66 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 88REVIEWS
themainlens.Coloursaren’tperfectly
consistentbetweenthethree,but
they’recloseenoughforthemostpart.
Thebiggerdifferencesarein detailand
dynamicrange,wheretheultra-widein
particularcan’tquitekeepupwiththe
mainlens.Shadowstendtobedeeper,
detailssofter,andedgesfuzzier.
The2xzoomlensholdsitsown
betterhere,andis surprisinglysharp.
Admittedlyyou’ll find much longer
zoomselsewherethisyear,butthisis
enoughforsimplepunchingin – andthe
digitalzoom,upto20x,is muchbetter
thanmostequivalents.
The 32Mp selfie camerais also
impressive,withgreatdetailand
accuratewhite balance even in
challenging light conditions, from late
night to direct sunlight and glare.
Portrait mode is supported across
the front-facing camera, main lens,
and, unsurprisingly, the 2x portrait lens.
Results are solid, with adjustable bokeh
and beauty effects if you like them.
Night mode is supported across
the full suite of lenses, though in fact
it doesn’t add much – most of Vivo’s
lowlight algorithm seems to have been
incorporated into the main photo mode,
so switching to Night mode will only help
in the most challenging conditions. At
times it even hurts – I found skin tones
better balanced from the main modethan the dedicated night functionality.
In either case, lowlight photos are fine
but Vivo still has work to do here. The
main camera really pulls apart from the
other lenses here – no surprise with both
the aperture and gimbal working in its
favour – but details are still soft and any
light sources get blown out. With all the
hardware at its disposal, Vivo needs to
improve the post-processing to really
make the most of it and keep up with the
competition here.
Of course, the gimbal helps with
video too, which can be recorded
at up to 4K and 60fps. With five axis
of stabilization in play, this second
generation of the gimbal tech proves its
worth better than the X50 Pro’s first-
gen version, and can now combine the
gimbal with electronic stabilization for
even stronger results. If you shoot a lot of
action-cam style video, or just film while
you’re on the move, this will improve the
stability of your footage.SOFTWARE
Vivo is in a strange position with its
phone software right now. In China the
company has retired Funtouch OS, its
Android skin, and replaced it with a new,
widget-heavy design called OriginOS.
This isn’t shipping on the phone
worldwide though. I’ve been testing the
global version, which still runs Funtouch,