24 Hours Series

24 Hours in Puerto Galera: Moto M vs Vivo V5 Lite

Published

March 17, 2017

Isa Rodriguez

This year, I decided that traveling would be a priority. In between work and different projects, however, it becomes hard to sneak away from the metro and sneak in out-of-town trips.

The solution? Find beautiful beaches accessible from the city at a moment’s notice!

Puerto Galera is one such beach town. Known for its nightlife and beautiful beaches, Galera is located in Mindoro — an island at the southwest portion of Luzon. A boat or a ferry from Batangas City will bring you to the island’s sunny shores.

I brought the Moto M and Vivo V5 Lite on a quick trip to Mindoro, and these are the beautiful views captured through their lenses.

Personally, camera specs mean so little to me. What’s important is how the actual photos turned out. I put the two phones to the test.

White Beach

While Puerto Galera is home to 32 beaches; one of the most famous ones is White Beach. The stretch of fine white sand is the perfect spot to laze around on hot summer days.

In this ideal shooting scenario, there is not much difference between the Vivo V5 Lite’s 13-megapixel camera and Moto M’s 6-megapixel camera. There are, however, visible color differences. The Vivo V5 Lite’s photos seem more saturated compared to the Moto M’s cooler palette — it’s as if the Vivo camera has an automatic Clarendon filter.

Vivo’s V5 Lite has a 16-megapixel selfie camera while the Moto M has an 8-megapixel selfie cam. More importantly though, both have beautification mode (!!).

Both phones also have an HDR shooting mode (which, I am told, just means that the cameras should be able to capture more details from bright and dark areas even under extreme lighting conditions). Proud to report, the function does seem to work well.

Getting around

Puerto Galera is home to many hotels and dining establishments. You will never run out of places to dine in and eat at here. It’s also very easy to explore the town as tricycles and jeepneys are available everywhere.

The Vivo camera obviously did better in our jeep shoot, but both didn’t do so well under the weird lighting conditions.

Time for a close up! The Vivo camera seems to take brighter photos, but this washed out some of the detail.

Don’t forget to grab fresh fruit shakes by the beach! This is the HDR mode at work. The Moto M’s camera took photos which are more true to life. Vivo’s color settings (I call it “automatic filter”) make for a prettier photo, though.

The nightlife

Evenings at Puerto Galera are not quiet. The steady influx of tourists make for a great nightlife, and it isn’t uncommon to find people drinking by the beach come night time.

Sunsets by the beach make for a great background. Both phone cameras didn’t do justice to this view.

There are also countless events in Puerto Galera. One of them is the annual Malasimbo Art and Music Festival which is a treat for your senses. Plus, it’s literally held atop a mountain.

(Note that the lights at the venue were blinking the whole time, so that may account for the darker Moto M photo.)

Nighttime photography is always a struggle with phone cameras, but I was impressed with the photos the two phones came up with.

Verdict

In terms of picture quality, there was not much noticeable difference between the two as observed by my untrained eyes.

For Instagram #TravelGoals posts, these two phones can and will certainly deliver. The camera differences lie in the colors of the photos produced. The Moto M churns more authentic photos in a cooler palette, while the Vivo V5 Lite’s photos are more warm and saturated.

I was impressed by how the two phones performed, overall. Vacations usually present less than ideal shooting circumstances (especially by the beach or on a mountain, at night!) but the two phones were able to bring home memories from the trip through beautiful photos.

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=”11235″ name=”24 Hours in Barcelona with the Huawei P10″]

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.