I saw it firsthand in the mad rush after Apple’s launch at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino.
Everyone piling into the demo area, phones in hand, trying to work out what was actually new.
Apple’s first foldable iPhone is one of the flashiest examples, but the bigger story is that the whole industry is rethinking what a phone camera can do.
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Phones can now feed you your lines while you film, follow the right person through a video, and even turn a photo into footage that never happened.
I’m a bit embarrassed by how often I pull my phone out just to use the camera.
Type “cat” into my photos and it coughs up over 9,000 results. Nine thousand pictures and videos of the cat.
My point is the camera is one of the most-used things on the phone, so the makers have spent years refining it until it basically can’t miss.
Point a decent phone at anything today and you get a good shot. They can all do it.
Which is a problem if your job is selling the phone, because when every camera is great, “great camera” stops being a reason to buy yours.
So the big players have gone hunting for something else to show off.
Apple iPhone Duo: Getting the kids to actually look at the camera
Apple’s first foldable iPhone has something no iPhone before it has had, a second screen facing the person you’re photographing.
Duo Preview puts a live view of the shot on that outer screen, so they can check their pose and framing while you take the photo.
Then there’s Kid Cue, which plays Peanuts animations on the outer screen to grab a child’s attention and get them looking towards the camera.
I have a nephew who will not smile when you ask him to, so this could be an easy win.
The fold gives you a few other camera tricks too.
You can take a selfie using the higher-resolution rear cameras while seeing yourself on the outer screen, or prop the phone up without a tripod for longer videos.
Apple iPhone 18 Pro: The hole in the camera actually changes size
This one sounds very camera nerd until you understand what’s happening.
The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max bring aperture control to an iPhone for the first time.
Six tiny blades inside the main camera physically change the size of the opening that lets light through. The phone can adjust it automatically for different lighting and depth of field.
There are four settings.
At the widest, more light gets into the camera, which helps in darker conditions. Make the opening smaller and you get more depth of field, which can keep more of the scene in focus.
Google Pixel 11: A teleprompter that keeps up with you
The Pixel 11 has a teleprompter built into the camera.
The words you want to say sit on screen just below the front camera and scroll while you talk, so your eyes stay on the lens instead of dropping to your notes every few seconds.
And I’ll be honest, even after 15 years in TV, there are still days where I just can’t get the words out, or my head’s a mess and the line won’t land.
Now picture that on a busy street with people walking past watching you talk to your phone, take after take. Not a vibe.
The clever bit is how it scrolls.
Google’s teleprompter follows your voice, so if you talk faster it will speed up, stop for a second and it holds. And you feel it right away, I wasn’t chasing it and I wasn’t waiting on it, it just went when I went.
Google didn’t get here first, but it’s the first one that doesn’t make you sound like you’re reading off a wall.
And it’s on all four Pixel 11 models, not just the Pro models.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Choose who the video’s about after you’ve filmed it
If you’ve got a friend who hijacks every group video, bad news for them.
My FanCam lets everyone else crop them right back out.
You open the clip, tap the Galaxy AI button, tap the person you actually wanted, and it gives you a new video that stays on them, cropping in and following them around the frame in whatever shape you need for wherever you’re posting.
So you can just film everyone wide and decide who it’s actually about later.
One thing worth being clear on, it’s not refocus.
It doesn’t sharpen anyone or change what the camera was focused on. It just re-crops the video you already shot and follows your person through it.
And because it works on just about any saved clip with a person in it, you can throw old videos at it too, stuff from years back, even from a phone that wasn’t a Samsung.
Honor 600 Pro: A video of something that never happened
This is the odd one out but I still like it.
The other features work with something you actually filmed. The Honor 600 Pro doesn’t need any video at all.
You give it a still photo, type what you want to happen, and it creates a short clip from it.
I am not the biggest fan of using AI to generate content that never actually happened.
But I did find this editing tool quite fun, especially because it shows where this whole camera race is heading next.
The phone camera used to be about capturing what was in front of you.
Now it can help you say the line, choose the person, entertain the kid, reframe the shot, change the lens opening and, if you really want, invent the moment altogether.
