Should your next phone have a dual camera setup?

By Anthony Thurston June 28, 2016

Do You Need a Dual Camera Smartphone?

Remember the days when all you really had to worry about in a smartphone camera was its megapixel count? Things have gotten considerably more complicated since then, with the latest technology constantly pushing the limits of what we though possible from smartphone-sized cameras. The latest innovation pushing for wide adoption in high-end phones is the concept of a dual rear-facing camera setup.

So, what is a dual camera setup, and why should you want one on your next smartphone? These are exactly the questions that technology reviewer Austin Evans decided to answer in his latest video, in which he takes a look at some of the latest phones on the market featuring dual cameras, and discusses each implementation of the concept. Many of the features, as he points out, are not much more than gimmicks, and produce little in the way of actual added value to the phone.

So if many of the features are gimmicky, what makes these dual rear camera setups worth considering? Well, in the case of the LG G5, for instance, you get one camera with a fixed telephoto lens, and one camera with a fixed wide angle lens, which allows you to switch back and forth between the two cameras. This greatly expands the capabilities for the G5 owner, who can now zoom (kinda) without having to “zoom with your feet” toward your subject.

Evans wraps it up by noting that most consumers likely don’t need the dual camera technology right now, and that while the technology is full of gimmicky tricks, it is also full of potential to really change the smartphone market — possibly being the next big thing for mobile.

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Anthony Thurston

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Anthony is an internationally published photographer based in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Specializing primarily in…

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