Published on January 25th, 2018 | by Guest

Vivo X20 Plus: The Future of Disappointments on a Finger Tip

Smartphones are ruling the world on every step; they are the most addictive thing we’ve ever seen. Now a days, we can do everything on a smartphone. And that’s the reason why we are motivated into developing new features, apps and technology for use with them.

There is competition between all manufacturers to provide a fresh, refined and smooth experience with their devices. Today, you can’t claim any smartphone as the best. All manufacturers are working hard. Some of phones turn out to be ordinary and some of change the way we live and work, like The Vivo X20 Plus.

First, let me talk about Vivo. Vivo was founded in 2009 by Morgan Moore as a startup manufacturing smartphones, smartphone accessories, software and online services. Vivo is now renowned for using Hi-Fi audio chips in their phones. That explains the Hi-Fi audio animation during boot. Vivo is a fully owned subsidiary of BBK electronics like Oppo and OnePlus.

I do not like any of their phones, however. The reasons are no-brainers. 90% of their phones are powered by MediaTek chipsets, heavily overpriced, unnatural camera colours and subpar hardware and software experience especially the memory management. I was the owner of a Vivo device but it took me only 6 days to dump it and go back to my trusty old Nexus 6P.

Let’s talk about the X20 Plus now. If you read my articles or follow MoboMotion you would probably know about this device. Vivo was working on making a phone with in-display fingerprint scanner with the help of Synaptics. Synaptics is based in California and is renowned for developing touchpads for computer laptops and touch-screens for audio players, cellular phones and other devices. Synaptics describes itself as a human interface solution developer.

On January 10th, during CES 2018, Vivo introduced an unnamed phone with unspecified hardware. The most interesting feature of this phone is the in-display fingerprint scanner. For more details on this, click here.

The X20 Plus has a 6.43-inch 18:9 aspect ratio full HD Super OLED display. This phone comes with a Snapdragon 660 chipset with 4GB of RAM and 64GB onboard storage. The storage can be expanded with a micro-SD slot. Vivo often trumpets about the great quality of their smartphone cameras, but it is exactly the opposite. All Vivo phones cameras are equipped with poor resolution sensors, lower aperture, and suffer from lens flare. The custom Android variant they use on their phones is called Funtouch OS. I praise Funtouch OS for its included gestures but what irks me is that the included camera tweaks artificially boost exposure and brightness at while taking photos. Not surprisingly, Funtouch OS is also known for the introduction of the selfie face beautifier. On this phone, you will find a dual rear camera setup consisting of a 12 MP primary camera and a 5 MP secondary camera. While it is not confirmed, rumours say that the aperture is a little bit bigger on this phone at f/1.8. The rear camera is paired with an LED flash. The front facing camera is equipped with a 12 MP sensor with a screen flash (not a physical flash).

Fortunately, the battery capacity is a massive 3905 mAh, enough to last a full day with the phone’s massive display.

You get all major sensors including compass and temperature, apart from the celebrated in-screen fingerprint sensor. The phone has dual SIM support, old micro-USB connectivity (which is disappointing), Bluetooth 5.0 and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

We appreciate the step taken by Vivo for trying a totally new move. Otherwise, only Apple is known for making drastic new moves.

The on-screen fingerprint tech is not yet mature. It is slow, as it takes up to 0.7 seconds for unlocking this phone. Also, Gizmochina claims that if you put on a screen protector then this on-screen fingerprint scanner will not work. Without the screen protector, you will have to use this phone very carefully. Otherwise, you risk getting the screen scratched.

The phone ships with the aged Android Nougat 7.0.1, adding to the list of disappointments. The pricing is ridculously high at $565, which is equally disappointing.

Sales start from 1st February.

About the author:

I’m Biplab Das, a technical writer, tech YouTuber, blogger, ICT tutor and a part time website developer. People say smartphones are boring these days, but I think everyone is beginning to take this wonderful technology marvel for granted. Please don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel MoboMotion.

Tags: disappointments, finger tip, future, Vivo, X20 Plus