What actually changed in this year's flagship cameras
Sensor sizes barely moved. The processing pipeline moved a great deal.
MusabDev
Phonfy editorial
Hardware specifications on flagship cameras have plateaued. The 1/1.3-inch main sensor is now standard across the price tier, and the jump from 50MP to 200MP changes very little once binning is applied.
The pipeline is where the work happened
This year's meaningful change is that computation moved fully on-device. Night mode no longer round-trips to a server, which means it works on a plane and finishes in under a second rather than three.
Telephoto is the real differentiator
A 5x periscope produces detail a digital crop cannot invent. If you photograph anything further than a dinner table away, this is the specification worth paying for — more than megapixels, more than aperture.
Video caught up
Log profiles and 10-bit capture are now standard on flagships, which means footage grades like footage from a proper camera rather than falling apart the moment you touch the curves.
What to ignore
Megapixel counts above 50, aperture numbers quoted without sensor size, and any comparison shot taken in good daylight. Every phone is good in good light.