Good Android Camera Phone within 25k

1. Budget? Rs. 25000 (Please don't stretch it too much)
2. Display type and size? Dont want too big a phone, 4.7" max (Would prefer smaller)
3. Dual sim? Would prefer it supports dual sim but its not a deal breaker
4. Preferred choice of brand? Don't want unreliable brands like Micromax, Lava, Karbon etc. Also no HTC pleased, had terrible experience with it earlier
5. What camera option you want (flash, front facing camera)? Flash and decent front facing camera , need a good camera though
6. Preferred operating system? (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc). Android only
7. Preferred connectivity options (3G, 4G ready). 3G (4G is not a must)
8. Primary use of handset (multimedia, camera, internet, gaming etc)? Photography, casual gaming and social networking
9. Any specific mobile phones in consideration? None
10. Any other info that you want to share
Would prefer a phone with decent battery life.

T

The only high end devices with less than 5 inch size i know are z3 compact and galaxy alpha..

Some with 5 inch and decent cams are Mi4/Mi4i, Honor 6, vibe x2.

If you're fine with WP, L640/L730 have decent shooters too and will save you lot of money.

S5 @ 23k on flip kart at 5.1 in screen . Great amoled screen but no lte .

K

samsung S5 has a poor camera,it heats up after sometime of use and takes massively oversatured photos
even its display has unnatural colours and is oversaturated
as for LTE,very few phones will support LTE in India because India uses TDD LTE not FDD LTE so even buying an LTE phone is pointless unless it specifically supports TDD(extremely rare to find such phones , only 4-5 TDD phones in India)

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One Plus One and Mi4 have the best cameras in this range
both have Sony Exmor sensors which are the best sensors in android phones

nothing comes close to Lumia 640XL and 730 though,both have unmatched displays and cameras in this range,even battery life is top notch at 1.5-2 days of rough use

Coming from a galaxy note , s3 and s4 once you experience amoled screens there's no turning back . just my humble opinion . Also in my humble opinion all my Samsung flagship phone cameras are good for my needs .
BTW I have the redmi 1s and the camera is quite good for its price . But the same cannot be said about my moto g first gen and redmi note 4 g .
Just my 2 cents .

+1 to Xperia Z3 compact.

Consider oneplus one too despite the 5.5" screen size.

Pick Mi4 or Z3 C is also a good option.

Thanks guys! Guess will go for Xperia Z3 compact as am not particularly inclined towards Xiaomi/One Plus One

D

Galaxy S5 should be the first choice. Xperia Z3 Compact if for some reason you don't like it.

Reported Post 4 for spreading utter nonsense and misleading information.

kkn13 said:
samsung S5 has a poor camera,it heats up after sometime of use and takes massively oversatured photos
even its display has unnatural colours and is oversaturated
as for LTE,very few phones will support LTE in India because India uses TDD LTE not FDD LTE so even buying an LTE phone is pointless unless it specifically supports TDD(extremely rare to find such phones , only 4-5 TDD phones in India)

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One Plus One and Mi4 have the best cameras in this range
both have Sony Exmor sensors which are the best sensors in android phones

nothing comes close to Lumia 640XL and 730 though,both have unmatched displays and cameras in this range,even battery life is top notch at 1.5-2 days of rough use

Seriously???
S5 has the best camera under 25k. It does over saturate pics a bit, but pics do look good, which most people prefer
As far as display is concerned, just change the mode & you are good to go with natural colours.
(Till S4, i too agree that the normal mode wasn't upto par, but since S5 I would say Samsung AMOLEDs are the best displays)

OPO & 640XL are too big for OP

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mohityadavx said:
Thanks guys! Guess will go for Xperia Z3 compact as am not particularly inclined towards Xiaomi/One Plus One

Good choice....

I got one too recently @ 23k from eBay (Imported one)
Otherwise you would have to spend 30k for it, but it will have manufacturer warranty

My dad uses S5, and while it has a really great camera, it simple has too many issues, for a phone that powerful, it hangs way too often and has plethora of other issues. Some friends had bought Xiaomi and their after sales service is terrible, I dont know about One Plus One but extrapolating it from Xiaomi, Micromax and host of others I am bit reluctant to buy the same.

kkn13 said:
samsung S5 has a poor camera,it heats up after sometime of use and takes massively oversatured photos
even its display has unnatural colours and is oversaturated

Sometimes, it's better to quote references rather than passing a personal comment (that too highly controversial) every time.

D

mohityadavx said:
My dad uses S5, and while it has a really great camera, it simple has too many issues, for a phone that powerful, it hangs way too often and has plethora of other issues. Some friends had bought Xiaomi and their after sales service is terrible, I dont know about One Plus One but extrapolating it from Xiaomi, Micromax and host of others I am bit reluctant to buy the same.

Is your dad on Lollipop? If so, there shouldn't be much lags. No skinned implementation could be as bare (thus smooth) as stock Android, but Lollipop TouchWiz is one of the best which is out there, along with Sense. And what are those other issues to be precise?

In any case, if your dad has an S5, then you get the Z3 Compact, or the Alpha as someone said on last page. No point in having same phone, at least I think that way. But whatever you do just stay with good brands, Samsung, HTC, Sony those are, because you have good budget.

You could also look at the Desire Eye, if you are interested to try your luck with non-warranty unit, those are widely available on Ebay.

Everyone loves to hate Touch Wiz . But after trying cm11/12/12.1 on my various Samsung flagship phones (note 1 , s3 , s4 ) I'm always back to stock rom . Besides tw on lollipop is great in my s4 . Cm always had issues .
Battery drain or camera problem or sound problem or Sim card not detecting problem or WhatsApp call/video problem etc . So I could not use it as a daily driver hence switched back to stock .
BTW I'm not talking about cyanogen os which is probably stable . I'm talking cyanogen mod roms .

K

anupam_pb said:
Seriously???
S5 has the best camera under 25k. It does over saturate pics a bit, but pics do look good, which most people prefer
As far as display is concerned, just change the mode & you are good to go with natural colours.
(Till S4, i too agree that the normal mode wasn't upto par, but since S5 I would say Samsung AMOLEDs are the best displays)

OPO & 640XL are too big for OP

Not true
Its camera is nowhere near the Xperia and Lumia line up at all
same goes for its display, settings cant change hardware problems
it doesnt have the best camera under 25k at all
even Mi4 camera is miles ahead

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dashing.sujay said:
Sometimes, it's better to quote references rather than passing a personal comment (that too highly controversial) every time.

oh yeah?
funny how you people will keep glorifying Samsung
ive had like 3-4 samsungs at home
heck my dad had a Note 3 and an S5 , I pretty much know what im talking about

also Im in the exact stream - films, photography etc , I can pretty much comment on quality etc because ive grown up having an eye for good quality photos,displays,speakers etc
my parents have editing studios

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devil'sdouble said:
Is your dad on Lollipop? If so, there shouldn't be much lags. No skinned implementation could be as bare (thus smooth) as stock Android, but Lollipop TouchWiz is one of the best which is out there, along with Sense. And what are those other issues to be precise?

In any case, if your dad has an S5, then you get the Z3 Compact, or the Alpha as someone said on last page. No point in having same phone, at least I think that way. But whatever you do just stay with good brands, Samsung, HTC, Sony those are, because you have good budget.

You could also look at the Desire Eye, if you are interested to try your luck with non-warranty unit, those are widely available on Ebay.

^^ This!! Get Z3C or HTC imho
some people have even grabbed HTC E8 for 24k recently in my friend circle
good buy, has decent size too

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even Moto X is decent
display is 5.2 and is pretty good to hold
camera is a bit of a let down despite being an Exmor sensor
still above average though

devil'sdouble said:
Is your dad on Lollipop? If so, there shouldn't be much lags. No skinned implementation could be as bare (thus smooth) as stock Android, but Lollipop TouchWiz is one of the best which is out there, along with Sense. And what are those other issues to be precise?

