After 8 hours of travel on a motorcycle from Rome to Milan, the V21 5G shows no signs of abating: used under a relentless sun with the screen always at maximum brightness, the Google Maps navigator was unable to exhaust the 4 thousand mAh battery.
It was to be expected: the new smartphone produced by Vivo, with an unprecedented 44-megapixel front camera equipped with optical (OIS) and electronic (EIS) stabilization and two LED flashes incorporated in the frame (Dual Selfie Spotlight), it was developed with content creators in mind, those who want to take selfies and shoot superior quality frontal videos. Activities for which you need to have good autonomy (also thanks to a low consumption chipset), and that the new smartphone allows you to perform with results above expectations.
Lightweight and easy to handle, it accompanied us on summer holidays without weighing too much in our pockets: on the scale it stops at 176 grams, also thanks to the fact that it is made entirely of plastic, with a thickness reduced to 7.29 mm. Despite this, the V21 5G conveys a feeling of solidity both because it is very well assembled and because it is characterized by a design which closely resembles the top models of the Chinese manufacturer (such as the X60 Pro).
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How it is made and how it takes pictures
The beating heart of the Vivo smartphone with 5G connectivity is a 8 core Mediatek Dimensity 800U 5G processor 2.4 GHz that works in tandem with a Mali G57 MC3 GPU. A recent system with good performance that can count on 8 Gb of Ram and 128 of internal memory UFS 2.2, which can also be expanded via microSD to be purchased separately and inserted in the same slot that can contain, alternatively, a possible second nanosim. NFC, Bluetooth 5.1 e WI-FI 6 are the technologies that complete the connectivity together with the aforementioned 5G, while there is no trace of the 3.5 mm audio jack as well as the fingerprint reader, which however is only well hidden under the display and seems to react to the touch better than on other competing models. The single speaker on the bottom of the smartphone returns audio in mono mode.
Since you don’t live on selfies alone, Vivo has equipped the V21 5G also with 3 effective rear cameras: a main 64 megapixel camera with ƒ / 1.8 aperture with optical stabilization (OIS), a wide-angle lens with 8 megapixel sensor and ƒ / 2.2 aperture and a small macro shooting system with 2 megapixel sensor and ƒ / 2.4 aperture. Of the three, the main camera inevitably stands out, which showed good color rendering and sharpness of details, also aided by the Super Night Pro function, which supports shooting in low light conditions. It is then possible shoot videos in 4K mode with both the front and rear cameras main, where, however, we have noticed some uncertainty in the performance in motion.
In line with the overall quality of the Vivo V21 5G, the screen is a good 6.44 inch Samsung with FullHD + resolution (1080 x 2400 pixels), characterized by brightness up to 500 nit, variable refresh rate up to 90 Hz and always on mode support. Clearly readable even in full summer light, it returns bright colors and well-defined images. Finally the operating system is the FunTouch OS 11, developed by Vivo based on Android 11 from which it differs very little, for a user experience not unlike that of the Google Pixel.
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What we liked
Handling, solidity constructive, good autonomy and of course the excellent front camera, first to boast the double optical and digital stabilization, the double LED and an exaggerated 44 megapixel sensor.
What we didn’t like
The absence of the audio jack and the official price of 449 euros, a bit high for this market segment (although there are already many offers online).
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