Selfie lovers might remember, and are likely still using, the Meitu app, which went viral earlier this year for its capability of transforming selfies of real people into anime characters.
The company behind the app is back in the headlines with the release of the Meitu T8, a smartphone that might be the dream device for selfie lovers all over the world.
Meitu T8: Specs And Features
The Meitu T8 is an Android-powered 5.2-inch smartphone with a non-traditional hexagonal design, similar to the Meitu M6 smartphone that was released in June of last year. The Meitu T8 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but with the company's custom MeiOS skin overlaid that offers users features including private home screens and albums. Additionally, the smartphone is powered by a deca-core MediaTek Helio X MT6797 processor that is clocked at 2.3 GHz, with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage.
The major selling point of the Meitu T8, also similar to the Meitu M6, is that it is a selfie-focused smartphone. The front-facing camera of the device features dual-pixel phase detection autofocus and optical image stabilization, which are seen in the cameras of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom but rarely found in selfie cameras.
In addition to the powerful selfie camera, the Meitu T8, dubbed as "the world's smartest selfie phone," contains an improved version of its beautification app. Named AI Beautification, the artificial intelligence-powered software detects the user's skin tone, age, and gender, and then applies several beautification techniques. The software is capable of running even in group selfies, with different beautification techniques applied for each face in the photo, and is powerful enough to work in real-time while taking videos.
Things that the software can do include whitening teeth, removing eyebags, smoothening the skin and making it more radiant, and applying filters.
Meitu T8 In The United States?
The Meitu T8, which has been released in China, is not the first selfie smartphone to come out of the country, as both Oppo and Lenovo last year released devices with powerful front-facing cameras. However, according to Meitu, its latest smartphone is the first smartphone that is capable of DSLR-level performance and picture quality through its selfie camera.
The Meitu T8 can now be purchased through the company's official website for 3,299 Chines yuan, which is equivalent to around $479. However, there is no word on whether the Meitu T8 will be finding its way to the United States, which is typical of devices that are first released in China.
While waiting for word on when the Meitu T8 will arrive in the United States, or while figuring out a way to be able to purchase the selfie smartphone, users might have to be content with the Meitu app.
The improvements found in the Meitu T8's AI Beautification feature, particularly in gender and age detection that makes the applied beautification techniques look much better, might not be able to find its way into the Meitu app though. In addition, users may already be wary of using the Meitu app due to claims that it compromise user privacy, an allegation that the company has denied.
