By Vince Boisgard

For many people, a smartphone is way more than a phone. To me, it is the camera you can carry around anywhere with you and snap the world while preserving a certain discretion.

I used to own an iPhone that offered a huge array of fantastic photo apps, from camera apps to editing and fun apps. Then, one day while using my phone to edit a few photos, I watched it die in my hands!

The battery was down, and replacing it would have been quite expensive. Buying a new iPhone required quite a big budget for me, so I started to consider moving to an Android system.

I thought of the pros and cons and concluded that certain Android phones have excellent hardware with excellent camera quality. My main concern was about the apps catalog, and the only way to know how good the apps were was to try Android!

The worst-case scenario was that I would have a great camera phone and would have to edit my photos on my laptop. This would have been very annoying, but I decided to go for it. Since then, I’m glad to say I’m still happily using Android phones. So, for those thinking of moving from iPhone to Android, this would be my advice to you:

Do not buy an entry-level phone; choose a phone in the mid or highend range. If you don’t, you will end up buying a phone with a poorquality camera, which you’ll end up regretting.

With your new Android phone in hand, these are the apps I recommend that you explore.

Camera Apps

Let’s start with the camera apps. I personally use the native app on my phone. It features so many filters, with alternative modes that automatically capture photos when people are smiling or if you need to use a timer. Most importantly, it features a professional mode that allows me to manually focus, set shutter speed manually, change the resolution and choose how I want my photo to be saved (JPG or RAW).