vivo V20 Price in the Philippines and Specification

Pros

• The design of the smartphone looks elegant and feels premium
• The device has an excellent display
• The battery life is good and charges fast at 33W
• The main camera is capable especially in good lighting conditions
• The operating system Funtouch 11 is user-friendly and performs smoothly
• The base model has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage
• The device has a 3.5mm audio jack and ships with a pair of earphones
• The device ships with a handy transparent protective case

Cons

• The performance is not as good as other mid-range smartphones
• The ultra-wide camera is mediocre
• There is no wireless charging
• There is no IP rating for water and dust resistance

Gorgeously Sleek and Compact

In simple terms, the Vivo V20 is a beautiful smartphone. At the front is a tall 6.44-inch display, but the front still remains to have very slim bezels at the side, a small teardrop notch at the top and a somewhat thicker but still relatively tiny chin. The front looks premium, but what sets this apart is the stylish back design. At the rear, you will immediately see the gorgeous frosted glass with a gradient design that comes in either the "Sunset Melody", "Midnight Jazz" and "Moonlight Sonata" colorways. These are definitely stunning to look at while still being functional as the frosted glass gives it a matte finish which does a great job of hiding fingerprint smudges. At the back is also where the rounded rectangular camera module is located with a black and silver two-tone finish, and this just adds a contrast to the overall design. There is a small Vivo branding towards the bottom left which still looks clean. The sides of the smartphone are made from polycarbonate. At the right is the textured power button and the volume rocker, at the bottom is the USB Type-C port along with the 3.5mm audio jack and a speaker grill, and at the left is the sim tray cutout. Even though this smartphone is a mid-range device, it really does hold its ground against its competitors and even high-end flagships just with the sheer beauty of its build and design language. If you're looking for a smartphone that also serves as a fashion piece, then this just might be the device for you.

Bright and Vibrant AMOLED Display

One great feature of the Vivo V20 is that it has an excellent display. The display measures 6.44 inches, and even though that may seem big, the tall aspect ratio of 20:9 keeps the phone compact in the hand. The resolution is 1080 x 2400, and with the panel itself, the colors are accurate and sharp. The phone gets plenty bright too, as it could be manually adjusted to 438 nits, but with Auto mode and under direct sunlight, it boosts to 620 nits, so the device could still be used with ease outdoors. Blacks are deep and the image it produces has high contrast without being too saturated. If you prefer warmer or cooler tones, there is an option to adjust this in the settings which is a great touch. Additional features include the always-on display mode and DC dimming or night mode which reduces flickering to ease the eyes in low light. One drawback with the display is that it only runs at 60hz. This could be well acceptable for the majority of users, but with recent smartphone releases in this market that have 90hz panels, this could be a dealbreaker for some. Furthermore, some units may not support HD streaming on Netflix or Prime videos, but Vivo did say that retail units sold in India where this is primarily focused on will not have this problem Still, the display of the Vivo V20 is excellent for watching videos or streaming videos and even playing games. Overall, the smartphone has an excellent display that will easily please most users.

SoC That Gets The Job Done

The Vivo V20 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G CPU with the Adreno 618 GPU. This is not the most recent SoC and is of course not the most powerful one ever, but what the smartphone lacks in raw performance, it makes up for with its 8GB of RAM, as devices in this price point tend to have 6GB or even 4GB of it. For benchmarks, the smartphone scored 1686 on Geekbench 5 for multi-core and 554 for single-core according to gsmarena.com. It also scored 276006 on AnTuTu 8, and 2451 on 3DMark. These scores are just about average, and there are many mid-range smartphones such as the Oneplus Nord that easily beats the Vivo V20, but in real-world scenarios, the chipset is still very capable. It can run games smoothly, although for more demanding titles the settings should be tweaked a little bit to achieve a more stable framerate. For processing images especially night mode shots, there is a little loading time here and there, but it's not a dealbreaker. For daily tasks and multitasking, however, the phone is excellent thanks to its high capacity RAM, so there are no issues in that scenario. To summarize, if you're a hardcore gamer that wants to play games like PUBG or Call of Duty and even stream your gameplay online then this phone will certainly not be the right choice for you, but if you just play casually and are more focused on having an elegant device that does the normal stuff with ease, then the Vivo V20 is a great option.

