Vivo U20 Review : Is it worth buying this formidable smartphone at Rs.10,999 ?

Vivo U20 is another strong offering in this segment.

Vivo has been a major player in the offline market by selling most of its smartphones at a good price while Xiaomi and Realme have been targeting the customers with their smartphones in the online market. Vivo came out with its U and Z series where the U series focuses on the budget segment whereas the Z series is for the gamers and provides a tough competition to other manufacturers like Realme, Xiaomi, Honor, etc. in the market.

The Vivo Z1x was launched last year which had very good specifications which included a Snapdragon 712 chipset, an in-display fingerprint scanner and an AMOLED screen at a good price. The Vivo U10 came last year in September which featured a Snapdragon 665 chipset found in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 and Realme 5s and had a good set of cameras going for it.
Now Vivo has launched the successor to the Vivo U10, the Vivo U20 which has very good specifications going for it. The smartphone has a good display, slightly better main camera and most important of all is that it is powered by Snapdragon 675 chipset and is priced very aggressively. Is it worth buying this smartphone? Let’s head to the review.

Vivo U20 Design:

The Vivo U10 had a good build with that polycarbonate back and the Vivo U20 has some improvements over its predecessor where it is curved around the edges and comes with a larger screen. On the front, like all other smartphones, Vivo has gone for a teardrop notch for the U20 and the display looks good with thin bezels to the side.

Coming back, the triple camera setup sits in the top right corner and has a gloss finish polycarbonate back which looks premium and feels quite solid while holding it in hand. There is also a back-mounted fingerprint scanner which is very fast and accurate. At 193gms the smartphone feels a little bit heavy as it packs that larger 5000mAh battery. The gradient pattern at the back has an S-shaped pattern especially the Glaze Blue variant which looks stunning and attractive.

On the top, you get a secondary noise-canceling microphone and coming to bottom, there is a loudspeaker vent with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a USB 2.0 port (Micro USB) which seems old fashioned as companies have moved for a USB Type-C port in this price segment.

To the side, we get the power button with the volume controls. There is a triple slot at the left where we have two slots for the SIM cards and one dedicated slot for the microSD card. The smartphone has a P2i coating which means it is splash resistant.

Vivo U20 Display:

The Vivo U10 had a 6.35 inches screen which was just an HD panel and had good display but the viewing angles weren’t that good. With the Vivo U20, you get a larger screen with full HD+ resolution and a better one compared to its predecessor.

The Vivo U20 sports a 6.53 inches full HD+ display which is an IPS LCD panel with a screen to body ratio of 19.5:9. The display is bright and the viewing angles are good. Vivo has put a Panda MN228 glass which has a much harder layer for protection instead of going with the Gorilla Glass.

Under direct sunlight, the screen is easily visible and during the night the screen becomes very dim. The colors are vibrant on the screen and with various modes like Gentle and Vivid, you can get warmer or cooler skin tones on the screen. There is also an eye protection option in the settings which cuts out the blue light thus not putting a strain on the eyes.

The smartphone screen isn’t HDR certified but has Widevine L1 support so streaming HD contents from third party applications isn’t an issue.

Vivo U20 Performance:

The Vivo U20 sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 chipset which is built on an 11nm process and has 2×2.0 GHz Kryo 460 Gold cores for “higher performance” and 6×1.7 GHz Kryo 460 Silver cores for “power efficiency” coupled with Adreno 612 GPU which is very good for a smartphone at this range. The same chipset is found on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy M40 which are priced higher compared to the Vivo U20.

From small to heavy applications, the Vivo U20 can easily do multitasking and the RAM management has been done well too. There are two variants: 4GB/6GB RAM variants with 64GB storage. This is UFS 2.1 storage for faster reads and writes. All normal to heavy games run smoothly like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty ran smoothly but with the highest graphics settings, there were some minor stutters and frame drops but still, it provides good gameplay overall.

There is also a dedicated Game Booster application which enhances the gaming experience further. Coming to benchmarks, the Vivo U20 scored 219870 in Antutu v8 which is higher compared to the score of 174390 on the Snapdragon 665 found on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 and Realme 5s. Overall the performance is one of the biggest points of the Vivo U20.

Vivo U20 Software:

The Vivo U20 runs on FuntouchOS 9.2 built on top of Android 9 Pie. It will soon receive the update to Android 10 as said by Vivo. FuntouchOS provides good functionality as it has a well-optimized system-wide dark mode, a dedicated Game Booster application and like all other smartphones, there is Google’s Digital Wellbeing for checking the app usage. Then there are gestures by drawing on the lock screen can launch some applications.

