, as it’s the top model in the Note range. As such, it unsurprisingly has great cameras, including a class-leading 108MP main one on the rear, paired with a 12MP telephoto one (with 5x optical zoom), and a 12MP ultra-wide one.
That makes for one of the most impressive rear setups you’ll find on a phone, and is enough for it to make this list. Why it doesn’t rank higher is simply that its front-facing camera is less impressive, as it just has a single-lens 10MP one. This can take perfectly reasonable shots, but it’s not as high-spec or versatile as some on this list.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is also good for viewing Snapchat on though, as it has a massive 6.9-inch 1440 x 3080 Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen, so content looks big, sharp, and basically as good as you could hope.
Read our Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review
The Huawei P40 Pro is a phone we struggle to recommend in a lot of ways as it lacks Google Play Services, holding its software and app selection back, but there’s no denying that its hardware is superb, and that extends to the camera.
There’s a quad-lens one on the back, with a 50MP main snapper, a 12MP telephoto one (with 5x optical zoom), a 40MP ultra-wide one, and a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor for judging depth. It’s a superb setup that’s just as good in practice as it sounds on paper, and it even performs very well in low light.
The Huawei P40 Pro also has a 32MP camera on the front, which is capable of capturing more detail than most selfie snappers, and this one is also paired with a secondary ToF sensor.
The screen isn’t quite as good as some on this list, but it should still do justice to Snapchat content, as it’s a 6.58-inch 1200 x 2640 OLED one. If not for the software issues the Huawei P40 Pro might rank even higher, but even if you’re primarily buying for Snapchat use, that’s a hard issue to overlook.
Read our Huawei P40 Pro review
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is Samsung’s ultimate smartphone, at least until you get into the realm of foldables. But it’s also a phone that really seems to put the camera first.
That’s because the Galaxy S21 Ultra has a 108MP main camera, a 10MP periscope one (with 10x optical zoom), a 10MP telephoto one (with 3x optical zoom), and a 12MP ultra-wide one. It’s a setup that’s even better than the Note 20 Ultra’s, as too is the front-facing camera, which is a whopping 40MP here, allowing for incredibly detailed shots.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra also has a superb 6.8-inch 1440 x 3200 Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen, so Snapchat content is displayed at its best. It’s very, very expensive, but if you want the best of everything then – for the most part – this has it.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max is the latest flagship from Apple, and it’s the very best of the iPhone 12 range, although only marginally better than the iPhone 12 Pro, which is worth considering instead if you want a slightly cheaper phone with a smaller screen.
Speaking of screen, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a 6.7-inch 1284 x 2778 one, coming in at a crisp 458 pixels per inch. It also uses OLED, supports HDR10, and has Apple’s clever True Tone tech for automatically adjusting the white balance to suit your surroundings.
Perhaps more importantly it also has a super camera setup. This is the first time Apple has used four rear cameras, offering a 12MP main lens, a 12MP telephoto one, a 12MP ultra-wide one and a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scanner for judging depth.
But the iPhone 12 Pro Max also has two cameras on the front, with both a 12MP main lens and a 3D depth sensor. Combined this makes for a setup comparable to the best that Samsung and Huawei can offer, so iOS fans aren’t missing out on the best phones for Snapchat.
The Moto G100 is a more affordable phone than most on this list, but it ranks high in part because if your focus is Snapchat then you don’t necessarily want to spend a fortune, and in part because its camera setup is highly impressive, especially for what it costs.
Admittedly, it focuses more on sheer number of lenses than on actual quality, but the results are still good. There are four cameras on the back, covering a 64MP main snapper, a 16MP ultra-wide one, a 2MP depth one, and a 3D time-of-flight one. So there’s a versatile setup here, even if individually the lenses aren’t as good as many of those on the phones above.
But where the Moto G 5G Plus really wins, other than with its price, is that it has a dual-lens front-facing camera, with both a 16MP main sensor and an 8MP ultra-wide one.
This is notable as front-facing cameras are often a bit neglected, even by high-end phones, and having more than one lens is rare. But with a lot of Snapchat content being selfies, it’s important to have a good front-facing setup – and while the iPhone 12 Pro Max above also has two selfie cameras, the second one being a depth sensor is arguably less useful.
The 6.7-inch 1080 x 2520 LCD screen here is fairly decent too, if again not as good as the displays on most phones in this list, but this really ranks high for its range of lenses (particularly on the front) coupled with its relatively low price.
The OnePlus Nord is a similar prospect to the Moto G100, offering lots of cameras for not a lot of money, but it’s arguably slightly better overall, especially when it comes to Snapchat use.
Its rear camera setup includes a lot of sensors, with a 48MP main sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a 5MP depth one, and a 2MP macro one. That’s arguably no better than the G100’s setup, but it’s similarly capable here.
It’s when you come to the front that things start looking up, as the OnePlus Nord trades the Moto G100’s 16MP main sensor for a 32MP one, and again pairs it with an 8MP ultra-wide camera. That pairing makes the Nord one of the very best phones for selfies, and certainly one of the best value ways to take excellent selfies.
But coupled with four rear cameras and a 6.44-inch 1080 x 2400 Fluid AMOLED screen (which notably looks better than the LCD of the Moto) it’s also an all-round great phone for Snapchat.
Read our OnePlus Nord review
You won’t go wrong with any of these phones if Snapchat is your priority, as they all have great cameras on both the front and back and good screens.
They’re also all strong phones for general use, making them great options even when you’re not snapping, though both in and out of Snapchat some are better than others.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes in sixth – it’s a brilliant phone, but a mediocre selfie camera holds it back a bit for Snapchat use. Then there’s the Huawei P40 Pro, which would rank higher if not for its lacking software, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, which – if money is no object – is a superb pick.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max is in third, offering a decent range of cameras, but not quite as good a selection on the back as the options above, or on the front as the ones below.
In second place there’s the Moto G100, offering camera versatility and excellent selfies on a budget, and then at number one it’s the OnePlus Nord, which has similar selling points to the Moto but is just that little bit better.
Note however that if selfies aren’t central to your Snapchat experience then one of the other phones might be preferable to these two, as their rear snappers aren’t quite as good.
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