Vivo NEX 3 5G Review: Managed To Amaze Us | Smartphone Evolution

Smartphone Evolution: Review Vivo NEX 3 5G | Managed To Amaze Us!

The APEX Vivo concept has matured and produced commercial products. What product is that? Of course it is Vivo NEX 3 5G. Previously, our Smartphone Evolution has reviewed the 4G version, now we will review the 5G version of Vivo NEX 3. The 4G version alone has impressed us, especially the newest version, the Vivo NEX 3 5G. Let's review in full.

Vivo NEX 3 5G Review: Managed To Amaze Us | Smartphone Evolution

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Here we are Smartphone Evolution will review this cool smartphone. The Vivo NEX 3 5G has a dual-curved Super AMOLED display that wraps around the sides and has minimal top and bottom bezels. Surely that is according to the promise of APEX "for the future of all screens".

Vivo NEX 3 5G is equipped with 256GB of internal storage and 8GB / 12GB RAM. Wow! is amazing! surely you will be satisfied when you have it and do not want to lose it 'heheheh'. The latest Snapdragon 855+ is the chipset for the Vivo NEX 3 5G. Not in vain they put out this product ...

Vivo NEX 3 5G has no protection against dust and water. Also has stereo speakers that are lacking. Then again, we get how it can be a tall order making the earpiece quite loud.

This smartphone has a good selfie camera and has a flash on the pop-up mechanism. Behind him there is an ultra-focus camera. Has the closest focusing distance of 2.5cm. So it's like a macro right? remains the main unit of the Samsung Quad Bayer 64MP. Both of them joined the 2x telephoto zoom as a complement to a superior standard camera trio.

For authentication, Vivo NEX 3 5G relies on a fingerprint sensor. Oh yes, this smartphone has a battery with a healthy 4,500mAh capacity, and the ability to charge reaches 44 watts.

Vivo NEX 3 5G is provided with an elegant black square with the name NEX printed in a circle. You take off the top, hoping to finally get your phone, but there is a cover that you should avoid. It opens to the left, like a book. Bonus points for Vivo for presentations.

So NEX is on the left, in a plastic tray which hides more items underneath. You get a snap-on back cover with a leather back and simple corner protection. A USB-A-to-C cable is included in this compartment again.

On the right hand side of the phone you will find a set of in-ear buds ending with a 3.5mm plug - NEX 3 has a good headphone jack. Below them is the 44W adapter that we started with - a unit that can be thick and large. Hold on tightly and the cable is included even though fast charging does not work with generic peripherals.

360 Degree Design and Appearance

If you are aiming for the Vivo NEX 3, that's not much thanks to the screen. The first of what is known as a waterfall display, the 6.89-inch vivo Tremendous AMOLED NEX 3 is unlike any other.

It flows to the sides in a way that is more reminiscent of the Samsung Be aware Edge from 2014 than other handsets today. That is, apart from Mate 30 Professional, but who come a few days after NEX and have notches and notches that should be avoided, if you ask us.

Looking at the front of the NEX, you will be greeted by a screen almost 7 inches with the top and bottom flesh. Even though there is a conventional earpiece, it doesn't function as an additional speaker, which is a bit disappointing. We are willing to relate it to the fact that it is actually placed in a higher selfie camera assembly.

Cam pop-ups are what allow vivo to maintain a notch-free display. It comes with the front-facing flash again, it doesn't mean that the 6.89-inch screen will illuminate your face properly if necessary. Cool yes there is a pop-up cam!

You will see that NEX completely eliminates mechanical control, increasing Mate once again. If Mate has a clickable power button, NEX 3 relies on 3D Contact-like space (which still means?) On the right hand side that functions as a power button and controls quantity. The 'power button' gets a textured surface on aluminum as a touch signal to a location with quantity control above and below it.

While this pressure sensitive strip is independently powered so it must be accessible in an emergency, there is a separate, actually mechanical, energy button at the top just in case - not to be used per day, but there when you might need it.

Down at the bottom is a USB type C port with a loudspeaker on one side, and a card slot on the other. There are two small holes on either side of the USB port and our hands-on-hole testing shows only the left one really has a mic behind it - we could be wrong, and it's not like it's incredibly important.

