Vivo has been one of those brands that have brought cutting edge tech out for the general public. They were the first ones to implement an in-display fingerprint sensor, pop-up cameras sensors, and more. Now they have brought their flagship X50 smartphone series to India.
Out of the two smartphones launched, we got the Vivo X50 with us for review. In typical Vivo fashion, the phone has a flair to it. Promises to deliver exceptionally on the optics side while giving a quality product overall.
We have been testing the Vivo X50 for a little over a week now and here’s our review to help you make the right buying decision.
Vivo X50 Specifications
Before starting with the Vivo X50 review, let’s have a glance at the phone’s specifications, pricing, and things we get with the device.
- Display: 6.56-inch Super AMOLED display, Full-HD+ (1080 x 2376 pixels resolution), HDR10+, 90Hz refresh rate
- CPU: octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor
- GPU: Adreno 618
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 128/256GB
- Software: Android 10 (FunTouch OS 10)
- Main Camera: 48 MP primary sensor (f/1.6, PDAF, OIS) + 13MP portrait (f/2.5) + 8MP ultra-wide-angle (f/2.2, 120˚) + 5MP macro lens (f/2.5)
- Selfie Camera: 32MP (f/2.5)
- Connectivity: USB Type-C, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM Radio
- Cellular: Dual SIM
- Fingerprint Scanner: Yes, in-display
- Battery: 4,200 mAh, Li-ion Polymer, non-removable
- Charging: 33W fast charging
Box Contents
Here’s a complete list of items you get inside the box:
- Vivo X50 smartphone
- 40W Fast Charger
- Earphones
- USB Type-C charging cable
- Transparent Silicon Case
- Sim Ejector Tool
- Documentation
Design
The design of the new X 50 series slightly from device to device. But the X50 resembles a more refined V series product. By looking at the price tag, it should be clear by now that it is an upper-mid range product slowly inching towards the Flagship category.
You get a glass sandwich design with Gorilla Glass on both front and back. The finish on the back glass is more or less satin which gives character to the phone. There is a quad-camera setup on the back with three of the sensors lined up in a rectangular module leaking the fourth sensor which seems a little odd, while the LED flash is placed towards the right.
The phone is offered in two colors and we have the white one with us. On flipping the phone, we get a good look at the 6.56-inch AMOLED display with a punch-hole for the selfie camera.
The curved back of the phone makes it grippy and comfortable to hold. Plus, the glass body gives it a solid feel in hands. Coming to the button placement, the power and volume button is on the right, USB-Type-C charging port, primary microphone, and speaker are situated at the bottom. The dual SIM card tray is also placed on the bottom and sadly doesn’t come with support for a microSD.
One thing we had to admire is the flattened rims on the top and bottom that have been polished to give out a mirror finish. Something we haven’t seen a brand do at this price point.
Display
The Vivo X50 gets a 6.56-inch full view display with Full-HD+ resolution, a 20:9 aspect ratio, and a 90%+ screen-to-body ratio. In typical Vivo fashion, the display is quite sharp, has excellent viewing angles, and gets quite bright even under harsh sunlight. Plus, it offers punchy colors with deep blacks and the ability to tweak the color profiles in the settings app.
You get a single punch-hole for selfie camera that is tucked away neatly in a corner and doesn’t really cause and disturbance when viewing content. The phone also features an always-on display mode, has a 100% sRGB color gamut and TÜV Rheinland Eye Comfort certification. Thankfully, it does come with WideVine L1 certification allowing you to stream HD content on services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Overall, the display is great for binge-watchers, thanks to the excellent quality offered by AMOLED panel.
Software
On the software front, the Vivo X50 runs on the company’s custom FunTouch OS 10, based on Android 10. The FunTouch still resembles iOS in many areas and comes with a bunch of preloaded bloatware including Vivo’s own app store, Vivo Browser, EasyShare file sharing tool, followed by third-party apps like Amazon, NewsPoint, WPS Office, PhonePe, and more.
Some of these might find some use among users but thankfully the brand has removed controversial apps that were banned by the government. Vivo has enabled the native system-wide dark mode, added a shortcuts hub that houses the toggles, app shortcuts, and more in the new FunTouchOS iteration.
