Vivo V20 Pro Review: Affordable 5G phone with a stunning design
Vivo V20 Pro is the slimmest 5G smartphone available in India right now. But should you but it? Let's find out.
Vivo V20 was recently launched in India, as a company's effort to target the mid-range smartphone market with a premium-looking and good performing smartphone. However, we had some complaints, mainly the missing 5G support. Vivo has heard the people and unveiled the Vivo V20 Pro with 5G and many other exciting features.
The Vivo V series has always strived towards a perfect balance of looks, features and price. As a part of the highlights, the phone gets a slim design and dual selfie cameras. But, is that enough? Let’s find out.
Vivo V20 Pro Review: Specifications
Vivo V20 Pro sports a 6.44-inch FullHD+ AMOLED display with an aspect ratio of 20:9. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. The storage is not expandable. It runs on Android 10 based FuntouchOS 11 out of the box, However, the company made the Android 11 based FuntouchOS update available just 2 days after launch. All of this is backed by a 4,000mAh battery.
On the optics front, the V20 Pro features a triple rear camera setup including a 64-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor. Upfront, there is a 44-megapixel selfie snapper along with an 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor.
Vivo V20 Pro Review: Design and Display
Vivo V20 Pro brings a somewhat unique look to the table. The smartphone looks similar to the V20. Instead of a raindrop notch, it has a somewhat big notch in Android space to hold the dual cameras. The rear has a triple camera setup, arranged not vertically, not horizontally, but in a triangular fashion which looks great. The smartphone is glass-backed and has aluminium sides which feel great in hand.
The phone's thickness comes in at only 7.44mm, which makes it one of the thinnest phones in the segment, probably the thinnest 5G phone in India. The frosted back glass on our Midnight Jazz review unit looks classy. There is also a textured powered button which is always a nice touch. The rather large notch to accommodate the dual front camera is something to get used to. I think the people would have rather preferred a OnePlus Nord/Galaxy S10+ style display cutout, but it's not a big deal.
As for the placements, V20 Pro sports a USB Type-C port on the bottom edge surrounded by the speaker grille and the primary microphone and sim card tray. The right edge houses the power button and the volume rockers. On the left edge, there is nothing. The top edge of the phone is left clean apart from the secondary microphone. Unlike the V20 this doesn't have the 3.5 mm headphone jack. While I have fully embraced the wireless earphones world, it is still sad to see the headphone jack go.
Coming back to the display, it is a 6.44-inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 2400x1080 pixels. The AMOLED display offers deep black and rich colours, which is great for watching content on the go. The display is HDR 10 compliant and gets pretty bright for outdoor reading. The 90Hz refresh rate would have been better, but 60Hz is also good. Devices like the Poco X2 offer 120Hz but with IPS LCD which you can consider if you are more into gaming and don’t mind trading off-screen quality for that higher refresh rate. You can also consider the OnePlus Nord with 90Hz AMOLED display and a display cutout instead of notch.
Vivo V20 Pro Review: Performance, Software and UI
Vivo V20 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. With the phone being priced around Rs. 30,000, the Snapdragon 765G is a decent processor. During the review period, I installed multiple social media apps on the phone and did not notice much of performance issues. During long gaming sessions or heavy gaming even for a short while, i didn’t notice much lag.
The 60Hz refresh rate makes it feel like a slow phone if you are coming from a high refresh rate phone. If you aren’t used to a high refresh rate, you won’t even notice.
The V20 Pro ran on Android 10 based Funtouch OS 11 out of the box, but it soon got the Android 11 update within a few days of the launch. Usually, these phones are somewhat slow on updates, and the company didn’t guarantee much on software updates for this phone. The user interface feels smooth. But it does bring in some features including a system-wide dark mode, a themes store and much more.
The customizations of the basic system are limitless, you can customize the animations, theme colours and much more without a theme, configuring the phone to have small unique touches that you like. Like you can change the fingerprint animation, face recognition animation, charging animation, and much more. The Funtouch OS is a bit heavy on the CPU side, but the 765G takes good care of it. Overall, the software experience is good, way better than Android 10 based Funtouch OS.
Vivo V20 Pro Review: Cameras
Vivo V20 Pro sports a triple-camera setup at the back. The setup comprises a 64-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor. The focus of the camera is a 44-megapixel selfie shooter along with an 8-megapixel wide-angle selfie shooter. The smartphone also gets Portrait Mode, Night Mode, Time-Lapse, Slo-Mo and other features.
The camera app is straightforward and offers a good amount of features. The sensor can be changed easily, which is a plus point. The 8-megapixel ultrawide sensor can also help you take macro shots, which are nice.
During our tests, the V20 Pro managed to click some decent shots. In daylight, you get a surprisingly natural shot, with nice colours, good contrast, and a well-balanced exposure. The story was a bit different indoors. Due to the absence of a depth sensor, the 64-megapixel portrait shots weren’t good indoors. The low light performance is not that great also.
The front 44-megapixel camera with eye focusing technology as the company calls it is a hit of a miss. The photo quality is great, but i do not see any benefit of the eye focusing technology. The addition of the 8-megapixel ultrawide front camera is a welcome addition.
Vivo V20 Pro Review: Battery
The battery segment is where the V20 Pro manages to outshine among its competition. The handset comes with a respectable 4,000mAh battery. During my time with the device, light to medium usage got more than a day of usage. Even with heavy usage, the phone lasted around a day which is really nice. This makes it a great smartphone for people who travel a lot or watch a lot of movies on their smartphone, especially with the AMOLED display.
With the battery being so huge, the charging speeds take a hit. The smartphone does come with a 33-watt fast charger in the box. But even with that, the device takes less than an hour to fully charge the massive battery which is really good. I don’t know what the effect will be when it's running on 5G. As there is no 5G support in India yet, I would like to wait and see how it affects the battery life of this smartphone.
Vivo V20 Pro Review: Verdict
The Vivo V20 Pro costs Rs. 29,990 for the 8GB RAM variant and 128GB storage variant. For the price, it offers great design, along with good performance and a great battery. It also boasts an impressive camera setup. The support for 5G future proofs the phone. Overall, it is a good package.
With the competition being stiff in this price range, with the OnePlus Nord, Pixel 4a, Galaxy M51 and even the Vivo V20 all being under this price range, the company needs to offer something unique to stand out in a sea of look-alikes. OnePlus Nord comes in at the same price with a higher refresh rate display, whereas the Pixel 4a manages to offer superior cameras.
However, the Vivo V20 Pro still manages to shine with an aspect of being one of the slimmest 5G smartphones available in India.