I don't own this camcorder so can't comment on it specifically, but generally a dedicated camera will beat a smartphone. Turns out you just can't stuff large sensors and lenses with their associated inches-long focal distance into a smartphone, who'da thunk.

I have a Panasonic LX100 as my camera and it blows every smartphone I or the missus have owned away for image quality, regardless of resolution. It is a lot bigger though and I don't carry it everywhere as a result, smartphone wins on convenience only.

Hey. I own this camcorder bought it over 2 years ago from john lewis for £500. it's definitely better then any smartphone camera out there. the following footage was shot with the camcorder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2FaVJFFPJ4

The quality won't be "much" better than a modern flagship, it's using the same generic small sensor format that you'll find in other high end smartphones. It does have some functional advantages though, namely the 20x optical zoom and ergonomics. If you want a noticeable improvement to video quality over a high end smartphones then you'll want to look into into larger sensor cameras like DSLRs, mirrorless cameras and some premium compacts. You lose the large zoom range but there's actually a meaningful improvement in video quality and a drastic improvement to stills. For £400 you can get the Panasonic GX800, or for under £500 you can get the Panasonic G7, which is well worth the extra £80ish.

http://www.digitaldepot.co.uk/compact-system-cameras-1/shop-by-brand/panasonic-g-series/panasonic-lumix-dmc-gx800-digital-camera-12-32mm-lens.html

Use an anker to charge battery with the supplied USB cable when not in use or run from anker with cable when in use.

Going to investigate this as I have the older 1080p model.