You told us: You care about camera sensor size on phones (with caveats)

Smartphone cameras are all generally good these days, with software taking on an increasingly important role in delivering good results. But hardware is another important part of the equation, with camera sensor size also playing a role.

But do Android Authority readers actually care about the size of a phone’s camera sensor? We conducted a poll to find out, and here’s how you voted.

Do you care about camera sensor size on smartphones?

Results

Our poll was published on October 26, accruing almost 1,800 votes as of writing. And the winning choice by a large margin was “yes,” as over 70% of respondents said they do care about camera sensor size on phones.

It’s worth noting that a large camera sensor has plenty of benefits on paper, such as improved light capture (important for low-light shots) and better dynamic range. So we’re not quite surprised to see people choose this option.

It’s also interesting that some readers who chose this option acknowledged that a large sensor wasn’t automatically better and that results are ultimately what matter.

Meanwhile, just under 30% of voters said they didn’t care about camera sensor size on phones. Some comments point to issues like shallow depth of field and the fact that many people simply use their phone cameras for social media. It’s also worth noting that larger sensors also result in camera bumps, so this could be a reason for people to not care about sensor size too.

Comments

• Shizuma: Nope, at this point I’m sick of all the ridiculousness with cameras on phones as it’s caused them to needlessly balloon in price to insane levels and the reality is a phone isn’t going to replace a proper camera and for the actual use case the vast majority of people use their phones’ cameras for, social media, we hit that cost to noticeable quality level like half a decade ago.
• Eoaoos: While I clicked yes on the poll, I’ll leave my judgement to final reviews. I hope it rocks so others can follow. Too bad the rest of it is also a Sony, OS etc…
• Joe Black: I care for results, as bigger on smartphone often brings much shallower depth of field … and that’s the whole new can of worms issue. So no, I do not care for bigger, I care for better. Speaking of said Sony – I like that “solution” with two /f stops.
• Brett: I answered yes because if we can get to the level of DSLR/Mirrorless cameras we need to have bigger sensors. Phone cameras are creating pretty good photos these days and I find my DSLR collecting dust now.
• direwolf: If it takes good pics, that’s all that matters
• Jason Duga: Plenty of pros…only cons are cost and size limitations. True the sensor is the only thing that matters…other variables like aperture or program matter too…when the only variable is the sensor size….the larger / better sensor is superior.
• Jadan James: I personally think that dual aperture is underrated. On my S10, I love having the option of extra background blur of the 1.5f depth of field, but also being able to change it to 2.4f when I need a wider depth of field close up. A lot of the drawbacks of a large sensor and wide aperture would be fixed with dual aperture I believe

Thanks for voting in our poll and for leaving comments. What do you make of these results? Let us know via the comments section.