High resolution camera phones start to arrive to Chinese market. GizChina.com reports about MeituKiss phone aimed to ladies and having both front and back cameras of 8MP resolution, both made by Sony. Ladies are said to be using the front camera as a pocket mirror.
Engadget reports about another local brand phone - Oppo Ulike 2 featuring 5MP front camera. Intomobile says that Oppo plans to release 8MP front camera phone this September. A Thailand-based mobile phone manufacturer i-mobile published specs of its new IQ X and IQ XA smartphones featuring 8MP front cameras (Engadget).
Another Chinese manufacturer, Zopo, announces C2 phone with 5MP front camera (Engadget). Other phones with 5MP front cameras include Spice Stellar Mi-535, ThL W8+, and more.
This may be a new trend or just a number of isolated events, time will tell. At least, 2012 Camera Phone Trends presentation by 6Sight does not predict any resolution race with front cameras.
"Ladies are said to be using the front camera as a pocket mirror."
ReplyDeleteLOL...Did they know they may be appearing better than they are??
My girl friend is ugly on 5MP
ReplyDeleteI think it could become a trend for brands, like Oppo, to get a leg up on the spec sheet. Anything beyond 1080p is unless until we get mobile data rate of gigabit Ethernet. People could use them for self portrait but you could easily flip the phone and use the rear cam. Just need a small mirror like is old Palm Treos. And the display is now peaked at 1080p anyway so packing more pixels wont give you too much boast. In fact, it might get less useful in low light. The trend should be 1080p sensors with bigger pixels for better low light video conferencing.
ReplyDeleteThe yet to be released Motorola X phone is romored to have a 5MP front camera. It is also rumored to have eye tracking (not just eye detection like the latest Samsung phone). I was wondering if the additional resolution might be required for the eye tracking algorithms. Does anyone have any thoughts on that?
ReplyDeleteFront facing cameras need dynamic range more than back cameras. Front cameras are always looking up at lights, the sun, and so on. The user is always backlit. Higher resolution might be good for eye tracking, but problems like lens flare and backlighting make it quite hard. An HDR sensor might be a better choice.
ReplyDelete