We all remember when three years ago Sony Ericsson launched the Idou with a 12 megapixel camera, then renamed it to Satio. Today it’s an Exmor R on the Xperia Arc that upgrades that camera legacy, but is it worth it?

It’s important to remember that more pixels that a camera sensor has doesn’t necessarily make it a better camera. If you grab your Satio in the middle of night and capture the night sky, and then check the image at 100% size, you will notice that it has nosie, or multi-coloured pixels that shouldn’t be there. The lack of knowledge about this is what often misleads customers in thinking that more is better.

In fact, there are many variables in camera technology, sensor size being one, but another is the lens. When it comes to mobile phone lens, it’s usually prime – no optical zoom – and plastic, which means less image quality. Good glass, such as Carl Zeiss or Exmor R on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, allow for higher apertures (small f number) and that brings more light into the sensor, and thus faster image capture or better night-time capture. Now that you know, what will you choose?