The Phone Apple Couldn't Make... - Vivo X21 Unboxing

[nicklmg]

Buy Vivo X21 on Amazon: http://geni.us/6lPJ

 

In-screen fingerprint readers are FINALLY becoming a thing. But are they even worth considering yet?...

 

 

[79wjd]

I'm not personally interested, until fingerprint scanners can work anywhere on the screen.

 

A fingerprint scanner that works everywhere on the screen > facial recognition > fingerprint scanner on the front > fingerprint scanner on the back.

[r2724r16]

Tim Cook is depressed.

[VVoltor]

Why did you have to blur out the Vivo Apex in a Vivo X21 video?

[Guest The Viking]

Well Vivo's kinda stupid.

 

No physical fingerprint sensor=no apps support.

 

No, I am serious. The inscreen fingerprint sensor ISN'T recognized by ANY app right now, so your banking app, your google app, etc, those apps that could be unlocked by fingerprint instead of password.... well, back to the password. Need google to recognize it as a way to unlock apps and such.

 

Other couple things I've noticed is Vivo's implementation is worse than Huawei's for recognizing the fingerprint, I didn't have to press so many times to have mine scanned?

And my screen doesn't light up to the maximum to scan it either? The phone detects handmovement and the small finger dot just lights up

 

puting such a new tech with a snapdragon 660, isn't the 660 "budget"? kinda weird.

 

though seeing the market vivo's device is for i understand they had to cut corners in some places.

 

 

[Shreyas1]

so 600 dollars is reasonable price for a mid range phone now...

[Streetguru]

I assume you guys had to blur out the One Plus 6?

I'd never buy a phone with a notch, just give me my big squared edge rectangular screen, and a headphone jack, I'm still surprised Razer makes pretty much the best phone right now, minus the headphone jack, I would have expected them to go hard on gimmicks.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

30 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

 I'm still surprised Razer makes pretty much the best phone right now, minus the headphone jack, I would have expected them to go hard on gimmicks.

 

Let's see - 

OnePlus 5T - Same specs, better camera. decent speakers, headphone jack.

LG V30 - Best headphone jack out there, same tech specs, although camera is middling

Galaxy S8/8+/9/9+/Note 8/Arguably S7/7+/7 Edge - Better Screen/Body, better screen, better camera(s), same tech specs, mostly (except the S7), Samsung reliability, wireless charging

iPhone X/8 - It's shit, but it outbenches just about everything.

Pixel 2 - Same techspecs as the Rezar Phone, MUCH better camera, better battery life.

 

Yeah, sure.

 

 

[Streetguru]

Just now, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

 

120hz display and the speakers, as well as the large battery are what makes the razer phone the best IMO.

I really need a new phone, but I'll probably settle for a cheap One Plus 3 if I find one.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

2 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

120hz display and the speakers, as well as the large battery are what makes the razer phone the best IMO.

I really need a new phone, but I'll probably settle for a cheap One Plus 3 if I find one.

Large? Screen-on is middling at best! Also do you actually play that many mobile games that can actually use 120HZ and how many of those is that a major improvement for? Personally I don't really play mobile games other than Pocket Politics (awesome game BTW, check it out), but even if I did, I don't think it's as big a difference as people think. I can't even tell the difference between 60 and 100HZ on my Predator x34, so I have it at 60 to keep my system quiet.

 

Fight me.

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

 

120hz VR Porn bro.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Just now, Streetguru said:

120hz VR Porn bro.

lol. Even so, you only have one kindey left after buying the Rezar phone so you can't afford VR.

[Guest The Viking]

1 hour ago, Shreyas1 said:

so 600 dollars is reasonable price for a mid range phone now...

this is not midrange?

 

it's "premium", though not "high end".

 

Most of the specs (128gb, borderless+6 inches oled, 6gb ram, etc) are high end, but with a 660, yeah, you would think it's midrange.... but it's not . I guess lower high-end?

 

inscreen sensor is x3 or x4 more expensive than regular fingeprint sensor and notched oled screens seem to be rather expensive. So I guess they are just going with a cheaper SoC to keep the price "low" for the indian market.

 

edit: the version reviewed is supposedly 460 euros which is around the View10 price, so ~500$?

[Egg-Roll]

But Linus VIVO was doing it right with the camera, as Tarans little dance was clearly less interesting than outside

 

Also why compare a $600+- phone with a $1000 phone? It's like comparing the A5 to the S9 camera, or comparing a Honda to a pink lambo  There will be a obvious difference.

 

4 hours ago, Streetguru said:

120hz VR Porn bro.

Who watches porn on their phone? Isn't that what the VIVE supposed to be for?

[79wjd]

24 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

Who watches porn on their phone? Isn't that what the VIVE supposed to be for?

Google Cardboard, the poor man's Vive.

[captain_to_fire]

6 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

A fingerprint scanner that works everywhere on the screen > facial recognition > fingerprint scanner on the front > fingerprint scanner on the back.

A fingerprint scanner that works everywhere on the screen >> fingerprint scanner on the front > facial recognition > fingerprint scanner on the back.

 

There. I fixed it. 

Edited May 6, 2018 by captain_to_fire

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, djdwosk97 said:

Google Cardboard, the poor man's Vive.

I own a phones VR thing not a cardboard but some cheap walmart garbage I got for like $7(it at least has padding), and I can't tolerate it. I also don't own VR headset.

 

1 hour ago, captain_to_fire said:

A fingerprint scanner that works everywhere on the screen > fingerprint scanner on the front > facial recognition >> fingerprint scanner on the back.

 

There. I fixed it. 

Now... for some reason when I read that I thought of this part of the movie

 

 

[abazigal]

10 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

I'm not personally interested, until fingerprint scanners can work anywhere on the screen.

 

A fingerprint scanner that works everywhere on the screen > facial recognition > fingerprint scanner on the front > fingerprint scanner on the back.

That sounds prohibitively expensive, and possibly why Apple ultimately dropped Touch ID in favour of Face ID. Face ID was simply more cost efficient, considering it costs the same regardless of whether you implement it on a smaller phone or a larger tablet. 

[D13H4RD]

9 hours ago, The Viking said:

puting such a new tech with a snapdragon 660, isn't the 660 "budget"? kinda weird.

Sort of

 

In essence, it’s a slightly cut down Snapdragon 835 with a weaker GPU and a slightly older fab node at 14nm

 

Honestly though, as much as I like the idea, it just looks kinda slow. Perhaps it will get faster as it improves and it does look compelling but I want to see it improve.

 

On a side note, I don’t think I will ever buy a Vivo until they fix their software. I’ve owned one of their phones and due to their hyper-aggressive battery management, it will tend to kick out actively used apps. I was using Google Maps for directions at one point and the system flat out kicked the app from memory, thereby closing it while I was using it.

[williamcll]

I know the X21 is cool and all, but why not the Vivo Apex? It has a snapdragon 845 along with the same integrated fingerprint reader, an even smaller bezel where the camera is popped out of the phone a bit like some feature phones in the past.

 

[Guest The Viking]

4 hours ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Sort of

 

In essence, it’s a slightly cut down Snapdragon 835 with a weaker GPU and a slightly older fab node at 14nm

 

Honestly though, as much as I like the idea, it just looks kinda slow. Perhaps it will get faster as it improves and it does look compelling but I want to see it improve.

 

On a side note, I don’t think I will ever buy a Vivo until they fix their software. I’ve owned one of their phones and due to their hyper-aggressive battery management, it will tend to kick out actively used apps. I was using Google Maps for directions at one point and the system flat out kicked the app from memory, thereby closing it while I was using it.

EMUI kinda does the same, it'll just close apps after a while, but not while in use, that's ridiculous 

 

I see, so it's not really a bad SoC. I still find it weird to not put a 835 or 845 with the rest of the specs.

 

For the fingeprint sensor, yeah, it's a bit slower than the regular ones, and a bit more difficult to use, as it won't accept certain positions of your finger. Then again, i've read reviewers saying half the time it didn't work, and other reviewers said it always worked, so it seems to really depend on your finger? In my case it always works if I properly put my finger on it.

