Vivo V20 Pro Review: Can It Compete With One Plus Nord?
The Vivo V20 (Read Review) was checking almost every box but still behind in the race with OnePlus Nord and Google Pixel 4A. This time, Vivo has upped the game with the introduction of the Vivo V20 Pro. So how does V20 Pro fare against its rivals? Let's find out.
Design & Display: Put both V20 and V20 Pro side by side, and you can hardly find any difference. The V20 Pro carries the exactly same design and dimensions as the V20. The only difference which you can spot is the 5G badging at the rear panel and the SIM card slot has been shifted to the bottom side now. Also, the front camera notch is wider to house dual selfie cameras. Apart from these changes, you can hardly spot any major changes in design.
The smartphone is glass-backed and has aluminum sides and feels premium to hold. The smartphone is available in two colour options: Sunset Melody and Midnight Jazz. Vivo has managed to keep the V20 slim (7.49mm in thickness) despite having 5G radios and a faster processor inside it. The Vivo V20 Pro is easy to hold (170gm) and feels compact. The one-handed usage is also practical with this one.
The V20 Pro gets a 6.44-inch AMOLED display with a Full HD+ (1080p) resolution exactly the same as the V20. For protection, it gets the Schott's Xensation Up scratch-protective glass for the display and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for the rear panel. The AMOLED display is sharp, vivid, and fully legitimate under the direct sunlight. The display also supports an In-display fingerprint sensor, which is snappy and fast. This time, Vivo still lacks the higher refresh rate screen, though it is not a deal-breaker, still, if it’s positioned as ‘Pro’ then it could have been introduced. Also, Vivo could have also replaced the outdated notch with a hole-punch cutout. Moving ahead, V20 Pro gets Widevine L1 Certification so you will be able to stream HD videos on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more.
Camera: Vivo V20 Pro gets a triple rear camera along with two selfie cameras. It boasts 64-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.89 aperture, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera that doubles up as a macro camera, and a 2-megapixel monochrome camera. Well, it would not wrong to say that you are getting the best set of cameras in the segment.
The pictures clicked in Daylight are rich in colors and offer High Dynamic Range. It automatically shifts to an 8MP lens when you try to take a macro shot. The detail in Macro is good as it is being shot by 8MP lens instead of any traditional 2MP lens. Coming to the portrait mode, the edge detection is accurate and you can choose the level of blurriness as well. The ultra-wide shots are also decent and rich in colors but lack detail.
We also tried Night photography with long exposure settings and here are the results for you
Talking about selfie shooters, the V20 Pro gets Eye autofocus which works effortlessly while taking both pictures and videos. This feature is way better than the Fixed Focus camera and as it offers real-time focus with great depth. In V20 pro, you are also getting an additional 8MP ultra-wide camera which is very helpful in group selfies and capturing a larger area behind you. The only thing which was bothering me was its old-styled notch which could be replaced by a dual hole-punch cut out. Speaking of performance, the main camera offers rich and vibrant colours and HDR works well. The ultra-wide camera looks great until you start zooming in. The low light performance is adequate and the sharpness and amount of light captured are quite acceptable.
In terms of videography, the front camera is able to capture 4K videos at 60fps, which is best in the segment. Noteworthy, the wide-angle lens can only shoot 1080p videos. In daylight conditions, the colors look more vibrant. In contrast, it tries to adjust the light by AI in low light locations. Overall, It would not wrong to say that it is one of the best camera smartphones available in the mid-segment.
Performance: Vivo V20 Pro gets the much desirable upgrade of Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G (5G ready) processor. Notably, this is the same processor that is used in more premium X50 Pro. Clarifying, Vivo V20 was not a slow phone by any means but this is sizable upgrade makes V20 Pro a better option for those who love playing games on smartphones.
V20 Pro comes in only one configuration as of now: 8GB/128GB. I am unable to understand why Vivo didn’t give a choice of more variants at the same time it also removed external storage from the Pro variant. V20 Pro ships with Android 10 out-of-the-box but the Android 11 update was ready on unboxing via OTA. The smartphone does come with some bloatware but that can be easily removed and there are no annoying ads which is good. Multitasking is not a problem for V20 Pro, as I opened lots of apps at the same time, and shifting from one to another, was really smooth. For Gaming, We tested Free Fire (PUBG is not available), Call Of Duty, and Among Us with high graphic settings and it performed very well. However, there were minor glitches in the higher setting at 60fps setting after some minutes of hardcore gaming.
Speaking of battery life, well seriously, I was expecting an upgrade in the battery but nonetheless, it worked above my expectations. On moderate usage, it easily lasted for a day. In our case, we watched a couple of episodes on Netflix over mobile data, YouTube videos, some phone calls and used it for the official purposes (zoom meeting, web research, etc.) and V20 Pro survived with 11 percent at the end of the day. Sometimes we had to charge it twice a day but you can put it in the category of heavy usage. To refill its juice it takes around one hour and ten minutes. There is support for 33W fast charging with the bundled charger similar to the V20.
Verdict: Vivo 20 Pro comes with an attractive design, 5G, AMOLED panel, and 4K 60fps selfie recording but it lacks in the areas such as higher refresh rate display, no SD card, and battery life could be better as 5G compatible smartphone may need more power usage in the future. If you are more into the camera and want a future-proof smartphone then the V20 Pro gets our recommendation. If you want to look elsewhere OnePlus Nord and Google Pixel 4A is worth mentioning in the segment.
