Whether you fancy yourself as the next Casey Neistat or Jenna Marbles you’ll want a dependable camera at your side to chronicle your every waking moment and naturally, there are a whole host of phones that fit the bill; assuming you’d rather not carry around a DSLR on a GorillaPod all day long.
Be it for a unique ability or a particular strength in one area or another, here’s our list of the best phones for vlogging, right now.
LG V30/V30S – The Technical Choice
LG’s V30, along with this year’s iterative V30S, pack in some of the most extensive fine-grain control when it comes to shooting video on a mobile phone.
You’ve got 16 editable CineFilter colour grading presets to choose from and the ability to capture footage at a maximum bitrate of 52Mbps. The CineLog profile is also on-hand when shooting in manual, letting you capture the widest gamut of colour and contrast available, ensuring you’re working with the highest-quality files going into the editing process.
The advanced audio recording tools at your disposal are designed to cope with loud environments like concerts without distortion, and what’s more, you can tweak the gain and filter out unwanted frequencies manually as needed.
To top the experience off, both the V30 and the S also pack in a Quick Video Editor. It can accommodate up to 50 clips at a time and it lets you add thematic music for super speedy edits on the go.
Apple iPhone X – The Obvious Choice
It should come as no surprise that the shiny iPhone X packs in the best optics of any iPhone ever. Aside from the swanky portrait mode and improved low-light credentials in the stills department, the X boasts some of the most natural and attractive looking video recording out there.
If you’re shooting with the main snapper, you can expect beautifully smooth stabilisation, plus unprecedented 4K quality recording at 60 frames per second. It’s also one of the only phones to offer 240fps slow-motion capture at Full HD resolution (at time of writing) and it’s the only phone on which you can make Animoji Karaoke, just like the cool kids.
Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra – The Affordable Choice
Sony knows cameras and if you’re on a budget, the new XA2 Ultra offers a great imaging experience for under £300.
The big hook, aside from having a large 6-inch viewfinder and a generous 23-megapixel primary snapper, is the 16-megapixel front-facer in its possession.
Alongside the wide-angle 8-megapixel front-facer, the Ultra’s additional higher-resolution front sensor boasts optical image stabilisation (OIS), meaning it’s perfect for vloggers who like getting some face time with their viewers directly.
HTC U11+ – The Smoothest ‘Droid
The camera on HTC’s U11 flagship blew us away when it landed on the scene last year and a practically identical module now makes an appearance on this year’s U11+ as well.
It’s a great still shooter as well as a video camera, and produces some of the smoothest and nicest-looking footage from any phone on team Android. You get up to 4K recording at up to 30fps and the multiple microphones offer great high-resolution directional audio capture to boot.
It’s also dropping in price fairly fast, making it a more appealing purchase by the day.
Nokia 8/Samsung Galaxy S8 – 4K Front-Facers
We’ve paired Nokia’s and Samsung’s 2017 flagships together as both offer up 4K resolution shooting on their front-facing cameras. The Nokia 8 is the more affordable device by around £200, whilst every premium Sammy since the Galaxy S8, including the Note 8 and now this year’s S9, offer the same super-sharp selfie-centric video, not to mention some entertaining, albeit weird Snapchat-style stickers on top.
If you’re still looking for more ways to improve your vlogging game beyond rocking a killer smartphone, why not check out our review of this year’s DJI Osmo Mobile 2 gimbal.
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