Vivo has been fairly according to churning out slim, light-weight mid-range telephones that boast a slick aesthetic as a part of the V collection telephones. The Vivo V25 Professional was one of many model’s most interesting finances telephones when it comes to design, owing to its color-changing again panel, as I remarked in my evaluate. Final yr’s mannequin additionally delivered a bunch of premium options, together with a full-glass again, a flawless display, and a flexible digicam.
As is the case with the Vivo V27 Professional. Vivo’s newest mid-range telephone has the identical character, with fan favorites like color-shifting glass on the again, a super-smooth display, and flagship-like efficiency making a comeback. These are the telephone’s true highlights, together with a digicam that stacks up towards the competitors.Â
Nevertheless, it skimps on the finer particulars, and with the mid-range market changing into extra aggressive than ever, Vivo might discover it more durable to entice shoppers. The telephone’s design and {hardware} could also be a scorching proposition on paper, however how does it maintain up in real-life situations?
Vivo V27 Professional: Value and availability
The Vivo V27 Professional is barely out there in India and different Southeast Asian markets for ₹37,999, or roughly $460, which will get you 8GB of RAM and 128GB of inside storage.
In the meantime, you possibly can go for an even bigger storage of 256GB, which prices ₹39,999 (roughly $485). The highest-tier variant, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, retails for ₹42,999 (roughly $522).
Vivo V27 Professional: Design
Vivo is not any stranger to creating visually interesting telephones in each the premium and finances segments, and the V27 Professional is among the best-looking telephones on this worth vary that I’ve seen. It resembles final yr’s mannequin, the Vivo V25 Professional, which is not essentially a foul factor.
Like its predecessor, the V27 Professional does not appear to be a typical finances telephone, due to its premium aesthetic. The telephone’s bottom is constructed out of fluorite glass that adjustments hues when uncovered to UV mild. It is a enjoyable celebration trick that permits you to create patterns on the telephone’s again utilizing a stencil, for instance, although they’ll solely final for a couple of minutes earlier than reverting again to regular.Â
For the Magic Blue end that Vivo despatched to me, it’ll go from mild to darkish blue when UV mild hits it. Whereas this gimmick has no sensible use, it does provide you with a neat method of customizing your telephone, albeit solely quickly.
Chameleon capabilities apart, the Vivo V27 Professional is a fairly engaging finances handset with a curved glass entrance that I not often see in most of the finest low-cost Android telephones in the marketplace. After debuting with the Samsung Galaxy S8, this model paved the way in which for a brand new sort of flagship design language for smartphones.
Whereas not everybody likes it, this design is often reserved for high-end fashions nowadays, and that makes the Vivo V27 Professional look costly. Its body is plastic, although, regardless of its metallic end. Vivo clearly has to make some compromises right here to maintain the value down, and this turns into clear once you contact the edges of the telephone. That mentioned, it is so skinny that your palms will not even discover the polycarbonate materials, so this system feels dearer than it’s.
The matte end is somewhat slippery to the contact, so it’s best to use a case to guard it in case it slips by your fingers.
Though the design of the V27 Professional and its predecessor are comparable in some ways, the most recent mannequin is considerably thinner. I recommended the V25 Professional’s light-weight nature and remarked that it made the telephone extra comfy to carry than most of its rivals, and the V27 Professional much more so. Vivo famous that it is the model’s thinnest curved-edge telephone to this point at 7.4 mm. It is also a bit lighter than the V25 Professional, weighing solely 182g versus 190g for the earlier mannequin.
The V27 Professional has additionally adopted some contentious options from flagship fashions, reminiscent of the shortage of a headphone jack and expandable storage. Whereas a few of you’ll not prefer it, I truly choose handsets with fewer ports.
Nevertheless, the actual weak spot of the V27 Professional is its lack of IP score. There’s no water or mud resistance on provide, so I like to recommend retaining this factor away from the pool or sprinkler.
Vivo V27 Professional: Show and speaker
Vivo has not too long ago spoiled us with reasonably priced telephones that includes gorgeous screens, and the V27 Professional continues that pattern. It packs a 6.78-inch AMOLED display that performs properly with HDR10+ content material. It has the identical FullHD+ decision and refresh fee as its predecessor, so there is not a lot of an enchancment there.
