Top 5 Budget-friendly Smartphones with Portrait Mode
Portrait mode has become tremendously popular these days and is fast becoming a staple camera feature for most flagships. After Apple introduced portrait mode in its iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X devices, it became a standard camera feature now. The best thing is, even budget smartphones are now introducing portrait modes as part of their camera offerings. We have several affordable and feature-rich smartphones offering portrait mode.
Here we have picked 5 of the budget-friendly smartphones with portrait mode feature.
1. OnePlus 5T
OnePlus as a budget smartphone brand made quite an uproar with some great phones equipped with cutting-edge features. The $499 OnePlus 5T from its predecessor introduced a new feature in the dual camera system and it is the portrait mode. Most importantly, switching between regular photo mode and portrait mode is extremely easy.
There is a small box close to where you can find the depth effect. This box just turns green at appropriate times when the portrait mode is worth using. You are also warned with a prompt when the portrait mode requires more light. When using portrait mode, you can also tap on a button to enhance the look of the portrait subject. This is done very easily just by just adjusting the brightness and by smoothing the skin.
The new portrait mode with the dual camera system of the phone seems to be a clear enhancement that delivers a more rewarding experience with the device.
2. Honor 7X
Honor 7X which is just launched as a budget smartphone with several cutting-edge features deserves instant welcome from the most value for money buyers. Donning a plush aluminium body and smooth design the phone sports two rear cameras, respectively one with 16 megapixels sensor and the other with 2 megapixels sensor. The sole purpose of the second camera is to gather and process data to deliver more depth to the images.
Huawei the mother company of Honor brand is trying to come up with an advanced dual camera equipped with all cutting-edge imaging features. The company came with a wide aperture mode allowing the users to adjust the blurring effects and opacity in captured images. Thanks to this the user can also create bokeh effects with images.
Apart from this, the phone also comes with a dedicated portrait-mode button to tweak the image with a variety of effects. Honor allows you tweaking the image by seeing it through the viewfinder before the image is captured. Honor 7X supports capturing portraits with front cameras as well.
3. Vivo V9
Vivo V9 is one of the recent budget smartphone options with a lot of value additions to the camera system. Sporting a 24MP front camera and a dual camera system comprising 16MP and 5MP sensors, it stands as one of the best choices for budget camera phones. The camera system in Vivo 9 is loaded with an array of cutting-edge features and modes including obviously portrait mode.
Vivo 9 imaging system also enjoys the boost of AI to deal with images more meaningfully. Vivo 9 not just reserved its portrait bokeh mode for the dual camera system at the rear side but it has been introduced with the front camera as well. The portrait mode for both rear and front camera lives up to the expectation with sharp and crisp image results. The only shortcoming is visible in images captured in low light conditions.
4. Oppo F7
When you need to pick up a few budget smartphones that come with cutting-edge camera capabilities and different modes of shooting crisp and sharp portrait images, Oppo F7 comes as a strong candidate. The artificial intelligence further helps to augment the depth and making the captures meticulously vivid.
Oppo F7 comes with a very capable portrait mode delivering very sharp images. You can also capture the portraits while choosing the vivid mode to deliver more detailed effects with colours and details. This phone also allows you shoot in HDR mode by default. All these come packed in a smartphone with an affordable price tag.
5. Lenovo K8 Note
Lenovo K8 dual camera system offers equipped with a 13-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel secondary camera for adding depth looks quite formidable. The smartphone offers portrait mode captures and the secondary rear camera also adds enough depth to give your captures an in-depth bokeh effect. One of the biggest value additions with this camera is the dedicated photo editor app offered by Lenovo to adjust colour, background and contrast for augmenting the image.
Our verdict
While portrait mode is a value-addition to the modern smartphone camera, we suggest not compromising on other camera features and sensor quality. Making a balanced choice with all-around camera capabilities is easier with so many options in front of you.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joined in December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.