vivo V21 (5G) review

Android 11 + Funtouch OS 11.1

The vivo V21 5G ships with a modern software experience - the latest Android 11 and the company's own Funtouch OS 11.1 on top. The latter is one of the heavier Android skins out there at the moment. Our unit came with quite a few pre-installed apps, we would consider bloat, as well.

There are plenty of extra features to explore, customizability is great, and there are various tweaks and bits beyond that as well. Let's just start at the lock screen first. There is plenty of customizability to be done here right off the bat. You can change the style and have dynamically changing wallpapers, thanks to the Lockscreen Poster feature. You can also put your own text on there, in case you lose the phone.

Lockscreen and settings

Static images on the lockscreen are all fine and well, but Funtouch OS 11.1 goes way beyond that. There are plenty of animations, lighting effects and other visual bits associated with things like reading your fingerprint, unlocking, getting a notification and charging the phone, to name a few. Funtouch OS lets you customize pretty much all of them in some way. Frankly, the number of options is a bit staggering.

Extensive Dynamic effects customization

Since the vivo V21 5G has an OLED display, it only makes sense to also have an Always On Display feature. In keeping with the rest of the OS, there is no shortage of customization options here. Some great functional tweaks are included as well, like the ability to trigger AOD on a schedule or with phone movement.

Always On Display customization

It seems more or less a given, but naturally, there is extensive Theme support in Funtouch OS as well. There are complete themes, as well as visual elements like wallpapers to download from the online vivo repository. Also, quite a few fonts.

Theme settings and store

Moving on to the Home screen, there are plenty of tweaks to fiddle with as well.

Home screen and options

Swiping down from there shows a standard-looking notification shade along with the quick toggles.

Notification shade and quick toggles

That colorful icon on the top right is actually a shortcut for vivo's Jovi assistant. It is fairly functional, especially on a global ROM, like the one we are running on the V21 5G. There is a dedicated pane for Jovi as well, one swipe left from the Home screen.

In a rather nice move, though, Funtouch OS actually lets you swap Jovi, as well as this pane for a Google feed instead, if that fits your needs better. The switch is as quick as pressing the button in the top right corner.

Google Home • Jovi Home • Jovi Home settings

Interestingly enough, despite all of the available customization options, there does not seem to be a way to turn off the app drawer in Funtouch OS 11.1. Perhaps we just missed it, though. What you can enable or disable is the recommended apps strip at the top of the app drawer, right below the app search bar. That last one is convenient, though, Funtouch does also have an even more-convenient feature, called Global search. It can be triggered by swiping up on the home screen. It is powerful and can surface results from your files, apps, app stores (of which the V21 5G has at least two) and web results.

Global Search and settings

You might not be able to disable the app drawer, but there are plenty of navigation options, including different arrangements and styles of navigation buttons and the newer gestures scheme.

System navigation settings

There are plenty of other aspects and features within Funtouch OS 11.1 that might deserve some spotlight. We won't be going through all of them, but vivo's focus on performance and gaming optimization does deserve a mention. First off, there is a Multi-Turbo menu within System settings, which mostly lists various systems working silently in the background but does also have an ART++ Turbo option, which was turned off on our unit. You might want to turn it on for faster app launching.

Multi-Turbo menu • Ultra Game Mode settings

Then there is Ultra Game Mode, which gets its own settings menu. Some of the notable options here include toggles for the in-game assistant and sidebar, also game-specific sound quality tweaks, along with 4D Game Vibration, which picks up on certain sounds, like gunfire and converts that to vibration. Game picture-in-picture, like the name suggests, when turned on, enables a quick way to bring a floating window on top of a running app.

Ultra Game Mode settings

Autoplay with screen off is pretty interesting and not something you see every day. It allows you to turn off the display of the V21 5G without pausing a running app or game. This could be helpful for conserving battery, while remaining idle in certain games. Nifty. Finally, Esports Mode is also a thing on the vivo V21 5G. It does the usual things, like limiting distractions like notifications and seems to be particularly related to Arena of Valor KPL tournaments, which vivo is involved in.

Beyond this settings menu, there is also a Game Center app on Funtouch OS. It acts as a central gaming hub, but is primarily a game store for downloading and installing APKs separate from the Google Play Store. It also has personal gaming statistics.

Game Center

There is also Game Space, which is more or less a launcher specifically for your games.

Game Space

Last, but not least, here is how the game assistant and in-game side bar actually look and the features they offer in-game.

Game Assistant and side bar UI

All things considered, Funtouch OS 11.1 is a heavy Android skin, no question about it. It is chock full of features and offers plenty of customization. Tweaking actually goes as deep as system animations and effects. If that sounds appealing to you, then there is plenty to love here. If you are looking for a clean Android experience, however, between all of these features and the abundance of pre-installed first and third-party apps, Funtouch OS 11.1 is not for you.

Synthetic benchmarks

The vivo V21 is built around the MediaTek Dimensity 800U chipset. It is a solid mid-range chip, part of the company's new and highly-competitive Dimensity line. Like every other chip in the series, it has a built-in 5G NR Sub-6 GHz modem, which also offers LTE. The 800U is one of the most popular chips from the line. It is far from the most powerful in the roster and is also based on the slightly older 7nm process, compared to the new Dimensity 900 or the flagship Dimensity 1200 and their 6nm process. It also uses the slightly older ARM Cortex-A76 performance cores, instead of the A78 ones in the aforementioned chips. Even so, it is not strapped for power. Quite the contrary, the Dimensity 800U offers solid all-around performance. In our review unit, it is paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of speedy UFS 2.2 storage.

Starting with the CPU, the Dimensity 800U has two Cortex-A76 cores, clocked at up to 2.4 GHz and an additional six lower-powered Cortex-A55 ones, rated for 2.0 GHz. This easily chews threw modern single-threaded workloads.

