vivo NEX 3 hands-on review

GSMArena team, 16 Sept 2019.

Design and hands-on impressions

Undoubtedly, the vivo NEX 3 is a gorgeous phone. This is one of the best smartphone designs we've seen lately. It looks great from the front, it looks great from the back, and it's stunning from the side. However, no matter how you look at it, it's a huge phone, and it's hard to operate with one hand. Vivo says the curved sides make the phone feel like a 5.5-inch handset even though the actual diagonal is 6.89. But that's not entirely true. Reaching for the top side of the display is a proper stretch. And it's heavy too.

And as for the screen itself - it's nice to look at from the front, and you can mistake it for a Galaxy Note10+ - but without the punch-hole. Vivo doesn't say what kind of protection the glass panel uses but it's not Gorilla Glass, that's for sure. Engineers had to come out with a custom solution to achieve such aggressive curves without making the edges look bad.

The spokesperson did say it's an AMOLED panel from Samsung. And don't worry about accidental touches as the palm rejection software is already at version 4.0 and realigns the effective touch area depending on the current screen orientation. That's a good thing as the NEX 3 has really thin frame so no matter how you hold it, you are bound to touch the screen somewhere.

The thin frame called for removing the side buttons, so you get pressure-sensitive sensors with haptic feedback that act as a power button and volume keys. Just like the HTC U12+ from last year but the execution here is considerably better. Maybe because vivo used 7 pressure sensors to mimic actual buttons.

The virtual power button is placed on the right side with small grooves that fall right under your right thumb while the volume keys are on both ends of the grooved area. They are all within your thumb's reach and don't require any uncomfortable finger gymnastics.

As far as usability goes - the buttons are fine. For a short time we used them, they didn't appear to be any better or worse than actual hardware keys. The haptic feedback is good enough. They do take some time getting used to.

We couldn't help but spot a tiny physical button on the top side, right next to the camera pop-up mechanism. It's used for hard reset and screen lock only, but it's too small and awkwardly placed to be used for everyday use.

Then again, if anything goes wrong and you need to reset the phone, vivo says the virtual power button should work just as well as it's independent of the OS and has its own power supply.

Going around the back, the panel houses a circular camera module, which in turn holds three camera sensors - a 64MP main unit, a 13MP ultra wide-angle camera, and a 13MP telephoto snapper. The bump isn't too big. The back glass isn't as curved as the front one, but it's enough to help with the grip. It features an S-shaped wavy reflection that looks pretty nice in person.

Finally, the pop-up mechanism has been significantly upgraded, too. It's bigger than the one on the first NEX as it houses a camera and a flash. And it looks better this way too. So the flash will definitely come in handy in low-light situations.

As you've probably guessed, an official IP rating is a no-go. The SIM tray does have a rubber sealing, and vivo said the phone would withstand a splash or two, but that's about it.

But enough about the design. Let's take a closer look at what's under the hood because there's plenty to go through.

Camera samples

We had the chance to take all four cameras on the vivo NEX 3 for a spin and here are the results. Of course, it's too early to make any assessments so we will keep them for the full review.

Oh, and keep in mind that the phone has an early version of the software and apparently reports incorrect resolution on the ultra wide-angle and the telephoto cameras.

Main camera samples