There are many more polished aluminum top and bottom. Since we mentioned the emergency energy button, let's again discuss the other bits above. That includes a secondary mic for noise cancellation and stereo audio in video, and a headphone jack - hooray! Pieces that can be large for selfie camera assemblies are harder to miss.

Finally, we headed for the back of the phone. Vivo tightly packs three cameras in a circular cluster - it doesn't scream 'CAMERA' like some other makers do (cough, Apple, cough). There is an inscription '64M' that is barely visible between the three modules and lens specifications in a smooth concentric circle pattern around the unit, but all of them are inconspicuous and stylish. A single LED flash does not reach the camera circle and below it.

Our review unit is in the Liquid Tianhe color scheme (Google Translate says so) and that means the magic returns with the pearlescent effect that plays with all colors of pale purple, pink and cyan. Another option is called the Deep Air Streamer and looking at official photos, we will safely call it black even if it might have deeper depth once the light hits it.

The Vivo NEX 3 5G measures 167, four x 76.1 x 9.4mm and weighs 219g, which adds up to many phones. Mate 30 Professional is about 20g lighter and markedly more compact at 158.1 x 73.1 x 8.8mm, although this one comes with a smaller screen, of course. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Be aware10 + with 162, Three x 77.2 x 7.9mm is the widest but thinnest and right between the two in terms of height. The iPhone 11 Professional Max (226g) managed to surpass NEX, but again was one centimeter (158x77.8x8.1mm) shorter like Mate.

Read more: Realme X50 Pro 5G: Are You Worth Buying it?

6.89 Inch Screen

Vivo NEX 3 is one of the two cellphones with a waterfall display on the market, the other is Mate 30 Professional - okay, technically Four when you count each 5G version of the two mannequins. Even so, vivo was first added, and again even bigger - that's 3 out of 3 that supports it.

Vivo calls it the Tremendous AMOLED screen which implies Samsung made it. The 6.89-inch diagonal including the curved section helps the marketing department with a screen-to-body ratio, and vivo promo material says 99.6% - we don't know about that. Meanwhile, 1080x2256px resolution in 18.8: 9 aspect produces 363ppi density.

In our tests, the NEX 3 5G posted a maximum brightness of 415 nits in guide mode and 610 nits under automatic control in bright light. This is a reasonable number for a good fashionable OLED display, even though the Auto value is at the lower end of the spectrum. Minimum brightness is 2nits, so you can rest your eyes when looking in the dark.

The color reproduction of the NEX 3 5G is a little mixed bag. Out of the field, it comes in Standard mode, where we measure the average deltaE of 4, Three for our sample set against the DCI-P3 goal - not too bad. The problem is, the white dot shifts greatly to blue (delta around 11). You get the option to alleviate it by pushing the cold-to-warm slider to the right, although we will appreciate the accurate presets.

For this reason, there is a Regular mode, which is set for sRGB content reproduction. We measured a very good average deltaE of 2.1 with whites much closer to the truth though still imperfect (deltaE around 3).

Then there is the Brilliant mode that barely makes a difference in brightness, even though it offers a slightly wider gamut.

NEX screen is capable HDR, sort of. It plays HDR content from YouTube but refuses to play well with Netflix. Then again, we had to sideload Netflix to try it, because it wasn't available by looking at Play Retailer, so this had something to do with it.

Vivo NEX 3 5G Battery

The Vivo NEX 3 5G is powered by a 4,500mAh battery - the same as the one in Mate 30 Professional and generally more than any other potential competitor. For example, OnePlus 7T Professional has a 4,100mAh battery, while the Galaxy Observe10 + is satisfied with 4,300mAh. The iPhone 11 Professional Max power pack is smidgeon under 4,000 mAh.

NEX is very good in our battery life tests. Can play videos for more than 22 hours with a single charge. That result is three hours higher than the next best result we got from the superior crop this fall (iPhone 11 Professional Max sat at 19:30 hours).

