Weekly poll: vivo NEX phones, hot or not?

Jaws dropped as vivo unveiled the APEX with its pop up camera and under display fingerprint sensor. It was just a prototype, but the company quickly followed up with actual devices – the NEX S and NEX A. And these aren’t some halo phones like Huawei’s Mate RS Porsche Design, these are proper mass market handsets – and they are even reasonably priced.

The vivo NEX S is the flagship of the bunch with a price in China equivalent to $700/€600. Not bad for a Snapdragon 845 device. Perhaps vivo’s experience with the X20 UD an X21 UD helped it keep costs down (most other companies don’t have handsets with under display fingerprint readers. That said, the NEX S builds on the X-phones with the addition of OIS to its dual 12 + 5 MP camera. You can check out some camera samples we took.

But it’s the pop up camera that is unique to the NEX phones, both of them. It’s an 8 MP shooter that doesn’t spoil the screen with a notch and isn't awkwardly positioned at the bottom like the original Mi Mix. The company says that the camera has been tested 50,000 times and can withstand 45 kg (100 lbs), so it should be quite durable.

The vivo NEX A is more affordable at $625/€530. It steps down to the Snapdragon 710 chipset, which is a lite version of the 845 (it takes a step back in the GPU department, but has the same Hexagon 685 DSP for AI functions). And instead of the UD fingerprint reader, there’s a classic reader on the back.

You still get the pop-up camera, the 6.59” Super AMOLED screen – which, if we forgot to mention, fits in a phone with the footprint of a Galaxy Note 8. You don’t get the same RAM, however. The S model has 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB storage (with an option for 256 GB). The A model comes only in 6/128 GB, which is still plenty.

What do you think about vivo’s new offerings? Do you prefer the NEX S or NEX A or, perhaps, both are fine?

vivo NEX - hot or not?

vivo NEX S Both are great

vivo NEX A Not for me