Questions on selecting a new phone

[FatBear]

It is time again for the miserable experience of selecting a new phone and moving into it. I think buying a new house is easier. I'm hoping someone can help me by answering a couple of questions. Don't worry, I'm not asked for the "best" phone or anything like that. I suspect that my "best" is probably different than the conventional view.

1. Is there a website where you can actually compare features of phones from all manufacturers?

2. Does anyone know of a phone with a camera that can take a decent photo of a small wildflower? Now don't jump up and holler "my phone has a XXX megapixel camera so it should take great wildflower photos". It probably won't. Right now we've got a 48 Mpx camera and it is junk. I've tried lots of them and none that I've tried so far will autofocus on the flower. They all seem to focus on the background. Bright, distinct flowers on drab, busy backgrounds. Even the ones with selectable focus where you poke at the item you want in focus right on the screen.
Now I'm sure there must be one that will take a photo of the flower and not the background, but I'd sure like to hear it from someone who has done it.
Why is this so important? My wife uses her phone for three things. Telephony, rare texting, and photographing native plants and wildflowers for ID purposes. She has found that she can use some Google app or function to help her with the ID of these plants, but it only works when the camera takes a decent photo.
And we are not trying to make the camera focus too closely. I know this because if I stick my finger next to the flower on the same plane of focus, the camera will focus on my finger.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

 

[Dannydet]

Hi and welcome!
#1 - https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-phones
Tom's guide is a good website for that.
#2 - you can always use a camera app that offers fully automatic and fully manual shot settings, to avoid focusing issues. There are many camera apps in the play store that you can install...

 

[FatBear]

Thank you! I will check out that guide.
And it never occurred to me that I could get a different camera app. I guess I'm showing my age. Maybe my wife's brand new phone, which was great in every other respect, can be made functional after all.

 

[Trom]

It is time again for the miserable experience of selecting a new phone and moving into it. I think buying a new house is easier. I'm hoping someone can help me by answering a couple of questions. Don't worry, I'm not asked for the "best" phone or anything like that. I suspect that my "best" is probably different than the conventional view.

1. Is there a website where you can actually compare features of phones from all manufacturers?

2. Does anyone know of a phone with a camera that can take a decent photo of a small wildflower? Now don't jump up and holler "my phone has a XXX megapixel camera so it should take great wildflower photos". It probably won't. Right now we've got a 48 Mpx camera and it is junk. I've tried lots of them and none that I've tried so far will autofocus on the flower. They all seem to focus on the background. Bright, distinct flowers on drab, busy backgrounds. Even the ones with selectable focus where you poke at the item you want in focus right on the screen.
Now I'm sure there must be one that will take a photo of the flower and not the background, but I'd sure like to hear it from someone who has done it.
Why is this so important? My wife uses her phone for three things. Telephony, rare texting, and photographing native plants and wildflowers for ID purposes. She has found that she can use some Google app or function to help her with the ID of these plants, but it only works when the camera takes a decent photo.
And we are not trying to make the camera focus too closely. I know this because if I stick my finger next to the flower on the same plane of focus, the camera will focus on my finger.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

The camera on my phone will focus on whatever I touch on the screen, additionally, you can pull the f-stop down to create an out of focus background in addition to the "portrait mode" pre-set. I think most cameras will do that stuff these days. My phone is a OnePlus 7 which isn't exactly new. Hope some of this is helpful good luck!