Over the past couple of months, we’d seen a growing number of affordable 5G smartphones in the local market including the Realme X50 5G (Review), as well as the more recent Samsung Galaxy A42 5G.
Now, Vivo responded to the intensifying competition with the all-new Vivo X50e 5G that builds upon the same foundation as the company’s X50 series smartphones, offering a spectacular design and a list of juicy specs.
Priced at S$599, the Vivo X50e 5G is among one of the most affordable 5G smartphone in Singapore. It complements the recently announced Vivo V20 SE, allowing the company to cover every price point within the mid-ranger segment.
Interestingly, Singapore is the only country in Southeast Asia that launches the Vivo X50e 5G. In other Asian markets, Vivo launches the V20 Pro 5G that comes with largely similar specs and features as the X50e 5G except for the difference in design.
Looking at its specs, the Vivo X50e 5G certainly looks enticing for its price. However, does it have everything it takes to be your next smartphone? Let’s find out in our Vivo X50e 5G review!
Design & Display
Just like any other Vivo smartphones, design remains at the heart of the Vivo X50e 5G, which flaunts a stylish and refreshing rear design that’s unlike any of the recent smartphones we have in the market.
Instead of the usual rectangular camera island which we see on majority of the smartphones, the Vivo X50e 5G broke out of this uninspiring trend with a stylish, diamond-shaped camera module that looks a tad more refreshing. Similarly, credit should be given to Vivo for keeping its camera bump minimal.
For the Silver variant which I’d received for review, it dons an iridescent sheen that shifts and changes colors according to the angle of the incident light. Besides the Silver variant, there’s also a more subtle Black variant for those who prefer a more understated colorway.
As usual, the rear panel of the X50e 5G maintains a dual-curved design which allows better grip on the device, making it easier for single-handed usage. However, its glossy rear panel do attracts fingerprints pretty easily but that shouldn’t be an issue since it can be wiped off easily.
Upfront, the Vivo X50e 5G features a dewdrop-notch for its selfie camera, along with slim bezels around the sides. Since its a flat display, you wouldn’t encounter any issues pertaining to color distortion around the edges, or any potential false touches which occasionally occur on a curved display.
Coming to the specifics, the front display is a FHD+ AMOLED panel that measures 6.44-inches diagonally. No doubt, its great to see devices with AMOLED display within this price segment. Color reproductions are great thanks to its vibrant display that really makes colors pop – something which LCD display struggles to achieve.
Other than that, the X50e 5G also offers sufficient peak brightness to ensure the screen remain visible when you’re outdoor during a sunny day. It will be rounded out by all the usual goodies that tag along with an AMOLED display including an under-display fingerprint scanner as well as an always-on display feature.
Performance & Gaming
Under the hood, the Vivo X50e 5G is helmed by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset manufactured on a 7nm process. Its based on an octa-core architecture which offers a maximum clock speed of 2.4Ghz.
For those who may not know, the Snapdragon 765G is currently the best mid-ranger chip in the market which boasts higher performance than any other chips within the Snapdragon 6 or 7 lineup.
Considering its price, the Vivo X50e is definitely a steal for those who favor smartphone performance since the Snapdragon 765G is usually found only in premium models like the Vivo X50 Pro (Review) which commands a higher asking price.
On a day-to-day usage, its underlying chip is highly reliable in delivering a smooth and seamless usage throughout the day. Apps loading feel snappy and you wouldn’t feel a slight tinge of lag when you’re snapping high resolution images.
As for gaming, the Snapdragon 765G is more than capable of supporting pretty much every game titles available in the Play Store thanks to its Adreno 620 GPU. Even with the highest graphical settings on PUBG Mobile, its overall frame rate remains pretty consistent.
Of course, it do inevitably heats up after two or more games at high graphical settings which may occasionally lead to throttling. However, this happens to any other phones unless you’re talking about gaming flagships like the ROG Phone 3 (Review) that comes with a dedicated cooling system.
What’s notable is that Vivo’s FuntouchOS 10 also brings along a suite of gaming-centric tools and customizations that can be easily accessed through the “Ultra Game Mode” within the phone setting.
