24 Hours Series

24 Hours in Singapore with the Samsung Galaxy J2 Prime

Published

April 2, 2017

Michael Sy

A trip to Singapore is always a yes in my book. It’s a first-world country right in the heart of Southeast Asia and there’s nothing quite like its culture. I recently had the chance to travel there for a three-day, two-night stay and needless to say, it really was an adventure.

I brought the Samsung Galaxy J2 Prime with me over that weekend. While in most cases, it probably wouldn’t be the first phone that people would think of bringing for photos on their trip, but I’m always up for a challenge. I decided to put the J2 Prime through its paces and the results may surprise you.

Arriving in Changi Airport, Singapore’s primary landing spot, it’s not surprising to see how it’s been dubbed as the world’s best airport. It’s expansive, comfortable, and the architecture isn’t there just for show.

In this light, as long as the subjects aren’t moving very fast, shots come out surprisingly sharp and colors accurate

HDR mode isn’t available, so in a photo like this, it’s either you choose to blow out the highlights or sink the shadows; in most cases, I go with the latter.

I stayed at the Pan Pacific, a five-star hotel with a great view of the Marina Bay, a premier district in Singapore.

In this view from my hallway, I could see all the floors below me up till the lobby.

While the restaurant provided great food, it didn’t exactly have great light to shoot food in. The J2 Prime struggled in low light more than I would have liked.

The selfie camera also suffered in low-light conditions, and I had to make sure to turn beautification all the way down — I’ve personally never been a fan of the feature.

Taxis are lined up just outside the hotel. Cars in Singapore never seem outdated, and that goes for the taxis, as well.

The Marina Bay Sands is one of the most popular hotels in Singapore, with the iconic skydeck shaped like a boat and an infinity pool that towers over the city. This is the view from my room.

Food shots look great if you have steady hands and good enough lighting. Just be careful how close you get; the J2 Prime has trouble focusing on close objects.

Iʻm starting to think shots of landscapes and architecture are one of the strong points of this budget phoneʻs camera.

Hereʻs a selfie with better lighting! Look at all those smiles.

Here are some more landscape shots to fawn at.

One gripe I have with these landscape shots, though, is that all of them seem to have a harsh blue tint applied to them. Here’s another shot I think looks great, but I wouldn’t want this blue shade in all my photos.

A close-up shot of an intricate design in a dimly lit scenario, definitely its two weakest points.

I don’t know what it is about hotel food that just makes me want more. Good thing a few of my meals came in buffets.

Walking and cycling around the streets of Singapore never feels dangerous. As long as you follow everybody else’s lead on when to cross, you’ll never run into any problems.

Just look at that skyline. Breathtaking.

I didn’t know I had a tour guide, but this lady was kind enough to point out Singapore’s iconic mascot the Merlion for me.

Here we see a dashing young man in his suit. The suit is color black and shirt dark blue; we could say the J2 Prime had trouble processing the colors here.

Singapore may not be Dubai when it comes to cars, but they sure are good enough to impress me.

Eating dirty, this resto is on the outskirts of the busy Marina Bay district. It took us roughly 30 to 40 minutes on a bus ride to get here. I was very happy to see the more suburban side of Singapore.

Sometimes, I get these pretty good shots with hardly any light. I guess it really does come down to how steady you can keep your hands from shaking in situations like these.

Missed my breakfast buffet before the flight, but 7-Eleven continues to save the day even while I’m abroad.

And just like that, I’m back at Changi Airport. While I couldn’t document every part of my trip, I had a blast, and the J2 Prime surprisingly lasted me throughout the three days on a single charge. Of course, that only involved the occasional camera use and nothing more, but that’s still impressive standby time.

Singapore has and will always have a place in my heart. It’s a gorgeous city that fits right in any modern man’s lifestyle, and I just can’t wait to go back. While the J2 Prime didn’t give me any award-winning photos, it certainly gave me pictures good enough to be memories, and for the price of PhP 5,990 ($120), that might just be enough.

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.

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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.