Vivo launched its X50 Pro in July 2020 with a new camera setup. Just like the tagline “Camera & Music” says, Vivo phones have always been camera centric. Beauty modes, moonlit selfie flash and powerful night mode are some of the camera innovations found in Vivo phones.
Specifications
Camera is the central character in this phone but that doesn’t mean other characters have not been paid attention to. The Vivo X50 pro sports some top the line flagship grade specifications that makes the “Pro” tag justified.
| Key Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.56-inch AMOLED with 2376 x 1080px resolution, 398ppi; HDR10+ compliant |
| Camera | 48MP Primary camera with f/1.6 aperture and Gimbal Stabilization 8MP Ultra wide camera with 120 degrees Field of View 13MP Portrait camera with 2X Optical zoom 8MP periscope telephoto camera with 5X Optical zoom 32MP Punch Hole Front Camera with f/2.5 aperture |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G |
| RAM | 8GB |
| Storage | 128/256GB UFS 2.1 storage |
| Operating System | Funtouch 10.5 based on Android 10 |
The Vivo X50 pro is powered by a snapdragon 765G chipset which is 5G capable. The phone handles menial tasks like calling, texting and casual gaming with ease. Although the 765G is not a gaming chipset, it still can handle graphic intensive games without much trouble. The 90Hz display makes the gaming experience pleasant mostly but there are a few stutters one in a while when the game struggles to orient itself properly with the display. The 8GB of RAM available which should be enough to handle most apps and 265 GB of on device storage. The storage is not expandable. The Vivo X50 Pro has a 4315 mAh battery which can easily last for a day of medium usage. The phone also supports 33W fast charging.
Design and Form Factor
The Vivo X50 Pro is a glass metal sandwich like most other flagships. It has a curved glass display that tapers towards both sides. The glass back also had a curve design that gives it a good “in-hand” feel. The back is covered in a frosty glass which does not pick-up fingerprints and looks premium. The back also has a large camera bump that holds the quad camera setup. The Vivo logo is at the bottom left of the device. The phone is secured by a metal casing on the edges. On the front side we see a punch hole camera at the top left of the display. The display is nearly bezel free and looks beautiful. It also has an in-display fingerprint scanner. The USB Type-C port, speaker grills and sim tray are at the bottom of the device. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack but there is an adapter bundled in the box for wired headphones.
Display
The Vivo X50 Pro has a 6.56 Inch AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 90Hz. The display tapers to both sides and can result in accidental touches especially while taking selfies. AMOLED panel has darker blacks and punchier colours and very good contrast ratio. Having an AMOLED panel also means that you can use features like Always-On display without much battery drain. The 90Hz refresh rate display is fluidic and feels responsive. The punch hole camera in the X50 is one of the smaller camera cut outs we have seen and it ensures very less distraction. The in-display fingerprint scanner is fast and accurate.
Camera
While most flagship phones today have OIS or EIS to stabilize the images, Vivo has put in an actual micro gimbal to physically move the sensor to stabilize the image or video. This is the first time any OEM has tried a gimbal camera setup. Vivo claims that it is 3 times better in removing hand shake compared to conventional OIS setup.
The main camera sensor is the Sony IMX 598 and it gives some very detailed images. Even in night conditions the images are very detailed and have very less hand shake impacts thanks to the gimbal setup. The Vivo X50 pro has two telephoto lenses – one with 2X zoom and another with 5X zoom. The 2X zoom camera takes some very good pictures with excellent HDR. The overall zoom that can be achieved is 60X, however the quality at this zoom level is very bad and pictures are not usable. Up to 10X zoom, the pictures are very good. The ultrawide camera is not very impressive and looses details. The pictures pixelate on zooming and have a lot of distortion. The selfie camera on the X50 Pro is a typical Vivo camera. It applies a lot of beautification effects and over saturates the images to make them look punchy and soft. The images are good for posting on social media but not good as far as image quality is concerned.
Overall, the camera setup is great as far as the hardware in concerned but the biggest let down is the image processing. Image processing on the Vivo X50 Pro is just not competitive with other phones in the market. Images are too much beautifies and skin is softened and sometimes looks too fake. The colour and detail in the images is hit and miss. HDR capability is completely lacking and images although detailed (thanks to the Sony IMX sensor) do not shine as expected in this price range.
Overall Experience
Vivo X50 Pro runs on Funtouch OS based on Google Android 10 which looks almost like any other Chinese OEM skin. The icons are colourful and animations are added to almost to every interaction. There is a lot of customizations with themes, app drawers and folder arrangement. Although its more of a personal preference, most people like a clean android experience compared to a lot of customizations.
One of the main issues with Funtouch OS is that it brings alternatives to already existing google apps that are redundant. There is also a Vivo V-Appstore just like Google play store where you can download the same apps available on the play store. This might be mostly because many google services are blocked in China. Another big issue with Funtouch OS is extreme RAM management. Most apps are not allowed to stay in the RAM probably to save battery. Some essential apps like fitness tracker apps get killed frequently and don’t work properly. Also, notification management is difficult with Funtouch OS. You have to jump through a lot of hoops to disable an annoying notification. At many occasions, notifications from apps like Gmail and Outlook are throttled and don’t appear unless you open the App. This might also be the result of RAM management.
The gimbal setup which is supposed to be the USP of the X50 pro is let down by poor image processing. The phone has excellent battery life and performs well for daily tasks like calling and casual gaming. It also looks premium and is sturdy device. But a price tag of 50K for a 765G device is not justified. Considering the fact that One Plus Nord which will be launching soon will have the same processor and will sell for almost half the price (expected), the X50 Pro will struggle to find an audience
Image Credits : VIVO Smartphones