In any case, if your dad has an S5, then you get the Z3 Compact, or the Alpha as someone said on last page. No point in having same phone, at least I think that way. But whatever you do just stay with good brands, Samsung, HTC, Sony those are, because you have good budget.

You could also look at the Desire Eye, if you are interested to try your luck with non-warranty unit, those are widely available on Ebay.

I am not sure what version is he using, I will have to check that. It used to overheat, and once it had issues with the microphone, also had call drop issues in between, basically within almost a year, we had to submit the phone thrice to the service center. I am not sure if this particular phone has some problems, or is it with S5 but anyways I dont wanna suffer similar fate all over again. Also, as you mentioned two different phone makes more sense.

K

mohityadavx said:
I am not sure what version is he using, I will have to check that. It used to overheat, and once it had issues with the microphone, also had call drop issues in between, basically within almost a year, we had to submit the phone thrice to the service center. I am not sure if this particular phone has some problems, or is it with S5 but anyways I dont wanna suffer similar fate all over again. Also, as you mentioned two different phone makes more sense.

its just samsung issues
people may not be ready to admit it but they have serious issues
my dads S5 and Note 3 had similar issues

D

ankushv said:
Everyone loves to hate Touch Wiz . But after trying cm11/12/12.1 on my various Samsung flagship phones (note 1 , s3 , s4 ) I'm always back to stock rom . Besides tw on lollipop is great in my s4 . Cm always had issues .
Battery drain or camera problem or sound problem or Sim card not detecting problem or WhatsApp call/video problem etc . So I could not use it as a daily driver hence switched back to stock .
BTW I'm not talking about cyanogen os which is probably stable . I'm talking cyanogen mod roms .

Cyanogen Mod is one of the most unstable thing there is in Android world. No, I don't care what the lovers/ fans say. I used it on S2, then tried it on my Note 3 too, there is not a single ROM which could have more bugs.
TocuchWiz Lollipop is good, probably even very good to some extent.

mohityadavx said:
I am not sure what version is he using, I will have to check that. It used to overheat, and once it had issues with the microphone, also had call drop issues in between, basically within almost a year, we had to submit the phone thrice to the service center. I am not sure if this particular phone has some problems, or is it with S5 but anyways I dont wanna suffer similar fate all over again. Also, as you mentioned two different phone makes more sense.

Dude, that is not a Samsung S5! I am sorry to say, either you are very unfortunate person to have a phone like that or you are just complaining because you hate Samsung. Samsung flagship phones have the most strong signal reception amongst them all (barring BB and Nokia). My last two phones were Moto X and LG G3, both would lose signal in places where my Note 3 keeps up, and not only keeps up, the signal is quite strong too! So no more LG nonsense for me, honestly the Nokia 1200 I have keeps up better reception than that, and I have a business, talking is one of the main priority here. Head over to XDA, and you will know anyway.
One of my client has S5, and it is quite honestly a fantastic phone, it's kinda big for the screen size, but still.

Off topic: I am shocked with the kind of nonsense goes on in this forum site! LOL! Never in my life I have visited a forum site where so much nonsense is posted, and allowed. Though whose loss is it anyway!

[MENTION=184724]kkn13[/MENTION]
Don't exaggerate or sensationalize.

K

Faun said:
[MENTION=184724]kkn13[/MENTION]
Don't exaggerate or sensationalize.

Im not
sorry if I lost it there
Im just tired of people glorifying companies

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devil'sdouble said:
Cyanogen Mod is one of the most unstable thing there is in Android world. No, I don't care what the lovers/ fans say. I used it on S2, then tried it on my Note 3 too, there is not a single ROM which could have more bugs.
TocuchWiz Lollipop is good, probably even very good to some extent.

the reason for that is mainly Exynos

devil'sdouble said:
Cyanogen Mod is one of the most unstable thing there is in Android world. No, I don't care what the lovers/ fans say. I used it on S2, then tried it on my Note 3 too, there is not a single ROM which could have more bugs.
TocuchWiz Lollipop is good, probably even very good to some extent.

