Vivo X50 Pro 5G Review

Where to buy

As mobile phone brands go, Vivo hasn't had a particularly large presence in the Australian marketplace to speak of, with only a handful of phones sold on an outright basis available locally.

If you're thinking it's a brand you've never heard of, globally it's quite large, but then it is also part of the sprawling BBK Electronics empire out of China, which means it does have better known stablemates locally such as Oppo and realme.

The Vivo X50 Pro 5G is Vivo's current flagship phone, but it's also yet another mid-range 5G handset resting on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765G platform, and there are a lot of those available right now.

Vivo pitches its hopes that you'll buy the Vivo X50 Pro 5G on a quite unique inclusion in the form of an integrated camera gimbal built right into the phone. It's a unique enough idea, although it makes it more suited to folks who shoot a lot of video than anything else.

Design

Design

• 6.56-inch 90Hz AMOLED display
• Staggered camera bump at the rear
• No headphone jack
• No water resistance

• Read more about the Vivo X50 Pro 5G's design

  The Vivo X50 Pro 5G only ships in one silvery hue that Vivo calls "Alpha Grey". It's a metallic hue that does give the Vivo X50 Pro 5G something of a luxury look and feel, with a relatively slender tapered frame that fits pretty nicely in your hand. Physically, it measures in at 158.46×72.80×8.04mm with a carrying weight of 181.5 grams.

  A single speaker, SIM-card tray and USB-C charging port are all located at the bottom of the phone – sadly there's no 3.5mm headphone jack.

  We're seeing some variance in screen technology and quality in these mid-range Snapdragon 765G phones this year, but like stablemate Oppo with its excellent Find X2 Neo, Vivo's opted for a high-end, 90Hz capable Full HD+ AMOLED screen that measures in at 6.56 inches. Unlike some competitors, you get full control over screen refresh rates, so you can opt for 60Hz to preserve battery, 90Hz for the silkiest look, or dynamic if you want the phone to pick on a per-app basis.

  The Vivo X50 Pro 5G utilises an in-display fingerprint sensor with much the same accuracy – and indeed the same on-screen animation style – as stablemate Oppo. It's moderately accurate in most circumstances, and it does leave the rear free for an unusual camera bump.

  

  I say unusual not because it's rectangular and large, because a lot of premium and mid-range 2020 handsets have adopted that style, but because it's a two-step camera bump. The lower section houses a tiny telephoto lens while the larger and higher section covers the other three lenses, including the very large primary gimbal-assisted lens. The bump means it can never sit fully flat on a desk, even if you use the supplied clear protective case that comes in the box with the phone.

  The Vivo X50 Pro 5G sits at the top end of the pricing we've seen for mid-range 5G phones and is only a dollar below where we'd start thinking of it as a lower-end premium handset. Given its pricing, it's disappointing to note that it lacks formal IP-rated water resistance. You can get a water-resistant phone for this kind of money, but not with this handset.

Camera

Camera

• Quad camera array with plenty of options
• Gimbal works best for video stabilisation
• Some focus and exposure issues

• Read more about the Vivo X50 Pro 5G's cameras

  That big old camera bump on the back of the Vivo X50 Pro isn't just there for show – Vivo packs a lot of camera technology into it. The star of the show is a 48MP primary sensor. That wouldn't be exciting by itself except for the fact that it's placed within a dedicated optical gimbal for additional stabilisation duty.

  That stabilising feature is used for everything from low-light shots to videography, and you can opt to have an on-screen overlay that shows you exactly how stable you're shooting at a given point in time. That's a feature that does take some getting used to because, at first, it's going to bounce around like a ping-pong ball on steroids, but then that's very much the point. Not only is the gimbal stabilising for you at an advanced level, but it's also encouraging you to hold the camera considerably more steadily when you do shoot.

  

  That being said, it's not always flawless, most notably for still shots. I had more than a few shooting instances where the stabilisation on the gimbal affected the Vivo X50 Pro 5G's ability to quickly grab focus on a given still shot, as with the photo above.

  When it gets it right, the results can be impressive, if a little oversaturated in colour – but then some folks do like that extra pop of colour in their photos.

  

  Where the Vivo X50 Pro's 5G gimbal really shines is when you're shooting video. The Vivo X50 Pro 5G can shoot at up to 4K 60fps, and with the gimbal in play (and preferably calibrated, a simple process you access through settings), it captured extremely smooth video in handheld mode, even with some larger movements. I could totally see this being a platform for vloggers who didn't want to carry around larger cameras with them.

  At a specification level, the rest of the lenses on the Vivo X50 Pro 5G aren't too shabby either, with a twin pair of zoom lenses, one at 13MP 2x optical and the other at 8MP 5x optical. The idea here is that the 2x optical lens is primarily for portrait shots, but you can use either for straight photographic duties. If you're stupidly keen, digital zoom on the Vivo X50 Pro 5G will bounce up to 60x, but predictably the results look awful.

