24 Hours Series

24 Hours on Sumilon Island with the Honor 6X

Published

February 1, 2017

Kat Del Rosario

As somebody who — very naively — asks only two questions when presented with a smartphone (Are there games? Is the camera good?), one can rightly guess that I have a simple make-do-with-what-you’ve-got attitude towards taking photos — and by making do with what I’ve got, I mean my inability to patiently adjust smartphone settings to get that “perfect” shot, as my version of a “perfect shot” is capturing a precious moment as swiftly and genuinely as possible (before they flee the perimeter, especially).

So, when I bounded off to Sumilon Island for the weekend, I took along the Honor 6X (also known as the Huawei GR5 2017 or Mate 9 Lite) to see if it truly lives up to its name.

Setting foot on Sumilon Island

After having seen friends on Instagram happily frolicking and posing on sunny sandbars, I had to admit I was a bit underwhelmed when our boat docked onto Sumilon Island.

Here’s the sandbar, but sun and happy frolicking are nowhere to be found

To be fair it was cloudy, and the promise of rain was clear against the sky. Props to the Honor 6X for capturing this exact moment though — one of dismay.

The Honor 6X’s dual camera also gives a great blurry background effect for that coveted moody and artsy look

Sand and sun

There was better luck with a sunny sandbar the next morning, provided we forego breakfast (noooo!) to get there before large groups of tourists hopped in from mainland Cebu.

Ooh!

Aah!

What is hunger compared to this serenity?!

Early morning natural light = best for selfies. You can’t even tell we’re hungry and woke up too early on a weekend!

We stayed in Bluewater Resort, which had great views of — you guessed it right — the stunning sapphire waters that surrounded the island. Every corner of the resort is decorated to play up the beautiful scenery.

Our view overlooking the sea. No forethought necessary in taking this shot, besides “ooh, Instagrammable!”

Indoor photo with HDR mode

Just a regular selfie

The Honor 6X did great with outdoor photos under a cloudless sky, but even with HDR mode turned on, indoor photos with that same bright sun gave them a blown out look, taking away the brilliant colors of the background.

Trekking around the island

It wasn’t trekking so much as it was walking around a pristine island on a lazy weekend while overfed on the breakfast buffet. There were yellow, blue, and red trails — beginner, intermediate, and advanced, respectively — and we set off on the blue trail. Sumilon Island is also home to a pretty strong Pokémon Go gym, a Pokéstop set by the ruins of a Spanish-era watchtower at the highest point of the island, and a decent enough Globe signal for data connection. Perfect for a quick quest in between eating and lounging around!

We passed by this fancy little island resident at the beginning of the trail. The Honor 6X’s regular camera pulled off a pretty detailed macro shot of this little fella, but the dual-camera mode indiscriminately blurred out portions of the subject that wasn’t smack dab in the center.

Blue water, green water, black water — check out the gradient in the sea, and the details in the lagoon!

“Nope, no Eevee in there.”

The trail took us all around the island and back to the sandbar for a quick swim with all the manner of resplendent sea creatures in the nearby marine sanctuary. Unfortunately, the Honor 6X had to take a break, as we couldn’t take it with us into the water.

Day and night

As much as it performed splendidly under full daylight, the quality of photos by the Honor 6X dipped as quickly as the sun did into the horizon.

The graininess adds a dramatic feel, though

Excluded from the thousand words this picture paints was delicious, which it really was

There’s no way to make anything look appetizing with or without the Honor 6X’s flash. The food presentation was lovely, and a great deal of self-control was taken into not gobbling the food once it touched our table just to take a photo, but all in vain.

Honor 6X: With honors, or without?

To answer one of my two questions (with the other cast aside, as there was not a dull moment on the island): Is the camera good? It depends on where you are, and I guess when you are there. The Honor 6X seemed incapable of producing a bad shot under full daylight, which is great news for non-photographers such as myself, but once you duck into the shade or take it out for some night shots, it’s going to take considerably more skill, patience, and not moving your hand around too much.

