Vivo NEX with elevating selfie camera, in-display fingerprint scanner and Snapdragon 845 SoC launched in India

Back in late May this year, Chinese smartphone brand Vivo launched the Vivo X21 UD as Vivo X21 in India. The Vivo X21 was the first and the only smartphone in India that came with in-display fingerprint scanner. But not anymore, as Vivo has launched yet another smartphone in India that comes with in-display fingerprint scanner – the Vivo NEX.

Just like Vivo launched the X21 UD under the X21 moniker in India, the NEX S has also been launched under the NEX moniker in the country. Yes, the Vivo NEX launched in India today is actually the NEX S that was announced last month in China. In fact, for those unaware, the NEX series is actually the commercially available version of the Vivo APEX that we saw back in February this year.

The Vivo NEX is a smartphone that’s close to being bezel-less. The smartphone boasts a 6.59-inch Super AMOLED display that has aspect ratio of 19.3:9 and a resolution of 2316 x 1080 pixels. The NEX also has an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 91.24%.

While many smartphone manufacturers have resorted to display notch to offer more screen real estate and smaller bezels on their smartphones, Vivo hasn’t done anything like that. And, that’s where the innovation lies. Instead of throwing in a display notch to reduce bezels, Vivo has introduced pop-up selfie camera that elevates from the top of the smartphone. And, as far as the earpiece is concerned, Vivo has used SoundCasting Technology which transforms the display into a speaker by producing vibrations through the display to emit audio. So, with SoundCasting Technology and elevating front camera, we get a smartphone that’s almost bezel-less and doesn’t come with a notch that annoys a lot many users.

As far as the elevating front camera is concerned, Vivo says it comes out in just 1 second when required for selfies or video calls, and then goes back in automatically once you are done. We couldn’t comment on the durability of this mechanism and the chances of its failure as that’s something we will only know after prolonged usage of the smartphone.

That said, the Vivo NEX is a flagship smartphone, and as one would expect, it comes powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 SoC which is mated to 8 GB RAM. The smartphone runs Funtouch OS 4.0 which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo.

The Vivo NEX, which is actually called NEX S in China, comes in two storage variants – 128 GB and 256 GB – but, in India, Vivo has only launched the 128 GB storage variant. Now the NEX doesn’t support storage expansion through microSD card, but, we personally think that 128 GB of storage is more than enough for majority of users,

For photography, the Vivo NEX comes with dual cameras – 12 MP + 5 MP – at the back. They are stacked vertically in the top-left corner of the screen and are accompanied by LED flash placed below them. These dual cameras support Portrait Mode which lets you take photos with blurred background. In addition to that, they also come with AR Stickers. For selfies and video calls, there’s an 8 MP camera on the front at the top that we already talked about which pops-up from inside the smartphone.

The Vivo NEX doesn’t come with a fingerprint scanner below the display due to minuscule bezels, and, neither is there one at the back. Well, that’s because the NEX comes with in-display fingerprint scanner, which means all you have to do to unlock the smartphone is place your registered finger (generally your thumb) on the display, and voila, you are done.

The Vivo NEX also comes with a “dedicated AI button” which is located on the left side of the phone. This can be used to summon Google Assistant without saying “Ok Google” or “Hey Google”. It can also be used to trigger Google Lens after opening the camera app for object recognition, OCR and other things.

Lastly, keeping this entire package up and running is an impressively big 4000 mAh battery which draws power from a USB Type-C port.

Vivo NEX Specifications

• CPU: 2.8 GHz Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor
• RAM: 8 GB LPDDR4X
• GPU: Adreno 630
• Operating System: Funtouch OS 4.0 based on Android 8.1 Oreo
• Display: 6.59-inch Full-HD+ (2316 x 1080 pixels) Super AMOLED FullView display with 19.3:9 aspect ratio
• Rear Camera: 12 MP (f/1.8) + 5 MP (f/2.4) with dual PDAF, 4-axis OIS, Portrait Mode, AI Scene Recognition, Face Beauty, AR Stickers and LED flash
• Front Camera: 8 MP with f/2.0 aperture, Portrait Mode, Face Beauty and AR Stickers
• Internal Storage: 128 GB UFS 2.1
• SIM: Dual Nano
• Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, GPS, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, USB OTG, USB Type-C
• Other: In-Display Fingerprint Scanner, Hi-Fi DAC with three amps, Dedicated AI Button
• Battery: 4000 mAh

Vivo NEX Price in India and Availability

• Price: ₹44,990
• Availability: Available exclusively on Amazon India, Vivo India website as well as through select stores from July 21

Vivo NEX Offers

• Extra ₹5000 off on exchange
• 12-month no-cost EMI
• One-time free screen replacement
• Cashback on purchases through HDFC Bank Credit and Debit Cards
• Additional data from Reliance Jio
• Assured buyback
• Cashback of ₹1000 in the form of Amazon Pay balance along with 6-month extended warranty (click here for more details)