Camera-phone as good as digital camera?

I have a crappy old cell phone, and i want a digital camera. If i get a camera-phone will it be as good as quality as a digital camera? and can i get the pictures onto the computer? I know the image quality used to be horrible on camera phones, but has technology improved since then? thanks

Getting shots off the phone is not a problem. It's just as easy as getting them off a camera.

Certainly the amount of Mega Pixels are increasing for phones, which brings them into the 'usable' category. With nice size shots.
As good as a camera? No, not really. More time and effort is put into making a camera for what it is designed to do, so the overall package is going to be better. The main differences being the lens, the ability to optical zoom and the sensor.

The only range that really blurs the lines between phone and true usable camera is Nokia's N range. He is the current flagship model http://www.hi-mobile.net/Nokia/Nokia-N93...
The new N95 will be coming out soon and that will have a 5.1Mp camera(?). This range has a proper lens with optical zoom a good sensor and the software to back it up. If you were looking for an average point and shoot and a new phone. I guess you have found what you are looking for.

usually the quality won't be better because while the technology on phone improves, so does the technology for cameras!
but yes u can upload the pictures onto a computer using a cable or bluetooth or infra red!

i think your better off getting a digital camera. you cant do much with a camera phone and the pictures are very small. digital cameras have much better quality, camera phones are just for fun.

to be honest ..the quality of a camera fone can neva match the quality of a real camera but of coz the camera fone is improving alot.if you want a fone that takes nice pictures,you might wanna consider the new sony ericsson k800.it has 3.2 megapix camera and 20x zoom(if i'm not wrong).one of the best camera fone if not the best camera fone in the market rite now.there is also nokia n73,another fone with 3.2 megapix..you can transfer the pictures by using a usb cable(provided with the fone) or infrared and bluetooth to your com.

no way go with a good digital camera, better picture quality and more useful

The ONLY advantage to having a camera phone is that you are likely to always have your camera with you this way. Otherwise, even the most basic real cameras are far superior to camera phones. They can focus, for instance...

Camera phones currently only go up to three to five Megapixels. Digital cameras go up to Thirty-nine Megapixels. I doubt that cameraphones will ever catch up to being good as or better than the best digital cameras.

Both phones and digital cameras have multiple ways of getting photos onto the computer.

Generally speaking, a device that does multiple things tends to not do any of those things optimally. My personal opinion is to get a regular cell phone and a separate digital camera