The AMOLED panel does a terrific job of manufacturing vivid colours with deep blacks and glorious distinction, which makes watching motion pictures on streaming platforms a selected deal with. I’ve to say that the V27 Professional has one of many prettiest shows I’ve seen on a finances telephone. Initially, the colours seemed to be overly saturated with the default settings, however after tweaking the colour temperature a bit, I discovered the correct stability for my tastes.
Since then, the display has yielded punchy colours and very good distinction, making it tough to pinpoint what it lacks compared to the shows of smartphones priced round $1,000. Clearly, the V27 Professional’s show falls brief when it comes to peak brightness in comparison with flagship fashions. Nonetheless, it proved to be sufficiently vivid to be used even when the solar was immediately overhead.
Like its predecessor, the V27 Professional contains an under-display fingerprint scanner that works as anticipated for essentially the most half. It immediately acknowledges my fingerprint, and I did not have any points unlocking the telephone utilizing this safety methodology.
Vivo has ditched the massive notch of the V23 Professional in favor of a centrally positioned punch-hole selfie digicam, which we have seen within the V25 Professional as nicely. The V27 Professional retains the identical entrance digicam, although the selfie snapper has been upgraded to a 50MP digicam from the earlier 32MP.
Nevertheless, the mono speaker struggles to offer a good soundscape, like on the V25 Professional. To be clear, the speaker does not sound horrible; the vocals are clear, however the high-end notes sound a bit sharp, and the bass is frustratingly weak.
Its place additionally makes it fairly straightforward to muffle, particularly in panorama orientation, so you would be hard-pressed to search out one of the best ways of holding the telephone with out blocking the speaker grille. Considered one of Vivo’s evident omissions right here was not together with a stereo speaker setup.
Vivo V27 Professional: Efficiency and battery
The Vivo V27 Professional is not any slouch when it comes to efficiency. It runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 8200, a mid-tier silicon with all the parts present in MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity 9000 SoC, reminiscent of an eight-core CPU, 3GPP Launch-16 5G, and help for 120Hz QHD shows. When MediaTek unveiled the chipset final yr, it claimed that the Dimensity 8200 promised an accessible flagship expertise, and that appears to be the case right here.
Whenever you dive deep into efficiency, the system handles performance-hungry duties like gaming and taking pictures. The V27 Professional offers loads of energy to take care of graphic-intensive duties, holding up fairly nicely for a good span of time.
Class | Vivo V27 Professional |
---|---|
OS | Funtouch OS 13 primarily based on Android 13 |
Show | 6.78 inches, AMOLED, 1080 x 2400, 120Hz, HDR10+ |
Processor | Mediatek Dimensity 8200 (4nm) |
RAM | 8GB or 12GB |
Storage | 128GB or 256GB |
Rear digicam 1 | 50MP, f/1.9 (vast), PDAF, OIS |
Rear digicam 2 | 8MP, f/2.2, 120Ëš (ultrawide) |
Rear digicam 3 | 2MP, f/2.4 (macro) |
Entrance digicam | 50 MP, f/2.5 (vast), AF |
Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 |
Audio | Mono speaker |
Safety | Fingerprint sensor (below show) |
Battery & charging | 4600mAh, 66W wired charging |
Dimensions | 164.1 x 74.8 x 7.4 mm |
Weight | 182g |
Colours | Magic Blue, Noble Black |
Though the processor shouldn’t be fairly as sturdy in most situations because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or the Tensor chip, the Dimensity 8200 holds its personal in day by day use. It’s remarkably snappy, plus you get a silky {smooth} 120Hz refresh fee that makes scrolling the display really feel fluid in use.
Nevertheless, some apps can hold for a second upon launching, however that doesn’t have a big impact on the general expertise. As a matter of truth, the V27 Professional achieves excessive body charges in most video games like PUBG Cell and Name of Obligation Cell at average graphic settings. That is bolstered by further game-centric software program that improves the expertise by quickly freezing pointless processes within the background.
I performed a few video games over the earlier weekend, switching between PUBG Cell and Genshin Influence. This was a two-hour session with maxed-out graphics on each titles, and my expertise was usually on par with flagship fashions relating to graphic output.
Whereas there have been no horrible body drops to smash my expertise, the system’s warmth administration was a little bit of a letdown. It may possibly get extraordinarily scorching with prolonged gaming classes. Finally, I needed to pause for a couple of minutes earlier than transferring on to the subsequent session.
That mentioned, the RAM administration on this telephone is exceptional. The 8GB RAM on my unit can run a number of apps like Google Chrome and social media apps concurrently for a very long time. I turned on the RAM growth on board, which provides one other 8GB from system storage. This resulted in an improved expertise with heavy apps, and in case you are into gaming loads, you would be sensible to maintain the RAM extension on.
Coming to battery efficiency, the Vivo V27 Professional has no situation lasting all day away from a charger. It packs a 4600mAh battery, which helps 66W quick charging with the included energy brick. This cell is a little bit of a downgrade from the earlier mannequin, which packed a 4830mAh battery, and on sure days stuffed with gaming and film streaming, I used to be getting a display on time of as much as eight hours.
I intentionally switched on the 120Hz refresh fee as an alternative of the sensible switching function. Beneath these situations, you would want to succeed in for a charger not less than twice a day. Nonetheless, mild use of the telephone can stretch it for an entire day between costs.
Charging occasions are as first rate as what Vivo claims; the telephone goes from 0 to 50 p.c in about 20 minutes. It is probably not as super-fast because the likes of the OnePlus 11R with 100W quick charging, nevertheless it holds up nicely for the value. Nevertheless, do not anticipate any wi-fi charging help, which comes with the territory.
Vivo V27 Professional: Cameras
The digicam division is the place the Vivo V27 Professional is in its factor. It boasts a triple digicam setup on the again, consisting of a predominant 50MP snapper alongside an 8MP ultrawide digicam and a 2MP macro sensor for close-ups.
Vivo additionally likes to focus on a devoted ring mild often called “aura lighting.” It’s supposed to assist with illumination when video calling or vlogging, though the ring is simply too small to make a big distinction in lighting. In any case, Vivo’s digicam software program can carry out some methods to that finish.
The 50MP Sony IMX766V main sensor is the digicam that I caught with for almost all of my photographs. Regardless of having a decrease decision than its predecessor, the digicam didn’t disappoint. Photographs captured with the principle shooter are inclined to pack intimately, produce correct colours, and boast glorious dynamic vary.Â
Nevertheless, the element is spectacular totally on the floor stage, as zooming in reveals minor artifacts and extreme sharpening. Regardless, it could actually get the job carried out for on a regular basis snaps.
The native OIS help means you get pictures with minimal blur, backed by the phase-detect autofocus that helps in correct focus by offering a fast point-and-shoot expertise.
However OIS night time mode is the telephone’s strongest swimsuit right here, enabling the telephone to click on clear photographs in low mild or at night time. When taking photographs in pitch-dark settings with the V27 Professional, the digicam app would show in real-time how the photographs would look as soon as processed. Naturally, the picture can take a number of seconds to course of, however the outcomes can be brighter photographs than the precise pitch-dark environment.
Throughout daytime, the portraits are a sight to behold, and you may even regulate the background blur within the native photograph app. The sting detection is stellar below pure lighting situations.
There’s a big drop in general element when switching to the 8MP ultrawide digicam, although, and pictures are inclined to have much less heat than with the principle lens. Whereas that is greater than sufficient for capturing photographs to share on social media, it is going to almost definitely disappoint pixel-peepers.
The auxiliary cameras are a pleasant addition to have, however they aren’t fairly as much as normal and are finest prevented at any time when attainable. Vivo’s hybrid stabilization tech does not apply to the ultrawide snapper, so it is not likely a powerhouse.
As is at all times the case, the 2MP macro digicam is the weak level within the telephone’s digicam module. Whereas it is capable of maintain first rate colours, the main points are off-putting more often than not.
The selfie digicam is a 50MP shooter, a noticeable improve from its predecessor. I took a number of selfies with the V27 Professional and was happy with the outcomes, which included correct autofocus and a Portrait mode with spectacular edge detection. This can be a large improve over the V25 Professional, whose digicam sounds extra spectacular with a 64MP predominant sensor, however its low-light efficiency leaves a lot to be desired.