Adding Fun to Android 11

A great thing about the Vivo V20 is that it was actually one of the first smartphones that ran Android 11 right out of the box. The OS that Vivo used here is Funtouch 11, and even though that name sounds like it's full of unnecessary gimmicks and bloatware, the software actually looks very similar to stock Android with just additional features. There are virtually zero pre-installed third-party apps here, aside from a neat iManager app that helps with managing memory, data usage and is an additional anti-virus as well. This is a very welcome move, as brands often like to put a colorful skin on top of Android to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack, at the expense of the users having to deal with lots of unnecessary apps and features they will never need. Features of the OS include navigation gestures and quick access to Google Assistant with a diagonal swipe, grouped notifications, and so on. But what's unique to Funtouch 11 is customization. You can change your fonts, apply themes, and enable Always-On Display clocks. There is also customization when it comes to system animations and effects, but if you like it simple, you have the option to do that as well. Lastly, an awesome feature of the Vivo V20 is the Ultra Game Mode. This mode gives users a list of optimized game settings depending on what they're playing and also offers many options to block notifications. The mode also has frame interpolation which means that if you're running at 47fps, it can boost your image to produce 60fps for a smoother experience. Overall, Funtouch 11 over Android 11 is a smooth and simple OS that matches the elegance and beauty of the device.

Great Primary Cameras Backed With Decent Auxiliaries

In recent years, mid-range smartphones often have great features and processors but sacrifice camera quality to make the price more affordable. That is not the case with the Vivo V20, as its primary camera takes great photos. At the rear of the device is a triple camera system consisting of a 64-megapixel main sensor, an 8 megapixel ultra-wide, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor for portrait photography. The primary sensor takes great photos especially in daylight conditions. The contrast is great and the details are sharp. There is almost zero noise too unless you look really close, but that's the case with almost all mid-range smartphones. This primary camera alone is more than good enough for posting on social media apps like Instagram and Facebook, and the sensor performs nicely even in low light. Low light images have a wide dynamic range, fine details, and minimal noise. This is even made better since the device has a night mode, brightening the subject and clipping the highlights whilst still preserving the details. This is a great feature and overall gives the users more flexibility with their shots no matter what the lighting conditions are.

Moving on to the ultra-wide camera, the shots it produces are decent. They tend to be soft and lacking in detail but still provide a different perspective depending on your goal. For portrait shots, the 2-megapixel sensor does a good job of edge detection and adding bokeh. It also maintains natural skin tones and a good dynamic range, so all in all a great feature. For selfies, the camera has a 44-megapixel sensor at the front, and images look sharp and natural especially in bright light. For videos, the Vivo V20 can shoot up to 4K resolution at 30fps, and there's also an ultra steady mode that looks like a GoPro video that's locked to 1080p@50fps when using the ultra-wide. Overall, the Vivo V20 is a great mobile phone shooter, and the average user will be pleased with its capabilities in terms of photography and videography.

Slim and Compact Smartphone With a Respectable Battery Life

The Vivo V20 packs a 4,000mAh battery. This is not a large battery by any means, especially when against phones with up to 7,000mAh batteries, but thanks to the efficiency of Android 11, the 60hz panel, and solid RAM management, the battery life of the smartphone is excellent. The battery will yield you more than a day of use even with heavy usage, at more than 9 hours of screen on time. The bundled 33W charger is a good addition too, as fully charging the phone from 0 to 100% takes about 1.5 hours. We did not expect this smartphone to have a great battery life especially since it is so compact and slim, but it turned out better than expected.

For connectivity, the Vivo V20 is as complete as the average modern smartphone. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, and a rarely seen 3.5 mm audio jack. The in-display fingerprint sensor is decent as well, and although it's not the fastest that we've seen, it's accurate and never misses a scan. Unfortunately, the device lacks wireless charging, but that's quite expected at this price point. There is also no IP rating for water resistance here, so if you want to get this smartphone, make sure to be careful around pools and beaches. The mono bottom-firing speaker gets plenty loud, although a bit distorted at max volumes, but still gets the job done.

An Enjoyable Premium-feeling Smartphone

Vivo did a great job with the V20. The device's best features are its design, screen, battery life, and software. The camera is great but not the best, and the SoC is far from being the fastest, yet the device still packs all the right features to be considered a premium daily-driver. We would have loved to see additional features such as a high refresh rate display, wireless charging, water resistance, and a top-grade processor, but at its given price of only PHP 19,499, the Vivo V20 is one of the best options right now if you want one of the most beautiful smartphones of 2020 that could handle daily tasks well.

December 24, 2020