Mid-range smartphones in the second half of 2021: What are the new camera trends?

According to AndroidAuthority, 2020 is the “big win year” of mid-range smartphones, conquering users with high-end flagship proximity camera technologies and affordable prices amid the epidemic. Entering 2021, the smartphone market under VND 10 million continues to be more competitive, amid the pandemic forcing people to stay indoors, requiring better quality photos and videos to share on social networks. In the second half of the year, the upcoming series of phones will not only inherit the camera technology available from the flagship, but also master completely new photography features.

Front and rear cameras capture artistic Bokeh portraits

In the top 10 best-selling smartphones in the first 6 months of 2021 reported from Mobile World and FPT Shop, OPPO Reno5 is a remarkable phone model. GfK said that up to 170,000 Reno5 units were sold from January 10 to March 21, accounting for 44% of the mid-range segment. This smartphone attracts users thanks to its camera with many interesting features, notably the Dual Exposure (Double Exposure) and clear Night Portrait (Night Flare Portrait) despite the darkness with the rear camera.

In particular, the Night Portrait feature is supported by 2 Low Light HDR algorithms and Bokeh algorithms that create artistic lighting effects on the image background when shooting at night. But the most interesting thing, the upcoming OPPO Reno6 Z will perfect this feature even more with the more upgraded Bokeh Flare portrait technology. Bokeh Flare Portraits applies new algorithms to improve the performance variance between day and night, creating a series of portraits that are not only sharper, removed from the background, but also more artistic, containing “mood” and conveying more more “emotional”, usable with both front and rear cameras.

In the mid-range segment, there are currently very few smartphones that optimize portrait image quality in harsh conditions of time (evening, night) and space (low light, indoors, cafes). Smart software has awakened many potentials that were previously impossible for smartphones, including portrait photography to remove fonts, low light, and lack of effects. But by the second half of 2021, users can fully expect Reno6 Z to “fuse” these three elements harmoniously with only a single Bokeh Flare portrait feature.

In the context of users having to stay at home and share more emotions through portraits, the Bokeh Flare portrait feature promises to bring a sophisticated portrait shooting experience, creating sparkling bokeh effects like those captured with a camera Professional with large aperture lens.

Large “dot” sync camera for mid-range smartphones

In addition to developing artificial intelligence for image processing, mobile companies are also racing in camera hardware, specifically in terms of resolution and size of image acquisition sensors. The high-end segment last year popularized 64MP main camera resolution, especially a few flagships over VND 25 million with resolutions as high as 108MP. In the segment under 10 million, the resolution is mainly only 32-48MP. Therefore, the technology world predicts that the second half of 2021 will promote more strongly the trend of moving large, high-resolution sensors from flagship to mid-range.

64MP main camera, 32MP selfie camera are not only present in the high-end segment, but are gradually being brought down to synchronize for mid-range smartphones. Most recently, OPPO Reno6 Z launched at the end of July next, will be an early confirmation phone for this shifting “combo”. With the upgraded “dot count”, Reno6 Z can take sharper images without noise, giving portrait effects with the most realistic emotions.

Photography has come to life, transmission technology has also been promoted to 5G

High “dots” make the image size heavier, posting on social networks slower if only using 4G. Even with Bokeh Flare portrait photos, young users do not want to wait a second to be able to immediately publish to Facebook or Instagram, sharing their feelings at that time with friends.

This forces mobile companies to invest more expensively in chipsets that support both AI photography and 5G technology on mid-range smartphones. Although the 5G chip costs a lot of components, it has super-fast image transfer speeds, can upload a collection of GB of photos in just a few seconds without interrupting the connection, no more latency.

In the second half of 2021, buying a mid-range smartphone, the camera will definitely be “worth the money” with technological improvements and interesting features. With the above 3 trends, users will have many options to satisfy their interests and photography needs, without having to spend too much budget to experience.