Vivo V20 Review: Striking Design With Robust Camera
The Mid-range segment has become highly competitive in the past few years. The smartphone brands are offering lots of unique features to get a hold of the segment. Vivo V20 with its 44MP camera and elegant design marked its entry into the highly competitive segment. Will it able to create its own niche? Let’s find it out.
Design: At the first glance, Vivo V20 does look premium and elegant especially from the rear. It is the sleekest smartphone of 2020 (7.38mm) and has rounded corners which makes it easy to hold. Weigh only 171g, Vivo V20 is among the most lightweight smartphones in its segment. The main highlight of the smartphone is its layered camera module that seems inspired by Vivo X50 (Read Review).
You are getting a polycarbonate frame along the sides and a glass finish at the back. Although it is smudge-free, still we advise you to use the clear case for better grip. Despite its sleekness, Vivo V20 does offer a 3.5 mm jack along with a USB Type-C port and a single speaker grille. Moreover, the textured power button and volume rockers are well-positioned and perfect for one-hand usage. It comes in three color options: Sunset Melody, Midnight Jazz and Moonlight Sonata. We got the Midnight Jazz color variant which looks very classy especially when you flick it through the light. Yes, we know that Sunset Melody is getting popular, but it is subjective, so we are leaving this to you. Overall, it impressed us with its minimalistic and sleek design and it would not wrong to say that it is the best in terms of design in its segment.
Display: Vivo V20 comes with a 6.44-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with HDR 10 support. It offers vibrant colors and excellent viewing angles. The blacks are really deep and it really offers an immersive viewing experience. Being an AMOLED panel, the screen is bright enough to maintain its legibility under direct sunlight. Consuming content, watching movies and web-series on the V20 was a pleasurable experience. The Screen though, lacks a higher 90Hz refresh rate, while smartphones priced around 15K are getting it but I believe it would not be a deal-breaker. Also, it misses the Gorilla glass protection on the front which is a bummer. The screen size is a little less compared to others offering even at a cheaper price, but I found it adequate for all kinds of usage.
Vivo V20 also gets Widevine L1 Certification so you will be able to stream HD videos on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more. It gets the dewdrop styled notch at the front which houses the 44MP front camera which we will talk about in detail later. The smartphone uses an in-display fingerprint scanner which is snappy and fast.
Camera: Vivo V20 gets a triple rear camera setup at the rear. It boasts a 64-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera which is also capable of taking macro shots, and a 2-megapixel mono camera. The main highlight of the smartphone is its 44MP eye autofocus selfie shooter. Talking about the rear camera first, the shots taken in bright daylight were full of details with High Dynamic Range and well-balanced exposure. The wide-angle shooter also gives decent output but lacks in detail on zooming in.
The low light performance is also decent but still, you will observe some noise in darker areas. The detailing in the well-lit areas was good. The camera app also provides you dedicated night mode in which you need to keep the device steady for around 5 seconds and the resulting output will be full of details. You can try it handheld and still the output will be decent. Here my suggestion is to use a tripod or try to fix your phone with some support as it avoids getting the image blurred. The rear camera can record video at 4K 30fps in its highest setting.
The front camera really offers detailed, accurate, and sharp outputs. For using the eye autofocus mode you need to switch it on from the camera settings. It doesn’t come active by default. In terms of performance, it does its job very well. When standing ahead of any light source, sometimes, to put emphasis on you, it overexposes the background. If you are Vlogger then it is something you should look for. It always tracks your eyes hence you will never go out of focus. Vivo V20 also gives you the option to adjust the blurriness while taking selfies. Moreover, you can also record slow-motion and 4K videos from the front camera as well. Overall, it would not be wrong to say that you are getting the best front and rear cameras in the segment.
Camera samples
Macro sample
Selfie
(Note: These samples are resized for uploading purpose)
Performance: Under the hood, Vivo V20 gets Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 720G processor paired with 8GB RAM and up to 256GB internal storage. We got the unit with 256 GB Storage variant for review. In day to day tasks, the V20 was fluent and we didn't notice any major lag or stutter meanwhile. We played Call of Duty at higher frame rates and it performed really well. We did notice little heating after extensive gaming but it is common to every smartphone.
The 720G chipset is not as powerful as the 765G but it performs its duties well. Multitasking and switching between the apps were also fine. Also, Vivo V20 runs on Android 11 out of the box which is good as multiple brands in the segment are still launching the device with Android 10. The user interface is clean and it provides you an ad-free experience. Though, it comes with some pre-loaded apps from Vivo and other third-party developers. The new Funtouch OS is usually optimized, but we did encounter some minor glitches at times. This kind of glitch usually gets fixed in OTA updates so that’s not an issue to focus on.
Coming to the sound, it gets a single speaker grille at the bottom. The sound quality is decent and can be rated as above the average. Watching movies and content on the OTT platforms is a delightful experience with its firing speaker.
Despite being the slimmest smartphone, Vivo V20 boasts a 4000mAh massive battery. The battery easily lasts for a day even with heavy usage. You also get a 33W Flashcharge 2.0 adapter in the box which charges up the device in less than an hour. After 2 hours of gaming, calling, watching videos, and scrolling the web, we ended the day with 21 percent battery in the bank.
Verdict: Vivo V20 is offering a complete package with subtle and striking design, best in segment camera options, Full HD+ AMOLED display, and lots more. The other side of the coin is that it misses out on a higher refresh rate screen and 765G processor. If your priority is a camera and striking design then there is no better choice for you in the segment. If you see yourself as an upcoming Vlogger then you should give it a try. If you want to look elsewhere, OnePlus Nord, Oppo F17 Pro, and Samsung M51 are worth mentioning in the segment.
