vivo V27e unboxing and first impressions

In almost all places we visit, you’ll always come across someone taking photos of literally anything under the sun — food, selfie, café and bar aesthetics, outfit of the day, among many others. It has become a norm to document and post everything on social media. 

That said, vivo continuously serves us with the latest camera innovations. Recently launched, the vivo V27e features the Aura Portrait Algorithm. If you spot something peculiar at the rear, that’s what we’re talking about. 

Design and build

When it comes to aesthetics, vivo will never come close to anything dull. It gets many points for getting as creative and unique as possible. How does the design impress, exactly? By achieving the perfect balance between eye-catching and subtle elegance. There’s the Lavender Purple that showcases soft feather-like patterns, but for a more minimalist and timeless design, you can opt for the neutral Glory Black. 

I didn’t know gripping a boxy frame could be this comfortable until I held the V27e. Weight and thickness on my palm feel just right with its measurements being 186g and 7.70mm, respectively. 

• 

• 

Controls are found on the right: volume rocker and power button. At the bottom, you can locate the SIM card tray, Type-C USB port, and speakers.

The package the smartphone comes with includes the protective case, SIM ejector tool, 66W FastCharger, USB-C cable, warranty card, and quick start guide. 

Display

It took a while, but we finally got a punch-hole display from vivo. The screen size is slightly bigger than its predecessor at 6.62 inches. We still got an AMOLED panel, but this time with a higher refresh rate of 120Hz. 

Camera

The rear setup consists of the 64MP main camera, 2MP bokeh camera, and 2MP macro camera. What’s truly worth talking about is its Aura Portrait Algorithm. Its capabilities allow you to have your studio in your pocket. This helps you achieve natural-looking portraits at night with the soft light the ring-LED flash provides. vivo prides itself for being able to introduce this feature in the  market. 

Aside from capturing stills, we take plenty of videos, which we post as Instagram reels or TikTok videos. For both scenarios, we could use the stabilization (EIS + OIS) that the V27e has to offer. In our full review we’ll find out if it works as well as we’d hoped for. 

Performance

The V27e runs on MediaTek G99 processor and 8GB + 8GB Extended RAM (16GB Dynamic RAM). Nothing new here if you’ll compare it to what came before. 

Built with 256GB storage, you have the liberty to hoard all photos and videos, without needing to delete any to make room. 

Battery

A very minimal increase was seen for the battery life at 4600mAh. That shouldn’t be much of an issue with the 66W FastCharger the device came with. The brand claims that it can power the V27e to 50% in just 19 minutes. 

Final thoughts

Everyone has been creating their own content non-stop everywhere they go. Thus, it makes it necessary for brands to step up their camera game. How will vivo’s key selling feature fare in real life scenarios? Will it prove to be a worthy purchase or upgrade at PHP16,999? We’ll find out in our full review.