BKAV CEO Nguyễn Tử Quảng, nicknamed Quảng “nổ,” has gained fame for his shocking statements about his products. Recently, he once again sparked similar feelings by directly comparing the night photography capabilities of the Bphone B86 with two smartphones from “Brand A” and “Brand G.”
According to Quảng, BKAV engineers have successfully developed the night photography technology “sNight 2.0,” which will appear on the Bphone B86 as well as the new generation Bphone. To demonstrate the effectiveness of sNight 2.0, BKAV’s CEO shared a photo of the Hoàn Kiếm Lake taken with the Bphone B86 and compared it with smartphones from “Brand A” and “Brand G.” It is not difficult for us to deduce that “Brand A” refers to Apple’s iPhone, while “Brand G” refers to Google Pixel.
Through these images, Quảng asserts that the Bphone B86 with sNight 2.0 can produce better night photos compared to the other two smartphones. Better here does not necessarily mean brighter but rather “more realistic and natural.” The photos taken by the iPhone and Pixel are overly bright for night shots, while the photo from the Bphone presents a harmonious balance. According to him, this is a “extremely difficult situation to replicate”.
“The first image below is an example of how BKAV engineers used AI and computational photography to recreate the true colors of the night scene at Hoàn Kiếm Lake, despite the limited night lighting conditions. The contrast between light and dark colors in this situation is extremely difficult to replicate in a way that is true to life and natural, avoiding being too bright like during the day so that the night feels like night emotionally!”
You can see this when comparing under the same conditions, the sNight 2.0 on the B86 with the night mode photos taken on the two flagship devices from Brand A and Brand G (even though Vietnamese law has been amended to allow direct product comparisons, I still use the symbols to avoid controversy), Quảng wrote on social media.
However, the images presented by Quảng are only for reference and are difficult to use as a basis for a final decision, as there are still many important factors that BKAV has not disclosed. What are the settings of the three devices? What is the exposure time? Was there a need for support from devices like tripods?
User skepticism is entirely justified. At the launch of the Bphone B86, Quảng heavily promoted the camera of the Bphone B86, stating that “the two cameras of the Bphone B86 are equivalent to five cameras of other brands,” and “can capture moments that the human eye cannot see, which even DSLRs struggle to achieve.” However, in reality, the camera quality of the Bphone B86 is not outstanding, lacking many features such as ultra-wide-angle shooting or zoom that are common in five-camera smartphones. The night photography feature “sNight” also proves ineffective, requiring users to have a tripod to fully utilize its potential.
Currently, BKAV also “owes” users many products from last year. The two budget models Bphone B40 and Bphone B60 were first announced by BKAV in May 2020, but have yet to hit the shelves. The wireless earbuds AirB are facing a similar situation, which Quảng attributes to “facing many difficulties.” In a livestream in September 2020, Quảng stated that BKAV plans to launch another budget smartphone “by the end of this year if plans do not change,” and it seems that BKAV’s plans have changed, as users still have not had the opportunity to see this device.
Therefore, once again, the images presented by Quảng are only for reference – and we will need to verify in reality to know whether the statements of BKAV’s CEO are accurate or not.