Halfway last year I had to say goodbye to my trusty Samsung S9 and look for another phone. For that my main feature request was it needed to have an amazing camera.
After a lot of research I ended up buying the Sony Xperia 5 Mark III with a Zeiss Icon lens. This phone was a little bit older (2021) but Sony had not brought a newer version back then. My negative & positive experiences and an update on it, can be read hereThy recently released the Mark IV but reviews are not that impressive compared to other high-end phones. Sony after all is mostly a visual company making TV’s and camera’s and not a cellphone company so similar issues arise.
Now I would love to hear from fellow-Google Contributors what phone do you use?
I love to make pictures of buildings, locations and food. I’m not interested in making selfies or people pics at all.
Battery always important but usually I drag around an extra 1-2 Samsung 10000 battery chargers.
Seeing I grab and put away my phone a lot, I prefer smaller screens, not the ones where I need two thumbs and a foot to operate
It needs to be good in warm/hot countries. I live in Thailand and battery-life is a whole new chapter here for anything battery-charged.
Price is not really an issue. I guess whatever you end up buying it be around a $1000 in whatever currency you pay.
Availability is not an issue either. You can literally buy anything here.
Please let me know your suggestions and experiences and don’t be shy to add some visual examples. I love to see those!
Como disse o @Gezendunyali isso é algo bem pessoal. Por exemplo, eu gosto de fazer trilhas. Horas e horas longe de uma tomada elétrica. Então um device pra mim tem de aliar ótima bateria e e ser resistente a tombos e água.
Hello there. First, it comes down to personal taste on phones. I actually used the Samsung S9 for a long time, then went for the S20 due to the wide angle and night vision modes. This really made a big difference for me since I enjoy getting close up to the stores and being able to capture almost everything needed. The photos were sharper too. I think cell phone uploads are extremely easy as well and with today’s tech, the picture quality is great. Pretty close to my professional camera.
Whenever I see a question about camera, my answer will always be the same. The best camera is the one that you have with you. Most of the times composition matter more than the quality of thee camera.
Your current Sony camera should serve you well and will already be a better camera compared to what most Local Guides are using. If you’re still not satisfied though, I’ve heard good things about the latest Pixel 7 Pro camera, although it’s not officially sold in Thailand. You probably can buy it, but I will be an issue if you need support/replacement.
Thank you @iyudhi Agree hence mine goes in and out of pocket so often
I was already looking for user experiences with battery and heating for the Pixel 7 Pro, hard to find as its so new but the phone itself is plenty for sale here. If you see any of that, I’m most graceful. Lemme know!
Thank you @MikeDerry but unfortunately no support for Nokia here in Thailand
I was a huge Nokia fan since long, long ago but that changed after smartphones became a thing. Now they miss the worldwide coverage for support.
On the update side of things; I guess it gonna be the newest Samsung 24 ultra or Google Pixel 7 pro, likely Samsung as their support here is incredible and my Sony Xperia is slowly degrading with other issues like desynchronization of audio vs video. Also an issue due to hear damage.
The new Sony Xperia phone reviews all show still issues with overheating and then continue to praise the camera
Quick update on this topic. I bought the Google Pixel 7 pro with 512Gb. What a beautiful device! It still gets hot in the current ‘hot season’ but 3x slower than my previous device. The updates that come in make it better each time. Battery time is also great!
Since I started using it, I also noticed that in the camera under Modes there was something called Photo Sphere… Guess what, it’s actually Google 360 Streetview photography. It is still early steps as not every photo gets processed 100% but I have been seeing updates to the software in the month that I’m using it and after two weeks my first one appeared as the official Google Streetview photo for 2023 (you can look back in the years often to see previous years). That one the software didn’t recognize my feet so they are still visible but in the two weeks since I’ve been making awesome photos that almost always appear as a Google Streetview photo where the top half shows your photo and the bottom shows the map. For some reason the software also marks the Panaroma photos as Streetview, those look a bit weird though when looked at as you just see grey when scrolling up or down whereas the full 360 of course shows ground and air.
Hope they fix the last bug where for some reason the preview is always an image of 90 degrees to the left, and opens correctly with the front view when opened.
The attached photos are how it all looks and I will attach some others in another reply from places I like to eat/chill.
The 360 mechanics don’t work when you share a picture with your friends on for example Whatsapp but some other tools do recognize it.
My friend’s place, I did the inside and outside and with the Magic Eraser removed all other people but him. That tool gets better every update!
Unfortunately the forum doesn’t allow us to upload the full photos, very likely to large in size (5-10Mb) so I made some screenshots so you can see how they look after creating. A lot like VR I think
and look for another phone. For that my main feature request was it needed to have an amazing camera.
but that changed after smartphones became a thing. Now they miss the worldwide coverage for support.
and then continue to praise the camera 
It still gets hot in the current ‘hot season’ but 3x slower than my previous device. The updates that come in make it better each time. Battery time is also great!