At full 15 hours of net browsing tests, the NEX 3 5G matches Mate and iPhone, all three lasting longer than Observe10 + three hours. We don't yet have a number for OnePlus 7T Professional, but when viewed from non-T, vivo will be superior to that again. More call time can be good on Vivo, with results in a little less than 27 hours - seeded here by 'long' OnePlus Professional and Observe10 +.

Calling all numbers into our components, we get an overall Endurance rating of 110 hours for the vivo NEX 5G - it can be spectacular.

With the 44W adapter included, we recorded full charging from the flat in 67 minutes with 30 minutes doing our job, nicely, 67%. Mate 30 Professional is marginal 2 minutes faster to full. The indicator shows 72% on the half hour mark (it's with a 40W charger), so it's only about the maximum wattage but more about the charging curve that the maker has used. That becomes clearer with the Observe10 + 30 minutes results of 64% of a 4,300mAh battery with a 25W adapter clearly less impressive.

Loudspeaker

The NEX 3 5G has one loudspeaker ported at the bottom of the phone. This is far from the best we've ever seen, both in terms of loudness and quality. It ranks in the 'Good' category when it comes to decibels, but most phones are now placed in the 'Very Good' bracket or at least 'Very Good'. This again sounds very boring, without a lot of life at the peak, and a little bass to talk about.

Audio quality

The Vivo NEX 3 5G started brightly in our tests, producing clean output with an active external amplifier and decorating it with loudness that is far above average.

Headphones affect several readings, although the hit is not very significant. Frequency response, intermodulation distortion, and stereo crosstalk are all degraded by a moderate amount which decreases the rating from very good to good. Quantity dropped dramatically, meaning that overall performance was far from impressive for a flagship ship.

Android 9.0 Funtouch 0.1 extra

Android 9.0 Funtouch 0.1 extra

Vivo NEX 3 5G runs Android 9.0 with bucketload customizations on it. In-house Funtouch OS comes in v.9.1 and has a clear non-Android display, borrowing, instead, many instructions from iOS.

Funtouch OS offers gesture-based navigation, and on NEX, it is activated by default. Swiping from the side takes you one step back, while swiping from below takes you home.

Starting with GeekBench, we don't see much improvement from the increase in CPU core frequency, and NEX 3 is almost on par with S855 devices. Galaxies with their custom cores score higher in single core testing as does Mate 30 Professional, which is also one step ahead in multi-core performance.

Other settings include regular split-screen mode, one-handed UI mode, advanced screenshot and screenshot options. In addition, Funtouch comes with many proprietary applications for listening to music, calendar, clock, video, weather, e-mail gallery, notes, etc. There is also a V-Appstore for additional applications related to Vivo and the so-called I Theme that offers a variety of themes for your cellphone.

Synthetic Benchmarks

The Vivo NEX 3 5G is powered by the best Qualcomm currently offered, Snapdragon 855+. It has an increased marginal clock speed from the usual 855 in the CPU core and the 600MHz kick to 700MHz is more noticeable in the GPU, but it's still only a plus and not a bump in the name of the mannequin. We have seen several S855 + handsets, so vivo performance is not surprising either.

However, there is more to it, because the lower part is divided into three segments and only the middle part means the House, while the right part is Back anyway, and the left part displays the Heart Shortcut. That is the default setting, but you can move the Heart Shortcut around and even move it to the top right so you will get at least a little color similar to Android above. By default, swiping down from the top will only display current notifications, and there is no quick toggle.

Swipe up and hold and you will be taken to the task switcher - which works wherever you will place the Heart Shortcut. Unfortunately, there is no simple way to commute between the two applications, but in most cases with all gesture-based navigation implementations. If you want, you can always return to the classic three-button navigation bar.

Since we are on the topic of strange navigation choices, let's see how NEX handles pressure-sensitive space from a software point of view. You get separate sensitivity settings for each of the three buttons and gestures on the screen in one of two designs. Then there is the option to have a digital side button, which you swipe to control quantity, while double-tap sending the phone to standby.

Homescreen is nothing out of the ordinary, offering the usual single level interface with all applications on the homescreen and no application drawer. The folder opens full screen, requires a bit of stretching, and the application switcher is one of the more iOS-y's around.

The fingerprint sensor under the screen is fast and accurate and not as offered by the original NEX S.