Dude, that is not a Samsung S5! I am sorry to say, either you are very unfortunate person to have a phone like that or you are just complaining because you hate Samsung. Samsung flagship phones have the most strong signal reception amongst them all (barring BB and Nokia). My last two phones were Moto X and LG G3, both would lose signal in places where my Note 3 keeps up, and not only keeps up, the signal is quite strong too! So no more LG nonsense for me, honestly the Nokia 1200 I have keeps up better reception than that, and I have a business, talking is one of the main priority here. Head over to XDA, and you will know anyway.
One of my client has S5, and it is quite honestly a fantastic phone, it's kinda big for the screen size, but still.

Off topic: I am shocked with the kind of nonsense goes on in this forum site! LOL! Never in my life I have visited a forum site where so much nonsense is posted, and allowed. Though whose loss is it anyway!

I agree with both your points...

And the off topic point, yeah there are some fan boys & haters...... OPO is a hit in this forum but CM does give some bugs, so OPO is just not for any normal person(who doesn't know anything about rooting n all)....

I'm facing multi tasking issues with Lollipop of my Z3C but I won't install a custom ROM on it, better to wait for 5.1 update, after using N4 for 2 years, I can say that Touchwiz, Sense & other UIs are much stable than custom ROMs for flagship devices (for budget smartphones, custom ROMs are a better choice)

kkn13 said:
Im just tired of people glorifying companies

Report the posts next time instead.

devil'sdouble said:
Dude, that is not a Samsung S5! I am sorry to say, either you are very unfortunate person to have a phone like that or you are just complaining because you hate Samsung. Samsung flagship phones have the most strong signal reception amongst them all (barring BB and Nokia). My last two phones were Moto X and LG G3, both would lose signal in places where my Note 3 keeps up, and not only keeps up, the signal is quite strong too! So no more LG nonsense for me, honestly the Nokia 1200 I have keeps up better reception than that, and I have a business, talking is one of the main priority here. Head over to XDA, and you will know anyway.
One of my client has S5, and it is quite honestly a fantastic phone, it's kinda big for the screen size, but still.

So you would demolish my personal experience of the phone on hearsay and accuse me of being a Samsung hater is ironical to the say the least.

K

Faun said:
Report the posts next time instead.

will do that
sorry if I was brash earlier

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mohityadavx said:
So you would demolish my personal experience of the phone on hearsay and accuse me of being a Samsung hater is ironical to the say the least.

I hear you brother !! I hear you !!
welcome to my world !!

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anupam_pb said:
I agree with both your points...

And the off topic point, yeah there are some fan boys & haters...... OPO is a hit in this forum but CM does give some bugs, so OPO is just not for any normal person(who doesn't know anything about rooting n all)....

I'm facing multi tasking issues with Lollipop of my Z3C but I won't install a custom ROM on it, better to wait for 5.1 update, after using N4 for 2 years, I can say that Touchwiz, Sense & other UIs are much stable than custom ROMs for flagship devices (for budget smartphones, custom ROMs are a better choice)

Dude CM on OPO is actually more usable than on my dads Note 3 running Touchwiz
Id still give touchwiz credit because its more stable than Googles own Stock android on Nexus 5 and 7 (atleast in Lollipop)
Samsung was even nice enough to add a disable encryption button
but it still has a looong way to go
CM is unstable on most phones including the Yu series but its extremely stable on Oppo and OPO and is actually better than most other "official" roms from other OEMs

So far Moto,HTC and maybe Oppo really make stable roms for their phones despite all the non-relevant drawbacks

Lets get back on topic btw
I think OP should get Z3C or wait for OP2
if OP2 is a fail , OPO will mostly get a price drop and will be a great and stable buy

D

LG with cloudyfa custom roms have much better stability than any other custom roms there.

How about the Xperia M4 Aqua? its a dual sim phone..

dan4u said:
How about the Xperia M4 Aqua? its a dual sim phone..

Not worth more than 15k.

