Mobile cameras evolve for the young generation

Chinese smartphone companies such as Vivo Mobile Communication Technology and Oppo Electronics Corp are making new gadgets that can beautify images of women in a convenient way.

Their smartphones come with front-facing cameras that can click professional-grade selfies, and are becoming popular among young girls and even boys.

Chinese companies account for seven of the top 10 spots for best selfie smartphones in 2017, compiled by the technology website GSMArena.

Their high-resolution cameras can capture tons of details, setting them apart from their competitors.

The V7 Plus, a handset from Vivo, boasts a whopping 24-megapixel front camera, roughly three times as powerful as the Samsung Galaxy's selfie pixel specs.

More importantly, it can deliver special effects like changing the color of the sky, GSMArena said in a review. It retails for $300 in overseas markets.

Oppo's R11, starting from 3,199 yuan ($505), also comes with a high-resolution 20MP sensor and a portrait mode that can highlight users' face while blurring backgrounds with some level of proficiency.

Hunan province collegian Huang Miao, 19, said she chose Vivo for two of her recent smartphones. "Their chips are not the latest and the prices are higher than Xiaomi's smartphones, but Vivo is still my favorite handset brand, because it always captures the best of me."

Superior selfie cameras have helped Oppo and Vivo expand their user bases in China. They have emerged from little-known brands to the second-and third-largest players in the market in just two years.

In 2017, Oppo sold more than 77.56 million smartphones in China, while Vivo sold 72.23 million, according to data from GFK, a market researcher.

Meantime, the selfie craze has spread to Africa. The continent is considered one of the most promising mobile markets in the world. Transsion Holdings Ltd, a Shenzhen-based smartphone maker, has come up with several ideas to help local people get their best selfies.

Owing to dark skin, Africans had been facing trouble in clicking clear selfies with conventional smartphones. "So, we decided to locate consumers' faces by focusing on their teeth and eyes. And we have also performed data analysis on their face shapes, colors and their preferences of photo effects to decide how much extra light exposure is needed to lighten up their photos," said Stephen Ha, general manager of Tecno, a smartphone brand of Transsion in Africa.