vivo V27 Review – V Should Stand for Value

vivo V27 Unboxing

The vivo V27 comes in a gray box, something you don’t often see nowadays with smartphones. You have the model number being seen clearly while the brand’s logo, albeit bigger in size, appearing in a more stealthy manner. Inside the box, you can find the following items:

Inside the box, you can find the following items:

• Quick start guide
• Warranty card
• 66W FlashCharge brick
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• SIM ejector tool
• Clear TPU case
• The vivo V27 smartphone itself

Specifications

SoC	MediaTek Dimensity 7200, 4nm 2 x Cortex-A715 @ 2.8 GHz + 6 x Cortex-A510 Mali-G610 MC4 GPU
RAM	8GB / 12GB
Storage	256GB
Display	6.78″ FHD+ (2400 x 1080) OLED 3D Curved Display 1,300 nits peak brightness HDR10+ 120Hz Refresh Rate 1.07 billion colours, P3 wide colour gamut
Rear Camera	50MP main camera 8MP wide camera 2MP macro camera Aura flash, HDR, panorama 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS
Selfie Camera	50MP f/2.5 wide-angle selfie cam, AF Dual LED flash, HDR, panorama 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS
Battery	4600mAh 66W FlashCharge
Dimensions	164.1 x 74.8 x 7.4 mm 180g
Ingress Protection	No
Software	Funtouch OS 13 based on Android 13
Colours	Noble Black, Emerald Green, and Flowing Gold

Performance

Starting off our benchmark suite with Antutu v9, the vivo V27 has quite a strong showing despite only being a midrange device. It’s not far off from recent flagships in terms of performance and is already placed higher compared to 2023 midrangers like the Galaxy A54.

On Geekbench 6 however, it doesn’t look particularly promising but keep in mind that the top 2 devices here are true 2023 flagships. Comparing it to something within its level, you can see that it’s better in single core processing than the Exynos 1380, but loses out in multi core. The difference in both isn’t particularly huge so you can expect a similar level of performance overall.

Then on 3DMark, the vivo V27 had unsurprising results in Sling Shot Extreme Unlimited but did pretty well in Wild Life Unlimited. The latter test is known to be quite intensive so we can see that newer hardware is able to meet its demands better. This is quite promising as it means that the GPU inside the smartphone is rather strong.

Lastly on PCMark’s Work 3.0 benchmark, the vivo V27 performed excellently considering that it’s a midrange device. It’s actually not far off from current generation flagships, and this is the level you’d expect a flagship from 1-2 years ago to be at. It also shows promise for it to be a daily driver for users.

In case you’re wondering about its battery life, it’s clearly one of the vivo V27’s strongest points as it managed to take 2nd place in our list of benchmarked devices despite carrying a smaller 4,600mAh capacity whereas plenty of others are using a 5,000mAh battery. It lasted 14 hours and 46 minutes (886 minutes) before it died, which is a very solid figure. The slightly smaller battery capacity would also benefit from charging speed as it would take less time to be fully charged. These are the speeds we got when charged from 2% with the included 66W charger:

• 15 minutes = 45%
• 30 minutes = 73%
• 45 minutes = 94%
• 50 minutes = 100%

Camera

I wasn’t expecting particularly much from the vivo V27 but it’s actually pretty good. The main camera can capture a good amount of detail with realistic colours, and the blurred background look surprisingly natural. Even night shots look good with the main camera. The ultrawide shows a similar level of performance so it’s definitely more than usable in case you need to capture more things in the frame.

Aura Light flash diffused light pretty well  so it can make pictures turn out well but keep in mind that it can only do so much if the subject is far, and the light is too much if the subject is near. When you start zooming however, pictures ended up darker and has trouble focusing. Noise is also more apparent the further you zoom but that shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s digital zoom. Macro camera is also decent at best so I would generally stick to only the main and ultrawide while zooming to a limit of 3x for the best results.

The Good

So far, the vivo V27 is shaping up to be a pretty good smartphone, but there are still more reasons why you should consider it. The most eye-catching reason is the design, especially this Emerald Green variant. By default, it already looks great with its gradient look giving it that blue-ish green look of varying hues but you can also make use of UV rays to give it a unique look thanks to its Clour Changing design, like the picture above. Granted, it’s not permanent as it will fade back to normal after a few minutes but it’s one way to spice up its look after you’ve grown bored of it.

Then we have an excellent display that you typically don’t see in this market segment. It sports a 6.78-invh Full HD+ OLED 3D curved display with up to 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, and a peak brightness of 1,300 nits. It’s also said to be one of the thinnest OLED panels around in a smartphone. Simply put, it’s a display that is more than adequately bright with punchy colours, something you’d expect from a flagship rather than a midranger. Personally, I’d prefer a flat display, especially since it would be easier to hold, but I can’t complain given its price. Speaking of which…

Lastly, it has a pretty solid value proposition given its price. It’s retailing for RM1,999 for the 12GB RAM / 256GB storage variant but if you’re not planning to multitask much, the 8GB RAM variant at RM1,799 is also pretty darn good. For this price, you get a very attractive smartphone with surprisingly long battery life, good performance, and a solid camera system. It’s no flagship device and it doesn’t match up to other flagships either but it’s not far off and it’s pretty outstanding for a midrange device.

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The Bad

As good as it might sound, the vivo V27 is not the perfect midrange smartphone, and there are areas where its competition would excel in. For instance, while Funtouch OS 13 is feature-packed and easy to use, it does come with quite a bit of bloatware. However, you could always find a way to remove most of them or just turn a blind eye and pretend it’s not there. Just focus on what apps you actually want to use and it’s perfectly fine.

While the display certainly puts it ahead of its class, the speaker is what is holding it back from being a true multimedia powerhouse. It’s only a single speaker and lacks the depth to be truly enjoyable. At most, it’s just loud and clear. If you’re accustomed to stereo speakers in a smartphone, this will certainly bother you as the audio will blast out on bottom and that’s about it.

The vivo V27 is an eye-catcher for sure with its design but one issue I have with it is that it’s rather slippery to hold. Coupled with the curved display, it can get rather awkward to hold for long periods of time. This should not stop you from getting it however as it can be remedied with the use of a simple protective case. This will aid with grip immensely along with removing any potential of fingerprint smudges on the rear, though it would be a shame to hide its beauty unless you go for the bumper-type cases.

Lastly, and this is more of a reassurance matter, is the lack of ingress protection. It’s not rated for any dust and water resistance so you would not want to get it wet at all if possible. Of course, having a bit of liquid touch the screen should not scare you but this would put into question whether the vivo V27 could last in the long run.

vivo V27 Verdict

The vivo V27 is an excellent midrange smartphone no matter how you put it. Sure, it has its quirks but the price more than justifies the entire package. It’s really hard to look elsewhere within the same budget unless you have very specific needs to be met, such as some form of water protection. At the end of our vivo V27, I award this smartphone with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

Big thanks to vivo Malaysia for sending us this smartphone of the purpose of this review.