Fast Five: Top Selfie Smartphones

Doesn’t it feel great when we take great photos from the phone’s front camera, too? In this week’s Fast Five, we take a look at some of the best front camera-centric smartphones for those who keep a page of their life with one selfie at a time.

Why wouldn’t you get one if you love taking shots from the front camera? Aside from a better resolution, these smartphones offer a lot of unique features that can be useful (and sometimes gimmicky), especially for those who can’t resist taking pictures of themselves. Here are five of them, in no particular order.

Asus Zenfone Selfie

Among the plethora of Zenfone variants the Taiwanese company released this year comes this camera-centric smartphone carrying the Selfie moniker. Besides the laser autofocus at its rear camera, ASUS has bolstered the front camera by upgrading it to 13MP with a dual-tone flash for all the selfie lovers. Check out our review here.

ASUS Zenfone Selfie (ZD551KL) specs:
5.5-inch full HD IPS display @ 1920 x 1080 resolution, 403ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor
Adreno 405 GPU
3GB LPDDR3 RAM
32GB internal storage
Expandable up to 64GB via microSD
13MP rear camera with dual-tone flash with laser auto-focus
13MP front camera with dual-tone flash, 88-degree wide-angle lens, and f/2.2 aperture
3G, 4G FDD-LTE
Dual-SIM, Dual standby
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.0
Android 5.0 Lollipop
3,000mAh Li-Po battery
170 grams (weight)

Lenovo Vibe S1

Among the new releases from Lenovo is the Vibe S1, a sleek premium smartphone laden with not just one but two front cameras for analyzing depth of field, which rocks when you want to blur out your background and put the focus all to your face. Check out our Hands-on and First Impressions here.

Lenovo Vibe S1 specs:
5-inch Full HD IPS display, 441ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
1.7GHz 64-bit MediaTek MT6752 Octa-core CPU
3GB RAM
32GB internal storage
up to 128GB via microSD (uses SIM 2)
13MP rear camera w/ dual-tone flash
8MP + 2MP front cameras
Dual-SIM
4G LTE, 3G HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, A-GPS
FM Radio
2,500mAh battery
Android 5.0 Lollipop w/ Vibe UI
143.3 x 70.8 x 7.8mm
132g

HTC Desire Eye

HTC is known to produce aesthetically-pleasing devices, and the 13-megapixel front camera-laden Desire Eye is no exception. Too bad, this one isn’t available in the country, but there are a few online stores carrying it locally. Check out our review here.

HTC Desire Eye specs:
5.15-inch Super LCD3 display @ 1920 x 1080, 428ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Qualcomm MSM8974AB Snapdragon 801 quad-core CPU
Adreno 330 GPU
2GB RAM
16GB internal memory
Up to 128GB via microSD
LTE 150Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band
WiFi Direct, DLNA
Bluetooth 4.0 A2DP, apt-X
GPS with aGPS support
NFC
FM Radio with RDS
13.1MP AF rear camera, f2.0, dual LED, dual tone flash
13.1MP front-facing camera, f2.2, dual LED, dual tone flash
IPX7-certified, dust-proof, water-resistant
Boom Sound
IP67 Rating
Li-Po 2,400mAh battery
Android 4.4.4 KitKat with HTC Sense UI 6.0
151.7 x 73.8 x 8.5mm (dimensions)
154 grams (weight)

LG V10

If one front camera angle isn’t enough, how about two? LG’s newest camera phone simply called the V10 features a front camera with dual lens — one that cater both for self-appreciation, and another for times you need a group photo. It’s a monster phone in the making, and it has one of the priciest smartphone tags to boot at Php37,990USD 647INR 54,880EUR 617CNY 4,715. Read more on our review here.

LG V10 specifications:
5.7-inch QHD IPS Quantum Display @ 2560 x 1440 resolution, 513ppi
2.1-inch IPS Quantum Display @ 1040 x 160
Corning Gorilla Glass 4
1.82GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 Processor
Adreno 418 GPU
4GB LPDDR3 RAM
64GB eMMC expandable via microSD (up to 2TB)
16MP rear camera w/ OIS, Laser AF
5MP front camera w/ Dual Lens (80-deg Standard Angle / 120-deg Wide Angle)
LTE-A Cat. 6
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.1, A2DP, LE, apt-X
NFC
microUSB 2.0
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
Hi-Fi audio
Fingerprint scanner
3,000mAh Li-Ion
Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
159.6 x 79.3 x 8.6 mm
192 g

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra

Rounding up our list is the latest smartphone from Sony’s selfie-centric C series. Released last September locally, the Xperia C5 Ultra is an attractive mid-ranger with a 13-megapixel front camera, not to mention the thin side bezels this beauty has. Read more on our review here.

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra specifications:
6-inch IPS LCD (1080 x 1920 pixels), 367ppi
1.7GHz MediaTek MT6752 octa-core processor
Mali-T760 MP2 GPU
2GB RAM
16GB internal storage, up to 200GB via microSD
13-megapixel rear camera w/ LED flash, 1080p@30fps
13-megapixel front camera w/ LED flash, 1080p@30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.1 w/ A2DP
GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS
FM radio w/ RDS
HSPA / LTE
2,930mAh Li-ion battery
Android 5.0 Lollipop
164.2 x 79.6 x 8.2mm
187g

That’s it for some of the top selfie-centric smartphones you can find today. Lots of other selfie-centric smartphones are out on the market such as the MyPhone Rio Pixie and the Cherry Mobile Selfie, so we’d like you to pitch in on other selfie smartphone suggestions too! Drop those at the comment box below.