Smartphones have gotten bulkier over the years. Average battery capacity has grown and phones like the Samsung Galaxy M51 even come with a 7,000 mAh battery. If you don’t like where the smartphone industry is heading, Vivo has some relief for you in the form of the slim new Vivo V20. Is design the only thing Vivo has focused on? I have the Vivo V20 in my hands and here are my first impressions.
One thing that is unusual here is that Vivo has been naming its smartphones using only odd numbers.In the V series, we have had the Vivo V15, Vivo V17, and most recently the V19. So is 2020 the year that changes this too? It certainly looks alike.
The Vivo V20 goes by a different name and the company has taken a new approach to design. The new V20 is slimmer than the Vivo V19 (Review) and drops the hole-punch chamber in favor of a dewdrop notch, which feels like a step backwards. Flip the V20 over and you might think its design is inspired by the Vivo X50 series (Review), with a stepped design for the camera module. The V20 has a triple camera setup with the main camera at the top and the other two just below. However, unlike the Vivo X50 Pro (Review), there is no gimbal stabilization system here. The camera module has a silver accent that looks premium.
One step back? The Vivo V20 has a dewdrop notch
You get three color options for the Vivo V20: Moonlight Sonata, Midnight Jazz, and Sunset Melody. It had a Sunset Melody unit that has a gradient finish on the back. The color changes from blue to purple to orange as light hits it at different angles, and it definitely draws attention compared to the other options. This version is a bit thicker at 7.48mm (compared to 7.38mm) and weighs 1g more than the other two. Vivo has opted for a glass back that feels premium quality and has a matte finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints.
The Vivo V20 has a 6.44-inch AMOLED screen with a tall 20: 9 aspect ratio and thin bezels on the sides. It has Full-HD + resolution (1080×2400 pixels) and support for HDR10. This phone also has an in-display fingerprint scanner. The power and volume buttons are on the right and are easy to reach even with one hand. The power button has a textured finish that makes it easy to distinguish from the volume buttons.
The Vivo V20 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC and has 8GB of RAM. I have used this processor in the Redmi Note 9 Pro (Review) and it was able to deliver good performance. Vivo offers 128GB and 256GB storage variants of the Vivo V20. If that’s not enough, the storage can be expanded by a whopping 1TB on this smartphone. You will have to fork out Rs. 24,990 for the basic variant and Rs. 27,990 for the top variant of the Vivo V20.
Vivo V20 is among the few phones to run Android 11 out of the box
In terms of software, the Vivo V20 is one of the few smartphones that runs Android 11 out of the box. Vivo ships the V20 with Funtouch OS 11 running on top of Android 11, and my unit had the September Android security patch. The user interface felt familiar and easy to use. Three-button navigation is enabled by default, but you have the option to switch to swipe gestures. There are some apps pre-installed on the Vivo V20, and it recommends downloading a few others during setup, which I skipped.
The camera setup on the Vivo V20 consists of a 64-megapixel main camera with an aperture of f / 1.89, an 8-megapixel super-wide camera, and a 2-megapixel mono camera. On the front, it has a 44-megapixel shooter with ‘Eye Autofocus’ which the company says will help capture sharp selfies. The Vivo V series is known for its selfie-focused smartphones, so it will be interesting to see how the V20 performs.
If you’re curious about the battery capacity, you’ll be happy to hear that Vivo has managed to pack in a 4,000mAh battery. While this is smaller than some of the other smartphones I’ve tested recently, it can still be considered average for a modern smartphone. You also get a 33W FlashCharge USB Type-C fast charger in the box.
Has Vivo managed to pack enough value into this slim package? If you’re curious, stay tuned to Gadgets360 for the full review, coming soon.
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