Teenaesh VijeeThose were the days where OPPO and Vivo used to be categorized as lower end phones and many used to criticize until one fine day these companies went all the way out and spent a lot of time to fix these issues. They started changing people’s mindset and now they all the way up on the list of best selling smartphone brands. We have a recently launched Vivo V21 and managed to spend two weeks with the device. This review is purely on a user’s point of view and fully based on user experience.
Design
The V21’s design is without a doubt one of the phone’s best features. The Vivo V21 is one of the company’s stunningly designed smartphones. The phone has a glass back surrounded by metal railings that fits perfectly in the palm of your hand. However, the rear glass is finished in matte rather than the standard glossy look. The color that we have with us is Sunset Dazzle. The volume rocker and the power button are on the right side while the left edge is empty. The SIM card slot, a USB Type-C port, a microphone, and a speaker grill are located on the bottom edge, while another microphone is located on the top edge. Turning around, we see a rear camera module that houses the triple camera. The design is very similar to the V20 Pro, with two levels – one for the lenses and one for the rear dual flash.
Display
The Vivo V21 comes with 6.44-inch AMOLED screen with a hefty resolution of 2400 x 1080 (409 ppi). The colors are very vivid and strong which is common for any AMOLED displays. The display is also HDR10+ certified hence contents played via Youtube will run with HDR10+ enabled. Not to forget, the display comes with 90HZ refresh rate which makes the phone extra smooth while scrolling and overall a smoother experience compared to those with 60HZ refresh rate.
Performance
Under the hood, the Vivo V21 is powered by Mediatek’s Dimensity 800U(MT6873V) octa-core processor. This is a 7nm processor based chipset that is highly rated by the company. The phone somewhat feels like running on a Snapdragon processor with no hiccups nor stutters. We also get 8GB of RAM alongside 128GB of internal storage. That is plenty and if it’s not enough, you may also borrow 3GB of storage space to be used as RAM disk. Playing games is highly recommended as we did not face any problem while doing so. Although the games we played are not graphically intense, games such as PES, Mobile Legend all went really good. There are no heating issues as well on the V21 which really works well since we tested using Waze for a long period. Not to forget it supports UFS 2.2, which offers a 110% faster read speed and a 95% faster write speed when compared with the previous generation technology in V20. Tested in a laboratory environment, the speed of installing large-scale applications (games) is 10% faster, the time to copy a file of 8GB is reduced by 20%, so you always make the most of your precious time.
Camera
The camera on the Vivo V21 is triple lens setup. The primary camera is 64MP with f1.8 aperture, LED flash, OIS and PDAF. The secondary camera comes with 8MP setup and works as the 119-degree ultra wide angle lens. The final camera comes with 2MP macro lens for great close-up shots. The default photo size is set at 16MP, so you need to change the mode in order to get the full 64MP resolution. To be honest, the camera does perform very well even in challenging environments. We think this has to do with the existence of OIS which enhances the capability of the camera. The macro shots are pretty much impressive compared to those phones that comes with 5MP macro lens setup. You can also take RAW photos for further editing and enthusiasts. The selfie camera which comes with 44MP lens is also a great performer. It comes with “Spotlight” named after the dual-LED flash by Vivo, which is really useful during video chat or live streaming.
Funtouch OS
Vivo V21 comes out of the box with Android 11 and Funtouch OS 11.1. There are plenty of customization capability that Funtouch OS can offer. You also have Always On display which is also customizeable according to your liking. Honorable mention will be the Ultra Game Mode which enhances the phone’s performance during gaming. It simply makes the Vivo V21 run on maximum clock level of the processor. There are plenty of bloatwares preinstalled on the phone which some of them are able to be uninstalled.
Network & Connectivity
The phone does support dual SIM connectivity and dual standby. The v21 has 5G because it has a MediaTek Dimensity 800U chipset with a built-in 5G modem. There were no call drop issues on my Digi network, nor were there any abnormal signal strength issues, and the sound from the earpiece was sufficiently loud. Bluetooth 5.1, Dual-Band Wi-Fi 5, GPS, NFC, and USB-OTG are among the other connectivity options. Although 5G is still not used in Malaysia, it is at least future proof in the upcoming days.
Battery Life
In terms of battery capacity, the V21 comes with 4000mAh. This is quite low despite the screen’s performance and refresh rate will be hungry for battery, however there is 33W fast charging feature which eliminates this issue. The full charge takes roughly less than an hour. The average screen on time was around 6 hours and we still had 5% of battery still available. Our usage pattern is medium to high mainly on watching videos and social network.
Pricing & Conclusion
The Vivo V21 is priced at RM1599 and comes with one year warranty. This phone is probably one of the top performer among the contenders as it is a pretty stable and overall well balanced. If you want a smartphone with reliable performance, good camera and fantastic display, look no further. The available color options are Arctic White, Sunset Dazzle and Dusk Blue. You may get it directly from Shopee or Lazada as Vivo Malaysia has their official online store. In case you want to try and feel before purchasing, you may always walk-in to the nearest Vivo branch near to you.