  

  The telephoto specifications of the Vivo X50 Pro 5G are decent for the price range, but again I had a few intermittent issues when shooting this way, most notably with images in automatic modes ending up a tad overexposed. That's also true for the 8MP ultra-wide lens, which Vivo also pushes into service for macro shooting modes. I certainly can't fault the Vivo X50 Pro 5G for lacking in camera modes, with dedicated night, portrait, panorama, slow motion, live photo, time lapse, AR sticker, starry sky, motion snapshot, doc and supermoon modes as well as a pro mode for the tinkering types.

  Vivo X50 Pro 5G Sample Photos

  

  

  

  

Performance

Performance

• Snapdragon 765G performs well
• Funtouch OS feels unnecessary

• Read more about the Vivo X50 Pro 5G's performance

  The Vivo X50 Pro 5G runs on a Snapdragon 765G processor with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. While it features a dual SIM slot at the base, there's no capacity for storage expansion.

  The Snapdragon 765G is chosen by manufacturers because it allows them to include 5G Sub-6 compatibility in phones at a lower price point than with Qualcomm's 8-series processors, but it's no slouch in the general performance stakes either. The Vivo X50 Pro 5G compares quite nicely with other phones running on this hardware, although there are phones you can buy in the mid-range that are still a touch faster.

  Here's how the Vivo X50 Pro 5G compares using Geekbench 5's CPU test against a selection of mid-range competitors:

  Apple's iPhone SE 2020 continues to be the true outlier in this category, although that performance comparison between iOS and Android isn't an exact like-for-like comparison.

  The Vivo X50 Pro 5G also manages to edge out the 765G pack when it comes to 3D benchmarks. Here's how it compares using 3DMark's Slingshot Extreme benchmark:

  The inclusion of a 90Hz display does give the Vivo X50 Pro 5G an edge over most of its competition, although of course I couldn't help but compare it with the very similar layout in stablemate Oppo's Find X2 Neo. 90Hz isn't just a question of gaming performance either because it can make simpler activities like scrolling a web page much slicker. It is one of those differences that you have to experience to get used to and stepping back to 60Hz displays is a noticeable bump down.

  BBK Electronics' phones love a shiny and largely superfluous launcher, and the Vivo X50 Pro 5G is no exception. Where Oppo has ColorOS and realme has realmeOS, Vivo instead layers its phones with what it calls Funtouch OS.

  

  Like its siblings, Funtouch OS very much feels like glitter for its own sake, not adding a whole lot to the Android experience that you couldn't already get out of Android 10.

  Or as Vivo's own marketing spiel puts it, "Upholding the concept of Original Design, Funtouch OS uses medium-purity water colors and balanced icons to imitate direct operations and interactive effects in the physical world, prioritizing function over form and exploring a more natural balance between the virtual and real worlds."

  Well, I for one feel more reassured by that.

  Silly marketing spiel aside, Vivo also preinstalls a handful of its own apps that you can't easily uninstall if you don't want them. Like its other phones, Vivo's own apps want a fair amount of permission granting before you can use them as well, and while you are dropped into a EULA every time you open one for the first time, that's a slightly alarming step that won't be welcome by everyone.

Battery life

Battery life

• 4315mAh battery is decent at this price point
• 90Hz predictably eats battery power for lunch
• Fast 33W wired charging
• No wireless charging

• Read more about the Vivo X50 Pro 5G's battery life

  The Vivo X50 Pro 5G ships with a sealed 4,315mAh battery, which is a decent capacity at a comparative level against other Snapdragon 765G phones, but the presence of that 90Hz display does complicate matters because screens with high refresh rates do require more power to run.

  With that in mind, the Vivo X50 Pro 5G got two runs through our standard battery rundown test, running a Full HD YouTube video at maximum brightness and moderate volume for an hour – once at standard 60Hz and then once at 90Hz to get a picture of relative power drain. As always, what we're looking for here is for the phone to drop no lower than 90% during the test because that indicates a phone that should be able to last through a day's usage. The higher the better, of course.

  Here's how the Vivo X50 Pro 5G compared against current mid-range handsets:

  As expected, you'll get better battery endurance from the Vivo X50 Pro 5G in 60Hz mode, but even at 90Hz, it's a reasonable, if not a standout, performer.

  BBK Electronics' investment in its own fast-charging technology – the stuff that Oppo calls VOOC – rears its head in the Vivo X50 Pro 5G with support for 33W fast charging via USB-C cable and slower charging if you're using a competitor's charging cable. It's a nice inclusion for Vivo phone buyers, although it's somewhat counterpointed by the lack of wireless charging. Again that's a cost consideration, but for a phone at this price point, it's not unreasonable to expect its inclusion.

Should you buy the Vivo X50 Pro 5G?

There's a lot to like about the Vivo X50 Pro 5G. The gimbal largely lives up to its promise, although it's much more of a compelling option if you shoot a lot of video rather than stills in most situations. Performance is right up there with other Snapdragon 765G phones, but that's no surprise at all.

All of the 765G phones we've tested to date have their trade-offs, and in the case of the Vivo X50 Pro 5G, it's the lack of features such as wireless charging and water resistance in a handset that still costs $999.

Pricing and availability

Amazon

Kogan

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Specifications

Images: Alex Kidman