Vivo X50 Pro First Impressions

Smartphone maker Vivo hasn't updated its X series since the Vivo X21 launched over two years ago. It was the first smartphone in India to sport an in-display fingerprint scanner. The company has now launched two new smartphones in this series, called the Vivo X50 and the X50 Pro. The Vivo X50 Pro is the highlight here as it packs in a gimbal camera along with OIS and EIS, and claims to provide excellent stabilisation. We got to spend some time with the Vivo X50 Pro, and here are our first impressions of the device.

With the Vivo X50 Pro, the messaging is clear: it is a camera-focused smartphone that brings a new gimbal camera system to the market. While most smartphones rely on OIS and/or EIS to stabilise footage, the Vivo X50 Pro also uses a gimbal, which means that the sensor physically moves to compensate for shakes. The camera tech seems interesting, but that's not all, the Vivo X50 Pro sports a 90Hz display and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G SoC too.

Let's start with the design. The display curves on the sides where it meets the frame. The glass rear panel also curves into the frame, gives this phone a premium look and makes it comfortable to hold. Vivo ships the X50 Pro in an Alpha Grey finish. Vivo has opted for Schott Xensation UP glass at the front and back. The frosted rear panel manages to hide fingerprints and smudges to quite an extent.

The Vivo X50 Pro has a 6.56-inch AMOLED display with a hole for the selfie camera towards the top left corner, which isn't very distracting. I like that Vivo has kept the bezels thin and this gives the impression of an edge-to-edge display, especially on the sides. This panel has a 90Hz refresh rate which made the UI feel smooth while scrolling through the different menus. It also has an in-display fingerprint scanner that is conveniently positioned. The display gets bright enough and has very good viewing angles. I'll report more of my findings when I review this device.

The frame of the X50 Pro is thin, and the power and the volume buttons are on the right. There is a slight recess where these buttons are positioned, and they have good feedback, which makes them easy to hit purely by feel. The top and the bottom of the phone are completely flat.

The Vivo X50 Pro has flat panels at the top and bottom

It has a USB Type-C port at the bottom along with a bottom-firing speaker and a SIM tray. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack on this device, but the company ships a USB Type-C to 3.5mm adaptor and an in-ear headset in the box. The Vivo X50 Pro is a dual-SIM device and has two Nano-SIM slots.

Vivo has picked the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G SoC to power the Vivo X50 Pro. This processor is capable of 5G connectivity and will also be powering the upcoming OnePlus Nord. The X50 Pro is the first smartphone with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G 5G SoC in India and I'm curious to see how it compares to other processors. It has 8GB of RAM and only a 256GB storage configuration has been launched in India. I have the top-end variant with me. Storage is non-expandable, but I don't see this as a problem as Vivo offers adequate storage.

The Vivo X50 Pro houses a 4315mAh battery in its tiny frame and weighs only 181.5g. It also comes with a 33W FlashCharge 2.0 charger in the box which should help charge the device at a fast pace. The Vivo X50 Pro runs FunTouchOS 10.5 on top of Android 10 and was running the May security patch, which is acceptable.

The primary camera is physically huge and has a gimbal camera system

I've saved the best for last and that is the quad-camera setup on the Vivo X50 Pro. The highlight of this setup is a customised 48-megapixel Sony IMX598 primary sensor mounted in the new gimbal system. This allows the lens and the sensor to move around to compensate for shakes. Vivo claims that this will not only help for video but also for low-light hand-held stills. I found this very interesting, and will be testing it fully in my review.

Accompanying the primary sensor is an 8-megapixel super-wide-angle camera which is also capable of taking macros at up to 2.5cm. There is a 13-megapixel depth camera with an f/2.48 aperture for portraits, and an 8-megapixel telephoto camera. The camera module protrudes slightly at the back, and Vivo has used a two-step design. The telephoto camera sits in the first step while the other three are raised slightly further. The primary camera looks physically bigger than the others. Vivo also seems to have added quite a few new camera app features to the X50 Pro, which I will be testing in the full review.

The Vivo X50 Pro has been priced at Rs. 49,990 for the sole configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It is priced close to the OnePlus 8 Pro (Review) and the Mi 10 5G (Review) but can it make it to our list of best phones under Rs. 50,000? Stay tuned to Gadgets 360 for the full review of the Vivo X50 Pro.

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