24 Hours Series

24 hours in San Diego

Zoos, beaches, and everything in between with the Huawei Mate 10

Published

January 25, 2018

Isa Rodriguez

Huawei’s latest flagships challenge what smartphone cameras can do. Equipped with Leica lenses and AI capabilities, the Huawei Mate 10 steps up the smartphone photography game.

I decided to put its cameras to the test, a very tourist-y test!

I took the Mate 10 on my recent trip to the US (which was quite fitting as Huawei just recently launched their flagships in the region) and brought it around a quick visit to San Diego with Joshua Vergara.

Getting there

Located in Southern California, sunny San Diego is approximately 195 kilometers south of Los Angeles. This means it’s an easy two-hour drive. (All that time I spent playing with the phones’ selfie mode.)

Beauty mode, portrait mode, check!

The city, which sits on the Pacific coast and adjacent to the Mexican border, is known for its great climate, beaches, and parks.

HDR on fleek

Wilding out

Upon arriving, the first stop was the world famous San Diego Zoo, home to the Panda cams. Unfortunately, I missed the chance to take panda photos as I was too busy squealing in delight at the sight of those black and white fur-balls. I did, however, manage to take a quick snap of Joshua in the wild, with his new friend.

Joshua makes friends easily 😂

Pro tip: the cable cars will take you to the other side of the zoo and give you a pretty awesome view of the whole place from up top.

Pretend it’s a roller coaster!

A day pass will cost you around US$ 54 and a two-day pass is US$ 87. We spent the afternoon strolling around the massive zoo compound.

More HDR at work

It was almost evening when we decided to leave. Admittedly, an afternoon is not near enough time to see everything that the zoo has to offer. A whole day or two would be ideal but we were pressed for time and I got to see the pandas which is what mattered most to me. 🐼

Little Italy

The next day, we started our day with coffee at Little Italy — mainly because Joshua and I are big coffee drinkers. Also because there were so many great Instagrammable spots and Joshua was trying to be a good IG boyfriend.

I’m the true Instagram girlfriend, TBH

Like I said, San Diego has great weather conducive to photo walks. This particular area is home to many pretty coffee shops and boutique establishments. Rows of picturesque stores and quaint cafes line the streets.

So Instagram-worthy!

A latte and a choco espresso cookie shot later, we were off to explore more.

Huawei’s wide aperture setting makes for great food shots like this

Of course I needed a photo of the fountain

In San Diego, you need not go far to find the beach or a park. A quick scenic stroll eventually landed us in this pretty spot that was perfect for basking in the sun.

University of San Diego

The next stop was Joshua’s alma mater. The University of San Diego is one beautiful campus — all 180 acres of it.

See, more fountains!

It’s located in Alcalá Park which overlooks San Diego. This makes for some pretty great views!

Breathtaking view and the Mate 10’s bokeh capability

It was a walk in the park — they weren’t kidding when they said it was a nice-looking school. I also had a private walking tour from my favorite USD alumnus (pictured below 😂).

Beauty mode on the Mate 10 got us looking this fresh, even after a quick hike around USD

You’d think that at this point, I would’ve had my share of walking, as I had definitely completed the number of steps I needed in a day, but there was one last stop before this trip concluded!

Pacific Beach

Of course, you can’t leave San Diego without visiting the beach.

You can take the girl out of the beach cut you can’t take the beach out of the girl ☀️

This is Pacific beach, a popular tourist destination. The water looked so inviting but my tropical-island-beach-girl self couldn’t even fathom being in a bikini in that weather, though that certainly didn’t stop others!

Ice cream shop that matches my hair color — I should’ve taken an IG photo here #regrets

Stores, restaurants, and hotels line the boardwalk. If you choose not to swim, you definitely won’t run out of things to do here.

Dramatic shot of the boyfriend. Where’s my best IG girlfriend award?

Cheers!

San Diego is a big brewery city which means beer is almost always a good idea. We waited for the sun to set by the beach and grabbed a cold one before heading back.

I can tell you this much: It won’t be my last time visiting. See you soon, San Diego!

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.

Related Topics:Huawei Huawei Mate 10 Mate 10

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.