24 Hours Series

24 Hours in Shanghai

Documented through the cameras of ASUS ZenFone 5Q

Published

April 25, 2018

Chay Lazaro

Even if you’ve never been to Shanghai, you’ve most likely already seen the view of the city’s photogenic skyline from Waitan — or The Bund to foreign tourists — on your wanderlust-filled feed.

If it’s your first time in China’s cosmopolitan city, by all means go and see it. It’s definitely a must and one of the world’s most beautiful skylines. But this article will skip that and show you other things to do and see in a city that has so much more to offer.

Shared bicycles

Dockless bike rental is one of the “four great modern inventions” of China. Mobike and Ofo bikes are literally found everywhere in the country — they don’t have designated parking. If you have the respective apps and accounts set up, you can easily grab one of them on your way to your next destination, which, in my case, is brunch.

Seesaw Coffee

Find time to stop by Seesaw Coffee in the beautiful Jing’an Design Center and sample their baked goods. They don’t have cold brew but their hot tea and iced milk chocolate are really good.

The ZenFone 5Q’s wide-angle lens was made for this extremely photogenic place!

Oriental Pearl Tower

There are a lot of ways to see Shanghai, and while the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower isn’t the tallest building or the highest view deck in the city, it offers a unique perspective through this glass floor that goes all the way around the tower. Yes, walking on glass might give you the heebie-jeebies but it’s worth it, especially if you have that extra-wide-angle lens 😎

Yu Yuan

Tourists flock to Yu Yuan not just for the extensive traditional Chinese garden and the potential photo opportunities, but also for the street food, souvenirs, and shopping.

This Instagram-famous garden is huge and is one of the most crowded sights in Shanghai.

Jianbing

Wide-angle selfie at work in the old Jewish quarters while waiting for our order

I’ve been to Shanghai a couple of times before, but it’s on this trip that I finally discovered my favorite Chinese street food. Bing, also known as jianbing, is actually a street breakfast food but fillings can vary depending on where you get it.

This one from the old Jewish quarters area had fried chicken strips dipped in spicy sauce so it was a great late lunch. I honestly still dream about this bing to this day.

Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum

When most of the world closed their doors on Jewish refugees, Shanghai was one of the few cities that welcomed them. Entering Shanghai back then did not require any visas so European Jews, most of whom penniless and escapees of concentration camps, found a temporary haven in the city for almost a decade.

While they were in Shanghai, the Jewish refugees managed to live a normal life — opening businesses, offices, and even clinics.

Century Park

If you visit Shanghai in spring, make sure to include a park in your itinerary so you don’t miss out on all the trees that only bloom once a year.

Century Park in the Pudong side is one of the bigger ones that have beautiful cherry blossom and magnolia trees — perfect for those wide-angled selfies!

Nanjing East Road

When the sun goes down, walk through Nanjing East Road for more street food, shopping, and souvenirs. This pedestrian street can get a little crowded at times, but nothing spells modern China more than rows and rows of neon signs.

Charlie’s

I love restaurants with a simple proposition and Charlie’s in Nanjing Xi Lu (West Nanjing Road), is one of those. Outside the building, painted in bold letters below its logo, it says BURGER. SHAKE. TAP. If you know me well, you know I can never shake off my burger cravings. So yes, I’d tap that.

Traveling in China can be daunting especially for first-timers, but Shanghai makes it easier. It’s a hybrid of western and Chinese culture, it’s more open and modern, and relatively foreigner-friendly.

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.

This feature was produced in collaboration between GadgetMatch and ASUS.

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.