VIVO X51 5G REVIEW: THE 5G SMARTPHONE WITH INTEGRATED GIMBAL
Ladies and gentlemen, vivo has officially arrived in Italy. The Chinese company, already known by enthusiasts due to its models launched abroad, has landed in Europe and announced it through a special event, as well as allowing us to preview its flagship vivo X51 5G smartphone, which is part of the "launch lineup".
The product is placed in an important price range, given
that in Italy it is sold for 799 euros . Availability starts today 20 October
2020, exclusively in Euronics stores and online store. We have tested the
device properly over the last few weeks and are ready to tell you about it in
detail.
Design and unboxing
The sales package we received, inserted in a nice blue box
with the words "Hello Europe" in white, contains a USB Type-C / USB
Type-A cable, a 33W charger , a transparent cover, the pin to extract the SIM
compartment, various manuals, good headphones with jack cable and an adapter
from USB Type-C to audio jack. In short, we are faced with a rather complete
equipment, which does not miss anything and also allows those who have
"old school" accessories to use them with an adapter.
vivo X51 5G is in fact devoid of jack. However, for the rest
there is everything: in the lower part of the smartphone we find the trolley
for the SIM (dual nanoSIM, but no memory expansion), a microphone, the USB
Type-C 2.0 port (there is the OTG, but no video output) and the speaker. On the
right side there are the power button and the volume rocker, while at the top
there is a second microphone. Note the presence of the "5G logo" at
the top of the smartphone.
The first thing you notice when you take your smartphone out
of the box are the curved edges of the screen. The latter immediately guarantee
a marked "wow" effect and are not too pronounced. It is a solution that
you may like or not like, but it has its charm in terms of design and during
our test it did not create any particular drawbacks.
The hole for the camera is located at the top left and is
small, a choice that helps to make the feeling of "all-screen" even
higher. The unique Alpha Gray color is also very beautiful, dark but not too
dark, capable of giving life to excellent plays of light on the backcover. The
area that stands out the most on the back is however the photographic module,
which immediately makes an excellent figure and is accompanied by the Triple
LED flash, following in the wake of the Vivo X50 Pro Plus (which the fans of
the company will surely know ).
One aspect that has not completely convinced us is the
protrusion of the cameras, the device "dances" a bit when placed on a
flat surface, but many other models share this characteristic. The grip and
construction solidity are excellent, thanks also to the premium materials, with
aluminum frame and glass back.
The dimensions of Vivo X51 5G are equal to 158.46 x 72.8 x
8.04 mm, for a weight of 181.5 grams. These are lower numbers than many other
smartphones and this gives the device greater handling, allowing the user to
use it with comfort.
Don't get us wrong: vivo X51 5G is certainly not small, but
it is lighter and thinner than other models . Face Unlock is also inevitable,
which allows you to quickly unlock your smartphone with your face. Pulling the
strings of the speech, the device convinces in all respects in terms of design.
Of course, there are those who appreciate curved edges and those who do not,
but vivo has done a great job from this point of view.
Technical features
Inside we find a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G octa-core
processor operating at the maximum frequency of 2.4 GHz (1 x 2.4 GHz + 1 x 2.2
GHz + 6 x 1.8 GHz), flanked by an Adreno 620 GPU , 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB
of UFS 2.1 internal memory (not expandable). In short, the configuration in
terms of performance does not come close to this year's flagships, but is
placed in a slightly lower range.
In any case, we know how much this configuration is still
able to run the operating system and all the applications available on the Play
Store well. From here it is clear that vivo X51 5G has chosen other strengths
than brute force.
Arriving at the screen, we find a 6.56-inch AMOLED panel
with Full HD + resolution (2376 x 1080 pixels), HDR10 + support, 90 Hz refresh
rate and 180 Hz touch sampling rate. There is also an Always On feature, which
can be customized in various styles. The latter shows the day, time, remaining
power and notification icons of compatible apps. Not all software is supported,
but Messages, Phone and WhatsApp are there.
The special feature of the panel itself is the curved edges,
which create a good effect and are not too pronounced. For the rest, the
display is valid: the maximum brightness is good, the colors are well balanced
and the refresh rate of 90 Hz represents the right compromise to guarantee at
the same time an increased fluidity and a good autonomy.
Widevine L1 DRMs are present, so you can watch Full HD
content on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. However, Netflix indicates that
there is no HDR functionality, possibly due to the lack of certification, which
is expected to arrive in the near future. In any case, watching multimedia
content on this panel is pleasant.
