Can the Vivo V20 Pro take on the OnePlus Nord?
OnePlus Nord has now been the current best selling mid-range smartphone as it packs in quite some good internals like a 90Hz AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 765G chipset that supports 5G, and has a good set of cameras that includes a 48MP main camera. The OxygenOS is its biggest strength also.
Now Vivo has joined this segment with two of its offerings that include the Vivo V20 and the V20 Pro. The Vivo V20 Pro is a slight upgrade over the vanilla V20 and brings with it a newer design, different color options, has dual front cameras that include a 44MP camera,, and run on FuntouchOS.
So can the versatility of the OnePlus Nord continue to rule the premium mid-range segment or this new Vivo V20 Pro attract the consumers with great design and cameras? Let’s find out in the full comparison.
OnePlus Nord vs Vivo V20 Pro Design:
Both the OnePlus Nord (Review) and the Vivo V20 Pro (Review) sport a glass sandwich design where Vivo has gone for a glass and metal build what Vivo likes to call the AG Matte finish and on the other hand, the glossy finish on the OnePlus Nord which feels a bit cheap.
The OnePlus Nord has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 both on the front as well as the back for protection whereas the Vivo V20 Pro has Gorilla Glass 5 on the back and Schott Xensation on the front. The Vivo V20 Pro has a nice color pattern at the back especially with the “Sunset Melody” color option.
There is a rectangular housing for the cameras on the Vivo V20 Pro that houses three cameras whereas the OnePlus Nord has a vertical arrangement of quad cameras. Both the backs catch fingerprints but the Vivo V20 Pro with its sleek body and weighs around 170 grams feels lighter to hold compared to 184 grams on the OnePlus Nord.
To the sides, both have volume buttons with a power button and on the top have a secondary noise-canceling microphone. To the bottom, there is a speaker grille, a USB Type-C port, and a dual SIM card slot with the primary microphone. The OnePlus Nord gets an additional alert slider to control notifications.
On the front, the OnePlus Nord has a punch-hole display with a cutout for two selfie cameras in a small pill shape whereas the Vivo V20 Pro has a smaller notch that houses two cameras. The bezels are minimum on both sides.
Both have P2i coating at the back which makes them splash resistant and can be taken during rains. So with a lighter weight and a good design, the Vivo V20 Pro will turn heads when compared to the OnePlus Nord and if you want a simple look, then the OnePlus Nord is quite good to look at.
OnePlus Nord vs Vivo V20 Pro Display:
On the front, both of the smartphones have 6.44 inch Full HD+ AMOLED displays with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. Both smartphones have good brightness and here the Vivo V20 Pro has slightly better brightness levels and the viewing angles are equally good on both.
The notch on the Vivo V20 Pro does not feel much intrusive compared to the pill-shaped cutout on the OnePlus Nord but what it lacks is a higher refresh rate which the OnePlus Nord has. The display on the OnePlus Nord refreshes at 90Hz so playing games or scrolling through webpages feel slightly better on the OnePlus Nord but the difference is very marginal.
Both have their respective Reading Modes and a mode by which the display can be easily viewed under direct sunlight. They also cover sRGB, DCI-P3, and AMOLED wide gamut and have Widevine L1. But the display on the OnePlus Nord has support for HDR10 which the Vivo V20 Pro lacks.
Like the Vivo V20 Pro, the OnePlus Nord has support for Widevine L1 so streaming HD content from Netflix, Prime, etc felt at ease and both have an optical in-display fingerprint scanner which is quite accurate and fast also.
Though the face-unlock was slightly faster on the OnePlus Nord compared to the Vivo V20 Pro. Overall, with a higher refresh rate display and support for HDR10, the OnePlus Nord feels better here.
OnePlus Nord vs Vivo V20 Pro Performance:
Both the OnePlus Nord and the Vivo V20 Pro sport a Snapdragon 765G chipset which is an octa-core chipset that has 1×2.4 GHz Kryo 475 Prime core with 1×2.2 GHz Kryo 475 Gold core and another 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 475 Silver cores and has the powerful Adreno 620 GPU.
All tasks are handled easily by both the smartphones whether it is normal to all heavy applications. All the high-end games like Asphalt 9, Call of Duty easily ran without any such stutter at the highest graphics settings. The gameplay may not be as good as on the Snapdragon 865 chipset but still, it gets the work done.
