AppRaisin App Pick of the Week: Vinci for Windows Phones

Folks, this one is special. If you’re a Windows phone user and you care at all about photography, be sure to check out the free app Vinci. It’s basically Prisma, but on Windows and with better performance.

Note: AppRaisin is a social Windows app news service where a Windows enthusiasts decide which app and game news deserve to get the most attention from the wider community. AppRaisin is a product of AdDuplex, a leading cross-promotion network for Windows apps. You can download AppRaisin from the Windows Store.

Prisma appeared on Android and iPhone while I was in Paris last month, so I wasn’t able to use it for an app pick on Windows Weekly. But it’s really impressive, allowing you to transform your photos into works of art with various styles.

But Prisma has two downsides. First, it’s pretty slow, though performance has improved since the initial release. And two, it’s only available on Android and iPhone, but not Windows phones.

As is often the case, a third party has shown up to offer Windows phone users a look-alike app, in this case called Vinci (as in “Da Vinci”). Fortunately—and this is not always the case—it’s excellent. It works almost exactly like Prisma, and it offers much better performance. Much better.

It’s not perfect, no app is. You’re stuck with square photos, so cropping will occur whether you want that or not. And like Prisma, you’re stuck with a watermark identifying the app you use. (Update: Actually, you can remove the watermark.)

Still, pretty amazing. And absolutely worth checking out.

And the resulting shots … impressive.

Vinci is free for Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile.