Which cameraphone is king of natural bokeh?

Takeaways

We had one idea going into this topic, and it turned into a whole different article, but it was a fun little experiment nonetheless, with several takeaways.

Among the more important findings was the realization that the science of bokeh is a lot more complicated than the 'large f-number means more blur' oversimplification. We knew that, naturally, but didn't quite appreciate all the factors and their relationships that make the background go bokeh.

Also, we barely scratched the surface of the underlying physics and quickly came to terms with the fact that we won't reach any significant depth in the theoretical field of optics. We'd much rather focus on taking pictures, examining them and giving them various levels of approval and disapproval.

Moving away from the acceptance of our own limitations and more into the practical aspects of smartphone photography, we found out that phone telephotos have gotten quite good for portrait photography when it comes to subject separation. With the right framing and more background distance, you can get that background blur without placing yourself at the mercy of the software algorithms of Portrait mode.

Of course, your mileage will vary. For example, the Galaxy S22 Ultra's 10x camera couldn't defocus a background even if its life depended on it, while the telephoto cameras of phones like the Honor Magic4 Pro and the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra shined as unlikely portrait bokeh kings in our comparison.

Yet another, more painful, realization is that 'main' cameras tend to produce higher levels of defocus (often of higher quality). But 'main' cameras are no good for this particular style of classic head-and-shoulders framing. Perspective is crucial when shooting people, and the one you get from a 24mm lens doesn't cut it (our favorite sweet spot for nailing harmonious facial features for headshots like this is around 70mm or 3x zoom).

Perspective is what led us to rethink our attitude towards unusual decisions by one maker or another, which we often dismiss without much thought. We pondered a little during the Axon 40 Ultra's review process how we arrived at the 24mm main camera and why there aren't primary cameras with longer lenses than that. These here bokeh experiments further solidified our impression that there is merit to ZTE's approach, and we'd be happy to see 35mm cameras get a wider adoption - with big sensors and bright lenses, of course, and solid support on the wider end.

In summary, don't throw away your camera and your 85mm f/1.4 lens if you're into portraiture. But at the same time, pick carefully, and you might have a decently capable portrait camera inside your phone - now, and hopefully in the future as well.