Vivo V27 5G Review: Mid-range all-rounder with killer looks

Vivo V27 5G Review: Vivo is known for making smartphones capable of capturing good images. And while the company is sticking to what it does best, which is a wise thing considering the competition in the mid-range segment, it is ready to offer something more with its latest offering — Vivo V27 5G. With this smartphone, Vivo has tried to add more premium-ness. How? Find out in our full review.

Vivo V27 5G Review: Design

Design is one thing that helps this phone stand out in the crowd, especially with the Magic Blue colour that changes hues when exposed to UV light or direct sunlight. The delicate light blue colour of the device turns to a more pronounced and elegant dark blue when exposed to sunlight. It not just looks great but also lets you bring out your creative side. For example, you can draw a silhouette.

The smartphone is quite slim and easy to hold and we have done a detailed story on the design of the Vivo V27 that you can read HERE. While the design is almost perfect, there is one thing that is missing - a 3.5mm audio jack. However, if I have to nitpick, there's another thing related to design - the smartphone wobbles when you put it on a flat surface with cameras down. But one can easily solve it by using the bundled case. Also, the phone can feel a bit slippery if used without the case.

Vivo V27 5G Review: Display

The Vivo V27 has a 6.78-inch 3D Curved HDR10+ AMOLED display, which offers a high refresh rate of 120Hz and peak brightness of up to 1300nits. There are three options to set the screen refresh rate in the smartphone - Smart Switch, 60Hz and 120Hz. But, you don't have the option to use the refresh rate of 90Hz. Even for the screen colours, users get three options - Standard, Pro and Bright. You can further adjust the colour temperature as per your requirement.

The device offers a good viewing experience and I loved watching Pinocchio on Disney+ Hotstar on it. However, stereo speakers in the device could have made content consumption more immersive.  

Vivo V27 5G Review: Performance and software

The smartphone comes with India's First MediaTek Dimensity 7200 5G Processor, paired with LPDDR5 RAM and fast UFS 3.1 storage for a smooth experience while multitasking. The Octa-core CPU has a peak performance of 2.8GHz. The device is available in two RAM and storage variants - 8GB + 128GB and 12GB + 256GB. I have been using the former one and it has 8GB of expandable RAM. There is no support for a microSD card so one cannot increase it further. I tried playing some heavy games like Asphalt 9 and did not notice any lag. The device is capable of multitasking as well and you won't feel any stuttering. Also, I did not notice any heating issues with the device.

In terms of software, the device boots on Funtouch OS13, which is based on the latest Android 13 platform. FunTouch OS 13. It continues to come with bloatware like Hot Games but you can easily remove it from the home screen with just a few clicks.

I also ran some tests to check how the device would perform under sustained load and the scores were not very satisfactory. While the device managed to score 99.6 per cent on stability during Wild Life Extreme Stress Test, it touched the best loop score of just 1,167. Similarly in Geekbench multi-core score, the Vivo V27 managed to score 2,484.

Vivo V27 5G Review: Battery and charging

The Vivo V27 5G comes with a 4,600mAh battery and supports 66W of fast charging. The charger is capable of replenishing 50 per cent of the Vivo V27 battery in around 20 minutes and you can comfortably juice up the device from zero per cent to 100 per cent in less than an hour. With all the daily tasks along with watching some movies on OTT platforms and playing games now and then, I managed to run the device for the entire day on a single charge.

Vivo V27 5G Review: Camera

Now comes the most important feature of the Vivo V27 5G smartphone - its camera. The Vivo V27 has a 50MP Sony IMX766V custom primary rear sensor which is accompanied by an 8MP wide-angle and a 2MP macro sensor. For selfies, the Vivo V27 has a 50MP advanced eye autofocus camera.

The main sensor works perfectly during the day and captures images that have a colour tone close to natural if HDR mode is off. The HDR mode tends to saturate images. The wide-angle shots are decent but they tend to have distortions and also at times it felt that some colours are highlighted more than others.

Portrait images clicked using the main sensor are quite good not just in terms of edge detection but also differentiating the background and foreground.

In low light, the main sensor manages to click good images but they appear slightly overexposed but vivid. However, they are worth sharing on social media platforms. Aura Light does make photos more appealing.

But the images clicked using the wide-angle sensor lack dynamic range in low light. Also, it takes at least few seconds to click photos in low light.

Now let's talk about selfies. The selfies clicked during daylight with the Vivo V27 have measured skin tone and look out-and-out real. I think the portrait mode is not as effective because it couldn't create a very visible difference between the foreground and background.

During low light, the photos taken in normal mode as well as in portrait and night mode have decent details.

Vivo V27 5G Review: Verdict

Just like other V series smartphones, the Vivo V27 has managed to do justice with the camera as it is capable of capturing excellent images. I think the design is the reason sufficient to go for this phone as it comes with certain oomph factors -  sleek body, curved display and colour changing back to name a few. However, the device has no IP ratings and someone spending over Rs 30,000 would definitely look for it. But design and camera quality can simply be appealing enough for buyers.