Part of the BBK Electronics empire, so a sibling brand to Oppo, realme and OnePlus.
Vivo phones have to date only been available in Australia on an outright basis.
What to consider when choosing a Vivo phone
Vivo â€" named for the Esperanto word for "life", if you're curious â€" has been around as a phone brand for more than a decade, but it's only quite recently that its handset offering has been available in Australia. It's a very big player in other markets around the world, but to date only a handful of Vivo phones have been offered for sale here, targeting the value and mid-range market segments. As such, while online you may see reference to numerous Vivo models, the quantity of phones you can officially buy here is quite limited.
Here's what you need to consider when choosing a VIVO phone:
Vivo's phone offering ranges all the way from budget up to upper mid-range pricing. With that comes a fair mix of storage capacities and capabilities. The entry-level models tend to come with 64GB of onboard storage, whereas flagships typically offer 256GB. If you're concerned about storage space it's also worth checking if your given model of Vivo phone supports microSD card expansion, because not all of them do.
Vivo has largely followed the prevailing market trend for phone screen sizes with the handsets it's selling in Australia, with most tipping the scales at 6.3 inches or larger, with a mix of either teardrop or holepunch style notches for their front-facing cameras. Again it's a question of what you pay in terms of the technology you get. For example, the Vivo X50 Pro 5G features a 90Hz-capable AMOLED screen. Drop down to the more affordable Vivo Y12 and you're staring at a more standard IPS LCD display.
Vivo's pricing in the Australian market covers the budget and upper mid-range, with phones costing between $199 and $999 depending on the model. So far, Vivo has only targeted the direct sales market, with no carriers offering Vivo phones on contract terms.
The presence or absence of a headphone jack varies across the Vivo range â€" so for example, the Vivo Y12 and Vivo Y30 both feature standard 3.5mm headphone jacks, but the premium Vivo X50 Pro 5G omits one.
Vivo's phones have tended to use fingerprint sensors with the option for a less secure facial unlock using the front-facing camera on some models. That's less secure than fingerprint identification given they're just using the standard front-facing cameras, not any kind of special 3D face-sensing array.
Again it's a question of how much you want to pay, although Vivo's phones like so many others have benefitted from the general rising tide of quality we've seen across the budget and mid-range sector. Vivo's current flagship has an interesting take on phone features, incorporating a full camera gimbal for stabilisation inside the phone body.
The vast majority of Vivo's phones to date have been 4G-capable devices, with the exception of the Vivo X50 Pro 5G. As the name suggests, that's a phone with 5G capability on Sub-6 bands only.
BBK Electronics loves a phone with fast charging and it's a feature of many of Vivo's phones, as long as you're using the supplied charger. What we haven't seen on any of Vivo's phones released in Australia to date has been wireless charging as a feature.
Most of Vivo's phones released in Australia have tended towards larger battery capacities, even for its cheaper handsets. That gives them scope for reasonable battery life. The models we have tested had quite solid battery performance, offering decent staying power at their respective price points.
While some cheaper phones are incorporating IP-rated water resistance into their mix, it's not a feature of the phones that Vivo has released to the Australian market just yet.
As always this is a function of price, with Vivo's cheaper phones typically using slower MediaTek processors, while its higher-end models utilise fancier and faster Qualcomm silicon. Vivo puts its own launcher on top of Android â€" this is a common play for BBK Electronics companies â€" and while like Oppo it started out aping iOS, these days it goes its own way with a launcher/OS tweak it calls "Funtouch OS".
Looking for a Vivo phone on a plan?
So far we haven't seen any telco brands offer Vivo phones on contract terms. All of its models sell instead on an outright basis. That can represent a saving over time though, and it's worth carefully considering your overall phone spend when considering a Vivo phone handset.
Check out the table below to compare postpaid SIM-only plans which you can pair with a Vivo phone:
Aaron McAllister is the global publisher for Streaming at Finder, helping to deliver insightful guides to internet TV, sports and entertainment. He has a Bachelor of Commerce and a major in Marketing from the University of Wollongong. Away from work, you can find him perfecting his jump shot.
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