Your phone probably has a pretty good front-facing camera, but the one on the back is the superior option. It’s where the bigger sensor goes, the better glass, and in general just better technology overall.
Clearer, sharper, and better quality, if you plan on doing any work from selfies, be it selfies with friends or content for social, you should be using that back camera. The problem is there’s no screen back there, so you need to guess.
Foldable phones provide a bit of an option these days, what with a foldable screen, but with the exception of foldable flip phones like the Moto Razr and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip range, it’s also not one that sits in the direct path of the camera.
Most phones don’t have a screen in the back. That means you’re probably going to have to guess.
Insta360 has been working on a clever solution that makes sense, though does feel very much like a #firstworldproblem: a screen you can snap to the back of your phone, complete with a ring light around it.
Called the Insta360 Snap, it is literally a 3.5 inch screen with a ring light designed to work with camera apps that also happens to be a touchscreen.
You’ll be able to make setting adjustments from that selfie screen, with magnets holding the screen to the back of a Qi2 or MagSafe phone, which is pretty much the entire current iPhone range, plus the Google Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro XL, plus a few others. The screen won’t be powered by the magnets — it simply holds in place — using USB-C instead to power the screen, going from your phone’s battery.
The lit version has also been worked on with another company specialising in beauty technology, Amiro, with three colours and five brightness levels to allow you to tweak how your face looks using the ring, and seeing it on the screen.
“With Insta360 Snap, we set out to solve a simple problem that every creator knows: your phone’s best camera is on the back, but you can’t see yourself while using it,” said JK Liu, Founder of Insta360.
“By turning your smartphone into a powerful, creator-ready selfie system, we are helping creators and vloggers capture sharper, better-lit content anytime, anywhere, without changing the way they already like to shoot,” he said.
The Insta360 Snap isn’t necessarily inexpensive, but will come in two options, basically giving you the screen for $140 in Australia, or the option with the ring light for $155, basically $15 more. Both are available in Australia now, found on Amazon and Insta360’s online store.