Gadgetory

these days smartphones like to think they're more camera than a phone they boast about their megapixels or slap some filters on the screen so your selfie doesn't look so scotchy but let's get real sometimes it matters most is how fast you can open that camera because baby's first steps aren't going to wait for you to enter in a lock screen password a few of the latest smartphones brag about camera shortcuts take the Moto X for example which says it's motion trick is so quick you'll never miss a shot but is it really that much faster than other phone cameras there's only one way to settle the matter we need to have ourselves a smart phone shutter showdown a test to see how quick each phone can aim and shoot from sleep mode the first showdown is between two smart phones that are more like cameras with an identity crisis there's the Nokia Lumia 1020 a Windows Phone with a whopping 41 megapixel camera nokia lers in the photo enthusiasts with an optional $80 camera case it's got a dedicated shutter button but guess what you still need to enter in your password before taking a photo and the case itself needs to be charged or it won't work so just avoid it because we don't need no stinking cases the Lumia has a built-in shutter button that also pulls up Nokia's pro camera but you still need to enter in that password which will slow you down going up against the Lumia is the Samsung Galaxy s4 zoom it's unique from other galaxy models and that it has an actual 10x zoom lens for its 16 megapixel camera you might think waiting for the lens to extend would slow you down but actually it's the galaxy software that is the biggest pain the galaxy s4 models offer no shortcut to skip the password to take a photo when you're in a rush after averaging multiple time tests the Lumia came in faster than the galaxy s4 zoom and it was even faster than the standard galaxy s4 without the zoom lens slow Samsung is not the phone to capture that fleeting moment the Lumia costs $100 more than most smartphones so it's next showdown is with a much cheaper underdog the BlackBerry z10 unfair fight you say well sure blackberry isn't known for cameras and this one has a modest eight megapixel shooter but blackberry ended up beat just slightly faster but blackberry still finds a way to slow you down skipping the password involves the annoying process of holding down a camera shortcut key the blackberry z10 moves on to showdown with another phone that doesn't get much attention the HTC One this Android powerhouse is a fancy pants with its metal design and quad-core processor it thinks it's above normal megapixels and instead has ultra pixels but when it comes to speed this fella is fast just wake it up drag the camera icon to skip the password and tap that shutter button it clocked in at roughly two seconds faster than the BlackBerry so no more horsing around it's time to put the HTC one against the crowd favorite iPhone 5 it's eight megapixel iSight camera is also known for being fast the iPhone has a similar method to the HTC One just wake it up slide the camera icon and tap that on-screen shutter button this was real close the iPhone 5 ended up being just slightly faster coming in at just under four seconds that brings us to the Moto X Google's darling this builds in America phone has the No Touch trick of activating the 10 megapixel camera by twisting your wrist twice like you're opening a jar and you can also take a photo by touching anywhere on the screen there's no finding power buttons or dragging icons if you can master the twist and tap combo then you would be no faster than the iPhone 5 because these phones clocked in at a virtual tie we even added a focus test to try and break the tie the Moto X has the advantage of focusing the same time that you touch to take the photo and the iPhone 5 needs you to top the screen first then hit another icon but yet again the iPhone and Moto X were the same when it comes to capturing that lightning fast toddler are grabbing that spontaneous once-in-a-lifetime moment twisting isn't any faster than sliding an icon to unlock the iPhone 5 and Moto X are the quickest cameras of the bunch for CNET I'm Bridget Carey you