K

dan4u said:
How about the Xperia M4 Aqua? its a dual sim phone..

its OK at best
bit pricey considering Mi4i also has similar specs and a Sony Exmor sensor(on paper,looks like the same 13mp one found on M4 aqua) itself for 13k
not really worth it other than the Sony Badge of course

D

anupam_pb said:
I agree with both your points...

And the off topic point, yeah there are some fan boys & haters...... OPO is a hit in this forum but CM does give some bugs, so OPO is just not for any normal person(who doesn't know anything about rooting n all)....

Fanboys are different thing. I am a Sony fanboy if you ask me, but the last Sony phone I owned was Xperia X1. I would love to see them coming back to compete against the likes of Samsung, HTC, but let's see. As long as I am concerned about my money going to the right place I will choose the products which have least number of complaints.
Haters on the other hand, are blind, and dumb. And the main problem is they don't understand that whose ultimate loss it is.

However I am sure that neither term could be applied here, but trolling. You see bashing Samsung is a newly set trend here in India. However like everything else its just a matter of time you won't even be seeing these trolls anywhere.

However I am very doubtful about the moderation process of this forum, if there is any. Otherwise a poster makes exact same nonsense and misleading posts at least 1000 times, and the best moderation done is a fine comment. LOL.

mohityadavx said:
So you would demolish my personal experience of the phone on hearsay and accuse me of being a Samsung hater is ironical to the say the least.

Yeah, right. Majority matters, minority doesn't. Especially those complaints are laughable, you do know what I am talking about, don't you?

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SaiyanGoku said:
Err.... irrelevant.
It might be samsung's flagship but it fails in overall terms compared to LG G4.

Indeed. S6 looks like a child in front of mid-ranger G4 :lol:

*www.gsmarena.com/lg_g4_vs_galaxy_s6-review-1266.php

However LG has achieved one thing quite well. They managed to price a mid range phone higher than other true flagship phones.

After so many off topic posts, something on topic:
[MENTION=101894]mohityadavx[/MENTION] : If you buy a Z3C & it is running on 4.4, do not, read again DO NOT update to 5.0.2. Update to Lollipop after 5.1 update is out

5.0.2 has memory leak issues & multi tasking takes a hit. It works like a 1GB RAM phone in lollipop

anupam_pb said:
After so many off topic posts, something on topic:
[MENTION=101894]mohityadavx[/MENTION] : If you buy a Z3C & it is running on 4.4, do not, read again DO NOT update to 5.0.2. Update to Lollipop after 5.1 update is out

5.0.2 has memory leak issues & multi tasking takes a hit. It works like a 1GB RAM phone in lollipop

Thanks man will remember that.

K

anupam_pb said:
After so many off topic posts, something on topic:
[MENTION=101894]mohityadavx[/MENTION] : If you buy a Z3C & it is running on 4.4, do not, read again DO NOT update to 5.0.2. Update to Lollipop after 5.1 update is out

5.0.2 has memory leak issues & multi tasking takes a hit. It works like a 1GB RAM phone in lollipop

Id say avoid 5.x altogether and wait for Android M to see if it fixes anything
I updated my devices to official 5.1.1 but it still suffers from major bugs and memory leaks
even Kitkat's developer preview was more stable than this

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Im saying this from my experience on my Nexus 5 and 7, maybe you can be a better judge for the Z3C 's Lollipop Rom but I just thought I should still mention it

Calm down guys. No arguments here. Provide your reason why you think one is better than other. Don't call members.

Why do you guys need to one up everyone else's post ? OP asked for something and then you derail thread over which is better, Samsung or LG ? If I am paying a premium I will look for the features which I need. At 40k both phones are better at certain things.

Don't increase mod work unnecessarily.

Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) -22,999.

Link:Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML Price in India - Buy Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML Silver 64 Online - Asus : Flipkart.com

bssunil said:
Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) -22,999.

Link:Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML Price in India - Buy Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML Silver 64 Online - Asus : Flipkart.com

This probably has the worst camera in the price range.

bssunil said:
Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) -22,999.