Some apps still can't cover the part in front of the hole,
but less and less software behaves in this way and this is a common issue for
many models. In short, the display of vivo X51 5G is good, not the best in this
price range, but we are at levels that will convince most users.
At this point, it is time to analyze the "main
dish" of the vivo solution, that is the photographic sector. vivo X51 5G
in fact focuses a lot on this department, so much so that the Chinese company
has concentrated much of the presentation relating to the product on this
aspect.
The front camera is 32MP (f / 2.4, Samsung S5KGD1), while on
the back there is a quad 48MP rear camera (f / 1.6, PDAF, LDAF, OIS, Gimbal,
Sony IMX598 customized) + 13MP (f / 2.46, for Portrait mode, 2x optical zoom,
AF) + 8MP (f / 2.2, ultra-wide, 120 degrees, Super Macro 2.5cm, AF) + 8MP (f /
3.4, 5x optical zoom, 60x digital zoom).
The most attentive among you will surely have noticed that
we are faced with an atypical solution, which even includes a Gimbal, capable
of stabilizing videos made with the smartphone without expensive external
accessories. In addition, shaky shots are also avoided, allowing you to
photograph dancers, footballers and take long exposure photos at night.
Returning to the videos, the latter are able to record up to 4K / 60 fps and
the stabilization is excellent.
To have a perfect one, you can think of switching to Super
anti-vibration mode, which however brings the resolution to 1080p / 60fps. You
will hardly find a smartphone so good from this point of view, especially in
this price range. The front sensor can record videos up to 1080p / 30fps
resolution.
The Camera app includes many cool features, such as Night,
Portrait, 48MP, Panorama, Live Photo, Slow-mo (240fps in 720p), Time-lapse,
Professional, AR Stickers, Doc and Motion Snapshot. There are also various
particularly intriguing goodies.
First of all, you can select the lens with which to take
photos or record videos using a quick toggle, choosing, in the photo field,
between the ultra wide angle sensor, the one for bokeh or the Super Macro one.
Video side, you can record the latter with the ultra-wide lens. Everything
happens quickly thanks to the special toggle and we really liked this
The Super Moon and Starry Sky features also attracted our
attention . The first uses photographic sensors to zoom in on the Moon and
enlarge it into an image where it would be small, giving a new atmosphere to
the photo. The Starry Sky mode, on the other hand, allows you to capture the
stars and make the night context more clear. These are features that reminded
us of the astrophotography mode of the Google Pixel: very interesting is the
fact that vivo is also aiming decisively at this field.
Using the night mode, you can also switch to tripod mode and
set filters like Cyberpunk. Another aspect that surprised us is the Super Macro
mode, which is activated automatically by approaching, for example, a flower
and generates much more detailed results than most of the devices we tested,
thanks to the use of a sensor. 8MP. Generally speaking, the vivo Camera app,
which also includes quick guides in Italian explaining how to use some
functions, is truly excellent.
The quad rear camera takes great photos in all contexts. The
colors are well balanced and the quality is good both day and night. In the
latter context, the Night mode is able to transform scenes of almost total
darkness into photos that can be easily used on social networks. We have hardly
seen results of this type, also guaranteed thanks to a good use of artificial
intelligence. The low-light photos are rich in detail and even the wide-angle
lens is able to return excellent shots, without ever making too much
distortion.
Surprising zoom: the photos remain usable up to 5x,
maintaining a really excellent quality, and you can go up to 60x, to capture
particularly distant elements.it says "Pro": in this case we can only
agree with Vivo. As for the front camera, selfies essentially always come out
well. In short, Vivo did a great job in the photographic field. If you want to
better understand what we are talking about, find uncompressed photos and
sample videos in our Drive folder dedicated to Vivo X51 5G .
vivo X51 5G has a 4315 mAh battery . The Chinese company
here has made a wise choice: to automatically set a refresh rate that changes
according to user usage. This has always allowed us to arrive in the evening
with a good residual charge, sometimes even higher than 30%.
It all depends on how you use your smartphone. For example,
activating the "fixed" 90 Hz it is clear that the autonomy decreases.
