Home » Vivo NEX 3 Hands-On, First Impressions

Vivo NEX 3 Hands-On, First Impressions

Written By Justine Basco
Published • September 17th, 2019
Hands-onMobile
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Vivo has just shown off the new NEX 3 in Shanghai, China in addition to their NEX series that has always been known to push the envelope when it comes to smartphone design. We’ve seen this with the original NEX and the NEX 2, so now let’s see what the NEX 3 has in store.

The phone feels a little hefty due to its almost 7-inch form factor. But even with a full glass back, it feels lighter compared to other phones with a similar build.

The glass back comes in this glowing night color, but there’s also a Liquid Galaxy variant for a lighter shade. Here at the back we have a unique camera setup, with three of them arranged in a circular manner, and Vivo calls this the Lunar Ring Camera.

Of course, let’s not forget what makes this phone unique. Upfront, you get a seamless all-screen display thanks to the edges that curve almost all the way. It’s a 6.89-inch P-OLED Waterfall Display, which is a first for Vivo. It curves and stretches to the edges of the phone, making for a screen-to-body ratio of 99.6%.

It also has support for HDR10, it produces ambient lights when you play music or have an incoming call, and being Vivo, you get an in-display fingerprint scanner.

Aside from the curved edges, the screen achieves this look thanks to the pop-up selfie camera — beside which you’ll find the headphone jack, microphone, and an extra power button if you don’t like the new side button set up, which is a set virtual power and volume buttons on the side of the phone, which is mostly still part of the screen. The buttons have haptic vibration, which looks and feels cool, but let’s see how this performs in the long run.

There’s nothing on the left, but at the bottom are its dual sim slot, microphones, type-c port, and downward-firing speaker.

The Vivo NEX 3 comes in a 4G and 5G versions — this one we have is the 4G unit by the way. And it’s powered by a Snapdragon 855 chipset, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, Android 9 Pie skinned with FunTouchOS, and 4500mAh battery Vivo’s 44W Super FlashCharge.

For the cameras, at the back, you get a 64MP primary shooter, 13MP ultrawide, 13MP telephoto, and in front, a 16MP selfie shooter.

For now, check out these sample shots.

Now for pricing, we don’t have the information for the Philippine market just yet, but in China, the 4G version costs CNY 4,889, while the 5G version starts at CNY 5,698 for the 8GB RAM variant, and CNY 6,198 for the 12GB RAM variant.

It’s coming to the Asia Pacific and Southeast Asian markets in the coming months, so if you want to get your hands on this guy, stay tuned for that — as well as our upcoming full review.