Link:Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML Price in India - Buy Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML Silver 64 Online - Asus : Flipkart.com

$hadow said:
This probably has the worst camera in the price range.

Plus OP wanted a compact phone (<5" screen size)

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kkn13 said:
Id say avoid 5.x altogether and wait for Android M to see if it fixes anything
I updated my devices to official 5.1.1 but it still suffers from major bugs and memory leaks
even Kitkat's developer preview was more stable than this

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Im saying this from my experience on my Nexus 5 and 7, maybe you can be a better judge for the Z3C 's Lollipop Rom but I just thought I should still mention it

Which phone are you using in 5.1.1 ?

My N4 was running nice in 5.1.1 except for a bit more stand by battery drain compared to KK

K

anupam_pb said:
Plus OP wanted a compact phone (<5" screen size)

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Which phone are you using in 5.1.1 ?

My N4 was running nice in 5.1.1 except for a bit more stand by battery drain compared to KK

Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2012, 2013 all running poorly on Lollipop

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bssunil said:
Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) -22,999.

Link:Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML Price in India - Buy Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML Silver 64 Online - Asus : Flipkart.com

it has a poor camera
even ZF5 camera was better than ZF2
also poor battery life and dev support

kkn13 said:
Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2012, 2013 all running poorly on Lollipop

I was using CM based custom ROM on my N4 & it was stable enough

kkn13 said:
Id say avoid 5.x altogether and wait for Android M to see if it fixes anything
I updated my devices to official 5.1.1 but it still suffers from major bugs and memory leaks
even Kitkat's developer preview was more stable than this

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Im saying this from my experience on my Nexus 5 and 7, maybe you can be a better judge for the Z3C 's Lollipop Rom but I just thought I should still mention it

by the time sony phones receives Android M update for his Z3C, he'll probably start a thread for purchasing a new phone. ( unless OP plans to root )

Thats the speed by which sony rolls out the update for its phone. :-x

As far as Lollipop vs kitkat is concerned, I feel Lollipop gets the job done in my Yureka ( stock Rom). apart from a few minor bugs, i don't have much problems with the phone. The general consensus for Lollipop is negative though. :/

K

anupam_pb said:
I was using CM based custom ROM on my N4 & it was stable enough

CM optimises roms well as does Moto as well for that matter
Im talking about Stock Lollipop..

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ashs1 said:
by the time sony phones receives Android M update for his Z3C, he'll probably start a thread for purchasing a new phone. ( unless OP plans to root )
Thats the speed by which sony rolls out the update for its phone.

As far as Lollipop vs kitkat is concerned, I feel Lollipop gets the job done in my Yureka ( stock Rom). apart from a few minor bugs, i don't have much problems with the phone. The general consensus for Lollipop is negative though. :/

thats because CM and Moto are the only ones with a well made Lollipop rom
even Touchwiz Lollipop is much better than Stock Lollipop because they all have disabled the forced encryption

Lollipop in general is rubbish and poorly made
Its upto the OEM to modify and make it usable which is where only CM,Moto and Samsung(surprisingly) shine so far

OT
My s4 lollipop rom is great . But battery life is very bad . Downgraded to 4.4.2 .

ashs1 said:
by the time sony phones receives Android M update for his Z3C, he'll probably start a thread for purchasing a new phone. ( unless OP plans to root )
Thats the speed by which sony rolls out the update for its phone.

As far as Lollipop vs kitkat is concerned, I feel Lollipop gets the job done in my Yureka ( stock Rom). apart from a few minor bugs, i don't have much problems with the phone. The general consensus for Lollipop is negative though. :/

Sony phones will get 5.1 this month..... Z3C should be among the first phones along with Z3+ & Z3 to get it

So I'm expecting Android M on my phone 2-3 months after Google finalizes it.... Sony completed LP 5.0.2 roll out to even Xperia Z by April

If you are looking for good camera then - go for camera with BSI (backside illuminated) sensor. Other features of most phones are same. BSI sensor camera gives you good results in low light also which helps while clicking photo or making HD movie too.