The vivo V21 5G is the latest refresh of the brand’s midrange V series lineup. The smartphone has received several upgrades compared to the vanilla V20 from last year like support for 5G thanks to its new MediaTek Dimensity 800U chipset, and 90Hz refresh rate for its 6.44-inch AMOLED screen.
vivo V21 5G
| Chipset | MediaTek Dimensity 800U |
| Screen | 6.44-inch AMOLED, 2400 x 1080, 90Hz |
| RAM | 8GB + 3GB Extended |
| OS | Android 11, FunTouch OS 11.1 |
| Rear Camera | 64MP f/1.79 Main, 8MP f/2.2 Ultrawide, 2MP f/2.4 Macro |
| Front Camera | 44MP f/2.0 |
| Storage | 128GB UFS 2.2, expandable via MicroSD Slot |
| Network | Dual-SIM, 5G, 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | Dual-Band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.1, USB Type-C |
| Battery | 4,000mAh, 33W Fast Charging |
| Others | In-Display Fingerprint Scanner |
| Colors | Dusk Blue, Sunset Dazzle |
Unboxing
The V21 5G shares the same blue box design as its predecessors with the only difference being the V21 logo embossed at the front. Encased inside is the smartphone itself, its clear case with a flap for the charging port, a 33W wall charger, and a USB Type-C cable.
vivo is also including a pair of earphones and a USB Type-C to 3.5mm female adapter since it the smartphone does not have a dedicated 3.5mm jack for wired earphones. A nice touch from the brand especially given that other midrange devices do not come with these accessories.
Screen and Audio
At the front of the vivo V21 5G is a 6.44-inch 2400 x 1080 AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate and brightness of around 500nits. Colors are punchy and well-saturated and blacks are quite deep as expected from an AMOLED screen. It’s no way completely color accurate but the display is pleasant enough for daily use.
The V21 5G’s display’s default standard profile should be good enough for most users. The device, however, does come with two more screen profiles: Professional and Bright. The former has a more neutral color pallet while the latter significantly pumps up the saturation.
One of the few upgrades that it has received over its predecessor is its 90Hz screen. Pretty much one of the norms now in midrange smartphones, animations and general use are now more fluid due to the increased refresh rate. Games that support this refresh rate also run smoother allowing for a better gaming experience.
The vivo V21 5G comes with a single bottom-firing speaker. Audio produced is okay but not excellent by any margin. Thankfully, it can produce tracks and other content without much distortion even on high volume. It lacks a proper soundstage since the source only comes from a single point and the bass lack punch.
Design and Aesthetics
Aesthetic is perhaps one of the strong suits of the V21 5G in the eyes of some minimalists. We received the Dusk Blue variant of the device and the brand has a no-nonsense approach here. The rear is colored a dark blue that only lightens up once light hits it at an angle. Those who prefer a more eye-catching approach may also take a look at its Sunset Dazzle variant as it comes with a dual-tone design.
vivo is once again dumping all the controls to the right-hand side of the device. Both the volume rocker and power button have good resistance and does not feel loose. Fairly standard here for a smartphone.
At the bottom is a USB Type-C port, the grilles for its single bottom-firing speaker, and a dual SIM card slot. One of the SIM slots also double as a MicroSD card mount, which means that you can choose from a dual SIM setup or give up one of the SIMs to augment its 128GB storage.
Software
The vivo V21 5G come with Android 11 with the brand’s FunTouch OS 11.1. Quite a bit of bloat is pre-installed but you can opt out from downloading others when setting up the device. Other than that, the smartphone offers a ton of extras like Jovi Assistant and Global Search to the already flexible Android platform.
Several themes are available as well as the ability to customize icons and animations for the fingerprint scanner and charging. The AMOLED display allows for an Always-On Screen even while locked. Standard options are present such as multi-window support and an easy to access command center.
On the gaming side of things, the V21 5G has access to Ultra Game Mode which comes with its own Game Assistant to block test and call notifications and change system modes on the fly. It can even purge background processes to give games more system resources if needed.
Camera
At the back of the vivo V21 5G is a familiar triple camera setup composed of a 64MP f/1.79 main lens, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro shooter. The camera has all the standard options such as Photo, Video (4k60fps for the rear and 4K30fps at the front), Pro mode, Portrait, Night, Slow Motion, Panorama, AR, Documents, and double exposure.
