My food has never looked so good. Well not in a smartphone photo anyway…
The new-gen smartphones are really cameras and media capture devices first. Bloggers and influencers need a decent camera on their phone and hey, what’s better than a Leica lens? That’s the thinking behind the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, which launched last week. Featuring the Leica dual lens for better low light images and bokeh effects, and artificial intelligence (or ‘AI’ in tech speak), they act like the eyes and brain for your phone. The launch campaign entitled ‘I Am What I Do’ showcases how AI technology can enrich people’s lives and help them do great and life enhancing things.
The launch dinner doubled as an opportunity for a reminisce in which Liberty London Girl, Fashion Foie Gras, Fashionista Barbie, I am NRC and I got misty-eyed about the pre-smartphone era of blogging 1.0. Back then, I used a credit card sized camera for my photos and we never put pictures of ourselves on our sites. (Certainly not from a clunky old Blackberry.) Today however, phones have matured into extremely sophisticated phablets and Chinese tech company Huawei – pronounced ‘wah-way’ if you were wondering – is muscling in on market share. With its easy pro settings for superior shots, Huawei sees its Mate 10 Pro as a potential replacement for the DSLR.
I’m the first person to hold up my hand and admit I’m still learning with phone cameras. I usually find the multitude of settings overwhelming and tend to rely on retouching apps after the event. This is especially true of food photography. To be honest, I don’t even really bother as restaurant lighting is notoriously dark and the usual advice to ‘get near a window’ just isn’t realistic.
However, that’s all changed with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. It uses artificial intelligence to identify your subject, so whether that’s food, flowers or moving figures, it will adjust the settings for the best results. As Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei’s mobile device division says, “your phone’s camera can be like your eyes, recognising objects and understanding them.” In low light that means it will automatically choose the best aperture, ISO and shutter speed settings and there’s even an instant ‘bokeh’ button to blur the background for that extra lush shallow depth of field effect. This is also good for outfit posts shot in outdoor locations.
Other blogger-friendly features to note; the SuperCharge battery that promises a whole day’s power from a 20-minute charge – ideal for excessive Insta Stories users. And the Beauty setting in stills and video is also super-easy to access and gives you extra retouching tools without having to scroll through endless menus.
Only five years ago, no one knew who Huawei were, “even in China!”, joked Yu last year. Now, the brand expects to overtake the likes of Samsung and Apple by 2021. Could the Huawei Mate 10 Pro be the device that tips the balance?
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*This is a sponsored collaboration in partnership with Huawei*
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl/Navaz Batliwalla
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