Vivo NEX 2 smartphone - pros and cons

The world of mobile devices is developing fast enough, and more advanced models appear every year. However, there have been no major revolutions lately. Today, few people are surprised by the number of cameras, cores, processor frequency or the amount of RAM. But the engineers of the Chinese company Vivo have found a way to undermine the existing stability. While the best smartphone manufacturers are trying in vain to increase the usable screen surface, Vivo engineers create a device with two displays. Of course, it is quite difficult to pass by such a novelty, and therefore today's review will be on the Vivo NEX 2 smartphone, the advantages and disadvantages of which will be discussed in detail below.

Two-faced smartphone

One has only to pick up the NEX 2, as all its characteristics, design and price immediately fade into the background. Two screens are what attracts attention. The gadget, which appeared in December 2018, is clearly one of the most interesting new products of the year. The device is made in a standard rectangular shape, and its sides are almost invisible. The selection has been significantly reduced, which also applies to the top edge. True, if on the sides and below the increase in the screen area was painless (and the phone looks very cool in a dark blue design with almost invisible frames), then the front camera had to be sacrificed from above.

True, selfie lovers may not panic - you can take a photo, but you need to turn the smartphone upside down. There is another display on the back, but with decent bezels and a wide chin. But on top there are three cameras and an LED flash at once. The main feature of the NEX 2 is that the second display can be used as the main one (although the image quality will be worse).

Now about the ports. Above is the old man loved by everyone - a 3.5 mm mini-jack. At the bottom, at the end, there is a USB Type-C port, a mono speaker, and a pull-out tray for SIM cards, which does not provide the ability to install additional memory. On the right are the volume rockers and the power button. On the left is a function key. With its help, you can quickly call Google Lens. However, with subsequent firmware versions, it is likely that the user will be able to customize it to suit their needs.

As for convenience, there are almost no complaints about Vivo here. The device fits well in the hand, is light enough (199 grams) and functional (key layout). However, because of the main feature of the model - two screens, the phone turned out to be slippery, because of which it can easily slip out of the hand. And it doesn't matter which side it falls on, because there is a display on both of them, so users will have to be prepared for careful use.

Application and features of displays

Of course, both screens can be used as main screens. However, we will focus on non-standard uses and functions that can make life easier. So, for example, selfie lovers will appreciate the quality of cameras (which function here both front and main at the same time), because with their help you can take great pictures with a variety of effects.

Another way of photography is interesting, when one person photographs another, and he sees everything on the back screen.

And the last interesting solution lies in touch sensors. So it can be useful for active games, where the user can turn on additional controls on the rear panel, which will make the control more convenient. True, this feature is not yet supported, but this may change in the future.

And finally, one cannot but recall the negative features of a far from budget device. The fingerprint scanner on the main screen is very finicky and may well fail if your hands are wet or damp.

Trio for cool photos

If the design and some functions cause some mistrust, then the characteristics of the device will definitely appeal to many. After looking at them, it becomes clear how productive this smartphone is, and the answer to the question of which company is better to buy a new gadget becomes more obvious. However, it is worth considering that although most Chinese phones are inexpensive, the NEX 2 has an immodest price tag of 650-700 euros.

Starts reviewing camera specifications. There are as many as three of them here, and each has its own task. So, the main one is represented by a module from Sony (IMX363) and has a resolution of 12 megapixels. The main range of its application is ordinary photo and video filming. It has the following functions: autofocus, optical stabilization system and digital zoom. The auxiliary camera is already simpler and has a resolution of 2 megapixels, intended for portraits and photos with bokeh effect. The third is a TOF sensor and is necessary for quick face unlocking. The development stated that the scan speed would be 0.35 seconds, but in practice this takes more time. Also, using the third module, you can create a three-dimensional model of the face, which is quite interesting, but useless.

Summing up the cameras, you should remember the flash. It works very well, really helping in poorly lit areas. The quality of the photos themselves is very good, although there is some blur in small objects. In a two-fold approximation, the photo quality also hardly suffers, but in 5x and 10x, a significant deterioration is already observed. However, this was to be expected, because the device does not have an optical zoom.

