Skip to main content

2MP phone cameras aren’t going anywhere any time soon

If you’re buying a typical cheap smartphone, you’ll often see triple or quadruple cameras touted as a feature, with two of those cameras being nigh useless. A report from analyst firm Trendforce sees this as a trend that’s unlikely to go away soon, though, noting: “Growth momentum in mobile phone camera module shipments in 2022 will come primarily from additional numbers of low-pixel cameras prompted by the three-camera design.”

The past five years have given rise to a new trend where phone brands compete on the number of cameras in their devices, with one even offering as many as five at one point. In 2022, a typical mid-range Android phone comes with at least three cameras, out of which only the primary sensor is useful and the other two are also present. By now, a lot has been said about how useless 2MP macro and depth sensors are on a modern smartphone. But unfortunately, they are here to stay.

Recommended Videos

A high-resolution main camera with better specifications undoubtedly allows mobile phone brands to provide better camera performance when compared to a low-resolution second or third camera. It’s also cheaper than equipping multiple-high resolution cameras as you’d find on your typical flagship. So to keep the hardware costs in check while also providing a handful of cameras, smartphone companies will continue to choose a high megapixel primary camera alongside two 2MP sensors.

“The three-camera module remains the mainstream design this year and is forecast to account for more than 40% of total shipments. Only some smartphone models will adopt a four-camera design to differentiate their specifications, while the number of products with dual-cameras or less will fall, with entry-level models being the primary candidates,” Trendforce says.

Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus camera module.
Prakhar Khanna/Digital Trends

Going forward, you can expect to see more smartphones with triple and quad-camera setups bolstered by nigh-useless ancillary cameras. The only significant smartphones that are expected to house a dual-camera setup — primary and ultrawide — are the upcoming non-Pro iPhone 14 models, the Pixel 6a, and Pixel 7. By and large, Android manufacturers will continue to use 2MP camera sensors to boost the hardware appeal of their mid-range and low-end devices.

It’s not all smoke and mirrors with mobile photography though. While phone brands continue to compete on hardware specifications, they are also focusing on software optimization to emphasize dynamic photography, night photography, and more. As a result, we are seeing more smartphone manufacturers dive into chip-making to enhance image processing performance. For instance, Vivo uses a V1+ chip in their high-end phones to optimize the resulting pictures. However, don’t expect these chips to be of any help to the 2MP sensors or the cheaper phones that employ them.

Prakhar Khanna
Prakhar Khanna is an independent consumer tech journalist. He contributes to Digital Trends' Mobile section with features and…
I turned my phone into a camera, and I don’t want to go back
Promotional image for OuttaFocus. A person holding the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, with the Photography Kit fitted.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has one of the best cameras I’ve used on a smartphone ever, but Xiaomi also sells something that could potentially make it even better. It’s called the Photography Kit, and it’s a pricey set of accessories that puts the emphasis on the phone’s camera element to an even greater degree.

I've been using it, and although I started out feeling underwhelmed, I soon discovered the one thing that makes the Photography Kit unique, exciting, and incredible. It's so different, in fact, that it's poised to change the way I think about phone camera accessories in the future.
A phone accessory unlike any other

Read more
A phone you haven’t heard of just beat the Galaxy S24 Ultra in a camera test
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Vivo X100 Pro phones, seen from the back.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (left) and the Vivo X100 Pro Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra took the telephoto camera crown from the S23 Ultra and managed to take on and beat the Google Pixel 8 Pro, too. Does that make it the undisputed camera zoom champion? To quote Yoda, there is another. The Vivo X100 Pro has a camera and lens system tuned by Zeiss, and we’ve already seen how impressive its portrait photography ability is, but it also has a clever telephoto camera.

Read more
This Android phone has a camera unlike any I’ve used before
Vivo X100 Glacier Blue phone with Zeiss Cameras.

For years, phone brands have been chasing camera image quality that rivals professional cameras- DSLRs, mirrorless, etc. For average consumers like me, that has been granted to some extent, given we look at the photos we take on phones' screens. While phone photography has improved substantially (even some mid-range phones take great pictures), a few brands constantly strive to surpass themselves. Chinese brands especially excel in bringing new (and sometimes ostentatious) features, which keeps the Asian phone market both competitive and exciting.

A recent addition to this group is the Vivo X100, which gets top-of-the-line specs, including the flagship MediaTek Dimensity 9300 chip, up to 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. With these specs and a large curved AMOLED display, the X100 feels like a close competitor to the OnePlus 12. The biggest highlight, undoubtedly, is the rear camera system, which is tuned in partnership with the German optics giant Zeiss. But its mighty specifications aside, the Vivo X100 has one of the most impressive camera features I have tested so far, and I feel you should see them, too.
Why is the Vivo X100 special?

Read more