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 instead of the heavily customized old iterations. It has less clutter on the homescreens (the leftmost being a widget one), you get a streamlined App Drawer just like on Android 10, and even the OS navigation is similar.

Funtouch UI

The usual gesture navigation is available with swipes from the sides working as Back. 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 really 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. The 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 provides simulated gunshot vibrations in supported games.

Gaming settings

Vivo's Funtouch 10.5 offers various customization options if you are into this thing. There is a dedicated Theme Store with a ton of custom themes, and you can change 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 120fps, and it is super smooth. We had no issues using Funtouch we liked what we experienced a lot. The old chaotic Funtouch is gone in favor of a clean and organized one, and we are very happy with that change.

If you opt for the vivo X50 Pro+ though, then you should know it comes with a ton of Chinese apps and without the Play Store app. Getting the Google store is easy from the vivo's app store, but there will always be traces of Chinese apps and texts across the UI, no matter what. It's not that big of an issue, but an issue, nevertheless.

Performance and benchmarks

The vivo X50 Pro+ is the only one of the high-end trio to employ a flagship chipset, and it's the best currently available - Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 chip. It features Qualcomm's X55 modem that adds full-fledged 5G connectivity.

The Snapdragon 865 has an octa-core processor with a familiar core configuration - 1x2.84 GHz Kryo 585 Gold (Cortex-A77 derivative) & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 Gold (Cortex-A77 derivative) & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 585 Silver (Cortex-A55 derivative).

The Adreno 650 is part of the Snapdragon 865, and it is among the best GPUs right now.

The X50 Pro+ available with 8GB and 12GB (ours) RAM. The storage options are 128GB and 256GB, while the storage is of the UFS 3.1 kind.

The benchmark scores are easy to predict on any Snapdragon 865-powered smartphone, such as the X50 Pro+. The latest vivo tops the charts and is on par with the best of the best.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• vivo X50 Pro+
  3411
• OnePlus 8
  3399
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3374
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  3331
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  3248
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  3203
• Huawei P40 Pro
  3197
• Realme X50 Pro
  3175
• vivo X50 Pro
  1937
• vivo X50
  1827

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• vivo X50 Pro+
  930
• OnePlus 8
  919
• Realme X50 Pro
  911
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  905
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  902
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  901
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  781
• Huawei P40 Pro
  780
• vivo X50 Pro
  636
• vivo X50
  552

The X50 Pro+ is an excellent smartphone for gaming, and you can tell by its performance on the GPU tests.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  78
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  75
• vivo X50 Pro+
  74
• Realme X50 Pro
  60
• Huawei P40 Pro
  52
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  52
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• vivo X50 Pro
  31
• vivo X50
  24

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  46
• OnePlus 8
  46
• Realme X50 Pro
  45
• vivo X50 Pro+
  43
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  42
• Huawei P40 Pro
  31
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  31
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  24
• vivo X50 Pro
  17
• vivo X50
  14

The X50 Pro+ is also one of the highest-scoring Android smartphones on AnTuTu 8.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  638497
• vivo X50 Pro+
  621433
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  595246
• Realme X50 Pro
  592447
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  573276
• OnePlus 8
  564708
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  529687
• Huawei P40 Pro
  496356
• vivo X50 Pro
  323736

You just can't go wrong with a Snapdragon 865 chip and an HRR 1080p screen - this combo pretty much guarantees buttery-smooth gaming performance for the years to come. And that's exactly what the X50 Pro+ is offering - future-proof flagship performance.

The phone may get hot, and we mean hot, around its top frame when running benchmarks for a prolonged time. We didn't notice any hiccups, but it wasn't pleasant holding a hot metal frame, for sure.