After the much successful launch of the Vivo U10 in 2019, the company decided to update the smartphone to keep up with the growing competition. The new smartphone now called Vivo U20 is still the cheapest device that packs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor in India. Let’s take a brief look at this new offering.
Design and Display
The design of the U20 is similar to the one we observed on the U10 with its glossy back and rounded corners. Although this form factor is ergonomic to hold and handle, the body attracts a lot of fingerprint and smudges. The top edge is bland with all the ports and adapter located at the bottom with volume and power buttons located on the right.
The waterdrop notch style top feels a lot more passé with almost all competition opting for the same. However, we liked the 6.53-inch FHD+ screen for its high viewing angles and responsive feel. The auto-brightness too works excellent to give you the perfect brightness level at all times.
Camera
Camera spec includes a triple sensor setup of 16MP + 8MP + 2MP sensors placed beside a fingerprint scanner on the back. The images taken under sufficient daylight were quite realistic and visually appealing. Users can click Super Wide-angle photos with 120 degrees of field of view to grab the max details on a single go. The same cannot be said under low light conditions as the pictures came out to be blurry and grainy at all times.
The front-facing camera tucked underneath the dewdrop notch is a 16MP shooter which comes with features such as AI Face Beauty, Portrait mode and Group Selfie amongst others. This sensor is sufficient in handling good selfies to an extent where the pictures start to fall apart due to added noise and over contrast.
Performance and OS
Performance is moderate at best, as the device handles some intensive titles with sufficient finesse. We would recommend using the Ultra Gaming Mode to prevent unexpected frame rate drops during gaming sessions. Overall, we like the processor power and the user performance of the U20, which seems an incremental step from its earlier iterant.
The smartphone runs on Vivo’s custom FunTouch OS build on top of Android 9 Pie. This UI feels fast and snappy with clean looks and smooth transitions all over it. App opening and multitasking also feels responsive and lag-free thanks to Vivo’s attention to user experience. However, users do get a lot of useless bloatware that dials down on storage a lot.
Battery
The central aspect of this device is undoubtedly the 5000mAh battery unit that lasts an entire day or two with an average usage of social media apps, gaming and shooting a couple of videos at our office. The best part of this smartphone is also the 18W flash charging adapter which charges the smartphone in and under 1.5 hrs.
Gizmo Verdict
For all those price-sensitive buyers looking for that ideal smartphone experience at a cheap price point, Vivo U20 is one to consider. The smartphone ticks the right boxes with its best-ever screen, fast charging tech and a worthy processor. All this makes the smartphone worthy of a price tag of 11K and a spot amongst our hearts.
