This was the question posed in PHONE magazine earlier this month with the announcement of Samsung's 12MP phone.

My answer: Yes, we do need a 12MP phone, provided that its got appropriate optics and optical zoom. I do own a digital camera (although it's 3 years old and it's only 5MP), but I still use my 3.2MP Nokia N80 to take most of my photos.

Why?

Simple, the phone is always with me. The camera I only take with me when I consciously remember to do so. After all, does one expect to snap something awesome when doing something as mundane as waiting for the bus?

By having a good (enough) quality camera in your phone you are almost guaranteed to not miss out on any of those great moments that pass you by, and it ensures that those great moments can be printed, unpixelated, on a respectable sized photo.