DUBAI: Why settle for one camera lens when you can have two?
Dual camera smartphones are becoming increasingly popular in the UAE, as consumers look for phones with the best image quality, according to retailers at Gitex Shopper 2016, which opened on Saturday.
Manufacturers are looking at new ways of enhancing mobile photography, and adding two cameras on the back of a smartphone is the latest way of doing that. LG’s G5, Huawei’s P9 and Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus are some of the dual camera phones that have entered the market this year. They have advantages that include more sensors and a larger focal length. The second lens is there to capture more detail and the two images are combined using the phone’s software to deliver the final image.
Sales of smartphones with two cameras are “doing well” in the UAE, said Nadeem Khanzadah, general manager and head of omnichannel retail at Jumbo Electronics, without giving sales figures.
Similarly, Srikant Gokhale, chief executive of consumer electronics Emax, said the company is seeing “good [sales] growth in [dual camera smartphone] segment” in the current financial year [which started July 2016].
“Consumers are changing their phones every six months, so whenever they want to change, they want to have the latest…this is a new segment and people are excited about it…people want to take advantage of new technology,” he said.
Consumers in the UAE have the money to spend on dual camera smartphones, which are on the premium end of the market, according to Khanzadah.
“Here, disposable incomes remain high…any new technology that comes in finds a lot of buyers here,” he said.
The quality of dual camera phones is “exceptional”, he said, adding that sales of the iPhone 7 Plus is “phenomenal”, without giving sales figures.
Photography “has a major impact [on] sales of mobile phones…everyone is focusing on imagery and that is a major differentiator,” added Pankaj Kumar, vice president of retailer Sharaf DG.
Dual camera smartphones are not impacting sales of mobile phones in the lower end of the market in the UAE, since these tend to be premium devices, Kumar said.
