5. Sony Xperia Z5

The Sony Xperia Z5 was the first new Android flagship released in 2016, and it has its fans. Sony has a good reputation in the smartphone camera business, and DXOMark claims this one's among the best in the world.

When it came out in early February, ahead of the other 2016 flagships, it was among the better Android cameras yet released. However, we strongly disagree with the high ratings from DXOMark and other sites.

The Sony Xperia Z5 wants very badly to be an excellent smartphone camera. Sony can boast some impressive specs for its flagship device: 23 megapixels and a 0.03-second autofocus sound pretty impressive. Sony calls them "revolutionary" in its advertising.

But in reality, this is the most disappointing of all this year's flagship phones. Chasing unnecessarily high megapixel counts off a cliff can ruin a device; the more pixels you squeeze onto a sensor of the exact same size, the more you risk degrading their quality. The Xperia Z5 tends to overexpose shots and blow out highlights and shadows. Its f/2.3-aperture lens lets in less light than any other camera on this list, and the autofocus time wasn't even close to 0.03 seconds in our experience.

(Aperture refers to the width of the hole in the lens through which light can pass. Lower numbers mean bigger holes, more light, and nice blurry backgrounds.)

The Z5 is a fine phone, and it's better than most older phones when it comes to photography. But there's better options out there.

$468