During a recent press trip for its X500 series phone launch, Vivo put a whole bunch of different photography accessories in my hands, combining them into a seriously compelling camera kit for those who want to capture shots that are all but impossible on most phones.
Strangely though, I don’t think Vivo realized how impressive one bit of the kit would be – the Camera Screen. This is basically a small wireless AMOLED display that plays really well with the Vivo X500 (or X500 Pro, or X500 Pro Max) camera app, making it a mirrored viewfinder display.
With a Qi2-style magnetic ring to secure it to compatible cases, this could be the ultimate selfie display, but it’s also a full touchscreen, which really makes it a lot more powerful than you might expect looking at it.
Put your phone on a tripod, for example, and you now have a remote that can not only simply trigger photos, but one that can switch between modes, zoom levels, focus points and much more, because you basically have the entire camera app in your hand.
It’s a brilliant little idea that’s executed almost unbelievably smoothly, and while I haven’t had that many chances to use it yet, my early experimentation has confirmed that it works quite nicely. All this over just a Bluetooth connection, too!
(Image credit: Future | Max Freeman-Mills)
It’s the kind of fun little extra that I’d like Apple to experiment with, since I’m an iPhone user when I’m not testing a device, and my MagSafe case is generally only used for night time. It would be really fun to add this kind of wireless display to my phone photography if it works on iOS.
Honestly, it’s also the sort of thing that I think would thrive on Kickstarter if a third party manages to make it work at a reasonable price, which is quite a big “if.” Vivo is launching the screen at CNY699, or about $105, which already means it’s probably a bit too expensive to be a novelty addition.
I’ve also already discovered that the AMOLED panel it uses is extremely easy to scratch, compared to the much harder glass used on phone screens today, so there are compromises to be found.
The core idea remains a really fun one though, and the execution is impressive for a first outing. This is probably the kind of experimentation that really marks out Chinese phone brands like Apple and Google right now, and I’m excited to see what else we could come up with down the line.