The 64MP f/1.79 main lens natively takes photos at 16MP but can be upscaled to full by taking snaps using High Resolution mode. Performance is fairly good as the camera can preserve finer details and colors are strong and well-saturated without looking fake or boosted in any manner.
HDR mode helps in bringing out finer details in high contrast scenes but it tends to slightly turn up the exposure on brighter parts. Low-light performance is similarly impressive but noise is somewhat noticeable and the camera may need to switch to Night Mode to get the best photos possible.
Up next is its 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens and its serviceable in most cases. Photos do have well-saturated colors but details are not as sharp as we would have liked it to be. Fortunately, there’s no color fringing and the edges are properly corrected by the software.
The 2MP f/2.4 macro lens, like most of its kind, is bland and underwhelming. Photos lack detail due to the low pixel count and the colors look dull. You can take close up photos of subjects but you’re probably better off cropping photos taken by the main camera.
One of the main highlights of the V21 5G is its 44MP f/2.0 selfie camera that supports OIS. vivo is placing two LED flashes at the front in addition to the automatic white screen brightness to boost performance in low light. It takes detailed selfies with decent separation from the background both in well-lit and low-light conditions.
The selfie camera (and portrait mode by extension) do have a lot of options for beautification. You can adjust sliders for pretty much every part of your face as well as apply makeup presets. There’s also several pose guides for those who want to up their selfie game.
Performance and Benchmarks
Powering the vivo V21 5G is a Dimensity 800U chipset courtesy of MediaTek. The chip also allows the device to have 5G support. It is complemented by 8GB RAM and 128GB UFS 2.2 storage. If 8GB isn’t enough, however, vivo is also allowing for 3GB extended RAM that will be taken from its internal storage. It is magnitudes slower than its dedicated RAM but it’s there if the system needs it.
Performance of the V21 5G is serviceable for most applications. All programs were able to run without any kind of hitches. Numbers it produced on benchmarks are pretty decent as well. AnTuTu was able to reach around 360K, PCMark 2.0 at 7,057, and GeekBench 5.0 at 1,687 and 563 at single-core and multi-core scores, respectively.
Gaming performance is pretty much what you expect from a midrange gaming smartphone with a Dimensity 800U. The smartphone is able to hold a steady 60fps on popular titles like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and League of Legends: Wild Rift with minimal difficulty on the highest possible settings offered on the device. It does falter a bit on Triple A games like Genshin Impact barely reaching 30fps on average with at the highest preset.
Battery Life
The V21 5G gets its juice from a 4,000mAh battery reserve. Battery life should be good enough to get the handset through a whole working day with enough power in the evening. It would have been preferable if vivo has upgraded the battery to 5,000mAh or even just 4,500mAh to give the smartphone a bit more oomph through the day.
Despite the stale battery capacity, the V21 5G can still last throughout the day. Running a PCMark Work 2.0 battery test yielded nearly 20 hours of usage with medium brightness and volume. The test was running at only 60Hz so increasing the refresh rate to 90Hz may bring this figure down.
Charging is done through its USB Type-C port that supports 33W FlashCharge. Filling up the 4,000mAh battery is fast around more than just an hour of charging from completely empty to full.
Conclusion
Some may look at the vivo V21 5G as only a slight refresh of its predecessor but it brings new things to the table to make a solid case for itself. Its 6.44-inch AMOLED screen already presents a pleasant viewing experience only enhanced by its 90Hz refresh rate. The addition of 5G and the performance of its MediaTek Dimensity 800U also adds to its overall appeal.
Rear camera performance is mostly adequate but they don’t really bring anything new to the table. As usual from vivo, the selfie camera takes the centerstage thanks to superb photos regardless of light source and wide range of editing options.
The V21 5G, however, does have a few downsides. A few might be turned off by its lack of 3.5mm audio jack but vivo already covered that with its bundled Type-C to 3.5mm adapter. Speakers also lack punch since audio only comes from its bottom-firing speakers. Users will also need to give up one of the SIM card slots in order to expand its 128GB internal storage.
At PhP 23,999, the vivo V21 5G definitely offers a solid experience on all fronts with only a bit of nitpicking on some of its drawbacks, which is why we are giving it our seal of approval. Those who have been looking for a definitive 5G upgrade might want to take a look at the V21 5G.
