Vivo has announced the launch of its latest smartphone, the Vivo Z1X in India. The smartphone comes with a price tag of Rs 16,990 for 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and Rs 18,990 for 6GB RAM + 128GB storage options. The smartphone will be available for sale from Flipkart starting from September 13.
The company has introduced the second smartphone in the new Z-series with Vivo Z1 Pro being the first device. Vivo has refined the product by adding some much-needed features like 48MP triple rear cameras, in-display fingerprint sensor and more. The phone comes with a better design language as compared to the Z1 Pro. So, the question here, it is currently the best offering from Vivo in this price band? Let’s find out.
What we like about the Vivo Z1X!
The first thing you like about the device is the design language. The phone is available in two colour options, Phantom Purple and Fusion Blue. We got the former for review and it sure looks beautiful out-of-the-box. The gradient finish at the back panel comes with a combination of Blue and Purple colours. The only downside here is the plastic build quality. That said, the smartphone fits perfectly in your hand and the front panel comes with minimal bezels, which provides an immersive look.
Another area where Vivo Z1X does a good job is the display. The smartphone is backed by 6.38-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Display with a screen Resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. The display is vibrant and offers good colour reproduction. All thanks to the AMOLED screen along with Widevine L1 certification, streaming is a delight on this smartphone. We watched a couple of episodes of The Preacher, Wu Assassins to name a few and were impressed with the streaming quality. Furthemore, it comes with Always-On display, which is a welcome addition.
In terms of battery, the Vivo Z1X is loaded with a 4,500mAh battery and the company has added a 22.5W fast charger. The new fast charger comes bundled with the box. In our testing, we found out that the battery lasted almost one full day under normal usage. Under power usage, we got close to 8 to 9 hours of battery backup, which includes streaming videos, using GPS for navigation, playing PUBG Mobile and more. When it comes to charging, the 22.5W flash charge is really helpful for those last minutes charging. The phone took almost 1 hour and 10 minutes to get fully charged in our testing.
On the performance front, the phone gives you a smooth performance. The Vivo Z1X is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 AIE Processor along with Adreno 616 GPU. The phone is backed up a 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 128GB via microSD card slot. The day-to-day performance is quite smooth and it can handle multitasking quite effectively. On the gaming front, you will not notice any major lag when playing casual games or high-end games likes PUBG Mobile. There is also an Ultra Game Mode, which cranks up the gaming performance of the device.
Apart from this, the in-display fingerprint sensor is quite fast to unlock the device and one has the option to choose different animations for the fingerprint reader. The facial recognition feature works fast as well, though, in low light conditions, it shimmers a bit. The audio quality is quite average in our opinion as the speaker lacks the bass and it tends to shimmer at high volume.
Coming to the camera capabilities, the Vivo Z1X features a triple-camera setup with a combination of 48-megapixel primary lens, an 8-megapixel Wide-Angle sensor and 2-megapixel depth sensor. In daylight conditions, the smartphone does a solid job in capturing detailed photos with the right amount of dynamic range. The phone was fast to focus on the subject and the macro shots came out to be decent as well. Coming to the portrait, the phone managed to capture the subject with good EDGE detection and it comes with different lighting effects to play around.
What we don’t like about the Vivo Z1X!
Although the design of the smartphone is good, we were quite disappointed with the build quality. The phone is made of plastic and it is quite a fingerprint magnet, meaning that you will end up wiping the back panel regularly. The only way to avoid this is to put it in a case. Furthermore, the build quality is decent, though we have seen smartphones like Realme X, Realme 5 Pro, Oppo K3, Xiaomi Mi A3 that gives you better design language as compared to this phone.
Another area where the phone shimmers is the low-light conditions. In our testing, we found out that the photos came out to be quite grainy and the detailing went for a toss. The Night mode does a slightly better job in increasing the brightness, though the overall image quality is not that impressive. We have seen smartphones like the Realme X giving you better pictures in low light conditions as compared to this smartphone. The selfie performance in low light is also average in our opinion as the photo came out to be noisy and detailing could have been better.
The performance of the Vivo Z1X is quite smooth, though the software is not that great. First of all, the company has added a ton of bloatware including company’s owned applications and third-party apps. You get iMusic, V-Appstore, iTheme, Videos, Email, EasyShare, GameCenter, Notes, Vivo.com, Tips, Kids Mode, vivoCloud and more as company’s owned pre-installed apps, which cannot be deleted. Then there are third-party apps like Google Duo, Gaana, Amazon Shopping, PhonePe, Paytm, Google New, Dailyhunt, Webnovel, Opera, Facebook, WhatsApp and WPS Office as third-party apps. Thankfully, you can delete these apps.
The whole user interface is quite cluttered and it is quite difficult to find something in the Settings menu. The FunTouch OS also misses on an App drawer. Just for your reference, Oppo has started providing you with an option of App drawer with its latest version of ColorOS. The app drawer not only makes it easier to navigate, but it also makes the home-screen less cluttered.