Best camera phone around?

HTC released its impressive T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide Android smartphone with much fanfare over the camera quality. The hardware has excellent low-light solutions and a sensor to improve a photo's contrast and dynamic range, HTC said. The camera has zero shutter lag, too. In fact, HTC went ahead and called it the most advanced smartphone camera out there.

"Advanced" can mean a lot of things. It can refer to sophisticated specs, to the quantity of hardware and software options, and to the internal science behind the camera software's processing prowess. It's true that the MyTouch 4G Slide has a gorgeous camera interface loaded with modes and options, including some great editing features you can use before and after taking shots.

I'm no photographic guru, but in my initial tests, the camera, though very good, certainly didn't steamroll other great camera phones. In fact, I saw evidence of shutter lag and delayed image processing, a concerning flash issue, and some images didn't seem as clear or rich as they should have for a camera meant to blow away the competition. So I ran more tests with some of the MyTouch 4G Slide's more-notable features, and compared them with shots taken from other great phones.

In the interest of keeping this slideshow at a manageable size, I often included comparison shots from only the best competing handset. With the exception of resizing photos, the pictures have not been digitally altered.