However, we are sure that a certain type of user, who uses the device in a
slightly less intense way than ours, may be able to reach even two days of
autonomy. Not bad the presence of the 33W charger, which is not the fastest on
the market but knows its stuff and allows you to get hours of use in the face
of a few minutes of charging. To give you a concrete example, we went from 15%
to 77% in about 25 minutes.
IP68 certification and wireless charging are missing, but
otherwise everything is in place, from 5G to Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac,
passing through NFC and Bluetooth 5.1. Not bad the Hi-Fi audio sector supported
by the AK4377A chipset, which has a good maximum volume. SAR values are equal
to 1.205 W / Kg (head) and 1.239 W / Kg (body).
Software
The operating system is Android 10 with FunTouch OS 10
Global customization . At the time of writing, the security patches are from
July 1, 2020, not exactly the best of presentations. However, Vivo promises
that the update to Android 11 will arrive soon, but we have no certain timing.
In any case, there will be time to analyze how Vivo will behave in this regard,
but the partnership that the Chinese company has entered into with Google bodes
well. In any case, the personalization carried out by Vivo is interesting.
There are no bloatware whatsoever, since few apps have been
pre-installed, including one that refers to the official site of vivo and a
Manager that optimizes the device. Otherwise, the styles of the Always On
Display are very nice. There is also a feature called S-capture, accessible via
a quick toggle, which allows you to quickly make, for example, a screen
recording or a long screenshot.
Then there are some interesting features in terms of video
and photo editing, which can be done through the Album app. There is also a
focus on gaming with a dedicated mode, but we will analyze the latter later in
the review. In short, the FunTouch OS is not a customization that completely
changes the operating system, we are very close to the stock experience (thanks
also to the collaboration with Google), but there are some interesting ideas.
The system fluidityit always turned out to be excellent,
thanks also to the 90 Hz of the screen. In fact, during our test we encountered
a bug that caused the system to run slower for a few seconds, but it happened a
single time and it's nothing major. For the rest, there is some inaccuracy in
the translation, but the latter is good, also considering that it is the first
smartphone that is brought to Europe (other companies initially did not place
this care).
Performance and benchmarks
Vivo X51 5G is a smartphone that, in terms of brute force,
is closer to the mid-range than to the high one. In fact, the presence of a
Snapdragon 765G SoC can make those who want to point to a particularly handsome
device turn up their noses a bit.
To give you some concrete details, the device achieved a
total of 333133 points on AnTuTu Benchmark . On Geekbench, however, it recorded
632 points in single-core and 1979 points in multi-core.
To make a comparison with other smartphones in this price
range, OnePlus 8T, which in its 12 / 256GB variant costs 699 euros, reached
590828 points on AnTutu during our test. Xiaomi Mi 10T, which costs € 599.90 in
the 8 / 128GB model, has reached 576039 points.
In short, we are talking about other levels, which the most
attentive user immediately notices using the smartphone. Despite this, the
device still works well in everyday use, thanks also to the fluidity offered by
the 90 Hz of the screen. Here the type of user matters a lot: if you don't care
about brute force, that's not bad.
Gaming
Given the presence of a Snapdragon 765G processor, surely
some of you will have already guessed how vivo X51 5G behaves in terms of
gaming. In any case, we tested the smartphone mainly with Call of Duty Mobile,
ARK: Survival Evolved and Fortnite.
Before proceeding to the games, however, it is good to dwell
on the Ultra-game mode . The latter has several interesting features, which
allow you to block notifications and SMS, optimize visual effects and
performance, make the refresh rate adaptive and prevent accidental touches
There is also an in-game panel, accessible via a side swipe.
The latter allows you to block notifications, screen (the game continues to
play) and brightness, as well as make the colors more vivid. In short,
certainly an interesting addition, although there are more complete gaming
modes in circulation.
Call of Duty Mobile runs smoothly with details and FPS on
"Very High" . By setting the FPS to "Max", the game takes
the details to "High" by detecting hardware limitations. In short,
here we see the lack of a more performing processor. In any case, COD Mobile is
playable very well on vivo X51 5G.
Moving on to ARK: Survival Evolved, a very
resource-intensive title, the game runs fairly well at "Medium", but
it is better to go down to "Low" for a better fluidity.
Fortnite, on the other hand, runs well with presets on
"Epic" and 30 fps. Do not underestimate the presence of a cooling
system based on heatpipe, able to keep temperatures always at good levels. In
short, despite not being a flagship in terms of performance, Vivo X51 5G is
still able to give good satisfactions during the game.
