Don't use digital zoom
Though all phone cams support some level of digital zoom, I strongly recommend you skip that and cover the distance up yourself. Digital zoom simply stretches the image to compensate for a real zoom functionality. This method is highly infamous for making the resultant image blurry and visibly lower quality; in fact stretching the image manually on your PC would give you a much better result than what most phone cams do.
Instead of using zoom, just walk a bit closer to your subject. In fact it is recommended to click subjects in close proximity for better results, not only in quality but also when you consider the overall composition.
Shooting from close range also helps cover up complex backgrounds and surroundings that the phone camera may unsatisfactorily capture.
The most important thing is that u need to experience ur cellphone's camera. Fiddle with it endlessly, take random shots and in the end u are sure to hit on the right combination for a given situation. Once u become one with the fone cam all the settings like exposure vals, WB, use of macro will become a breeze.