The back of the Vivo V20 Pro does feel a bit warmer since it has a metal build but is not an issue. The higher refresh rate on the OnePlus Nord ensures slightly smoother gameplay compared to the Vivo V20 Pro when it comes to controls and fast touch inputs.
In terms of benchmarks, they had almost similar scores whether it is Antutu v8 or Geekbench 5.1. The OnePlus Nord scored around 606 and 1921 compared to 620 and 1866 on the Vivo V20 Pro in single and multi-core tests. Both have support for 5G but here the Vivo V20 Pro supports larger bands of 5G compared to one band on the OnePlus Nord.
Both the OnePlus Nord and the Vivo V20 Pro have 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB storage variant but the OnePlus Nord has an extra 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant. Both have UFS 2.1 transfer speeds. So in terms of performance, both are good.
OnePlus Nord vs Vivo V20 Pro Software:
The OnePlus Nord runs on the latest OxygenOS 11 which provides a software experience almost close to Stock Android with Android 10 out of the box. On the other hand, the Vivo V20 Pro has the FuntouhOS and has been updated to the latest Android 11.
Both have a system-wide dark mode, navigation gestures, and digital wellbeing but since the Vivo V20 Pro ships with Android 11, you are getting some extra features like hat bubbles, media controls, and a much-improved voice assistant. The FuntouhOS is quite an improvement over its previous versions which felt more like iOS.
Speaking about software, OxygenOS provides more customizations compared to FuntouchOS and has very little bloatware present. It is also cleaner compared to the FuntouchOS which shows ads and has many Vivo-specific applications pre-installed which do consume some amount of space. The latest FuntouchOS has some of the stock Google apps.
Both have their Always-On display where when the display is kept idle, you need to tap on the OnePlus Nord to see it whereas the Vivo V20 Pro Always-On display is present at all times. Both have their respective gaming modes and OnePlus Nord gets the ZenMode though.
In terms of software and security updates, OxygenOS is faster but still, both smartphones are guaranteed another two years. So the software is a personal preference and clearly, OxygenOS is the better one out there.
Vivo V20 Pro vs OnePlus Nord Cameras:
In terms of cameras, the OnePlus Nord comes with a 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor for the main camera whereas the Vivo V20 Pro has the 64MP f/1.9 main camera. Both have 8MP ultrawide cameras and the OnePlus Nord comes with a 5MP depth camera compared to a 2MP one on the Vivo V20 Pro. There is an additional 2MP macro camera on the OnePlus Nord.
Shot on the OnePlus Nord
Shot on the Vivo V20 Pro
The images from the main camera come out with sharper details and punchier colors. The Vivo V20 Pro has a more natural look when compared to the images from the OnePlus Nord that look more saturated. The dynamic range is also better on the Vivo V20 Pro and it handles white balance better.
At night, the images on the OnePlus Nord have lesser noise and better dynamic range compared to the OnePlus Nord. Both have their respective night modes, here the difference is very marginal. It is seen that the Vivo V20 Pro handles the long exposure images better than the OnePlus Nord.
Shot on OnePlus Nord
Shot on Vivo V20 Pro
But the presence of OIS does help OnePlus Nord capture better details overall. There are various filters on the Vivo V20 Pro for night images. When you zoom into the images shot during the day and night, the Vivo V20 Pro has preserved the details better than the OnePlus Nord and the noise is also less.
The 8MP ultrawide camera is good on both of them. During the day. the images have good color reproduction but suffer from noise and still, here the OnePlus Nord is better in terms of dynamic range and contrast.
Shot on OnePlus Nord
Shot on Vivo V20 Pro
Similarly, at night, the Vivo V20 Pro shines with a better dynamic range and has lesser noise compared to the OnePlus Nord but the ultrawide images are not so good because there is softness in the images around the corners.
The 2MP macro camera is just for the sake of an extra camera on the OnePlus Nord and the images from the macro camera have washed out colors and the details are just average. On the other hand, the Vivo V20 Pro uses the ultrawide cameras for the macro camera and the resulting images come out with better details and look sharper with proper focus.
The depth sensor on the OnePlus Nord is a 5MP one which results in better background blur but in terms of edge detection and dynamic range, the Vivo V20 Pro is better and when you zoom into the portraits, the details are much better on the Vivo V20 Pro as it has better white balance.
