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Tuesday 8 January 2019

Vivo NEX Dual Display quick review: Innovative, good looks, and not so complicated

Vivo NEX dual display

HIGHLIGHTS

  • In China, the NEX Dual Display retails for CNY 4,998 which roughly translates to Rs 52,000.
  • Vivo NEX Dual Display comes with two screens, one on the front and the second one on the back.
  • Vivo NEX Dual Display lets users move from one display to another with three finger swipe gesture.
A phone with two screens? Yes, that is what you call the Vivo NEX Dual. Vivo has turned something impossible into reality with the Vivo NEX Dual Display which was launched in China a few weeks ago. The NEX Dual Display is yet to hit the Indian shores but over here at India Today Tech we tried the phone to look at what Vivo has done with it. And what Vivo has done with it seems very impressive.
In China, the NEX Dual Display retails for CNY 4,998 which roughly translates to Rs 52,000.
After spending some good three days with the phone I can say that the Vivo NEX Dual Display may seem like a complicated phone to use with lots of tech crumbled into it, but in real usage, it is pretty easy and simple to use. That is always a sign of a good phone.

Vivo NEX Dual's 2 screens and how they work

As the name suggests, the Vivo NEX Dual Display comes with two screens, one on the front and the second one on the back. So basically there's no back cover on the phone. Instead there's a 5.49-inch screen. This might seem a design little too complicated, after using the phone I find that it is extremely easy to use the NEX Dual Display. Switching between the two displays is also very easy, simple and quick. Vivo offers several options to switch between the two screens and the users might use the one that suits them better. I mostly used the two power keys placed on the right of each screen to navigate from one screen to another. The two screens don't work together at the same time.
Unlike every other smartphone, the Vivo NEX Dual Display has two power keys. One of them is on the right side of the first display with no bezels or notch or selfie camera, while the second power button is on the right side of the rear display with the circular lunar ring that displays colourful lights on receiving a new notification or call. The lunar ring lights up even when the phone is put on charging. So, it's very easy to move from one screen to another by just pressing the power key with the right thumb. Simple.
Vivo NEX Dual Display also lets users move from one display to another with three finger swipe gesture. The users will basically need to slide their first three fingers sideways on the screen. But the issue with this option is that it works in only limited scenarios like while watching a YouTube video or scrolling through Facebook or Instagram newsfeed.

Display and design

Overall, I like the fact that Vivo has tried something out-of-the-box to get rid of the now so normal notch to offer a true bezel-less experience to the users. The Vivo NEX Dual Display looks exceptionally good and you are bound to fall in love with the phone at first sight. Besides the stunning design, I must also credit Vivo for making the NEX Dual Display compact even though there are many features packed inside the phone. The phone weighs quite a lot but feels extremely durable in the hands, which is great.
I absolutely loved using the main screen that measures 6.39-inch (16.23 cm) and packs an Ultra FullView Display with resolution of 1080x2340p and an improved screen-to-body ratio of 91.63 per cent. The Super AMOLED front display of the NEX Dual Display offers a notch-free and immersive viewing experience to users and it is one of the best bits about the NEX. YouTube videos, movies and as well as PUBG that has lots of cool visuals looks absolutely stunning on this phone. So, if you are an avid gamer or a movie buff or addicted to Netflix or Prime, you're going to fall in love with the Vivo NEX Dual Display. To unlock the front screen there's an in-display fingerprint sensor that I believe is among the fastest I have used. It unlocks the phone in fraction of seconds.
The second screen looks different with the lunar ring covering a top middle portion of the phone and on the right of it, there is Vivo's own Time of Flight (TOF) 3D Sensing camera that lets users unlock the phone by just looking at the screen. The face unlock system works extremely fast and takes just second to unlock the phone in both good light and inside a dark room, which often isn't the case with many other smartphones including iPhones. Inside the Lunar ring there are two cameras where the primary 12MP sensor works as both main cam and as well as a selfie shooter. The secondary camera uses a 2MP sensor and it enables users to capture depth aka portrait photos.
With so many features incorporated on the back side, the size of the second screen reduces to 5.49-inch this too uses Super AMOLED display and offers vibrant visuals with spot on colours. Overall, the second screen feels good but when you move to apps like WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube there's a problem. The aspect ratio reduces to 16:9 which narrows the screen from the sides. I found this a bit annoying but then you always have the option of switching to the first display, which is one of the best panels I've seen in a phone so far.

Vivo NEX camera, software, performance and the rest

The Vivo NEX Dual Display is pretty powerful phone as far as the overall performance is concerned. The phone comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset paired with 10GB of RAM (first time for Vivo) and 128GB of internal storage. For me the NEX Dual Display worked smoothly and at no point did I see any lag or signs of stutter.
After using the phone for quite some time now I can very well say that the Vivo NEX Dual Display is not only great for moderate phone users but also for the power users who play demanding games like PUBG throughout the day. Unexpectedly, the Vivo NEX Dual Display lasts quite long, which is a surprise given that it has two screens. Initially I thought that the 3500mAh battery may not last too long -- yes, due to those two screens -- but as both the displays aren't switched on simultaneously, the battery life is pretty good. For me the Vivo NEX Dual Display easily survived through the entire day when I started the day with its battery at 100 per cent. Again and again.
The software running the Vivo NEX Dual Display is Funtouch OS 4.5 based on Android 9 Pie (great to see Pie in a Vivo phone) and the interface feels like any other Vivo phones. It is a little too cluttered and most of the gestures and features are copied from iPhone like the notification shade on the bottom, the camera app and so on.
As far as the camera performance is concerned, the Vivo NEX Dual Display produces fairly good results. The phone manages to click decent looking pictures with good colours but I wish the details could have been better. Most of the pictures clicked in good lightning lose out on details. The same is the case with the selfies. In selfies you see good colours but not enough details.
Keeping aside some areas like camera and software where Vivo could have worked a bit more, I overall love the NEX Dual Display and how effortlessly you can use it despite its two screens and all the tech crammed inside it. The NEX Dual Display is different, looks stunning, and is extremely simple and easy to use. And that I believe hints at some pretty cool phones from Vivo this year.

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