is now the right time to buy a phone rather than a small 4/3 camera?

clear glass wrote:

Anyone done tests or saw them?

The Camera Store, about six years ago, did what they called "The Great JPEG Shootout! (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, iPhone, Pentax, Olympus, Panasonic)," that included a variety of APS-C and M43 cameras plus an iPhone 7 Plus. A variety of types of pictures were taken, but the iPhone won "by a huge margin" the landscape category. Output for judging looked to be 8.5 X 11 inch prints.  It's been a long time since I watched it, but I think they just used all the camera's default settings for their comparisons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRQpueEvb-U

What would the best phone for pictures to be the equal of what camera with a larger sensor?

For me, sensor size related image quality concerns are not concerns at all.  My output needs are modest, so that aspect of image quality is a non-factor.  What I do care about is being able to get out-of-camera results that I like and using a tool that makes it easy for me to see and compose an image.  For my purposes, my iPhone 8 Plus is a terrible thing to take pictures with.  I don't like the default output because the images always look unnaturally pumped up in terms of saturation and contrast, and taking pictures with it is a pain because the washed-out screen makes it nearly impossible for me to compose a picture.  I also hate that it defaults to the 28mm equivalent focal length every time it's turned on; you'd think it's no big deal to push the button that makes it use the 56mm equivalent lens, but it's a constant irritant to me that it always defaults to wide angle.

I currently use an Olympus 4/3 DSLR, an E-450 I bought in 2009, and it's a joy to shoot with in comparison to a phone, and I find the output much more to my liking.  In my opinion, no phone will ever be equal to any camera that at least has a viewfinder.