24 Hours is a series on GadgetMatch.com where we showcase our travels through a smartphone camera’s perspective. It’s also a documented guide on things to see and do in a city in case you happen to plan a trip there.

[irp posts=”9467″ name=”24 Hours in Taipei with the Redmi 4 Prime”]

24 Hours Series

vivo V27: Studio lights in your pocket

Meet the new Aura Light Portrait System

Published

April 14, 2023

Chay Lazaro

It’s spring 2023 and vivo is back with the V series. The vivo V27 comes with a new feature called Aura Light Portrait System, which takes its main camera to another level. Like its predecessor it’s got a color-changing back, making it a fashionable choice for different users.

Stylish color-changing design

We have the V27 in Emerald Green, which starts off with a lighter tint that looks like jade. When exposed to UV light, it changes into a darker shade of green. This is achieved thanks to the Emerald Glass processing technique. The phone also comes in Magic Blue, Flowing Gold, and Noble Black.

Chay is wearing light colors so the Emerald Green model matches her outfit better. It makes a nice, subtle pop of color, and goes with her pastel-y mint green purse and boots.

It’s also worth pointing out the 3D curved screen and this curved back on the V27 make it feel extremely thin and light.

Studio lights in your pocket

As mentioned earlier, the vivo V27 features the Aura Light Portrait System for great portraits even in low light. It’s a combination of the IMX677V sensor, which Sony designed with vivo specifically for this phone, algorithm optimizations, and the Aura Light. Its outer ring is matte and sandblasted, softening the light coming out of it.

The Aura Light, combined with the large sensor, and algorithm optimizations work together to take great portraits even in low light.

Lunch and coffee

The day before was a very long day so we figured we should get food and coffee. We found this dimly lit restaurant in Soho called Cafe Select. I think it’s a German restaurant because we had some schnitzel and there’s German decor everywhere.

We also specifically asked for the corner booth to test out the V27’s low light capabilities. Despite the lack of light sources, it’s impressive that the V27 managed to produce an accurate cutout of me even when I kept moving with the Bokeh Portrait video mode on.

There’s no natural light in this restaurant so it’s also the perfect place to take portraits and test out the Aura Light Portrait System. It’s like a portable ring light that you can use to take clearer portraits. Take a look at some examples.

On video mode, you can also use LUTs. We had fun using the Nostalgia filter to film a short video in the restaurant, which perfectly matches the vintage vibe of its interiors.

High definition selfies

The vivo V27 would not be a V-series smartphone if it didn’t have an amazing selfie camera. On the V27, we got a 50MP HD selfie camera with autofocus.

It’s worth noting that the phone feels so light in the hand. It’s so easy to take one-handed selfies. I also love how subtle the color change is on the Emerald Green model.

The V27 offers three levels of selfie filters that help hide blemishes and enhance your features — None, Natural, and Classic.

The 50MP front camera means clear selfie details. Most other smartphones have inferior selfie cameras compared to its rear counterparts, but not the V27. As you can see in the example below, zooming in on my eyes show that you can clearly see the strands of my eyebrows.

Walking the High Line & shopping

To test its video stabilization and macro camera, we continued to walk the High Line. Both features produced very impressive results.

Another feature we tried is MicroMovie. It’s perfect for creators like me. It comes with a whole bunch of templates that you can use for TikTok or Instagram Reels. I filmed a daily vlog with it and had so much fun.

While we were shopping, I noticed too that the V27 changed colors after being indoors for a bit. It turned into a beautiful white marble-like finish that fades into mint green at the bottom.

After the sun has set, it’s time to take more low-light portraits and OOTD. Our friends Alex and Leslie even joined us for a quick photo shoot. New York City comes to life at night, and with a 1/1.56-inch sensor and Super Night Mode, the vivo V27 can easily capture the hustle and bustle of the city streets.

More than just a camera smartphone

The vivo V27 is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 and comes with either an 8GB or 12GB of RAM.

With Extended RAM the phone borrows memory from your internal storage and gives you an additional 8GB RAM. This way you get either 16GB or 20GB available RAM.