Phone with dual front-facing cameras is perfect for selfie fanatics
You've probably heard of big-name Chinese phone makers like Xiaomi, Huawei and Meizu. But you might want to start keeping a closer eye on Vivo.
The Chinese phone maker's been around since 2009, but it's just now starting to kick things up a notch. Take the company's newest phone, the Vivo V5Plus. It's got two front-facing cameras to take the ultimate selfie.
Vivo's not the first company to include two front-facing cameras. LG's V10 also had dual 5-megapixel selfie cameras, one a regular wide-angle lens and the other an ultra-wide lens.
The V5Plus's two selfie cameras work differently. The main 20-megapixel camera shoots the selfie and the secondary 8-megapixel camera captures depth-of-field data.
With this dual camera setup, Vivo says you'll be able to take photos with bokeh (background blur) just like with a DSLR. Translation: It's the iPhone 7 Plus's Portrait mode, but for selfies.
The secondary depth camera also lets you adjust a picture's focus area after the shot's been taken, a feature we've seen on phones like the HTC One M8.
Another selfie-oriented feature is "Selfie Softlight" which uses the screen to illuminate your face (like the iPhone's Retina flash).
The rest of the phone's not bad, either. Though the processor is a punier Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor, the phone at least comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (expandable to 256GB via microSD), and a large 3,160 mAh battery. The phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow (sorry, Nougat fans).
The phone only comes in gold.
The 5.5-inch full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution screen should be plenty sharp. There's a fingerprint sensor below the display and -- woohoo! -- a headphone jack. On the back is a standard 16-megapixel camera with LED flash.
Now for the kicker: The phone only comes in gold. Yep, just the one color. The phone's also launching in select Asian countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. If you live in another country, your only hope might be to import one. But you should probably wait until pricing is announced.
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
