Hot take: Smartphones don’t need ultrawide cameras

Here’s a take that’s sure to earn me some ire. I’ve suspected it for a while but it was finally cemented in my brain after using the single-lens iPhone 17e as my daily driver: ultrawide cameras are overrated.

With only a limited budget to work with, but a need to stay within Apple’s walled garden of products (blame my AirPods/Apple Watch addiction), I picked up the iPhone 17e as my next handset. The phone has impressed me much more than I expected, but another surprise was the fact that I don’t miss an ultrawide camera. I think it’s high time that we talk about who these lenses are even for.

What’s the point of ultrawide on a smartphone?

So that there’s no confusion here, I will say that I’m not making the argument that there’s no place for ultrawide photography – far from it. Ultrawide shots of cityscapes or natural vistas can be truly stunning, and exactly the type of photo that I could spend a chunk of time admiring in a gallery or museum. The problem is that the absolute worst medium for viewing these shots is a smartphone display.

When shrunk down to a compact screen, all of the detail and points of interest that make ultrawide photography worthwhile are completely lost. Unless you plan on printing out your ultrawide shots and giving them the space they deserve, there’s little point in having them.

What smartphones really excel at is portrait photography. My hot take is that manufacturers need to ditch ultrawide lenses and go all-in on telephoto equivalents.

Luke Baker

Telephoto is king

The biggest beneficiary of an easily accessible camera is candid photography. It’s so much quicker to reach for your smartphone to capture something in the moment than it is to take the lens cap off a dedicated camera and set up the focus.

With that in mind, telephoto lenses with optical zoom are perfect for quick, candid shots. As a new dad, my camera roll is now completely taken up with phots of my daughter, which my wife and I share with family. The best portraits always come from a telephoto lens as I’ve been able to snap them swiftly, from a distance, and all without my daughter spotting the camera.

It’s when a camera is noticed that a shot looks forced and the moment is gone. That’s exactly why a telephoto lens should be available on almost all modern smartphones to help users to capture better pics.

Ultrawide lenses just aren’t helpful in this area, and yet we cling on to them as if they’re just as essential as a display or a battery. From my perspective, it’s definitely time for a rethink.