Whether you’re a leisure gamer or a competitive players, these tools will definitely will definitely offer you a more immersive gaming experience. However, its a real pity that many users are unaware of them.
Personally, I really love the dedicated Esports Mode that not only helps to fully maximize the phone’s performance with its smart system resource management algorithm, but also automatically blocks out calls and notifications. Just toggle on the feature, and you’re all set for a smooth and uninterrupted gaming experience.
Cameras
Coming to its photography aspect, the Vivo X50e 5G relies on its versatile quad-camera system lead by a 48 megapixels (f/1.79 aperture) main camera along with three other auxiliary cameras including a 13 megapixels (f/2.46 aperture) portrait lens, 8 megapixels (f/2.2 aperture) ultra-wide lens, as well as a 2 megapixels (f/2.4 aperture) macro camera.
In the default shooting mode, the main camera utilizes the usual 4-in-1 pixel binning to deliver crisp and detailed photos. Just like the recent V and X series phones we reviewed, the Vivo X50e do offers great dynamic range especially for its price point. Even in high contrast environment, the device did well in preserving details within highlight and shadow areas.
As for night shots, the Vivo X50e continues to extend the wonder of the Vivo V19 (Review) with its impressive AI night mode which effectively brightens the night scene with optimal exposure. Images look natural with minimal noise.
Moving on to the ultra-wide lens, it offers a decent 112-degrees Field-of-View that allows you to fit more into the frame. On most instances, you wouldn’t really see any notable differences in quality with those taken by the primary shooter. However, there is admittedly a slight drop in details if you go to the extreme of pixel peeking.
Speaking of its zooming capability, the Vivo X50e 5G actually supports up to 20x digital zoom which is higher than most other mid-rangers with 10x digital zoom. Practically speaking, most of the time we seldom need more than 5x zoom but nonetheless its still a nice-to-have feature in your arsenal.
When zooming between 1x to 3x zoom factor, images are flattering and highly usable. After you exceed the 3x mark, there will be a gradual deterioration in details and dynamic range.
Despite that, the device did a great job in keeping the image noise minimal even at maximum zoom level. Therefore, you can easily make out words or structures within images shot with 20x zoom factor.
Finally, its also worth mentioning that the Vivo X50e 5G do have an interesting macro camera which is useful for capturing really close-up images with distance as close as 4cm. Despite a relatively low resolution of 2 megapixels, it do offers decent amount of details which are otherwise oblivious to the naked eyes.
For selfies, the device also has a 32 megapixels clicker upfront that captures natural and highly detailed images which are sure to impress on social media. Although AI beautification is enabled by default for the front-facing shooter, but it can be easily turned off if you ain’t a fan of such feature.
Battery & Charging
To keep its lights on, the Vivo X50e 5G relies on a 4,350mAH battery that can easily last you through the day with around 30% battery to spare under normal usage condition. This isn’t much of a surprise since all the Vivo smartphones we’d reviewed so far share the same enduring battery life.
In terms of charging, the Vivo X50e 5G features the same 33W Vivo FlashCharge technology as the Vivo X50 Pro. During my test, a full charge from 0 to 100% will take slightly more than 70 minutes which is quite reasonable in my opinion. Even when you’re in a rush of time, a short 30 minutes charge will get you more than 50% battery life.
Although the device doesn’t come with any wireless and reverse charging support, but there isn’t much we can complain about since majority of smartphones within the same price range lack support for these features as well.
Verdict
To sum up, the Vivo X50e 5G is a really attractive device which gets you more bang for your buck. Its a no-frills, all-rounded device that brings users a futureproofing 5G connectivity, powerful Snapdragon 765G chipset and a versatile AI quad-camera system. Most importantly, its unique and exquisite design is another plus point as well.
At S$599, the Vivo X50e is a great alternative over some of the slightly more expensive Snapdragon 765-powered smartphones including the OnePlus Nord 5G and the OPPO Reno5 5G.
For those who’re interested, the Vivo X50e 5G is available for purchase via both Lazada and Shopee.