Vivo V27 Professional: Software program
The Vivo V27 Professional runs on Android 13 out of the field, with the Funtouch OS 13 pores and skin overlaid. Like its predecessor, this telephone has some enjoyable software program methods, reminiscent of the flexibility to set a novel mild impact for incoming calls or notifications.
Nevertheless, there are a bunch of pre-installed apps that muddle up the telephone the second you flip it on for the primary time, together with folders of scorching video games. Bloatware is a mainstay with many Chinese language telephone manufacturers, and Vivo is under no circumstances the one offender on this regard. A number of telephones I’ve reviewed previously from Xiaomi (and its sub-brand Poco) and Oppo come out of the field with loads of apps that I’ll by no means use. It isn’t that these apps are unattainable to take away, however I would quite have the choice to obtain them myself if I so want.
It’s a distinct strategy to Android 13 than I am used to, with stylized icons and a vastly totally different inventory Android expertise that’ll take a number of getting used to. Anyway, when you get used to its quirks, it is easy to make use of and navigate.
Funtouch OS is visually pleasing and colourful, with animations and customizations that stand out from the group. It stands in stark distinction to what different manufacturers provide and emphasizes Android’s distinctive promoting level, which is the flexibility to use your personal pores and skin and create wonders.
I discover Vivo’s Android pores and skin much less obtrusive than Xiaomi’s MIUI, which shoves advertisements down our throats in sure areas of the UI. Funtouch’s obsession is clearly widgets, and there is a entire shelf devoted to them alongside the same old app drawer.
Nevertheless, Vivo’s software program replace dedication is a bit much less clear. Whereas mid-range competitors just like the Google Pixel A-series of telephones will get three years of OS updates, Vivo hasn’t dedicated to any improve guarantees but. This would possibly depart the Vivo V27 Professional behind as rival smartphones in the identical worth vary transfer on to Android 14 and past. You might need to distance your self from Vivo telephones in order for you a tool that may sustain with OS updates for the subsequent few years.
Vivo V27 Professional: Competitors
The Vivo V27 Professional is a strong mid-range smartphone, however there are a number of options which may be proper up your alley should you’re searching for fashions with comparable, if not beefier, specs in the identical worth vary.Â
One strong contender is the Nothing Telephone (1), owing to its distinctive design with LEDs on the again, first rate cameras, and stellar battery life for $300. If you wish to maintain your telephone updated within the subsequent few years, Nothing has dedicated to a few Android OS updates.
If that is to not your liking, the OnePlus Nord 2T additionally boasts a 120Hz AMOLED display, a good 64MP rear digicam, and all-day battery life for $350. Plus, it has dependable {hardware} and is bloatware-free. Nevertheless, it additionally lacks an IP score and wi-fi charging help, just like the V27 Professional.
Alternatively, the Google Pixel 6a stays a no brainer should you’re out there for a smartphone with flagship-level efficiency. It is powered by a custom-built Tensor chipset that Google utilized in its 2021 flagships, the Pixel 6 and 6 Professional. Above all, it is solely priced at $449.
Vivo V27 Professional: Do you have to purchase it?
You should purchase it if…
- You need an all-around cell phone digicam that may take gorgeous photographs even at night time.
- You are searching for a handy guide a rough efficiency with out spending north of $500.
- You want first rate gaming efficiency in a finances smartphone.
- An all-day battery life is considered one of your predominant issues.
You shouldn’t purchase it if…
- You are searching for a telephone with a long-range zoom digicam.
- You need stereo audio system to take pleasure in audio with out placing on a pair of headphones.
- You are at all times on the go and wish a telephone that may stand up to the weather.
The Vivo V27 Professional is a reasonably rattling wonderful telephone, and the huge show is fascinating should you devour tons of content material. It has the uncooked energy that efficiency seekers crave, able to dealing with your whole day by day duties and permitting you to juggle social media apps with ease. Should you’re always making an attempt out the most recent high-end smartphone sport, the Dimensity 8200 chipset is in the slightest degree limiting of all mid-range processors.
Total, the V27 Professional is a high quality telephone for the value, with a terrific display, versatile predominant and selfie cameras, and a strong processor. However the firm is churning out the V fashions at such a speedy tempo that it has change into tough to search out any significant improve over earlier generations.
Like final yr’s mannequin, the V27 Professional is undoubtedly fairly the looker, nevertheless it’s removed from being the proper mid-range smartphone.