Vivo is known for very good smartphones for selfies and great audio experience. I have been following brand Vivo since their debut in India and have reviewed almost all their smartphones and to be frank these phones have never disappointed me or to those who have bought it on my reccomendations, which are good in numbers. I have never heard any adverse report of any Vivo smartphone from my closed group which speaks volumes about the performance of Vivo phones. Vivo V series has achived great success in the Indian market and now Vivo has come out with Nex series which I am sure will do wonders for the company in the coming months! Why I say so? Because I have been using Vivo Nex for quite sometimes now and have been impressed with its path breaking innovations and overall performance.
Vivo Nex is the first smartphone to sport an ultraview display without notch and comes with improved in-display fingerprint scanner which was introduced first by Vivo on VX 21 smartphone. The Nex has pop up selfie camera and is packed with top notch hardware- Snapdragon 845 processor and 4000mAh battery. With all innovative features and powerpacked hardware, does this phone justify its price and whether it is worth buying? Let me share my experience and opinion below after using it for almost three weeks now.
Earlier, Vivo V series of phones were highly influenced by iPhone in design but this time, Vivo has shed that path and the Nex has been designed by Vivo without any influence of other device. This phone is made of glass and metal and its back has patterened curved glass which gives rainbow-like reflection when seen from different angles and renders it glamorous look. Surprisingly the phone is not slippery and also does not attract much fingerprints which is huge advantage as you would not be required to clean the back panel quite often if you are not using the back cover. At the top left side of the phone on the back, vertical dual-camera setup is given along with a flash. Nex branding has been given in the upper half of back panel.
Front of this phone is more captivating for its large screen with almost negligible bezels at the bottom. Courtesy the hidden front camera, the screen will attract you the moment you hold this phone. The pop up front camera which remains hidden has been placed on the left side of the phone on the top and this is one of the USP of this phone which adds to the beauty of this phone. We will discuss the feature of pop up camera in the camera section. On the top of the phone there is 3.5 mm headphone and charging-cum-data transfer USB type-C port is at the bottom alongwith Dual SIM tray. On the right side of the phone, you will find power key and volume rocker keys and on the left side is dedicated button for Jovi Assistant for support for Google Assistance and Google Lens.This phone runs on Funtouch OS 4.0 based on Android 8.1 Oreo and it is not cluttered OS as we have experienced in other devices such as of Asus to name a few.
This is flagship phone from the house of Vivo and defintely looks different from the crowd when you flash it especially with its elevating camera.
Display
Vivo Nex sports a 6.59 inch (2316×1080 pixels) Full HD+ Super AMOLED display with an aspect ratio of 19.3:9. This phone does not have notch design and display is having 91.24 percent screen-to-body ratio with tiny bezels on all sides including bottom. Since front camera is hidden therefore the display looks stunning and you will get mesmerizing experience when you consume multi media content on this or play games. Display is very vibrant and produces life like colors; sun view visibility and from all angles is very good.
Peformance
This phone is packed with top of the range 2.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 845,64-bit 10nm SoC with Adreno 630 GPU and mated with 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. During my usage, the phone works like a breeze; switching between the app is very smooth; you can play graphics intense games without any lag or without any issue of heating. This phone gets its juice from 4000mAh battery with fast charge which takes approximately 80 minutes to charge from zero to full and lasts for eight to ten hours even if you are heavy users of the phone. This is the first smartphone to incorporate Screen SoundCasting Technology which turns the screen into the speaker and the sound quality remains good when you are listening to your favourite music.
In-display fingerprint scanner
Vivo Nex incorporates improved in-display fingerprint scanner which was introduced first by Vivo on their Vivo VX21 smartphone. The scanner works most of the time and you will have to touch it gently on the display to unlock the phone.
Front Elevating camera and Rear cameras
One of the eye-catching feature of Vivo Nex is its pop-up camera on the front which is mounted on micro-stepper motor which enables it to pop up precisely the moment you presss the front camera icon. According to Vivo, this mechanism of front camera can be raised and lowered up to 50,000 times. I have been using this camera for almost three weeks now and it comes out from the hidden spot on the top in split second. This camera has an 8MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture and comes with various features such as Face Beauty and AR Stickers to play with your selfies. It produces good quality selfies for sharing on social media.
On the back, this phone is armed with two cameras – 12MP primary camera with Dual-core pixel, dual-tone LED flash, Sony IMX363 sensor, 4-axis OIS, f/1.8 aperture and secondary 5MP camera with f/2.4 aperture for providing depth information. The camera has features such as Portrait Mode, Live Photos, Beauty mode and AI HDR. Vivo has always impressed me with its cameras and in this phone also, you can get photos clicked especially during the day. Bokeh effected images also come out good. Images taken on the cameras of this phone are bright with good details and contrast. Some of the photos taken on this phone are reproduced below:
Conclusion
Vivo Nex has impressed me with its ultraview display without notch, its breezing performance and long lasting battery, good front and rear cameras. This phone is little bit bulky and sometimes, single hand operation becomes difficult. It does not have face unlock feature but that is not big issue as it is not considered as safe as fingerprint sensor. This phone comes in Diamond black color and is priced Rs. 44,990. It is a best buy if you are looking for a huge display without notch, powerful battery, cameras and of course fast performing device.
