Vivo X27 Review – When Cool Gimmicks, Appearance Sells Over Performance

[su_heading size=”20″ margin=”30″]Design & Appearance[/su_heading]

When you first look at the smartphone, the most noticeable thing is the display. In comparison to X23, it has a more screen-to-body ratio. Most importantly, the zero-bound full-screen design and the electric lift front camera reminds us of last June when Vivo NEX hit the world.

There is no doubt that the Vivo X27 completely eliminates the borders and adds the electric lift camera structure thanks to the exploration made by NEX.

A rare rectangular screen with no borders, no notch, no holes. It’s simply what we call Full-screen. So, for the people out there who hates top-notch (wide or water drop) or thick borders, this flagship is an excellent option apart from the Mi MIX 3.

[su_pullquote]Replacing the front screen vibration sounding scheme of Vivo NEX with a normal earpiece is a good way to reduce the cost of Vivo X27[/su_pullquote]

Looking at the details at the top of the screen, you can see that it is different from the Vivo NEX. It is based on the wide front piece, replacing the front screen vibration sounding scheme of Vivo NEX with a normal earpiece. But even with such compromises, Vivo manages to hide it at the junction of the frame and the glass cover of the screen. Thus, this makes the earpiece barely noticeable.

As we said before, a lifting camera module with LED lighting effect is particularly attractive throughout the fuselage. However, it should be noted that the lamp here is purely decorative. It is not equivalent to the fill light used in the previous Vivo flagship. When the camera is lifted, it will flash instantaneously, which makes the front camera module rise and fall with a more appealing effect. In addition, it also has no LED breathing light, which makes it out of the ordinary.

The color choice is limited to three colors: Rose Gold, Green and Blue. However, reviewing the blue one, the color gradient is somewhat dazzling. At first glance, it feels natural and transparent. Then with just a slight tilt, there’s the dark blue gradient reflection along with visible straight line pattern. To be honest, it’s much better than the multi-colored gradient back of most smartphones.

It can be seen that the X27 also introduces the streak texture. The radius of the cross-section of the back of the chassis changes continuously and is smooth. The layers of the chassis flow are varied, and the details are rich, soft, and delicate. According to the official, the coating thickness increases from 40nm. Above 40 nm, the thickness deviation is controlled to be between ±5 nm.

On the rear, the triple camera layout appears to be very interesting. It does not follow the existing model-like design of Apple, Huawei, and other manufacturers. Rather it has its own unique layout, a black glass border starting from the top left incorporating the primary camera with a circle, Dual LED flash, and at the end two secondary cameras. The layout is refreshing as well as the appealing, neither it’s bulging nor it’s too flat.

In comparison to the previous flagships, the thickness of Vivo X27 is what we call ‘not very vivo’. The flagship is no longer thin and reaches the thickness of 8.95mm and weighs 188 grams.

However, the thickness appears to be just fine considering the massive 4000mAh battery, an oversized IMX586, and front lifting camera.

Although the Vivo X27 has been trying to avoid this look through a variety of visually clever designs. However, compared with the previous generations, the change and look of being a chubby phone are too obvious.

A round of applause goes to the Type-C interface finally incorporating Vivo X27. In fact, it’s the first flagship of Vivo to use one despite its trend for the last two years. Moreover, there’s the 3.5mm audio jack retained as well.

[su_heading size=”20″ margin=”30″]Screen & Display[/su_heading]

The new Vivo X27 features a large 6.39-inch, Full-HD+ Super AMOLED screen. In comparison to Vivo X23, nothing has changed in the display apart from moving to no borders from the top-notch. Moreover, a minor but appreciable feature of Gorilla Glass Protection 3 has been added as well to increase the durability, meanwhile, the previous model had the scratch resistance coating only. However, using the third generation is itself lame. Even the Redmi Note 7 uses a Gorilla Glass Protection 5, despite its cheap plastic chassis.

Samsung’s Super AMOLED displays have been known for yielding high contrast and sharpness in pictures along with incredible energy efficiency in contrast to the IPS ones. Such is the display of X27. Thanks to the notch eliminated, we can now enjoy a true full-screen experience.

Continued on Page 3 (Hardware & Performance)