In a strange event, face locking is not available. There is only the Assistant face unlock feature, which is only intended to be used if there are several failed fingerprint recognition attempts. Other phones with selfie pop-up cameras have previously unlocked faces, including some vivo themselves - instead we will use them instead of fingerprints.

The settings menu can be rich, and you will find lots of settings there, even if it doesn't have to be far from where you expect it to be. You can manage notifications and how they look. You can disable the pop-up head-up if it is in the way and you can also choose which notifications remain on the standing bar.

The Lock screen sub-menus and the Home screen are very interesting because they give you all the options you need to adjust. The display settings are always active there too. You can set the background if you want, not just a normal clock. Remember that standby battery life will be greatly affected.

The battery management menu comes with several additional options above the standard ones. You can set the phone to function in low power conditions, which limits CPU and GPU performance.

Even turning off all radios such as WiFi and Bluetooth. But if that doesn't work and you need to squeeze a few more hours from your dying battery, the Tremendous Power Saving Mode will help you. This allows you to only use Contacts, Messages, and Hours. Of course, the battery statistics menu is also available.

As we have shown, Funtouch OS vivo is full of useful features and may not be very useful. The smart motion menu - as the name implies - contains several movements outside the screen. Drawing a letter will immediately launch the application from the locked state while sliding up will eject the periscope camera to unlock the device.

If the device feels movement, it can wake the screen - a double knock will occur. Double-tapping on an empty spot on the home screen will lock the screen.

However, there is more to it, because the lower part is divided into three segments and only the middle part means the House, while the right part is Back anyway, and the left part displays the Heart Shortcut. That is the default setting, but you can move the Heart Shortcut around and even move it to the top right so you will get at least a little color similar to Android above.

By default, swiping down from the top will only display current notifications, and there is no quick toggle.

Swipe up and hold and you will be taken to the task switcher - which works wherever you will place the Heart Shortcut. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to commute between two applications, but in most cases with all gesture-based navigation implementations. If you want, you can always return to the classic three-button navigation bar.

Overall, the Vivo NEX 3 5G is as strong as you would expect from today's top-end devices, and then a little more. That also left a very positive impression on us due to the fact that it barely heated up and we did not observe nearly any thermal slowdown after the benchmark repetition was running.

Read more: Google Pixel 3 Review

Three Cameras on NEX 3

As with most high-end cellphones over the past few years, the NEX 3 5G has three camera settings behind it. First, there is a main cam that can be wide, then a short telephoto with 2x the focal length of the primary unit, and finally, an extremely wide angle module.

The main camera uses a relatively new Samsung 64MP sensor, a type of Bayer Quad Imager (Tetracell Samsung calls it) designed to produce 16MP photos. We have seen it in Realme and in Redmi, and now it moves to superior class devices. This is paired with a 26mm equivalent lens with an f / 1.8 aperture.

The telephoto cam uses a 13MP sensor behind the 52mm f / 2.5 lens, which offers a zoom ratio 2x more than the main one. Then there is the 13MP f / 2.2 extremely wide-angle module, which reported EXIF ​​at 13mm although we have doubts about that. It does have autofocus, which is good.

The NEX 3 5G camera application is a bit messy. For starters, as in Mate 30 Professional, the selector for both cameras is placed so that it can be operated with the right hand in portrait, but not actually with the left and not in the landscape. In addition, the three-point setting makes you believe that you can tap to access per camera directly, but instead, it rotates through them. You can also tap and pan, most of which work well

Now, extremely wide-angle cameras can also be accessed via buttons like the iris in the corner of the viewfinder, where it is nested together with Bokeh and Tremendous macro modes. Why not have this as normal mode in the normal mode selector? And why does Portrait mode need to specifically activate bokeh from iris instead of activating it by default? Our point is that the camera application is rather scattered and not as easy as we hoped.

There is a Professional mode that can be good, which offers handbook control over the shooting parameters. This allows you to choose shutter speeds (1 / 12000s to 30s), ISO (50-3200), white stability (six presets and light temperature sliders), and exposure compensation (-3EV to + 3EV in 1 / 3EV increase ). Focus handbook also available. From the settings, you can also activate the histogram directly, which is a nice touch and not too common.

