Indian Gadget Awards winners: Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max ranked the Best Premium Camera Phone of 2021

Published On: January 12, 2022 | Last Updated: January 12, 2022

A smartphone’s camera details are usually plastered front and centre in the promos, and for good reason. Our phones have become the de facto tool to click photos and store our fond memories digitally. Understandably, the quality of the photos goes up a notch if the user spends top bucks on a brand new phone. To that note, 2021 saw the launch of a slew of camera-centric flagships with incredible features, but which one is the best? Enter, the Best Camera Phone of 2021 – Premium award. In this category, we’ve ignored the price tags and have picked all the smartphones that we thought offered the finest overall camera experience in 2021. But the award will only go to one phone, so to ensure absolute objectivity, our nominees were thoroughly inspected by the Indian Gadget Awards jury of over 40 experts from the Indian tech media community, and the results are in. Check out the winner of the Best Premium Camera Phone of 2021 award.

Winner: Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max

Runner-up: Vivo X70 Pro+

Check out the full list of nominees for the Best Premium Camera Phone of 2021 award.

iQOO 7 Legend

The iQOO 7 Legend is a fantastic gaming phone and one that really pushed the boundaries with its long list of features. While the smartphone’s headlining feature is undoubtedly its SD888 SoC, the device’s 48MP main sensor deserves some credit too. To that note, the shooter excels at delivering great photographs in all lighting conditions. Plus, its Ultra Stable Mode combines OIS and EIS to give the gimbal-esque stabilisation when recording videos. The smartphone’s assisting shooters are no slouch either and the unit’s 13MP ultra-wide camera (that doubles up as a macro lens) and its 13MP telephoto shooter click quality stills as well. There’s even an Extreme Night Mode on this device that offers amazing low-light shots, and a Video Pro Mode that gives users granular control over their video settings.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is truly an ‘ultra’ in all regards. The device’s main sensor is a 50MP 1/1.12″ unit which is the biggest sensor on any phone to date, offering a pixel size of 1.4 micrometres. As capable as the main camera is, the snapper is accompanied by a 48MP periscope telephoto camera that offers up to 120x digital zoom, and a 48MP ultra-wide camera with a 128-degree FoV. Pictures clicked from the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra have a remarkable amount of detail in them and the shots also have great dynamic range. What’s more, the phone also supports 8K video recording, aside from offering a host of other photography and videography focused features.