vivo V27 Pro review

The competition

The vivo V27 Pro turned out to be an excellent mid-range smartphone with a few notable premium features like its color-changing back panel, superb performance, and outstanding photo and video quality from its primary and selfie cameras. It is a fascinating smartphone with a thin profile and we imagine many will get it for its great treats.

The vivo V27 Pro launches at $460 (about INR 38,000 in India). Of course, the V27 Pro is not the only good mid-range smartphone out there, so let's explore a few alternative offers.

The first one that comes to mind is the Xiaomi 13 Lite. It's a similarly priced smartphone with an even better Dolby Vision OLED with 68B colors and a similar triple-camera setup on the back with matching quality. The 13 Lite's Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset performance is nowhere near the flagship-grade speed we got on the vivo V27 Pro, but its better display and IP53 protection make it a worthy consideration.

Then there is the Realme 10 Pro+. It has a similar OLED (with 1B colors), and equally capable triple camera on the back. It also offers stereo speakers and even better battery life. The performance on the Realme 10 Pro+ is not as great as on the vivo V27 Pro and the selfie camera is far from a worthy rival, too. But the Realme 10 Pro+ is cheaper than the vivo V27 Pro and that's why it should be considered as well.

The Poco F4 is another similar offer having a Dolby Vision OLED screen and IP53 protection - features that are not present on the vivo V27 Pro. It also trumps the V27 Pro with stereo speakers. The Snapdragon 870 5G chipset is quite good, though it is bested by the Dimensity 8200 inside the vivo. And while the camera kit on the F4 is also similar to the vivo V27 Pro, it is of inferior photo and video quality. We do suggest exploring the Poco F4 for its lower price, though.

Finally, the OnePlus 11R is the one to match and probably beat the vivo V27 Pro in India. It has a better Fluid AMOLED with 1B colors, stereo speakers and even faster 100W charging. The OnePlus 11R SD8+ Gen1 chipset is equally powerful, while the triple-camera on the back seems identical to the V27 Pro's. This OnePlus 11R costs about the same as the vivo V27 Pro in India and it must be on your shortlist if it's in your price range.

Xiaomi 13 Lite • Realme 10 Pro+ • Xiaomi Poco F4 • OnePlus 11R

Our verdict

The vivo V27 Pro is an excellent smartphone with an easily likable design, no matter if it's the color-changing (blue) back or not (black model). The phone employs a good and smooth OLED screen and impressed us with excellent performance and stability.

The vivo V27 Pro offers great battery life and is fast to charge, which is nice. But we will remember it for its outstanding photo and video quality from the main camera (with 2x lossless zoom) and the impressive selfies. Few mid-rangers offer such high-quality photos and the vivo V27 Pro has the potential to become a fan-favorite cameraphone on a budget.

No smartphone is perfect and neither is the vivo V27 pro. The most obvious omissions are the stereo speakers and video stabilization for the 4K selfie videos, which is such a waste! We would have also appreciated some sort of ingress protection, too.

Even with these omissions, we still think of the vivo V27 Pro as one of the most capable mid-range smartphones out there, suitable both for gaming and photography. If the phone is available on your market, we strongly suggest considering it as your daily driver for being one of the best all-round offers in its price bracket.

Pros

• Eye-catchy dual-glass design, color-changing back.
• Good OLED screen, 120Hz refresh, HDR10+.
• Great battery life, very fast charging.
• Top-notch performance, great stability.
• Class-leading photo and video quality from main camera.
• 2x lossless zoom in daylight.
• Superb selfie photos.

Cons

• No ingress protection, poor grip.
• Single speaker of average quality.
• No proper EIS for the selfie camera.
• The videos from the UW camera are uninspiring.