Today’s best camera phones irritate me for one silly reason

The best camera phones have a range of features that make them appealing, from their great performance to their large displays. Powerful cameras are no longer limited to the most expensive phones either, with more pricing tiers introducing multi-lens setups with impressive specs.

But as I’ve experimented with different devices, especially those that don’t come with a case in the box, I am noticing an annoying issue. When you try to use these phones on a flat surface, they often wobble as a result of their large camera bumps. And now that I’ve seen it, I can’t unsee it.

If you’re anything like me, you keep your phone on your desk while you’re working on your computer so that you don’t miss any important updates, calls, or notifications. I recently returned to Pokémon Go, which means I also take a break every now and then to see what creatures have spawned in my area.

That’s when I started noticing it — as I put pressure on my phone, it would tilt as a result of the off-center camera bump. This was a mild annoyance that resulted in me simply picking up my phone to use it, but suddenly, I started noticing it everywhere.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 is the biggest culprit. Whenever I tried to tap on the phone to do anything, it would tilt and wobble. Whether using the phone folded or unfolded, the wobble was a certainty on any flat surface. Then I started to notice it more elsewhere.

I recently started trying out the Xiaomi 15 and also noticed wobbling when using the device without a case. It’s like a curtain has lifted and now I can’t stop seeing it. When I started doing some research on this annoyance, I found Reddit posts starting around the release of the iPhone 14 series that mentioned the issue. But these posts are becoming more frequent, especially with the release of slim foldable phones.

Smartphone makers can pack in more battery capacity in a slimmer profile thanks to silicon-carbon batteries and other design innovations. However, since a larger sensor results in better quality camera shots, camera bumps aren’t being shaved down much. In fact, in some cases they’re starting to protrude more than ever. Telephoto and periscope cameras, which require more space to achieve their focal lengths and zoom features, also take up more space.

The fact that many phones now come without a case in the box is also making the issue more noticeable, since the extra thickness of the case helps to mitigate the wobble caused by camera bumps.

Not every camera phone suffers from wobbling to the same extent. The most noticeable instances appear on phones that have an off-center camera bump. My colleague Rita also noted that one of the benefits of the camera bar on Pixel phones is that the devices don’t wobble when placed on desks. Even when it comes to Google’s foldables, the camera bar appears to stabilize the phone more than a vertical line of lenses.

Besides using a bar for the camera lenses, placing the camera housing in the center of a phone also offsets the wobbling issue. The vivo X200 Pro has a massive camera bump, but it only wobbles if you put a significant amount of pressure on the top corners of the device. In comparison, the Fold 7 wobbles with the lightest touch to any corner of the screen.

While I haven’t always been a fan of circular camera bumps, I can see their utility now. They allow smartphone makers to pack in large sensors without creating an issue with balancing a thin device on a flat surface.

Another option is having cases that balance out the phone’s bump. While an ordinary case helps balance out wobbling, some people also opt for bumper cases or rugged cases to fix this issue.

As much as this issue has annoyed me, it’s not a dealbreaker. But I do hope that companies take it into account when designing phones in the future, since small annoyances can build up.

I still really enjoy using the Galaxy Fold 7 since it has really helped with my productivity when using a phone. At the same time, if I had to choose between it and a phone with similar features that wobbles less, I might opt for the competitor to eliminate this annoyance.

At the end of the day, camera performance, battery life, and usability are all more important factors to me than a quirk like wobbling. However, it’s an issue that I hope gets fixed rather than ignored, since it would improve the user experience. In markets where there’s lots of competition, an annoyance can end up becoming a deciding factor.