The Vivo V20 is here

Smartphone brands’ push to be recognised has hinged on their camera offerings. Vivo’s been upping its game not just on the main snappers, but — most importantly, for the selfie crowd — also up-front. The Vivo V20 is the company’s latest offering to just do that.

The Look: Standard fare here: The V20 has a nice, sleek look, with curved corners and a metallic-looking frame; we’re saying that because while it’s made of plastic, it gives a good feel. Ditto for its rear; we have the Sunset Melody shade that has a 3D-colour effect. It is neither light nor heavy. It has a 6.44-inch screen that’s bright, but we personally find it a tad overwhelming. At maximum level, it could be more than certain sets of eyes can handle, not to mention its role in eating up more battery life. We also found its bezels to be very acceptable, and the way they roll down to the edges is also good.

Performance: The V20 is, thankfully, Android 11-powered out of the box, which obviously means you’ve got the latest OS in your hands. Of course, Vivo’s own Funtouch 11 is also sharing the show, but thankfully again, there isn’t any annoying bloatware. Navigating through it is clean and fast, with the only noticeable lags being split-second delays when apps load. Otherwise, transitioning between processes wasn’t an issue at all. Below is your standard three-button virtual controls, which can, as usual, be swapped for button-less controls ala-iPhone. You’ve also got iManager, which, among other things, manages the device’s health, tracks for viruses and keeps an eye on optimising the phone overall.

The Good Stuff: We’ve got a professional-looking snapper block adorning the V20. Its camera setup isn’t headlined by that block; instead, it’s led by the 44MP selfie camera powered by what it calls Eye Autofocus. As such, the main camera has 64MP wide-angle, 8MP macro and 2MP mono lenses, which we put to work: Indoor shots give an actual view of the subjects, with lighting kept natural. Close-ups can either be good or you might have to struggle a bit in focusing on certain subjects. Night shots are also good. It also has a good selfie camera, with very good detail. The only thing is that you’d have to keep still for a couple of seconds for the camera to process shots taken on night mode. Meanwhile, when it comes to power, our standard one-hour YouTube-at-full-brightness test showed that the V20 lost just nine per cent, pretty much in line with a number of flagships.

The Vivo V20 is a very good phone, despite those ‘downgrades’. As we’ve said, specs can sometimes be deceiving. The cameras are its top selling point and it’s good in our book. Everything else — from looks to performance — gets our nod for it to be a mid-ranger to be seriously considered. We’re a bit disappointed, however, on the smaller battery, which Vivo could’ve improved. That cancelled out, however, with the quick-service charging it provides — so long as you always have its charging brick with you. In theory, the misses merit a higher price, but if you’re on a budget, go right ahead.

alvin@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai