Vivo V21s Smartphone Review – The Vivo V series phones are exceptional when it comes to overwhelming value-for-money deals. Usually, the company brings an impressive and sleek design that stands out from the competition. Recently, Vivo launched the Vivo V21s in Taiwan around November 2022. It has almost been 18 months since the Vivo V21, while the company also unveiled V23 and V25 not too long ago.
So there are lots of options to choose from. But what makes the new Vivo V21s even more impressive is that it has the same layout and design as the Vivo V21, and it has the same specs as the Vivo V21 5G with NFC enable features on top. All of them with the exact downside of lower audio output and lackluster ultra-wide lens quality. But we can’t judge the whole picture yet. So, Let’s head toward the Vivo V21s review to find out more details about this phone.
Table of Contents
Vivo V21s Smartphone Review
Highlights
- The phone attains a superb 6.44-inch AMOLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR 10+ content support.
- As for the software layering, you will obtain Android 12 firmware with the custom skin of Funtouch 12.
- At the same time, this device is powered by a Dimesnity 800U chip with decent graphic support.
- A 64MP triple camera setup brings impressive camera results with a 44MP selfie lens.
- In terms of battery life, you are getting a smaller Li-Po 4000 mAh battery with 33W charging support.
Design and Display
The Vivo V21s comes with a sleek and simple design with a square camera module and flash LED on the back panel. Though, the company won’t add anything particular to the previous gen phones. But the V21s look minimalistic choice with an edged corner design. Besides this, there are two shade options in which this smartphone can be purchased. It includes the standard Gradient shade with classic vibes.
If you prefer a professional appearance, the Gradient color variant is the best option for you. But on the other hand, the aurora texture of Dusk Blue gives the phone a fancy appearance. Both of them are quite good-looking in their respective way. Moreover, you are getting a lightweight and thin body phone since the phone has occupied smaller battery under the hood. Though, there’s no IP rating protection on the body.
Moving to the front, the water drop notch 6.44 inch AMOLED panel brings pretty decent colors and contrast. With that, you can watch content with HDR10+ crisp quality and boost the viewing experience. In addition to that, you will obtain a 90Hz refresh rate with an under-display fingerprint reader as a security perk. Plus, the 800 nits brightness will make outdoor usage great.
Memory and Internal
The hardware department of the Vivo V21s offers the 7nm MediaTek MT6853 Dimensity 800U chip, which is tailored to provide impressive performance in normal conditions. Besides this, the octa-core processing speed will reach to 2×2.4GHz cloaking speed, which is pretty great if you prefer playing casual games. Although, we would not recommend highly graphic-orient games because you won’t able to play them at max resolution settings.
Anyway, the Mali-G57 MC3 GPU improvises the overall visual and graphic aspects during the gameplay. At the same time, you won’t notice that much lag since you are getting 5G connectivity on top. Alongside this, the software end comes along with the latest Android 12-based Funtouch 12 interface. With this combination, you can create a personalized interface that follows your commands.
Not only that, you are getting various widgets, themes, wallpapers, gestures, and many more things to heavily customize the user interface according to your work schedule. In terms of the storage option, you will obtain a UFS 2.2 memory type 128GB space, which is sufficient to store all of your data, apps, and multimedia, while it also got secondary storage as expandable. Lastly, the performance increased with 8GB RAM support.
Camera
The Vivo V21s comes with a triple camera setup in which you will find a 64MP as the primary lens that supports optical image stabilization. Besides this, the daylight photos are beautiful as you will notice fine details in each shot, while at the same time, the natural colors are enhanced with AI software support. Furthermore, the phone also supports decent lowlight photos reducing the noise from the background.
On the other hand, there’s also an 8MP ultra-wide that provides a good enough dynamic range, but it missing to details factor to some extent. However, the 2MP macro lens is not that great as well, you won’t find proper details in the close-up photo shots. Overall, the image quality is average with the native camera app. In terms of videos, the main sensor can record up to 4K videos.
But it is sad to say that the camera app doesn’t have high-quality video stabilization support. However, you are getting tons of options to record videos. On the other hand, the 44MP selfie lens brings elegant image quality with fine details and impressive colors. With the front camera, you can record up to 4K videos as well.
Battery and Others
Lastly, let’s discuss the small battery capacity provided by the Vivo V21s. Finding that the phone is providing a Li-Po 4000 mAh battery in 2022 is a complete shock for us as it’s been a while since we come across a smartphone that has a battery below 4500 mAh. With that battery, you can expect more than 4 hours and a half of screen time in regular conditions. But if you are a normal user, battery optimization is good for daily tasks.
Though, long gaming sessions will reduce the battery percentage faster. To refuel the phone, Vivo provided a 33W fast charger inside the box from which it will only need less than an hour to completely energize the cells. The sound output can be considered below average and there’s no 3.5 mm hack port. The Vivo V21s is expected to cost around $355 (Rs 28,999 in India) approx in the United States. At this price point, the phone is an Okish deal.
Vivo V21s Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Vivo V21s smartphone.
| Specifications | Vivo V21s |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G |
| Announced | November 2022 |
| SIM | Hybrid Dual SIM |
| Dimensions | 159.7 x 73.9 x 7.3 mm or 7.4 mm |
| Weight | 176-177 g |
| Size | 6.44 inches |
| Display | AMOLED 90Hz HDR10+ 500 – 800 nits HBM brightness 20:9 ratio ~409 PPI density |
| Protection | No |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2404 pixels |
| OS | Android 12, Funtouch 12 |
| Chipset | 7nm – MediaTek MT6853 Dimensity 800U |
| CPU | Octa-core 2×2.4 GHz Cortex-A76 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 |
| GPU | Mali-G57 MC3 |
| Card slot | microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot) |
| RAM | 8GB |
| Internal | 128GB UFS 2.2 |
| Camera | 64 MP (wide), PDAF, OIS 8 MP (120Ëšultrawide) 2 MP (macro) LED flash, HDR, panorama Max – 4K@30fps |
| Selfie | 44 MP (wide), AF, OIS Dual-LED flash, HDR Max – 4K@30fps |
| Loudspeaker | Yes |
| 3.5mm jack | No |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band |
| Bluetooth | 5.1, A2DP, LE |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go |
| Sensors | Under display fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| Battery | Li-Po 4000 mAh Fast charging 33W |
| Colors | Dusk Blue, Gradient |
| Expected Price | $355 (Rs 28,999 in India) approx |
Conclusion
The Vivo V21s is a rebranded version of the Vivo V21 5G with minor tweaks here and there. But at the same time, the performance aspect is improved to some extent and renders an excellent display to render an immersive viewing experience. Though, the camera quality and battery life can be considered the major shortcoming of this phone. But still, it’s a great option if you compare it to other mid-range phones.
Overall, if you are looking for a simple design with decent specs, the phone is good to go. But at the same time, there’s high competition in the mid-range market and there are several alternative options present. We recommend you go with Xiaomi 12 Lite as it arrives with an all-rounder feature at an impressive value for money deal.
