Soon after launching the Vivo V5 with 20-megapixel selfie camera, the company recently added a new member to its selfie-centric smartphone range. Called Vivo V5 Plus, the new smartphone comes with dual-selfie cameras that let you add a dash of DSLR-like bokeh effects to your selfies. I’m not a big fan of selfies, but I click them occasionally when out with friends, at parties and at functions. I had a chance to play around with the Vivo V5 Plus and take the dual-selfie cameras for a spin. After clicking some selfies in different lighting conditions, here’s my review of the dual-selfie cameras on the V5 Plus.
Before we go ahead, let’s understand a bit about the setup, how it works and what exactly it does. The dual-selfie camera setup includes one 20-megapixel sensor of aperture f/2.0 and one 8-megapixel sensor of aperture f/2.0. While the bigger sensor captures photos, the other sensor captures depth information. With the help of this depth information, you can add DSLR-like blur background effects to your photos — before and after taking them. While the f/2.0 aperture helps in capturing bright photos, the 20-megapixel resolution allows for detailed selfies. The cameras are backed with a ‘moonlight glow’ LED light, which works as a torch to lighten up the scene, allowing you to capture good selfies in daylight.
However, this is not the only smartphone to come with such a selfie setup, Lenovo’s Vibe S1 was the first ever smartphone to sport dual-selfie cameras — an 8-megapixel sensor for capturing photos, and a 2-megapixel sensor for capturing depth information. The smartphone also featured an option to cut-out photos and superimpose over a background.
Vivo V5 Plus Camera App Interface
The selfie camera app interface is pretty straightforward. On the top you have the toggle switch for front-facing LED flash, followed by HDR toggle, bokeh and camera settings. Under settings, you have option to turn on self-timer, choose aspect ratio for your photos, shutter options – touch, voice or palm gesture, and finally an option to turn geo-tagging on or off. It is probably one of the rare phones that offer HDR mode for the selfie camera, which should make your selfies look better, especially in tricky lighting situations.
At the bottom, you have quick shortcut to camera roll (gallery), shutter button, filters and a toggle to switch between front and rear cameras. Above the shutter button, you also have four slider options to switch between face beauty, photos and video modes.
Vivo V5 Dual-Selfie Camera Performance
I used the Vivo V5 Plus to click multiple photos in different lighting conditions, and unlike the Vivo V5 where the quality deteriorated indoors, the V5 Plus is a very consistent performer. The photos look very good, they are bright and very detailed. Most of the times, it is able to capture accurate skin tones with enough details. However, sometimes, I found the photos to be too bright, and slightly washing out the colors and skin tones. Even the indoor shots look good most of the times.
Now, let’s talk about the ‘Bokeh’ mode. It uses the secondary camera to capture depth, and lets you focus on the subject. You can vary the aperture between f/0.95, which adds maximum blur to the background, and f/16 which keeps everything in focus. The dual-cameras really spruce up your selfies, and those who often share photos on social media will find it very useful. It is pretty accurate in determining the depth. However, ensure that you don’t maximize the blur intensity as the photos look a little artificial. The bokeh-mode goes for a toss when there is more than one person in the frame, as you can only focus on one person, whereas the rest are blurred out, check the photo below.
Whether you’re taking photos in harsh sunlight or indoors with tricky lighting conditions, HDR helps in making your photos look good. It produces better colors than in standard mode. Photos shot with HDR mode on had a slightly warmer tone, and better color reproduction. However, HDR isn’t great for all situations. It’s better to try clicking photos in both modes and go with the one that best suits your needs. 
Under face beauty mode, you have three options – buffing, which smoothens the skin and minimizes spots, blemishes. Then you have skin tone, where you can choose from fair to rosy, and lastly whitening effect, which brightens the overall skin. While your skin loses the natural look, it adds a layer of live makeup to make you look better. 
I even used to front-facing ‘Moonlight Glow’ white LED light to capture selfies in low-light. Unlike most smartphones where it fires like a ‘flash,’ Vivo uses the LED as a torch. It pretty bright and does a good job in capturing photos in challenging lighting conditions. What’s more, the Bokeh-mode also works well in low-light most of the times. 
Final words
Overall, the Vivo V5 Plus has a very good dual-selfie cameras setup that lets you click good photos in any type of lighting conditions. It’s a treat for those obsessed with clicking selfies every now and then. That’s all from our Vivo V5 Plus dual-selfie cameras review. Stay tuned to BGR India for the full review of the Vivo V5 Plus.
[Click to see camera samples shot on the Vivo V5 Plus] 
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