Selfies at night: five smartphones with front-facing LED flash
For years, smartphone makers have ignored the front-facing camera, relegating it to a side kick for the primary camera on the back. However, as the selfie trend took unanticipated proportions over the past couple of years, some manufacturers were fast to respond faced with the new but emerging niche of selfie takers.
Today, we now often see new smartphones offering selfie cameras with high-resolution sensors mounted on the front, wide-camera angles, and often, even a front-facing LED flash. Wondering which are the smartphones that let you take selfies at night or in poorly illuminated conditions? Check these five smartphones with front-facing LED flash.
HTC Desire Eye
The HTC Desire Eye is probably the best smartphone that selfie takers can currently purchase. The front-facing camera is a 13MP sensor with a 22mm lens, an F2.2 aperture, and a dual LED flash. As far as selfie quality is concerned, the Desire Eye is the smartphone to beat at the moment, although the handset also comes with good specs all around.
The display is a 5.2-inch IPS panel running a resolution of 1080 by 1920 pixels. Under the hood beats the heart of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, a chip that offers a 2.3GHz quad-core Krait 400 processor and an Adreno 330 GPU. Other specs include 2GB of RAM, 16GB of microSD-expandable integrated storage space, a 13MP primary camera, and a 2400 mAh battery. Find out more about the handset in our detailed HTC Desire Eye review.
Sony Xperia C4
Although not a direct competitor to the HTC Desire Eye, the Sony Xperia C4 is a also a decent selfie-centric smartphone coming from one of the world's major smartphone manufacturers. The front-facing Sony Exmor R sensor has a resolution of 5MP, but the camera also comes with a wide-angle 25mm lens as well as a front-facing LED flash.
The meat of the specs include a 5.5-inch display running at a resolution of 1080 by 1920 pixels, a Mediatek MT6752 - a chip that features an octa-core 1.7 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and a Mali-T760MP2 GPU - paired with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, a 13MP primary camera, and a 2600 mAh battery.
BLU Selfie
The BLU Selfie is actually a rebranded Asian smartphone that has made its way across the globe under multiple other names. In India, the handset is known as the Micromax Canvas Selfie, while in China it is retailed as the Meitu M4. These handsets come with a 13MP secondary shooter on the front with LED flash.
Retailing at $249 unlocked, the BLU Selfie comes with more affordable specs, such as a 4.7-inch display with a resolution of 720 by 1280 pixels (HD), a 1.7 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6592 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, and a 2300mAh battery.
Acer Liquid E3
The three smartphones listed above all come with high-resolution secondary sensors, but the Acer Liquid E3 comes with a front-facing LED flash that serves a 2MP secondary camera.
The entry-level Acer Liquid E3 did not make it to the United States through official channels, being largely limited to the European market. Its specs include a 4.7-inch display with a resolution of 720 by 1280 pixels, a 1.2GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6589 processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage space, a microSD card slot, and a 13MP primary camera. Learn more about this entry-level smartphone from our Acer Liquid E3 hands-on.
Oppo N1
The Oppo N1 doesn't actually come with a front-facing camera in the traditional sense, but the smartphone has a unique swivel mechanism that allows the user to rotate the main camera. Basically, the 13MP primary camera with a wide f/2.0 aperture can be used as both the primary and the secondary camera. The flash actually performs a really nice trick, reducing the intensity when the camera is used as a front-facing shooter.
The Oppo N1 was released back in 2013, and it's the oldest smartphone in this list. The handset features a 5.9-inch display with a resolution of 1080 by 1920 pixels, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip (1.7 GHz quad-core Krait 300 CPU, Adreno 320 GPU), 2GB of RAM, 16GB/32GB of internal storage (no microSD card slot), and a 3610mAh battery. Find out more about the Oppo N1 in our detailed review.
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