vivo X50 Pro review

Android 10 with Funtouch 10.5 UI

The vivo X50 Pro runs Android 10 with vivo's custom Funtouch 10.5. The in-house customizations still run deep, though vivo has made many steps in the right direction - the UI is much cleaner and most of the iOS-like elements are now gone.

The first thing we noticed is that the new Funtouch has a proper notification shade with quick toggles in it, as opposed to the previous approach with an old iOS-like Control center on the bottom and notifications from the top. And it works like any other notification shade - you pull down from the top and a row of toggles appears, notifications cards below it; pull down again and you get the entire grid of toggles, there is a shortcut to the settings, too.

Notification shade

Funtouch now looks and feels a lot like a clean Android 10 as opposed to the heavily customized old iterations. It has less clutter on the homescreens (the leftmost being the Google one), you get a streamlined App Drawer just like on Android 10, and even the OS navigation is similar.

Funtouch UI

Some other custom launchers add a swipe and hold gesture from the side to switch between the last two apps, but not Funtouch UI. It does use that gesture for something, though - it is called 'Quick launch apps,' and it's a five-icon shortcut menu, where you can add any app installed on the phone. You can't add the flashlight, for example, which we feel is a missed opportunity. You can disable the feature entirely too.

A swipe and hold from the corners summons the Google Assistant.

Other navigation options are also available including the swipe from the bottom variety which operates like a nav bar, only with swipes, as well as the classic nav bar itself.

Navigation options and shortcut menu

The vivo X50 Pro has an always-on display feature, which you can customize to your heart's content. Dark mode for the entire UI is also present.

Dark mode • Dark mode • Dark mode • Always on display • Always on display • Always on display

Biometric security comes in two flavors - an under-display optical fingerprint reader and a camera-only face recognition. Fingerprint recognition works excellently fast, but the sensor area is not as big as on some other phones, so accuracy would depend solely on whether your entire fingertip is on the reader or not.

The facial recognition works extremely fast too, even in pitch darkness, where it lights up the display real quick (a little, not blinding you). While it does require at least one open eye to unlock, it's still a relatively insecure authentication method.

Biometrics and security

There's a bunch of gaming-focused software features baked-in too, operated from within the Ultra Game Mode hub of sorts. That's accessed from the main settings menu or by long pressing the toggle in the notification shade, which also serves a global on/off switch of the features. Game assistant will show a popup, informing you it's got everything optimized and briefing you on current settings - you can disable it after you're tired of seeing it. Game sidebar is where you'll be able to change settings mid-game - handle alerts, screen recording, and the pressure sensitive buttons assignment, among others. You can customize the options in this sidebar as well as disable it completely and only set the things from the Ultra Game Mode Optimization Center.

Gaming settings

Some other Gaming options include Framerate Priority setting if the game supports this. Eagle Eye View also sounds cool with local tone mapping, local contrast settings and forced sharpness option. Finally, 4D Game Vibration is simulated gunshot vibrations in supported games.

Gaming settings

Vivo's Funtouch 10.5 offers a variety of customization options if you are into this thing. There is a dedicated Theme Store with a ton of custom themes, and you can change literally everything - wallpapers and color schemes, icons, fonts, transition effects, among others.

Themes and customizations

The new Funtouch UI is a huge step in the right direction even of some remnants of the past iOS-copy era remain - like the iManager. But it is only a matter of time for vivo to get rid of this one, too.

The entire interface is optimized to work at 90fps, and it is super smooth. We had no issues using Funtouch, in fact, we liked what we experienced a lot. The old chaotic Funtouch is gone in favor of clean and organized one, and we are very happy with that change.

Performance and benchmarks

The vivo X50 Pro runs on the Snapdragon 765G SoC, Qualcomm's midrange 5G-capable chipset. It is manufactured on a 7nm production process and features a built-in modem unlike the flagship S865.

The octa-core processor has a 1+1+6 configuration with a Prime core clocked at up to 2.4GHz, a Gold core limited to 2.2GHz (both of these Cortex-A76 derivatives) and 6 Cortex-A55-based Silver cores with a top speed of 1.8GHz.

The GPU inside the Snapdragon 765 chips is Adreno 620.

The vivo X50 Pro offers 8GB RAM no matter the storage option - 128GB or 256GB. The unit we tested has 256GB storage.

And now, let's run some tests, shall we?

The CPU-focused GeekBench puts the vivo X50 Pro on top of all midrangers but you can buy faster phones for the same cash with flagship-grade Snapdragon chips. You can see the gap in the theoretical performance, though it is debatable if you will be able to feel it in real life scenarios.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  3402
• Huawei P40 Pro
  3197
• Realme X50 Pro
  3175
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  2579
• vivo X50 Pro
  1937
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  1927
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  1867
• vivo X50
  1827
• Realme 6
  1726
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  1694
• Realme 6 Pro
  1666

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  928
• Realme X50 Pro
  911
• Huawei P40 Pro
  780
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  756
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  677
• vivo X50 Pro
  636
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  616
• Realme 6 Pro
  565
• vivo X50
  552
• Realme 6
  548
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  521

The good performance continues in graphics benchmarks, where the vivo X50 Pro once again leads the midrange but trails behind the flagship bunch. The shown scores are plenty enough for gaming under 1080p screen though.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  61
• Realme X50 Pro
  60
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  56
• Huawei P40 Pro
  52
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  32
• vivo X50 Pro
  31
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  28
• Realme 6 Pro
  27
• Realme 6
  27
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  26
• vivo X50
  24

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  45
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  42
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  35
• Huawei P40 Pro
  31
• vivo X50 Pro
  17
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  17
• Realme 6 Pro
  16
• Realme 6
  16
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  15
• vivo X50
  14

Finally, Antutu, too, puts the X50 Pro in the midrange lead, but it's nowhere near the flagship scores.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  592447
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  575601
• Huawei P40 Pro
  496356
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  477905
• vivo X50 Pro
  323736
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  318117
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  316007
• Realme 6
  288931
• Realme 6 Pro
  268785
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  253271

It is a tough job to be the vivo X50 Pro. It is priced closely to phones with proper flagship hardware and yet it offers midrange-grade performance. It is very dependable performance and does for smooth gaming, don't get this wrong, it's just not even close to the Snapdragon series 8.

Still, the X50 Pro is first a camera-phone and multimedia device, so resources were obviously invested elsewhere. And that's fine. You just need to know that whatever you decide, the speed may not be chart topping, but it is a balanced and dependable for whatever you throw at the vivo X50 Pro.