Vivo X21

Vivo X21 4G Phablet Global Edition

With the Vivo X21 and X21 UD, the Chinese manufacturer Vivo recently introduced two almost identical new smartphones in the upper mid-range. The latter model should score above all with the fingerprint reader built into the display.

Our colleague Daniil Matzkuhn therefore shows in the clip above how Vivo tries to counter the iPhone X with his new X21 and does not shy away from being very generously inspired by Apple. Thus the Chinese not only take over the “Notch” at the top of the screen, but also “clone” the iPhone X’s gesture control in an aggressive way with their Android version called FunTouchOS.

Not only are the wiping gestures for switching between apps and returning to the home screen adopted, for example by wiping up quickly or slowly from the bottom of the screen. Vivo also adds two additional bars at the bottom of the display, indicating that they also serve as a starting point for wipe gestures.

If the user wipes up on the X21 from the bar displayed in the lower left area, a settings menu modeled after the Apple Control Center of the iPhone is displayed. The design of FuntouchOS is also optically very similar to the Apple model, but this has probably helped Vivo to its position among the top Chinese manufacturers. Externally, this device also follows the current trends in the smartphone market in many ways.

The front is dominated by a 6.28-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 2280×1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19:9. Vivo’s “Notch” only contains the front camera and the earpiece as well as the distance and brightness sensors. It is also the OLED panel that allows Vivo the otherwise impossible feat of letting the fingerprint reader’s CMOS sensor “see through the display” on the appropriately equipped model.

Inside, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 Octacore SoC features eight cores with speeds of up to 2.2 gigahertz, combined with six gigabytes of memory and either 64 or 128 GB of flash memory, depending on the model, which can be easily expanded via a microSD slot. A 12-megapixel and a 5-megapixel camera work in tandem on the rear, while a single 12-MP sensor is in service on the front. All together in a quite nice aluminium frame with glass back, whereby the battery brings it to a capacity of 3200mAh.

In China, the Vivo X21 is offered at prices equivalent to a good 370 euros. Who chooses the variant with fingerprint reader “in the display”, however, must put a good 460 euros on the table, but then also receives an internal memory doubled to 128 GB.

SPECS