Apart from this you also get some of the features that are standard with the new mid-range smartphone from Vivo like a gaming assistant that blocks calls, alongside letting you enable features to better your gaming experience. There are some useful customization features including a built-in theming engine, screen recorder, and more.
Performance
Moving to the performance, powering the phone is the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 SoC, coupled with Adreno 618 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128/256GB of storage depending on the variant. When looking at the China variant of the phone, it is a led down.
This is where the phone seems to have cut corners, Vivo could’ve easily gone with something a little more powerful like the Snapdragon 855. For a phone that costs INR 34,999, this is surely a deal-breaker for people looking at a more performance-oriented product.
Don’t get us wrong, the Snapdragon 730 is still a capable product but not something that we’re seeing in this price category. the phone performs pretty great when it comes to day to day tasks like watching videos, listening to music, surfing social media, browsing the web, and more. With the new FunTouch OS, memory management has been improved, and we didn’t really have any problem switching between apps. Games like PUBG and Asphalt 9 ran fine on medium graphics settings.
The call quality is great and audio from speakers the speakers are loud and clear but the omissions of the 3.5mm audio did pinch us at first but we should finally bid a farewell to it at this point in time. Apart from this, we have an in-display fingerprint scanner that works reliably well and detects the fingerprint in one go.
Camera
This is the area where the phone shines. Like we have seen in the past, camera performance on upper mid-range smartphones from Vivo is quite good. The X50 comes with a quad-rear camera module with the main camera being a 48-megapixel sensor with f/1.6 aperture, assisted with a 13-megapixel portrait lens with f/2.5 aperture, an 8-megapixel wide-angle shooter with f/2.2 aperture and a 5-megapixel macro lens.
At the front, the phone boasts of a 32-megapixel selfie camera tucked away in a corner and comes with a wide field of view for better selfies.
The camera performs quite well, especially the main sensor. The images taken in broad daylight are sharp, have lots of detail, and bear natural colors. The dynamic range is excellent, as well. Low light shots are above average but the supplied night mode does help a bit in bringing out details.
The dedicated portrait lens works as expected and produces some decent shots that have excellent background separation thanks to the camera algo. The wide-angle camera, while not as good as the primary sensor, produces decent results. The added 5-megapixel is far better than the 2-megapixel sensors that we are seeing currently in the industry.
Coming to the camera app, it is similar to what we have been seeing on the other Vivo smartphones. With basic modes laid out neatly, there are some additional video modes that have been made especially for the X50 series. As with previous offerings, there is heavy use of AI here as well that helps in taking the perfect shots as per the conditions.
The front camera impresses as well with the main 32-megapixel sensor pumping out consistently well selfies that have plenty of detail in them. The skin tones are on the richer side.
One thing we did enjoy is shooting videos from both the front and rear cameras. Vivo has certainly improved the video capture settings on the phone making it a viable option for people looking to dive into the vlogging scene.
Battery
The Vivo X50 comes with a decent 4,200mAh battery under the hood. The battery size and spec is standard when looking at other offerings in this price range. During our testing, the phone lasted for a full working day with a screen on-time of about six hours on medium to heavy usage. As usual, our heavy usage tests included a bit of gaming, content consumption, usual texting, and high camera usage.
With the supplied fast charger, the phone charges from 0% to 70% in just 40 minutes. This is possible thanks to the 33W Vivo FlashCharge 2.0 technology that is in-par to other fast charging solutions in the market.
Pros
- Looks Premium
- Great display
- Cameras performance
- Fast Charging, USB Type-C
Cons
- FunTouch OS is annoying
- Chipset is not for performance users
Verdict – Should you buy it?
The Vivo X50 is a slightly more camera-centric product and provides great camera performance when looking at the competition. It also offers a really good display quite apt for binge-watchers, a massive battery, and fast charging for heavy media consumers. For INR 35,000 price point, the SoC is on a lower side but, hey again, this phone is not meant for gamers but is for the photography enthus or for the binge-watchers or for the social media savvy chat heads.
In our opinion, the phone will face tough competition online with all the offers going on and the latest entry of OnePlus Nord but will be a hit in the offline segment thanks to the robust Vivo dealer network.
