Vivo Xshot review: Shot in the dark

Unboxing

The vivo Xshot comes in a square box, pretty spacious by today's standards. The package is made of very durable cardboard, so shipping damage should not be an issue.

Inside the all-white box, there is a tray that houses the actual phone and underneath it, four dedicated compartments, coated in plastic that hold quite a few goodies. The vivo Xshot comes with a powerful 2A A/C adapter, a white microUSB cable and cool looking ear-buds, which are separately packaged.

The vivo Xshot has a luxurious, stylish package

vivo has a reputation of delivering exquisite audio and the bundled vivo XE600i headphones look quite up to it.

Another thing vivo has thrown in the bundle is a transparent bumper case. A SIM and microSD eject pin is also included. All in all, vivo has cut no corners with the packaging and the accessories add to the premium feel of the Xshot.

360-degree spin

The vivo Xshot is a thicker than its record-breaking sibling, the vivo X5Max, but at 146.5 x 73.3 x 8mm it's still nicely compact. Its shape and trim really help this feel as they make it appear slimmer than it actually is. The vivo Xshot tipped the scales at 148g.

Design and build quality

The vivo Xshot is stylishly simple. The materials used and the build quality are both superb. The body is mostly plastic, with the notable exception of the metal frame that wraps the device all around. It has a very nice matte chrome look with two small sloping edges towards the back and the front, which both share a lighter, shinier finish.

This little accent really makes the phone stand out and is also quite useful for getting a firm grip. In fact, there are quite a few subtle touches on the vivo Xshot, quite elegantly executed.

The vivo Xshot looks incredibly stylish

The metal frame gets thicker around the top and bottom, really accenting the slightly curved back. It is also complete with four small plastic inserts - two to trace the USB port and another pair near the top of the phone, on either side.

According to vivo's website, the Xshot is only available in white, just like the review unit we have. A quick online search, however, reveals what appears to be a black version with quite an interesting pattern, which almost looks blue under the certain lighting.

The Xshot is officially available in white, but a black version can also be spotted online

The vivo Xshot feels very good in the hand and also pretty sturdy. There are no apparent build quality blunders, everything is nicely put together with no cracks or rough edges.

As far as materials go, the plastic in question feels good to the touch, and the matte finish on the back is quite durable and does not catch fingerprints easily.

The vivo Xshot in the hand

Controls

The vivo Xshot boasts a 5.2-inch Full HD IPS LCD screen with 424ppi. It is quite sharp and crisp and does a splendid job but at the Xshot's price point, an AMOLED screen would have been a lot better. The bezels around it are quite thin and the vivo Xshot offers a pretty good screen-to-body ratio of 69.4%.

Above the screen, vivo has created a sort of a mess. The earpiece is crowded by the proximity and ambient light sensors, and the front-facing camera. The phone also has a front-facing LED flash to make the space even busier. The sensors and flash are right beside the speaker, on the right, while the camera is way off to the left. The LED indicator light is even further to the side.

Right underneath the display, we find three capacitive buttons with a very subtle silver trim and nothing else. These are pretty much standard: Menu, Home and Back left to right.

The top bezel is kind of disorganized

Going round the device, we find the left side mostly empty, except for a single ejectable slot, which houses both the SIM compartment and the microSD tray. It looks pretty flush, but we definitely have a grudge with it. The locking mechanism seems to be a little loose and the cover rattles. This would be barely noticeable, but it does make a very distinct metal rustling sound when shaken. Hopefully, this is a unit-specific problem.

The left side of the vivo Xshot houses the SIM and SD card tray.

The right side is where the volume rocker and Power/Lock button are, as well as the dedicated camera shutter button. It is nicely positioned near the bottom of the device and is within comfortable reach when shooting in landscape orientation. It has a proper half-press, a thing that modern flagships have sadly long given up on.

The right side features the volume rocker, Power/Lock button and dedicated shutter key

The 3.5mm headphone jack is placed on the top of the device, dead center and is accompanied by the noise-cancelation mic.

The top hosts the 3.5mm headphone jack and noise canceling mic

The bottom of the phone only features a microUSB port and a microphone. No speakers or screws are to be seen.

The bottom is equipped with a MicroUSB port and a microphone

Going round the back, we find the 13MP camera lens dead center at the top with a dual-tone LED flash right next to it. All of the electronics to power the OIS-enabled, f/1.8 camera really take up space and the camera module is protruding quite a bit.

The back is very stylish with a premium finish

Other than that, the back of the vivo is very slick and nice to the touch. The white finish is superb and the subtle curve makes for a great feel in hand. The only other thing found on the back, besides the logo, of course, is a speaker grille.

A rear-mounted speaker can get easily muffled, but the Xshot's rear curve seems to have addressed that issue. The camera bump also helps lift the handset off the surface it's resting on - we just hope it is scratch-resistant.