Can you tell these photos were taken with a budget phone?

The Alcatel Idol 5S has a 12-megapixel rear camera that takes nice photos for the price, but they aren't comparable with pictures from more expensive phones like the Galaxy S8, Google Pixel or iPhone 7. It's fine, though, because the Idol 5S is a third of the price.

It's hard to take a bad picture of a red Corvette. Here, colors are nice with the red Corvette popping out from the background.

Despite the low resolution, this shot of a Four Barrel cappuccino has some decent detail in the foam.

Another close up shot, this one of a slice of pesto avocado toast from Nourish Cafe. Notice the contrasting textures of the bread and pesto drizzle.

The camera app opens quickly and allowed me to catch my colleague CNET Senior Reporter Rich Nieva as he laughed.

Here, the camera did well handling the dynamic range of some silverware on a table at sunset.

In good lighting situations, the Idol 5S is capable of capturing good photos -- especially of Taco the dog.

Here's another situation where soft bright light yielded a good photo of Stella the cat.

This photo and the next are of an Incredible Hulk piggy bank. This one was taken without the flash.

And here's the same Hulk bank taken with a flash.

One of the most impressive parts of the Alcatel camera is the electronic image stabilization for video. The top video was shot with the feature turned off, the bottom with it turned on.

Karl the fog rolls in over the hills of San Francisco. The extremes in lighting and textures of this moment really pushed the Idol 5S's modest camera.

Dynamic range (the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of a photo) isn't great. Here, the highlights of the cloudy sky are blown out.

The Idol 5S didn't do too well in low light situations. Noise reduction made this image look more like a painting.

For more about the Alcatel Idol 5S check out our full in-depth review.