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  803
• Realme X7 Pro
  756
• Poco X3 Pro
  735
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  597
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  595
• vivo V21 5G
  574
• Realme 8 5G
  569
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  560
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  537
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  534
• Realme 8
  533
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  525
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  502
• Poco M3
  308

Referring to the GeekBench results, we can clearly see the Dimensity 800U outpaces Qualcomm's 600-series chips, like the Snapdragon 662 and 678, as well as much of the 700-series line, like the popular 720G and 732G. The Snapdragon 780G being a notable exception. But that's a chip that even outperforms the Snapdragon 860, so no surprises there.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme X7 Pro
  2997
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  2909
• Poco X3 Pro
  2574
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  1796
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  1787
• Realme 8 5G
  1784
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  1775
• Realme 8
  1690
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  1627
• vivo V21 5G
  1600
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1599
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  1577
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  1576
• Poco M3
  1398

The poll position shifts slightly when the same chipsets are presented with an all-core synthetic load. Not by much, though. It is always good to compare performance against other devices with the same chipset as well. In this case, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T and the Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G. The vivo V21 5G is mostly keeping up, with results roughly in-line. Though, it looks like it's possible for vivo to potentially squeeze a bit more peak performance out of the chip.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Poco F3
  631850
• Realme X7 Pro
  510317
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  465534
• Poco X3 Pro
  453223
• vivo V21 5G
  336699
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  333952
• Realme 8 5G
  302059
• Realme 8
  298328
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  295442
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  290172
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  288732
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  279342
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  261282
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  218788
• Poco M3
  177904

When discussing performance, though, a few extra numbers in a benchmark score are hardly the be all and end all, nor should they be a goal in themselves. Instead, we were happy to see that the vivo V21 5G hardly heats-up under load and does not thermal-throttle. That's great for sustained performance, which is much more important in out book. AnTuTu and its more-compound benchmarks are also a lot more favorable towards the V21 5G. This is great, since on top of CPU performance, AnTuTu also takes into account various GPU aspects, as well as memory and storage.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  522490
• vivo V21 5G
  365055
• Realme 8 5G
  361505
• Realme 8
  357488
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  333668
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  330909
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  294251

For GPU, the Dimensity 800U has Mali-G57 cores. Unfortunately, not too many - just three. The Dimensity 800 has four and the 820 an additional one, for a total of five. Those chipsets, however, are nowhere near as popular as the 800U.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Realme X7 Pro
  119
• Poco X3 Pro
  102
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  89
• Realme 8
  53
• vivo V21 5G
  51
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  51
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  45
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  39
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  39
• Realme 8 5G
  38
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  24
• Poco M3
  19
• Oppo F3 Plus
  17

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  93
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  78
• Realme X7 Pro
  64
• Realme 8
  48
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  48
• vivo V21 5G
  47
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  40
• Realme 8 5G
  35
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  35
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  35
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  21
• Poco M3
  17
• Oppo F3 Plus
  17

You can see the vivo V21 5G is struggling a bit even in the easiest OpenGL ES 3.0 tests, we still run, failing to hit 60fps. These are unrealistic synthetic loads, though. In practice, the vivo V21 5G is adequately powered for its mid-range class.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Realme X7 Pro
  46
• Poco X3 Pro
  45
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  40
• vivo V21 5G
  20
• Realme 8
  20
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  19
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  19
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  17
• Realme 8 5G
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  9.3
• Poco M3
  7.2
• Oppo F3 Plus
  6

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme X7 Pro
  40
• Poco X3 Pro
  38
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  35
• Realme 8
  18
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  18
• vivo V21 5G
  17
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  15
• Realme 8 5G
  13
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  7.9
• Oppo F3 Plus
  6
• Poco M3
  5.9

It has enough graphical "oomph" to run most popular titles with decent frame rates. If you stick to lighter or older games, you can even make proper use of its 90Hz refresh rate, by hitting 90fps.

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  27
• vivo V21 5G
  11
• Realme 8
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.3
• Poco M3
  4.1

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  26
• vivo V21 5G
  12
• Realme 8
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.6
• Poco M3
  2.8

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  18
• vivo V21 5G
  7.5
• Realme 8
  7.5
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  7
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  7
• Poco M3
  4.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.5

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  17
• vivo V21 5G
  8
• Realme 8
  7.7
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  7
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  7
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.7
• Poco M3
  2.8

It is also great to see that the vivo V21 5G does not lose its footing with the newer Vulkan API and continues to perform mostly as expected from its Dimensity 800U chipset. Simply put, that means vivo engineers did a good job with their Android implementation.

An observation further backed-up 3DMark tests. These appear to be even more favorable towards the vivo V21 5G.

3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme X7 Pro
  6735
• vivo V21 5G
  3331
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  3167
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  3147
• Realme 8
  2610
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  2529
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  2517
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1471
• Poco M3
  1175

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme X7 Pro
  5160
• vivo V21 5G
  3050
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  3035
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  3003
• Realme 8
  2639
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  2406
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  2395
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1372
• Poco M3
  1106

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme X7 Pro
  3938
• Poco X3 Pro
  3401
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  3136
• vivo V21 5G
  1605
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  1571
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  1556
• Realme 8
  1486
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  1113
• Realme 8 5G
  1104
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  1040
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  1031
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  482
• Poco M3
  368

If you are looking for the best possible performance for your buck, though, the vivo V21 5G is likely not your best choice. It is perfectly well-equipped to handle most tasks and do so efficiently. Beyond a power-efficient manufacturing node, the Dimensity 800U is also modern in its other features, like connectivity and camera, not holding back the feature set of the vivo V21 5G in any noticeable way.