As more midrange phones offer a telephoto camera instead of the usual filler sensor, people now have better options with content creation that they don’t need to be limited with the main camera. That being said, we ran a poll at our Facebook page asking our audience if they prioritize an ultrawide or a telephoto for phone cameras. The responses were overwhelmingly in favor of the telephoto camera, and we agree with the general sentiment of our audience.

Reading through some of the comments, our audience chose telephoto cameras because you can do more types of shots compared to an ultrawide that’s used typically for group shots, landscapes, and sceneries. Aside from portrait mode and closeup shots, other perks of a telephoto camera include more pleasing bokeh and having the extra reach for shooting in events like concerts.

Those who commented also emphasized that hardware is just one aspect of a great camera system: software is also important to maximize the image quality offered by these telephoto cameras.

In the case of midrange devices, I’m happy with how brands are democratizing the telephoto camera to be not a flagship-exclusive feature. The realme 12 Pro+ kicked off the trend early last year, and realme got the formula right with the 13 Pro+. HONOR and TECNO made telephoto cameras more accessible with the 200 and CAMON 30 Premier respectively, and Infinix recently made waves with the NOTE 50 Pro+ as the most affordable phone to have a periscope telephoto camera.

Having used these phones, they do have limitations with imaging quality when compared to flagships but are not bad for their price point. There’s room for improvement for midrange phones boasting telephoto cameras especially with software, and we agree with our community’s sentiment about it. After all, both hardware and software should go together to that users can have a great experience shooting with that extra reach–even on a midrange phone.