Flagship smartphones set themselves apart from the herd of other devices by offering top-tier performance, excellent displays, and most importantly, fantastic cameras. Interestingly, premium phones with high-resolution camera sensors have become somewhat commonplace nowadays. That said, the selfie cameras on these devices are no slouch either. But, it still remains to be seen which phone clicks the best selfies of all the premium flagships in the market. To demystify that, a panel of 40 tech experts from the tech media community judged four of the best premium phones of 2021, declaring the winner as part of the Indian Gadget Awards 2021 – the country’s biggest such awards.
In the end, one phone was crowned the ultimate selfie king and nabbed the award for the Best Selfie Phone of 2021 – Premium category. So, without any further ado, let’s check out the winner, shall we?
Winner: Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
Runner-up: Vivo X70 Pro+
Check out the full list of nominees for the Best Premium Selfie Phone of 2021 award:
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra features a 20MP selfie camera that captures great-quality photos with balanced skin tones and overall natural colours. This camera also excels at HDR processing and offers splendid details even when the background is brightly lit. Interestingly, the smartphone’s claim to fame is a tiny secondary display on its back which doubles up as a viewfinder, thereby turning the entire rear camera setup into a selfie-clicking powerhouse. Consequently, selfie-lovers have access to a 50MP wide camera with exceptional low-light performance and a 48MP ultra-wide camera that can comfortably snap groupfies.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 40MP selfie camera lends it a remarkable edge over the competition. Not only are users greeted with extremely detailed photos, but the portrait mode creates stunning bokeh effects that leave nothing to be desired from the shots. Samsung’s camera software also allows users to click selfies in two different colour profiles namely, natural and bright. While the former offers more contrast, the latter bumps up the shadows. Moreover, the phone also offers AI-based studio lighting effects that look surreal and add a zing to a user’s selfies.
Apple’s iPhone 13 range has been a huge hit this year, and the top-end Pro Max model stole the show with its large, 6.7-inch, 120Hz, Super Retina XDR OLED display, great battery life, and an extremely capable camera setup on the rear. That said, the phone’s exceptional 12MP, TrueDepth camera system has got the device a slot on this list. Other than delivering fantastic, punchy selfies, the front camera also offers a treasure trove of other features including dedicated Night mode selfies, Smart HDR 4 as well as support for Dolby Vision HDR recording. Add to that Apple’s new Cinematic mode and Photographic Styles, which are unique filters for your selfies and the iPhone 13 Pro Max is shaping up to be a strong contender for this year’s Best Selfie Phone award.
The X70 Pro+ has Android users frolicking over its advanced rear camera setup and its blazing-fast performance. That said, the phone’s 32MP selfie camera has been a gamechanger too and the sensor can snap clean and sharp photographs with loads of details. What’s more, the front camera’s portrait mode has arguably the best edge detection and correspondingly, the device rarely blurs out the parts that should be in focus. Moreover, as part of its partnership with ZEISS, Vivo has equipped the phone with different Style Portrait modes that mimic the looks of classic ZEISS lenses by means of some software wizardry.
