Love Selfies? Make Sure Your Next Phone Has These Features

Some hate it, some love it, but one thing’s certain - there’s no stopping the selfie train. We recently covered some interesting third-party apps that let you get more creative with your portraits, and today, we are back with something even more interesting.

Although a cheesy activity for some, it sure is convenient to capture memories yourself from the front-facing camera, instead of asking someone else to click a photo. Manufacturers have also begun banking heavily on this trend, making phones that sometimes have a higher quality camera at the front than the back. Here are some innovative features built into devices, that help you take a better selfie.

1) Panoramic selfie
Capturing a big group of people in one selfie usually is a tricky task. Either you need to have really long hands, a selfie stick, or a wide-angle camera lens. Or you can just use this neat trick built into phones like the Oppo F1s or the HTC Desire 10 Pro, which captures a wide-angle shot by simply tilting the phone either sides after clicking the shutter.

2) Front-facing flash
There are times when you’re in a dimly lit room which make the selfies you take less than ideal. Some smartphones, such as the Moto Z Play or the Gionee S6s have a front-facing flash that can illuminate your face in very dark conditions. But sometimes these front-firing LED flashes have a tendency of overexposing the subject.

Alternatively, some smartphones such as the iPhone 7 have a ‘Retina Flash’, that brightly illuminate the screen when taking a selfie. This only works when you’re holding the phone up close, but at least you’ll get a better photo than no lighting at all. Hence, see if your next phone has this.

3) Bokeh effect with a secondary front-facing camera
Love that background blur on photos shot by a DSLR camera? Phones like the Vivo V5 Plus employ the use of two cameras at the front, a 20-megapixel main sensor and an 8-megapixel secondary sensor that captures depth of field. This two-camera system works just like the iPhone 7 Plus, which has two camera sensors at the back. The first sensor captures the image, and the second sensor captures background information, so you get that same bokeh effect for your selfies. You can adjust the level of blur using a slider in the UI, and although the results aren’t exactly as good as a professional camera setup, they still can be fun to use.

4) Voice-activated shutter button
Today’s aluminium and glass bodied phones are slippery, and bigger phones don’t always make it easy to click a photo. This can result in a blurry shot, or worse, the phone being dropped. Samsung phones like the Galaxy S7 Edge have a voice-activated shutter button, so you can just say ‘cheese’ or ‘smile’, and the shot is taken after 3 seconds, giving you enough time to pose. This is a lot easier than struggling to hit the on-screen shutter button or volume keys.

5) Eye-positioning assistance
Phones like the Honor 6X have this neat little feature that keep your eyes where they should be, when taking a selfie. Instead of staring at the screen, when the shutter button is hit, it shows a tiny preview of the viewfinder right below the front-facing camera sensor. This makes you look up at it, and before you know it, the shot is taken. Thanks to this, your selfies will appear with optimal eye positioning, instead of them ending up with you looking at the screen.

These are some of our picks. Which feature do you use to get better selfies? Tell us via the comments section below.