Vivo V27 Review: 50MP Camera Chameleon
We have a bit of deja vu here. A few weeks ago, we reviewed the Vivo V27 Pro, a budget phone with a large screen and a decent camera for streaming and gaming. While not good enough to earn a spot on the list of best mid-range smartphones, it was an overall good experience.
Can the simpler Vivo V27 do the same? Starting at around £325, it's an "attractively affordable" box and doesn't take too many shortcuts compared to the Pro. Price competition ranges from the £299 Poco X5 Pro 5G to the £449 Samsung Galaxy A54 and Redmi Note 12 Pro+. And let's not forget the best in its class like the Google Pixel 6a. Does it compete with such esteemed rivals?
Design and construction: Chameleon
Rave bangers everywhere will want the Magic Blue or Emerald Green version of the V27, which glows and changes color under UV light. The Noble Black is more subtle, even with a raised glitter texture on the back, while the Flowing Gold variant has a shimmering pastel gradient. They are all the cutting edge between chic and stylish.
Our emerald green phone has a subtle marble effect in daylight and makes the back of the phone glow. However, it emits a warm glow under UV light. It's a great effect, but not very noticeable. The bottle is not very grippy and can easily slip out of your hand if you are not careful. It picks up stains very easily, although some will fade over time. In this case, a matte finish might work better.
Measuring just 7.36 mm and weighing just 182 grams, the V27 is Vivo's thinnest and lightest phone with a curved edge display. But so is the V27 Pro, so don't let size decide between the two. The rear camera extends a bit further and is enough to place the phone on a flat surface like a scratched bar table.
Display and sound: Thematic
Curved edge displays are evidenced by the enemy V27. Navigation that requires swiping from the edge of the screen isn't the most responsive. The phone complements this with a 2400×1080 resolution AMOLED panel, complete with a 120Hz refresh rate for deliciously smooth scrolling.
Everything looks very good for the price. Dark colors get an extra boost, bringing out deep, rich sky blues and hot pinks even more. There's a decidedly cinematic feel to films that shrink below 7 inches, but it won't appeal to those who care about color accuracy. But the sound quality is not that high.
It's a better phone than the V27 Pro, but while this phone sounds balanced and spacious at full volume, the V27 sounds a bit distorted and aggressive. It's also very easy to drown out the speakers when you pick up the phone.
Camera: Solid Snapper
With a 50MP main snapper, an 8MP ultra-wide angle lens and a 2MP macro lens, the V27 is equipped with photography in the same vein as the more expensive V27 Pro. With the same level of detail and very similar color treatment, there isn't much to say about them side by side. Dark colors and shadows were more pronounced on the V27 when shooting outdoors, but indoor shots were just as vibrant and colorful.
At night, optical image stabilization helps reduce shaky images even at slow shutter speeds. Real-time Extreme Night Vision means you preview your footage before pressing the shutter to make sure you have the best exposure, but the results are somewhat unpredictable. Sometimes it reflects the light on wet pavement with warm, orange hues, but sometimes it can really accentuate the misery of a terrible weather day. Depending on what you want to write, this can be a good thing or a bad thing. Portraits look decent enough with plenty of fill in low light with a soft lighting effect and bright LED flash.
Vivo also caters to creators with Vlog Movie Creator, which lets you quickly edit videos with a built-in timeline and advanced editing and trimming features. As with Vivo's other phones, the V27's somewhat dystopian portrait enhancement feature is enabled by default. It's actually a simple airbrush that can be used to refine, refine and smooth facial features in real time. Skin bleaching is problematic, as it is with the V27 Pro.
Performance and software: bloated
Power comes from a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 processor along with 8 or 12GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage, depending on the model. That puts it behind the V27 Pro and its Dimension 8200 processor, but it still glides pretty seamlessly from app to app. YouTube videos load quickly and games don't take long to load, although MediaTek is a step behind Qualcomm in GPU performance, so don't expect the best framerate for your money here.
The phone runs Funtouch OS 13, Vivo's Android avatar for the western market, which means it suffers from some of the same problems we encountered when it was applied to the Vivo X90 Pro, including an app drawer full of Vivo- buildings of Google. A bunch of pre-installed third parties also clutter the home screen, making the V27 cluttered and cluttered on the go. A library of themes, fonts and wallpapers can be downloaded to improve the interface a bit, but for a fee
Battery: Fast charging
The 4600mAh battery puts the V27 on par with the V27 Pro. Both phones use Vivo's 66W FlashCharge power adapter, which enables a full charge in over an hour. We went from 42% to 100% with the screen off in about 40 minutes. It's reliable in quickly topping up the battery, but it falls short of mid-range models with fast charging like the Redmi.
The phone easily lasts a full day and night with heavy use and should probably last a weekend with casual use. That's what you should expect from similarly priced phones these days, so it's all about the money here.
Wireless charging is still a rarity in affordable phones, so it's no surprise you won't see it here.
Vivo V27 verdict
Given the choice between the Vivo V27 and its big brother, the Pro-er, we're not sure we'd spend or spare an extra £50. It shines in the same areas as the V27 Pro: a clear screen, a detailed main camera for the price and respectable performance. But it also replicates the phone's faults and adds a few of its own.
FunTouch OS remains a ported and bloated version of Android, the camera is still overkill with its beauty mode, and there are question marks over the phone's durability. There are many competitors with optimized operating systems that we need to buy to keep up.
The V27 is mainly aimed at India, Southeast Asia and the UAE, where it makes more sense. Here in the west it is not enough to make a big impact.