However, the quick toggles can only be accessed by swiping from below of the screen which is a bit awkward and confusing to the one using it. Then there are many pre-installed applications that eat up memory and can be uninstalled.

One of the best features is Vivo’s Jovi assistant which has some good functionalities for the user. However, multitasking is smooth but compared to MIUI or OneUI the FuntouchOS lacks some of the features but still provides good experience but at the end of the day, it all depends on your personal preference which appeals to you more.

Vivo U20 Camera:

The Vivo U20 like all other smartphones comes with a triple camera setup that has: 16MP Sony IMX499 sensor with f/1.78 aperture, 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. The camera UI is similar to all Vivo smartphones as you get Night, Portrait, Video, Live -Photo, Time Lapse and much more.

The photos taken from the main camera come out good with vibrant colors and good contrast levels. However, in some photos, there is some kind of overexposure in the background. Zooming into the photos you may not have details compared to photos taken from the 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor but the photos have a better dynamic range and with HDR turned on, the photos look more realistic.

Coming to night, the photos come out average with nice details as the camera tends to wash the shadows but when switched to the Night Mode, it certainly takes very good photos by capturing more light and the objects in the dark come to focus well.

Switching to the ultrawide camera, this is the same 8MP camera that we have seen on all mid-range and budget smartphones. It takes good photos with a wider field of view. The dynamic range is wider and the level of saturation has been well maintained.

Coming to night, the photos come out well detailed but lack the contrast level compared to the main camera. With the Night Mode, the photos come out good with better light and the level of details in the shadows is also prominent.

The 2MP macro camera takes very good close up shots but the background blur isn’t that good and the level of noise is prominent more. Vivo needs to improve its macro camera certainly. However, you can also shoot videos using the macro camera also.

Coming to the video, the Vivo U20 is capped at 4k@30fps at its highest settings. The footage has good stabilization even at 4k@30fps but somehow we can’t expect much from a budget smartphone in this range. At 1080p. the EIS kicks in and takes very good videos with better details and the exposure is well maintained in the background.

The videos taken from the ultrawide camera come out good but the level of details isn’t as good as the main camera. The macro camera takes some good videos but still focussing isn’t that perfect and there is some loss of detail too.

On the front, you get a 16MP f/2.0 camera which takes some very good photos with more natural-looking skin tones and with much nicer exposure in the background. However, skin smoothening needs to be worked.

Coming to portraits, the photos have good background blur and the edge detection works really well. For portraits, this is an amazing smartphone. Coming to videos, the front camera takes good videos also.

So overall the cameras are capable enough to take on the competition but Vivo needs to work on some of the areas especially the low light performance with an ultrawide camera and the macro camera needs improvements. The videos come out well.

Vivo U20 Battery Life:

The Vivo U20 has a larger 5000mAh battery which is sufficient enough for a user as with normal usage it can last for almost two days and if used on a heavy basis which includes 2-3 hours of gaming, browsing social media and multitasking heavily by switching between applications the Vivo U20 had around 10-15 percent battery left which seems good.

Vivo has also equipped the smartphone with an 18W Dual Engine fast charger. In the first half an hour, the Vivo U20 got charged from 0 to 63 percent and to 100 percent within 1hr 30mins which is good considering the competition as the Realme 5s only ships with a 10W charger.

Vivo U20 Sound Quality:

The Vivo U20 comes with a single speaker means there is no support for stereo speakers. The sound output is great but a little bit shrill. While watching movies or videos, the sound comes out clear. The audio output through the 3.5mm headphone jack is good as it is clear and Vivo provides some customizations to the sound in settings which can help further in enhancing the sound.

Verdict:

Should you consider this smartphone from Vivo? If you see the display has been a good improvement over the Vivo U10 as now it comes with a full HD+ panel and then coming to the performance, this smartphone is a beast considering its price. The Snapdragon 675 provides good gaming which is the best in the price segment.

The FuntouchOS may not as optimized as MIUI or OneUI but it does offer some interesting features for the users. Coming to cameras, it is a mixed bag as the main camera is a brilliant performer, the ultrawide camera may not be as good as the primary but it gets the job done. On an overall basis, the cameras are good but some improvements are needed.

The huge 5000mAh battery does makeup quite good for the smartphone and supports 18W fast charging also. Considering the overall package Vivo U20 price starts at Rs.10999 for the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage and Rs.11999 for the 6GB RAM and 64GB storage providing good value for money and if you want the best gaming smartphone blindly consider the Vivo U20. This smartphone from Vivo will surely win many hearts.

Check also: Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Review: Another all-rounder budget smartphone from Xiaomi