On the front, the OnePlus Nord gets two cameras that include a 32MP f/2.5 main camera and an 8MP ultrawide camera whereas the Vivo V20 Pro gets the 44MP f/2.0 camera with an eye-autofocus, and just like the OnePlus Nord, there is an additional 8MP ultrawide camera.
The selfies from the Vivo V20 Pro come out with better dynamic range and more natural-looking skin tone compared to the OnePlus Nord which has more saturated colors and there is some amount of noise present in the background.
Both the Vivo V20 Pro and the OnePlus Nord get an 8MP ultrawide camera where the images have a good dynamic range on both but the contrast is better on the Vivo V20 Pro.
In terms of video, both the OnePlus Nord and the Vivo V20 Pro support 4K video recording at 30fps. The video footage on the OnePlus Nord has better stabilization with lesser noise but when it comes to details and dynamic range, the Vivo V20 Pro is better.
Both have an ultra steady mode on the ultrawide camera which results in stable videos and here clearly, the Vivo V20 Pro has a better dynamic range and here the colors look better also compared to the OnePlus Nord. The ultrawide camera is only limited to 1080p at 60fps on both smartphones. With the presence of EIS, the video footage is good on both.
On the front, the OnePlus Nord can shoot 4K videos at 60fps compared to 1080p videos from the OnePlus Nord. But the video quality is better on the Vivo V20 Pro with sharper details and a better dynamic range.
Overall, if you want more stabilized videos and that 4K video from the front camera, then the OnePlus Nord is the one to go for, or else when it comes to day or night, the Vivo V20 Pro is the better one here between the two.
OnePlus Nord vs Vivo V20 Pro Battery Life:
The Vivo V20 Pro comes with a 4000mAh battery which is slightly lower in capacity compared to the 4115mAh battery on the OnePlus Nord. Both smartphones can easily last for one single day with heavy usage and with one and half days with normal usage.
The OnePlus Nord has a 90Hz refresh rate which does consume some amount of battery, so the standard screen-on time is slightly better on the Vivo V20 Pro. The average screen-on time on both smartphones is around 6-7 hours. Both have a Battery Saver mode to preserve the battery and OnePlus Nord provides optimizations for battery charging which is quite efficient.
Coming to charging, the Vivo V20 Pro comes with a 33W fast charger inside the box compared to the 30W Warp charger on the OnePlus Nord. Both take around an hour to completely charge from 0 to 100 percent and also support faster USB PD-charging.
In terms of battery life, both are equally good.
OnePlus Nord vs Vivo V20 Pro Audio Quality:
Both the smartphones have a single speaker setup but the audio quality is better on the Vivo V20 Pro compared to OnePlus Nord. There is Dolby Atmos on both smartphones for enhanced sound quality.
There is no 3.5mm headphone jack present on either of these smartphones. Vivo does provide USB Type-C earphones inside the box though. With the presence of earphones and a slightly better audio quality, the Vivo V20 Pro is the better one here.
Verdict:
Both are very good smartphones and considering any one of them will not concern much. Let’s first start with the OnePlus Nord that has a lot going for it with a glass design, a 90Hz display, a faster Snapdragon 765G chipset and provides the best in terms of software known as OxygenOS.
The Vivo V20 Pro, on the other hand, has broken the design and it clearly shows the effort put by the company in bringing out such a great design with a sleek body and it too has all the necessities like an AMOLED display, faster Snapdragon 765G chipset, nicer set of cameras and has better audio quality.
The FuntouchOS has been improved a lot this time and the smartphone has been also updated to Android 11. Though there is some amount of bloatware present. In terms of price, the OnePlus Nord is slightly cheaper compared to the Vivo V20 Pro but it does offer an extra 12GB RAM variant.
So an overall basis, if you want a 90Hz display, a cleaner Stock Android experience with a faster chipset for performance, and a decent set of cameras, the OnePlus Nord will serve you better. And if design and cameras that matter to you, the Vivo V20 Pro is the one to choose.
Not only it has a better design, it has more bands that support 5G, a better front and rear camera, better audio quality, and plus the software experience which may not be as good as OxygenOS, but does provide a good overall experience. So considering everything, the Vivo V20 Pro edges slightly ahead of the OnePlus Nord.
I would buy Vivo just for looks and lighter wright since I have smaller hands