Vivo arrives in the UK and Europe as the next big smartphone brand

Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo collectivity dominate the European smartphone market. Most consumers will be familiar with at least one of these names, but soon there will be another brand on the market – Vivo.

The Vivo X51 5G is the first device coming to Europe

Vivo has announced its intention to immediately enter the UK and select European markets with the Vivo X51 5G, a renamed version of the Vivo X50 Pro that has been available in other countries for some time.

Retailing at £749 and €799, the Vivo smartphone boasts a 6.6-inch curved AMOLED screen complete with a smooth 90Hz refresh rate, a small hole for the selfie camera, and a Full-HD+ (2376 x 1080p) resolution.

Those features are certainly neat, but they’re also quite common among similarly priced Android devices. Where the Vivo X51 5G really stands out from the crowd is in the camera department. 

Vivo's gimbal camera system is the standout feature

Vivo has fitted the phone with an advanced 48-megapixel f/1.6 camera paired with a gimbal image stabilization system. The latter took months of R&D efforts to create and ultimately provides much better stabilization for video.

This also explains the sheer size of the camera. The gimbal system is five times larger than regular OIS cameras and requires three times more space than popular periscope zoom shooters.

Sitting next to the main sensor is a 13-megapixel camera for portrait photos, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle snapper, and 8-megapixel 5x periscope zoom camera that also enables up to 60x digital zoom.

As for the aforementioned selfie camera, that sensor lands in at 32-megapixels.

The Snapdragon 765G and lots of storage

Under the hood is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, a chipset that can be found inside the Google Pixel 5, OnePlus Nord, and LG Wing. Customers should expect a snappy experience, but not one on par with the Snapdragon 865-powered Galaxy S20 FE 5G.

An impressive 256GB of non-expandable internal storage and 8GB of RAM are also part of the Vivo X51 5G package. And, as the smartphone’s name suggests, 5G networks are supported.

On the software side of things, Vivo has confirmed that it will be shipping the smartphone with Android 10 and FunTouch OS. But to better suit European buyers, some changes have been made to the custom UI that make it resemble stock Android more closely.

All of this will be paired with the usual three years of security updates and Vivo also says an update to Android 11 is coming ‘soon.’

Completing the Vivo X51 5G package is an in-display fingerprint scanner, NFC, and a 4,315mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging, the latter of which enables a full charge in under 70 minutes.

Vivo also has some cheaper phones for Europe

In addition to the Vivo X51 5G, Vivo has also introduced the Vivo Y70, Vivo Y20s, and Vivo Y11s with a focus on the low-end and mid-range smartphone markets.

Vivo hasn’t announced a long-term strategy for the European market, but the Chinese company will undoubtedly be fighting alongside fellow Oppo, Xiaomi, and Samsung to eat up Huawei’s market share.

The latter has started to tumble outside of China due to a lack of Google support, something Vivo offers.