Daytime Picture Quality

NEX 3 captures good images during the day with extraordinary detail and good sharpness almost to extreme angles. Bright colors are pleasant without being on the top. We found that cell phones tend to be a bit brighter, and their dynamic range is not as wide as we had hoped. Maybe this is a processing problem because large sensors must be more capable than what we see.

The extremely wide angle cam is one of the few that has auto focus - too many phones that have very wide fixed focus. It takes photos that can be sharp, just like when the ultra-wide camera is running, it has beautiful colors and a decent dynamic range.

Low-light Image Quality

In low light, vivo continues to take pictures that look good, especially with its main camera - Samsung indeed calls this sensor the ISOCELL Shiny. The picture itself isn't very bright - again, we will increase exposure by about half a stop if it's up to us. The details are very good, and noise suppression is also handled well. The dynamic range is fine, and color saturation doesn't suffer too much in the dark.

You still prefer to wear Night mode most of the time. This provides superior overall picture with much better sharpness and detail, lower noise, and brighter colors. The shadows get a nice little boost too.

Portrait

There are two ways to shoot in vivo NEX 3 5G. Actual Portrait mode is perfect for beauty with bokeh being second (not even activated by default). In this mode, you can shoot at 1x and 2x stage zoom. Then there is the bokeh option in Picture mode, which comes without an increase in beauty, but defaults to 1x zoom. Maybe there is a logic behind this.

Bokeh shots in Photo mode come out nice with excellent detail and advanced subject detection. Maybe the f / 1.four setting that we use mostly makes the background rendering a little too fake. You might want to exercise enough here.

Switching to portrait mode, we maintain a lot of improvement at the standard level, which seems to mean moderate but not much skin leveling. At 1x magnification, you can get results that are very similar to the Photo mode in bokeh terms, with the added benefit of a beauty feature.

Selfie

The NEX 3 5G pop-up selfie cam is a 16MP unit with a focal length equivalent to 25mm and f / 2.1 aperture. It doesn't have autofocus capability, but we found the right fixed distance for arm-length shots, so it wasn't a problem.

Video Recording

Vivo NEX 3 records videos up to 4K resolution up to 60fps. It also gives you a choice between h.264 and h.265 codecs. Video bitrate is a bit strange because 4K gets 41Mbps in 30fps and 60fps, and 1080p is in the range of 16-17Mbps regardless of body charge anyway. So a 30fps bitrate is about standard, whereas 60fps is on the low side. Audio is recorded in stereo at 128kbps in all modes.

There are two types of video stabilization. When you take 1080p, it's always on the main and telephoto camera, but not at the very wide. Then there is the Tremendous anti-shake mode, which involves an ultra-wide cam in particular and offers stabilization for it.

This seems like the right place to show that in video recording, the camera switch only switches between the main and telephoto modules, and extremely wide can be accessed either through the iris button (without stabilization) or the Tremendous anti-shake toggle in the viewfinder (with stabilization. If it's a user-friendly UI, then we might have to change our work because we don't get it.

The stabilization on the NEX 3 works very well on the main cam which produces smooth, shake-free video with a well-run pan. Cam extremely wide angle is not so good, with the focus hunting mechanism does not allow the deshaking algorithm to do their job correctly. Telephoto is once again amazing, letting you have a stable video of a distant subject, but be sure to pan slower.

However, with the powerful Snapdragon 855+ inside, it's impossible to ignore the fact that NEX can't stabilize 4K records, and that hurts direct comparisons with competing offers.

As for image quality, the main 4K30 camera recording is pretty good with lots of fine and mature details, processing that looks natural. The dynamic range is also quite wide, although a slight impact on the exposure will not hurt. 4K60 maintains this property while suffering a small loss in detail, though not a big deal. 1080p retrieval is also very good.

Ultra wide angle cam produces 1080p and 30fps - there is no 4K here. The retrieval of details is good, but the dynamic range of this video is quite tight and makes it look like it came out of the camera a few generations earlier.

Vivo NEX 3 5G Price: $821.22

How? Awesome, right?