Megapixels alone tell you very little. For phone cameras, image quality usually comes from a combination of:

• sensor size plus resolution: a sensible balance matters more than a high MP count. Tiny pixels can increase noise and hurt low-light performance.
• lens focal length and aperture: these affect field of view and light gathering, but a wider aperture alone does not guarantee better photos.
• stabilization: optical stabilization can help in low light and video.
• matching hardware: if two phones use similar sensors, focal lengths, and apertures, they may be broadly comparable.

That said, modern phone photography depends heavily on software. Image processing, HDR, noise reduction, sharpening, portrait effects, and other computational methods often make a bigger difference than small hardware-spec differences among good phones. A phone with similar camera specs can still produce noticeably different results because of its processing.

So if you’re comparing phones, look beyond MP count. Pay attention to sensor size, aperture, focal length, and OIS—but also check real-world image samples and reviews, because software is a major part of why iPhone cameras are regarded so highly.