Power within

When starting to study the hardware of a smartphone, it is difficult to find a point to find fault with. The filling is striking in its power even according to the descriptions, and may well be considered top-end.

Performance

The 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip with a 2.8 GHz core frequency is responsible for this item in the device, and if you consider that the device is equipped with 10 GB of RAM and a modern Adreno 630 graphics processor, the user may well forget about the system requirements for games. After all, with such a selection of components, any novelty in the game industry will fly at high settings. True, there is not a single performance test from independent sources yet, but even if it turns out to be a little underestimated, this will not play a decisive role.

But another question is interesting, if the highly efficient Snapdragon 845 in conjunction with the Adreno 630 is quite an objective solution, then with 10 GB of RAM it is clearly too much. Of course, a supply of RAM must be present, but today it is difficult to imagine a game or an operating system that requires such volumes. So, this decision is very similar to a commercial move, because even the flagship models of top brands are limited to 6-8 GB of memory.

Data store

If everything is just great with RAM (even too much), then the volume of the drive brings some disappointment. Of course, 128 GB of internal memory is a decent amount, but users do not have the opportunity to expand it additionally (unlike other models, where the lack of internal memory is compensated by SD cards). Also, before buying, you should understand that a decent part of the memory will go to the needs of the system and will be unavailable.

operating system

All the capacities can be brought together on the basis of the new Android 9.0 (Pie), in addition, this model has a proprietary shell Funtouch 4.5.

Display

The smartphone will delight with a picture from both sides thanks to the Super AMOLED matrix. The diagonal of the main screen is 6.39 inches with a resolution of 2340 × 1080, an additional 5.49 inches with a resolution of 1920 × 1080. So, apparently, the picture quality will be at a decent level and is suitable for both games and watching movies. But how they will manifest themselves in the sun is still unknown.

It is important to know that screens cannot work at the same time. They are switched using special buttons.

Battery

With autonomy, too, not everything is clear. The 3500 mAh battery will be enough for many modern economical devices, but since the NEX 2 has two displays and very powerful hardware, the question of battery life remains open. But here, too, not everything is so gloomy - the availability of fast charging is encouraging.

Technologies, communication standards, dimensions

The set of wireless technologies is standard, these are: Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G VoLTE.

Navigation is represented by systems: GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo.

Network and Internet: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 4G.

You can imagine the size of the device by examining its dimensions: 157.2 × 75.3 × 8.1 mm. The weight was 199 g.

Review results

After getting acquainted with the Vivo NEX 2 stuffing, it becomes clear that this is a serious smartphone that can cope with any task. And by adding unique design and functions here, combined with the name of the grandee of the Chinese mobile industry, you can get one of the most attractive and productive devices for 2019. We have to admit that Vivo managed to do a cool thing, but it was not without mistakes. However, only time can give a real assessment of the phone. In the meantime, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the features of this gadget:

• Unique design;
• Two screens;
• Excellent technical characteristics;
• Quality cameras;
• A really nice and useful flash;
• The presence of a mini-jack 3.5 mm.

• Unreliability (if dropped, the risk of breaking glass is very high);
• Slippery;
• No memory card slot;
• There is no optical zoom;
• Price;
• Autonomy.

As you can see from the comparison, this model has many advantages and disadvantages. But netizens in their reviews so far tend to notice only positive aspects, it seems that the first sales, which will begin on December 21, will bring clarity, and it will also become known where it is profitable to buy the new Vivo NEX 2.

Absurdity or breakthrough

In the post-Soviet countries, Vivo's products are in average demand and rarely get into the rating of high-quality devices. However, in China, the company's popular models are sold in huge quantities. Speed ​​and uniqueness play a key role here - their engineers come up with new products much faster than European competitors. But we must admit that sometimes this know-how is frankly useless. In the case of the NEX 2, nothing can be said for sure - its pluses may well become minuses during operation. But the fact that the model clearly deserves attention and will become one of the most interesting gadgets in 2019 is a fact. In the meantime, the real drawback is the average price, which should be 50,000 rubles.