Vivo Nex First Impressions: Flagship Quality With Pop-up Camera

Vivo Nex with notch-less screen and pop-up front camera has been launched in India.

Vivo Nex is a high-end phone with this unique camera. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Vivo Nex is finally launching in India and this phone packs some features that we’re seeing for the first time. Vivo has priced the Nex at Rs 44,990 and it will be available from 21 July onwards.

This is less than what you’ll pay for the Oppo Find X, but more than the price of the OnePlus 6 in the market. Having said that, this is Vivo’s most expensive phone in the country, with flagship hardware, that goes up against giants like Samsung and Google among others.

So, does this Vivo phone offer anything new from the herd of smartphones that are already available in the market. Here’s our first impression of the Vivo Nex.

Design

Vivo has borrowed all the elements of a smartphone that you can buy in 2018 and more. By that we mean it has an 18:9 ratio screen with a small chin at the bottom, dual rear cameras and more features. Design-wise, the Vivo Nex isn’t offering anything really different.

Vivo Nex gets a design with 91.2 percent screen-to-body ratio. (Photo: The Quint)

Interestingly, the SIM slot is at the bottom of the phone, right next to the USB Type C port. This means, the Nex only houses a single audio speaker unit, while the headphone jack is at the top. Vivo has also added a physical button on the left which opens up Google Lens via the phone’s camera.

SIM slot at the bottom. (Photo: The Quint)

Even with a large capacity battery, Vivo has made sure the thickness of the Nex doesn’t go beyond 8mm, but it still weighs 199 grams, closer to what Xiaomi’s Mi Max weighs. All in all, the Vivo Nex is a good looking phone, which packs all the right ingredients for a high-end phone in 2018.

Display

Vivo has adopted a 6.59-inch Full-HD screen with Super AMOLED quality at 2,136 x 1,080 pixels resolution. Vivo claims to have given a 91.2 percent screen-to-body ratio with the Nex, one of the biggest in the market for now. To the naked eye, those dimensions do look attractive, and that’s clearly Vivo’s play with this phone.

6.59-inch screen with Full-HD+ is resolution. (Photo: The Quint)

The screen quality is heavy on contrast, the blacks are really deep, something that’s the hallmark of a Super AMOLED screen. The colours are also on the brighter side, which will add gloss to your viewing experience.

In-display fingerprint scanner on the Vivo Nex. (Photo: The Quint)

But this isn’t a regular display. Vivo is one of the first phone brands to have succeeded in offering the fingerprint scanner within the display.

Small chin at the bottom of the screen. (Photo: The Quint)

Not even Samsung or Apple has managed to do that. The feature works as advertised, you place the registered finger over the thumb icon, press it slightly and the phone unlocks in a few seconds.

Hardware

Vivo has left little to your imagination with the specs of the Nex and for this price tag we expect that. The phone packs Snapdragon 845 processor with 8GB RAM and offering 128GB storage onboard.

High-end hardware with ample storage on offer. (Photo: The Quint)

Nex comes with a combo of 12-megapixel and 5-megapixel cameras at the back, with aperture f/1.8 and f/2.4 respectively. This ensures that the primary camera is capable of shooting in low-light with adequate detailed images on offer.

Dual rear cameras on the Vivo Nex. (Photo: The Quint)

The Nex packs a 4,000 mAh battery, which should be ideal enough for video consumption and other usage on a regular basis.

Camera That Pops-Up

The secret behind a bigger screen-to-body ratio on the Nex is its unique front camera placement. Instead of going for the notch, Vivo has managed to fit the camera within the module of the phone at the top, which pops up whenever needed.

Pop-up selfie camera is an innovative feature. (Photo: The Quint)

Yep, that’s right, just like the Oppo Find X, Vivo Nex packs a front camera with motorised module that opens and closes, while clicking a selfie. This selfie camera is an 8-megapixel unit with fixed aperture of f/2.0 integrated.

You can select Google Lens from the camera app. (Photo: The Quint)

The quality of the camera is decent for selfie pictures. They have also packed it with features like Beauty Mode that enhances the picture quality, as claimed by the brand.

What we Think

Nex from Vivo is an attempt to show the world that it can design phones beyond offering just good selfie cameras.

The pop-up camera technology could be a move in an interestingly direction for the phone industry in the future, especially if it helps them get rid of the notch design. Having said that, how viable is the motorised feature, if you’re using it frequently?

Rs 44,990 for the Vivo Nex which will be available later this week. (Photo: The Quint)

These are some questions that’ll become clearer in the coming months. For Rs 44,990 Vivo is offering buyers a powerful phone, with ample storage, a large-capacity battery and some unique features that are likely to become a trend in the foreseeable future.