A Peek Into The Future?

It is the holy grain of mobile technology - the all-screen smartphone. Now while every brand is falling over themselves to add an ill-conceived notch to their Android offerings, Vivo has taken the market by storm (and earned bragging rights in the process) by launching the X21 UD with the first under-display fingerprint scanner, thereby eliminating the need for a dedicated home button. Impressive stuff, a peek into the future even, but is there more to the X21 pony than this one trick?

Now, if you have seen the Vivo V9 already, you will see the immediate resemblance – not that it is a bad thing though (well, except for the decision to stick with the dated microUSB port). The curved back with a subtle black finish and the 19:9-format full HD+ display with a notch above the screen to maximise screen space, all do their bit to convey a sense of modernity and premiumness to the design while still staying understated. Unfortunately, if you hate the notch, the X21 lacks the option to hide the eyesore a la the Huawei P20 Pro and the OnePlus 6.

Of course, what it is missing from the V9 is the fingerprint scanner on the rear, which makes its way on the bottom half, under the display. What Vivo has done is to use the gaps between the individual screen pixels to scan your fingerprint and allow you into your phone, and an indicator on the display shows you where to place your finger for authentication. There is a seriously cool animation around your finger when you unlock the phone, and boy, is it a head-turner! Even though this is clearly first-generation tech and it takes a little longer to unlock the phone than with a conventional fingerprint scanner, it works fairly consistently and inarguably counts as real innovation, the sort we haven’t seen in a while. And to be able to pip Apple and Samsung to the post and launch a consumer-ready device with this tech? Bravo, Vivo!

The screen, by itself, is a vivid, colourful AMOLED display, the sort you would be happy to see in a phone in the mid-30-grand segment. It is, however, powered by Qualcomm’s mid-range champ, the Snapdragon 660 processor, which, along with the ample memory, ensures that Funtouch OS 4 runs smoothly on the X21. Vivo has skinned almost every nook and cranny of Android 8.1 to the point where it stops looking like Android and screams iOS-clone instead. Sure, it runs smoothly, but the iOS inspiration – including a bunch of iPhone-like navigation gestures – is a little too strong. Vivo offers a large number of features and options, though they are badly buried in the Settings menus; plus there is plenty of pre-installed bloatware, too.

Rounding out the package is a competent camera – a rear camera that shoots well in good light but falls prey to noisy shots and lack of detail in low-lit shots, and a selfie camera that builds on Vivo’s legacy of offering some of the best front cameras in the business. Battery life is a solid day, despite the seemingly smaller 3200mAh battery.

Regardless of how cool and 'straight out of the future' the under-display fingerprint scanning tech is, is this a phone to splurge north of Rs 35,000? Vivo makes a compelling case for your money – this is a solid device packing decent hardware and a few cool tricks up its sleeve - but the phone is easily overshadowed by both the similarly priced OnePlus 6 and the Honor 10, both of which are seriously good all-round phones, even if they lack a gee whiz feature to set them apart.