I read earlier this year that one of the "super camera" phones (can't remember which one) was using a 1/1.7" sensor sitting at the bottom of the phone (instead

I read earlier this year that one of the "super camera" phones (can't remember which one) was using a 1/1.7" sensor sitting at the bottom of the phone (instead of the back), perpendicular to the motherboard. That sensor is the same size that my old canon g12 had back in the day some 8 years ago. So yeah, phone cameras are replacing compact cameras because they're hiding one inside them! However, it has now become a question of physics, and large lenses getting in lots of light into focus over the sensor, and it being large enough that can catch all of those "scarce" photons, specially for low light photography. And the 1/1.7" sensor is about as large as you can fit inside a phone, which is why they're all moving to having multi-lens cameras and computational photography (with AI, DSP, etc). I now own an olympus mirrorless, and it's a fantastic piece of equipment with a superb sensor (both in size and technology), interchangeable lenses, and the image stabilization system on body gives it the ability to stabilize _any_ lens I use with it (here's a mean look to Nikon and Canon that place IS inside the lenses instead of the body, to charge premium for the feature). Can't see a phone fitting all those features, because they require physical size and or mechanisms taht wouldn't fit in our pockets.