Then again, as mentioned in this or some other comment I made, the current in-screen fingerprint sensors are supposedly x3 more expensive than current sensors, for around ~1/3 the speed. It's "early-access" tech. I don't like the term, as it can sound as if it's not fully working yet, but no, I mean, it's in its early stages of development and will improve during the next 1-2 years. That's why I find it weird to put on a widely available phone. On a premium device such as the Mate RS, ok, you're getting a few early/exclusive things, but at 500 euros, vivo's option will not be as hard to obtain.

 

There's also two brands making those sensors, Goodix, which is used by Huawei in many other products such as the Matebook X (and those are FAST, or more like, INSTANT), and Synaptics. Mate RS uses Goodix's inscreen fingerprint sensor, while Vivo said they'll be using both, so it's a lottery between Synaptics and Goodix. From what I've understood, Goodix's is slightly better.

 

Some interesting article here explains it better https://www.anandtech.com/show/12593/goodix-ships-optical-indisplay-fingerprint-sensor-for-smartphones

 

I guess it doesn't really matter, I have the choice between inscreen and regular, and usually go with inscreen and I find it much cooler and well, yeah, it isn't instant but it still is fast enough.

[D13H4RD]

1 hour ago, The Viking said:

EMUI kinda does the same, it'll just close apps after a while, but not while in use, that's ridiculous 

EMUI only does so when you're not using it. That is a far better approach. Vivo's approach just seems like a tack-on, which it probably is.

 

1 hour ago, The Viking said:

I see, so it's not really a bad SoC. I still find it weird to not put a 835 or 845 with the rest of the specs.

The 660 is not bad at all. It's a very solid upper-midrange SoC, alongside its slightly less-beefy brother, the 636.

 

I've said it for a long time now. The bottleneck for smartphone UX performance is no longer the SoC but its storage. Many midrange phones use eMMC 5.1 for cost reasons. When UFS 2.0 (current flagships use UFS 2.1 except Apple, who uses a custom NVMe-based controller) becomes more cost-effective to implement on cheaper phones, expect a good increase in I/O performance, especially when launching apps from cold.

 

1 hour ago, The Viking said:

Then again, as mentioned in this or some other comment I made, the current in-screen fingerprint sensors are supposedly x3 more expensive than current sensors, for around ~1/3 the speed. It's "early-access" tech. I don't like the term, as it can sound as if it's not fully working yet, but no, I mean, it's in its early stages of development and will improve during the next 1-2 years. That's why I find it weird to put on a widely available phone. On a premium device such as the Mate RS, ok, you're getting a few early/exclusive things, but at 500 euros, vivo's option will not be as hard to obtain.

That's exactly what it is. It's the first generation of what is probably going to be adopted more widely in the future, with improvements to speed and accuracy while also being cheaper and easier to implement. I think it has some ways to go but I also don't doubt that it will be on par with current physical sensors real soon. If it is as fast and accurate as my mom's Honor 8 Pro (my benchmark for FPS performance), it's a real winner.

[Guest The Viking]

3 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

If it is as fast and accurate as my mom's Honor 8 Pro (my benchmark for FPS performance), it's a real winner.

probably the same one found on all huawei devices really. I would say yeah, 1/3 slower.

 

+the time needed to get used to put the finger in a specific way.

[D13H4RD]

1 minute ago, The Viking said:

probably the same one found on all huawei devices really. I would say yeah, 1/3 slower.

 

+the time needed to get used to put the finger in a specific way.

It very likely is the exact same sensor found on the P9, Mate9, and Mate10 Pro, just with a different shape.

 

Not sure about the front-mounted ones

[Guest The Viking]

5 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

It very likely is the exact same sensor found on the P9, Mate9, and Mate10 Pro, just with a different shape.

 

Not sure about the front-mounted ones

can't find info about the manufacturer.

 

It's yeah, 1/3 speed, sometimes 1/2, if you press properly and stuff.

 

P20 pro front fingeprint is even faster, and extremely sensitive.