Why the real star of Love Island is a phone with text appeal and an ultra-selfie mode
“I’VE got a text!” has been the summer catchphrase of any viewer caught up in Love Island, the ITV2 reality show that has somehow become a nightly commitment for London. But what phone are you getting your all-important SMS updates on? For the islanders, it’s the HTC U Play — aka the official mobile of Love Island 2017.
The handset — which on the show is disconnected from the internet to keep contestants cut off from the outside world — is the only bit of tech the villa inhabitants are allowed, and one of the few distractions they have from coupling up, “putting it on” each other, and generally gossiping about who said what.
Each contestant’s mobile is used to communicate the latest twists and surprise re-couplings from Caroline Flack and the show’s producers, while one of this year’s dumped islanders revealed there’s also an “island chat”, where they message each other about the latest juicy happenings. Gabby and Marcel even used theirs to write out snarky messages about Montana and Alex, which they showed each other in person and then hastily deleted. Keep up. Naturally, the show’s cameras picked up what they were typing and showed it on the screen anyway. Rumbled.
So what makes the HTC U Play the ideal phone for Love Island? For one thing, it’s got a “Pocket Mode”, meaning it blasts out extra-loud notifications when the phone detects it is in your pocket — perfect for noisily announcing that you’ve GOT A TEXT and gathering friends to read it out loud to them.
It’s also great for those all-important villa selfies, which the Islanders have been taking in their droves. The U Play’s “Ultra-Selfie” front-facing camera boasts an impressive 16 megapixels to get super-sharp snaps of your squad (blazin’ or otherwise). There’s also an “Ultra Pixel” mode with added light sensitivity in case you’re taking night-time selfies over a romantic candlelit dinner or in the hideaway. The main camera doesn’t shoot in 4K like the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S8 but you can still film in full 1080p HD to record your own rendition of this summer’s grimesmash-in-waiting, Little Bit Leave It (feat Kem, Chris and Marcel).
While the HTC U Play comes with a free translucent case to protect the “liquid surface” moulded glass casing, the Islanders are given personalised covers with their names in the Love Island font. Controversially, the show’s official store only sells custom phone cases for iPhone and Galaxy.
While the latest iPhone might look like 100 per cent your type on paper, next time you’re looking to change your contract, you should ask: ‘What phone would Camilla choose?’ Is it destined to bring you love the next time you fire up Tinder?
@BenSTravis