Vivo V27 Pro: Takes Great Portraits, Despite The Ring Light
The Vivo range of phones is back and for the first time in years this model isn't sold entirely with its front-facing selfie camera. Priced at $460 in India and Southeast Asia, the Vivo V27 Pro looks like a typical flagship phone. And like these phones, the focus is on the front (rear) camera system.
Out of the box, there are two hardware features that make a good first impression. The original Vivo V27 Pro looks like a flagship Android phone with a curved front display and unibody glass combined with aluminum. Body: The 6.8-inch OLED display can produce a billion colors and the refresh rate is up to 120Hz, it's a very good panel. You really have to know the phone to know if this screen is inferior (in terms of peak brightness and viewing angles) to $1,000 phones. Previous Vivo V devices had a selfie camera with no notch with a small hole in the notch, not this time.
My device has a blue back but like the latest Vivo V phones it can change color due to a UV absorbing coating. I find this feature too strange and I haven't even tried changing the colors but I can't give it up entirely, I'm sure there are people who love flowers in their phone design.
If you're wondering what the color changing effect looks like, I tried this on an old Vivo phone. Cover part of your phone, lay it in the sun or turn on the UV lamp and you'll have a tan on your back in seconds. So, as you can imagine, you can get creative and put your own logo or design on the device. The color change lasts only a few minutes and then returns to normal.
Elsewhere, the Vivo V27 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chip, which is powerful enough for most users. But the star of the show is the camera system, which includes a special ring light that Vivo calls the "main light".
I can see that the light is useful in dark situations, but again, not for me, I prefer my photos to look natural with no obvious flash.
If you want to do without this gimmick, the camera system and the image processing software from Vivo are sufficient. I took these photos in a Japanese style bar with low light (no flash) and these photos look great on a $400 phone.
The main camera, a 50-megapixel shooter with an f/1.9 aperture and a 1/1.56-inch sensor size, is a good sensor that can absorb light without sacrificing shutter speed. And Vivo's software process has been pretty good for the past few years, perhaps the best in the business.
The rest of the phone can be a mixed bag. The ultra-wide 8MP is best used during the day, the 4600mAh battery can last all day, but the single speaker lags behind the competition and audio output is weak. The phone is light at 182g, but the feel is smooth and soft. If you're wondering what the third camera lens is, don't worry. It's another 2-megapixel sensor that doesn't do anything.
Overall, the Vivo V27 Pro is another good mid-range from Vivo, but as I wrote in my recent Vivo V smartphone reviews, the company seems to be releasing these devices at a rapid pace. We didn't have time to take a break from the V25 Pro and the V27 Pro is here.
However, this rating only applies to the V series as the Vivo X series flagship phones are still among the flagship Android phones. But it's good that Vivo continues to release cool mid-range devices for the Southeast Asian market that are often overlooked for the North American, European or East Asian market.
