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New online tool lets you see how far iPhone cameras have come in 15 years

Apple iPhone 13 Pro

Last updated

Smartphones cameras have improved significantly since the release of the iPhone in 2007 — and there's now a nifty visualization that proves it.

SimpleGhar, an online review website, posted an interactive comparison tool that lets users compare the camera quality of every iPhone from the very first to the latest iPhone 13 Pro Max.

To create the comparison, SimpleGhar gathered data about the technical specifications of smartphone cameras on a range of devices, from the iPhone to Google Android products. From there, it created mock-up images of how the camera quality would affect overall image quality on a series of sample photos.

A comparison of three different iPhones —  and users can go even further back into the past. A comparison of three different iPhones — and users can go even further back into the past.

There are a number of devices represented in the comparisons, from the Google Pixel series to Samsung's Galaxy lineup.

Additionally, there's also an interactive tool that charts the history and evolution of the camera phone. You can compare image quality from the very first camera phone, the Sharp J-SH04, to the latest and greatest flagship smartphones.

As far as other methodology, the company used sales data from smartphone intelligence services to list the best-selling devices over the past few decades. It also focused solely on rear cameras and eliminated any devices that didn't have sample images to draw from.

The interactive tool and other information about the evolution of smartphone cameras is available on the company's website.



6 Comments

maury markowitz 17 Years · 370 comments

This is the dumbest "comparison" page I have ever seen.

They don't actually take photos with the various phones. In fact, they don't take a single photo at all.

What they do is take photos they found on the 'net and then apply a blur to them based on what they expect it might look like based on the spec sheets.

Why are you giving this oxygen?!

elijahg 18 Years · 2842 comments

Yeah this is pretty crap, sorry guys.

AutigerMark 6 Years · 65 comments

Echoing what the two folks above said.  Also there was very little improvement after the 3GS if this visualization is to be believed.

netrox 12 Years · 1510 comments

It's a terrible content. As a photography hobbyist, I have seen how image quality has progressively improved over time. I would expect actual images from different cameras, not the SAME image being applied with "filters" to emulate how images looked! 

FileMakerFeller 6 Years · 1561 comments

netrox said:
It's a terrible content. As a photography hobbyist, I have seen how image quality has progressively improved over time. I would expect actual images from different cameras, not the SAME image being applied with "filters" to emulate how images looked! 

Don't be silly. That would take actual effort.