Vivo has unveiled the V27 Pro smartphone in India, continuing the V-series’ six-monthly renewal cycle. The phone replaces the Vivo V25 Pro (review) and comes with updated and new features. The new V-series model features improved performance and camera capabilities in addition to a slightly revised look. All of this does sound excellent, but can the phone compete as a “value buy” with other phones of its kind? Continue reading our Vivo V27 Pro review to find out.
Verdict
The Vivo V27 Pro appears to be a mid-range phone that should be a worthwhile choice for most people. The device has an eye-catching appearance, a gorgeous screen, great battery life, reliable cameras, and passable performance. Although it might not have the best performance or speakers in the market, many potential customers, especially those who are buying offline, may not care about these little flaws.
The lowdown
-The Vivo V27 Pro’s design isn’t all that different from the V25 Pro it replaces. It continues to use the visually appealing 3D curved screen, which is good news for the phone’s thin design. The phone has a thin profile of just 7.36mm. The drawback is that I found the device to be slippery despite how pleasant it is to hold. The slim plastic frame is difficult to hold onto when using the phone. The phone’s back is covered of glass with a matte texture that changes colour. When sunlight strikes the surface of the Magic Blue variation, which was supplied to me for evaluation, the colour transforms from light blue to dark blue. The item has a nice appearance, but what I enjoyed most about it was the matte surface.The latter provides a comfortable grip and guarantees that the phone is free of sweaty fingerprints or smudges.
-On the back panel of the Vivo V27 Pro, there is a sizable rectangular camera housing that is shiny rather than matte. The handset wobbles when sitting flat on a surface because the casing doesn’t fit flush with the chassis. Moving on, the phone has a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer as well as an in-display fingerprint scanner that quickly unlocks the smartphone. The port can also be utilised to use wired earbuds to listen to music. The phone contains volume and power controls that are simple to access with one hand on the right side of the frame. I didn’t have to use any fancy finger moves to change the level. The display, however, does not fit into this category.
Regarding the 120Hz screen refresh rate, it was effective in all supported UIs and apps. The single bottom-firing speaker on the Vivo V27 Pro, however, produces subpar sound at best given the price. Although it is loud, there is no stereo experience, and Dolby Atmos is not supported either.
-Continuing on, the MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoC keeps the Vivo V27 Pro running. It is a capable high-end chipset with an ARM Mali-G610 MC6 GPU and a 3.1GHz clock speed. The chipset is coupled with 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage and 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5 Memory. Although the storage cannot be expanded, the phone can use a portion of the storage to add up to 8GB of virtual RAM. Here’s a short glance at the benchmark results before I discuss real-world usage:
-AnTuTu awarded the V27 Pro 8,39,769 points. It scored 1,213 and 3,681 points in the single-core and multi-core tests on Geekbench, respectively. Even if the results appear outstanding, the performance of the device slows down after running 50 threads for 30 minutes in the CPU Throttle benchmarking test. This is also apparent in how the phone is used. When subjected to heavy loads, such as simultaneously running many programmes in the background and playing games, the device would experience some lag and some heating up. However other from that, the machine worked well and handled practically everything that was thrown at it.
Games like Virtua Tennis Challenge, Subway Surfer, and Asphalt 9 ran well and quickly after being installed. The device also provided a smooth multitasking experience when a few apps were running in the background.
-When it comes to the cameras, the Vivo V27 Pro has a 50MP primary sensor, which is less than its 64MP predecessor. Instead of a Samsung GW1, the sensor is a customised Sony IMX766V, which has a number of unique capabilities like portrait with aura (LED) light and wedding-style portrait. The latter is a feature that is unique to India and was created with the colour scheme of Indian weddings in mind. I was unable to test it at a wedding, unfortunately. The device’s triple camera arrangement on the rear also includes a secondary 8MP wide-angle and a third 2MP macro sensor. You got a 50MP camera up front for taking selfies and making video calls.
-I was really impressed with the Vivo V27 Pro’s photographic abilities, with the exception of the macro sensor, which is not particularly effective. Both the 50MP rear and front cameras processed and focused pictures taken in daylight quickly. When the sun is out, the photographs may occasionally appear to be underexposed, but overall, the cameras did a decent job capturing detail and colour fidelity. The skin tones, shadows, and highlights were all done well. Also, the portrait mode performs a respectable job of edge recognition for the subject in focus and background blurring. By tapping on the “f” icon on the camera layout in portrait mode, the focal length can be changed.
The handset does well to preserve as much detail with the least amount of noise at morning and at night. Nonetheless, colours might not appear realistic. Under poor or artificial lighting, the front camera also has a tendency to blur the facial details. The 8MP wide-angle sensor isn’t exceptional, but when there is enough light, it can take some appealing pictures.
-With a 4,600mAh battery inside, the Vivo V27 Pro can easily last a whole day and then some for casual users. The device can last you all day between charges if you’re a power user who enjoys watching movies and web series on a little screen, chatting, playing games, and checking social media accounts frequently. The phone scored 15 hours and 32 minutes on the PCMark battery test, which is extremely impressive. Although the phone’s 66W fast charging solution isn’t the fastest wired charging option, it’s still enough. The included charger can fully charge the gadget from zero to one hundred percent in under an hour.