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We live in a world where selfie is in the dictionary and as such no self-respecting smartphone manufacturer can afford to ignore people’s desire to take pictures of themselves. It’s with that in mind that we’ve curated this list of the best smartphone cameras for selfies.
This list includes a range of handsets from numerous manufacturers, which just serves to highlight how important these cameras are to smartphone makers, with everything from the bokeh-backed iPhone XS, to the EIS-packing OnePlus 6T and the massive megapixel count of the Honor 10 making the list – plus a number of other top selfie snappers for good measure.
Keep this page bookmarked, because we'll be updating it with the latest and greatest selfie snappers as and when new phones launch, but for now, as of March 2019, these are the ten best smartphones for selfies money can buy - and they're all brilliant phones in other ways too.
The Honor 10 is almost as high-end as a flagship, yet far more affordable than most, and its selfie camera is also better than most, as it’s a 24MP one, so it can take very detailed images, ones which even hold up on a much larger screen than a smartphone.
There’s nothing else fancy about it, but the phone as a whole has a lot going for it, from an eye-catching glass design, to a powerful octa-core chipset, an AI-powered dual-lens rear camera and an under-glass fingerprint scanner.
Some other phones will take better selfies in low light, but if the lighting is good the Honor 10 is a top option.
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is one of the very best phones launched in 2018 and along with the standard Huawei Mate 20 it’s also one of the best for selfies.
Like the Honor 10 as well as the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro (both of which also come highly recommended), the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro both have a 24MP front-facing camera, allowing for very detailed selfies.
These are better overall than any other Huawei or Honor phone though, as – particularly in the case of the Mate 20 Pro – they’re packed full of cutting-edge tech.
That includes a triple-lens rear camera, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a blazing fast chipset, masses of RAM, a big QHD screen and plenty more besides.
Previously we’d included the OnePlus 6 on this list, but the newer OnePlus 6T has it beat. Or at least, it does in some ways. The selfie experience is much the same on both, but that’s no bad thing.
These phones both stand out thanks to a high-spec 16MP front-facing camera with electronic image stabilisation (EIS), which helps to counter camera shake.
The OnePlus 6T also has a dual-lens rear camera with both 16MP and 20MP lenses, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a tiny teardrop notch, a big 6.41-inch 1080 x 2340 screen, and a Snapdragon 845 chipset, yet it costs far less than a typical flagship.
At first glance the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus might not sound like brilliant options for selfies. After all, they just have a single-lens 8MP camera and no LED flash.
But what they also have is an f/1.7 aperture, which is far better than most front-facing cameras. The aperture refers to the lens opening and in this case it’s large, which means a lot of light can get in, for more detailed images and better low light shots.
The Galaxy S9 range also happen to have some of the best rear cameras you’ll find on a phone – both have a 12MP lens with a variable aperture, while the S9 Plus adds a second lens to the mix too.
In fact, the S9 Plus in particular is one of the very best phones you can buy overall, as it’s high-end in just about every way, but there are some – slightly – better selfie phones, as you’ll see below, including some from Samsung.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has much the same selfie camera as the Samsung Galaxy S9, specifically an 8MP one with an impressive f/1.7 aperture. That means you get the same benefits, namely the ability to capture a lot of light for better quality photos.
We’ve ranked the Galaxy Note 9 slightly ahead of the Galaxy S9 range simply because it’s newer and arguably slightly better overall.
Many of its other specs and features are the same as those phones, but it has a bigger 6.4-inch screen, an S Pen stylus and a large 4,000mAh battery.
The HTC U12 Plus is an oddity in that it has two front-facing cameras – a feature you’ll find hardly anywhere else.
They’re both 8MP and they allow you to take wide-angle shots, as well as powering a convincing bokeh effect, which blurs the background so the subject stands out more. The front-facing camera also has an HDR mode.
The HTC U12 Plus impresses in other ways too, from its shiny finish to its octa-core chipset, its dual-lens rear camera and stereo speakers. It’s not quite one of the best all-round flagships you can buy but it’s still a good phone and very good for selfies.
Samsung’s on a roll when it comes to selfie cameras, but the upper mid-range Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) arguably has a better one than most of the company's flagships.
That’s because, like the HTC U12 Plus, this phone has a dual-lens front-facing camera, but it offers a higher megapixel count, with one 16MP lens and one 8MP one. They also both have an f/1.9 aperture, meaning they should be able to take in more light than the f/2.0 aperture lenses on HTC’s flagship.
Of course, the Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) makes good use of those two lenses, letting you blur the background in shots, just like most other dual-lens and some single-lens cameras.
Elsewhere the A8 is less exceptional, but still a strong mid-range option, with standout features including water resistance, a 1080 x 2220 Super AMOLED screen and a premium build.
The iPhone X is a remarkable phone in a lot of ways, and its selfie camera is definitely one of the best around.
At first glance it might not seem that way, after all, it’s just a 7MP one with an f/2.2 aperture, but it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
For one thing it supports both Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting, which are two of the star features of the rear camera. That means you can blur the background of your selfies to create a striking bokeh effect, and you can adjust the lighting to make it look more like a professional studio shot.
The iPhone X also supports Animoji, which uses the Face ID tech built into the front-facing TrueDepth camera to let you animate emoji animals, so their mouth movements and expressions match your own. That’s not exactly a selfie, but it’s a nice extra.
And then of course there’s everything else great about the iPhone X, including its brilliant quality and almost completely bezel-free screen, stunning design, powerful chipset, facial recognition and dual-lens rear camera.
Apple’s latest phones ever so slightly edge its previous one for selfies, as while the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max both have a 7MP f/2.2 TrueDepth camera, just like the iPhone X, they add a couple of new features to the mix.
For one thing, they let you alter the depth of field in a shot after taking it, so if an image doesn’t come out with the right level of blur you can tweak it to your liking.
The camera also uses Smart HDR, which essentially captures lots of different frames and then intelligently combines the best parts of each image to make the best overall photo.
Outside of that the highlights of its selfie camera are the same as the iPhone X, including one of the best bokeh effects you’ll find on a phone.
But the iPhone XS range has been upgraded in other ways too, including a faster chipset and more storage.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is not just the best flagship from Samsung and arguably the best phone you can buy at the time of writing, it’s also the best for selfies.
That’s in part because like some others on this list it has two front-facing cameras, with both a 10MP f/1.9 lens and an 8MP f/2.2 one.
Having two lenses makes it more accomplished at judging depth than most selfie snappers, which helps with a variety of shots, but most notably portrait shots, where you can adjust the depth of field for a bokeh effect.
The camera also focuses fast, can capture movement without motion blur, and supports the recording of video in up to 4K quality.
And if the selfie camera isn’t cutting it, you can always employ the rear snapper, which has three lenses and is even more capable.
Note that while the standard Samsung Galaxy S10 is almost as good as the S10 Plus in many ways, it only has one front camera, making it distinctly worse on the selfie front.
So there you have it. These are the ten best smartphones for selfies you can buy right now and they’re all strong handsets in other ways too.
From the Honor 10, which is a great budget buy, through to the Huawei Mate 20 range, OnePlus 6T, Samsung Galaxy S9 range, Samsung Galaxy Note 9, HTC U12 Plus, Samsung Galaxy A8, iPhone X and iPhone XS (and XS Max), with the Galaxy S10 Plus ranking as the very best smartphone for selfies.
Any of these phones will serve you well, but the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is the one to opt for if selfies are your top priority, while the OnePlus 6T, Samsung Galaxy A8 and Honor 10 are well worth considering if you’re on a tighter budget.
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