vivo X50 hands-on review

Camera

The vivo X50 has a quad-camera system on the back that is largely similar to that on the vivo X50 Pro.

For starters, you get the same excellent 48MP f1.6 custom Sony IMX598 sensor. It lacks the 'gimbal' stabilization of the vivo X50 Pro but it still retains a standard OIS system. The ultra-wide is also the same 8MP f2.2 camera, as is the 13MP f2.48 telephoto. The only thing different here is the tiny 5MP f2.48 macro camera right at the bottom, which replaces the periscope camera on the vivo X50 Pro.

The Camera application is a fairly standard affair. At the bottom of the viewfinder is your mode select row, with additional options being placed under More on the right end. You can easily move these around or remove the ones you don't use.

Camera application

Above the viewfinder are options pertaining to the currently selected mode. Normally you'd find the flash, HDR, filters, aspect ratio, and the settings menu here. The HDR button toggles between off and what seems to either be Auto or forced on mode. Even if you turn it off it toggles back on next time you turn on the camera.

On the viewfinder are options to change the zoom level and switch between the different lenses. This is where we believe vivo messed up; the option to change lenses should have just been part of the zoom selector rather than a separate popup menu, at least for the ultra-wide lens. The Lens menu adds another unnecessary step to switch over to the ultra-wide lens and then you have to tap a rather tiny x button to switch back to the main lens.

The Lens menu also houses the Bokeh mode, which is similar to the Portrait mode but lets you adjust the fake background blur by adjusting the fake aperture. This only affects the blur and doesn't change the level of light since the actual aperture is fixed. The odd thing is that while the Bokeh mode only works with the main camera lens, the Portrait mode works with both the wide and telephoto lenses while also offering background blur control.

In terms of video recording, the vivo X50 can record 4K 30p or 1080p 60p video from the main wide lens. The ultra-wide is limited to just 1080p 30p. The telephoto doesn't do video at all and all zooming is done digitally. The camera also has a super stabilized mode, which works on the main wide lens but with an additional bit of crop.

Now for the image quality, in daylight, the main wide camera on the vivo X50 does an excellent job. The images are detailed with good dynamic range, contrast, and white balance. The colors are vibrant, perhaps a touch too vibrant at times, but look pleasing overall. The phone saves the images in the Display P3 color space but the images don't benefit from the extra color range.

Main camera samples

If you want an additional dose of resolution, you can shoot in the full 48MP resolution, which provides a significantly higher level of detail but at the cost of reduced dynamic range as the full-size images aren't processed as comprehensively. They also take a fair bit of time to save. If you want to put in the extra work, you can also shoot in RAW, which also saves full 48MP files. However, the limited dynamic range makes it difficult to get usable files from high contrast scenarios.

Moving on to the ultra-wide camera, the image quality sees a major step down from the main camera. The colors, contrast, and dynamic range are still quite good overall but the level of detail is poor, with soft images that look like they were out of focus, except this sensor has no AF.

Ultra-wide camera samples

The 2x telephoto sits somewhere between the other two cameras. The images are still a bit soft and the 2x magnification isn't an especially noteworthy perspective in terms of either reach or subject isolation but the images are quite usable and if you are going to digitally zoom in further you might as well start from 2x optical rather than 1x.

2x telephoto camera samples

Lastly, we have a macro camera. The vivo X50 actually has two macro modes. There is the standard super macro mode, found under the Lens menu. This uses the ultra-wide camera and lets you reasonably close to your subject. The other is the Fixed Macro mode, which is what uses the fourth 5MP lens.

It would be an understatement to say this lens lets you get close to your subject. The subject has to be 1.5cm away from the lens, and when we mean has to, it really has to. This is a fixed focus lens and anything under or beyond 1.5cm is out of focus. This makes this an incredibly niche camera, as most of the time it's not practical to get that close to your subject.

There's also the issue of light; the camera is usually so close to the subject that there is no longer any usable light on the subject as the phone blocks most of it. This further reduces the usability of this lens, as the subject has to be backlit, self-lit, or just generally in really bright conditions and you're willing to deal with your own phone's shadow.

If all of this was worth the effort, then unfortunately that's not the case either. The images lack detail due to the low resolution and there's noticeable pixelation when seen up close. The sensor is just really low quality and the lens likely isn't top-shelf stuff either. So the whole exercise is rather pointless.

Macro camera samples

Now when it comes to low light performance, the vivo X50 really comes into its own with its 48MP primary camera. This isn't because the standard low light images are any special; they are decent for what it's worth, but that's not how you ideally should be shooting in the dark.

It's the night mode that elevates this camera to another level. It would be fair to say that the vivo X50, like its bigger brother, has one of the best implementations of night mode in the business. The images you get out of it are clean, detailed and natural in terms of color and white balance.

vivo X50 • vivo X50 Night Mode • OnePlus Nord Nightscape • OnePlus 8 Pro Nightscape

All the images above were taken in an extremely dark environment where it was difficult to see the small figurine by eye. All three phones did a decent job of illuminating the subject to the point where it's hard to imagine how dark the scene was. However, the X50 image is brighter, more detailed and also has the best colors of the three phones. It also had an easier time focusing than the other two phones, as the AF system on the X50 is operational even in extremely low light.

The night mode also works on the ultra-wide camera, and it does reasonably well here. It's only being held back by the quality of the sensor on the ultra-wide lens but the images are still quite decent overall, if not at the same level as the wide camera.

We have tons of images from both these cameras and the 2x telephoto in our vivo X50 Pro review that we urge you to check out if you need to see more samples. The same goes for video and front camera, which are also identical on the two phones, aside from the lack of 4K 60p on the vivo X50.