vivo’s all-new X50 series flagship smartphone is one of those phones that pictures simply don’t do justice to how premium it feels in hand, and how stunning its design looks. vivo can hang with the best in the class including Apple, Samsung and Huawei when it comes to creating stylish, sublime feeling handsets. All of this head-turning styling comes in a very gripable and pocketable package (158.46 x 72.8 x 8.04 mm; 181.5g).
Beyond its looks, the smartphone also packs photography capabilities, 5G connectivity, a large battery delivering a really good battery life, and snappy performance for less than most rivals.
Powering the vivo X50 Pro is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G, which might not be the range-topping Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 mobile platform, but also supports 5G connectivity (making it futureproof) and never felt slugging whilst navigating Android 10, gaming or multitasking. This octa-core mobile platform clocked at 2.4 GHz is paired with 8 GB of RAM doesn’t have to stand back for the Exynos chips powering Samsung’s devices in our market, delivering buttery smooth framerates in mobile games like Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, and Asphalt 9: Legends. This works out even better thanks to its 3D Curved Ultra O screen and its 90 Hz refresh rate which delivers super smooth scrolling performance and gaming framerates for titles that support it. This large 6.56″ HDR10+ supporting AMOLED display made by Samsung also packs great detail (FHD+; 2376×1080) and colour.
Moreover, the vivo X50 Pro scored 478 372 for OpenGL ES3.0 within 3D Mark Sling Slot Extreme and 518 078 in the Vulkan test for the same benchmark app. Within Geekbench 5 it clocked 639 for the single core score and 1958 for the multicore score, while doing 18897 for the CPU test within Performance Test Mobile 3.0.
In terms of photography the vivo X50 Pro does not have to stand back for any smartphone in any priceclass. It packs a 48MP main lens, 13MP portrait lens, 8MP wide-angle lens and 5MP super macro lens. For selfie-lovers, there is a 32MP front-facing shooter that captures great detail. While this is already some serious hardware that enables anyone to capture great shots with very little effort, the vivo X50 Pro packs another party trick.
It packs a ground-breaking Gimbal Camera System, which delivers super stabilisation, allowing smartphone photographers to capture professional-quality photos and videos while in motion. This feature works a treat and helps make this smartphone an easy recommended device for photography lovers, videography lovers, bloggers, vloggers, and aspiring YouTube/TikTok/Instagram Reel influencers. Sound from the speakers is good too, but even better if you utilise vivo’s TWS Neo bluetooth earphones.
Other features include 256 GB worth of onboard storage, an under-display fingerprint reader that works every time and a large 4315 mAh battery that is easily capable of getting you through a complete working day. Moreover, you can charge the battery back to full in less than an hour thanks to the 33W vivo FlashCharge charging capability and included fast charger.
Final word
All in all, the vivo X50 Pro is a beast of a smartphone that phablet fans, photography fans, videographers, and those looking for flagship design and performance at top end midrange prices will really appreciate. It goes for a recommended retail price of R19 999, making it more affordable that competing flagships such as Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Plus (R22 000) or the Huawei P40 Pro (R21 000).
