Dear readers, my phone is up for re-contract. What a pleasure it is when my dear Editor-In-Chief asked me to review not one, but TWO, phones! However, this review is purely for the Vivo NEX 3 which, drumroll please, has an Elevating Front Camera.

Yes, you read that right. It has, an Elevating. Front. Camera. This girl, is hella excited.

But before we get on to the details or the specifications, here’s a little video of me taking the Vivo NEX 3 out from the box.

As you can see, there’s pretty much everything that you expect when you get a new phone. I really appreciate the cover, to be honest, as a clumsy girl like me always needs a cover ASAP.

Now, let’s get on to what exactly is this phone about.

Vivo? NEX 3? What?

For those phone users like me who sticks almost religiously to only one brand, you might not have heard of Vivo. The company which manufactures phones, not Vivocity, a shopping mall in Singapore.

The company, Vivo, is a technology company that was founded in Dongguan, China back in 2009. It is owned by BBK Electronics, which also happens to own Oppo, Realme and Oneplus.

Now that you know a little bit about the company, here’s what you need to know about the Vivo NEX 3.

NEX 3 has an almost full display body, with its almost non-existent bezel by the sides. The phone also does not have any physical buttons on the side. Again, you read that right. No buttons. Well, there is a teeny, tiny one on the top to switch on initially if you look back at my videos. Aside from that though, nada.

Here’s a video of me trying the buttons out.

As you can see, there are no buttons. None. The parts that I pressed on does have some grooves to indicate where my fingers should be but they are not actual buttons. Pretty cool huh?

Next, the elevating front camera. If you’re not familiar with the elevating front camera [aka me], this feature was actually introduced by Vivo back in 2018. The front elevating camera was then produced in their first NEX phone. By introducing the elevating front camera into its phone, Vivo has effectively gotten rid of notches in all phones produced by their company.

Here it is, in action:

Cool? Cool. If you’re interested in getting the phone, it’s available for SGD$1, 299 without contract. Good news is that it is available at all major telcos so you might want to head on over to check out the price!

But, before you go, here’s some more details you should know.

The Specs

Dimensions: 167.44 x 76.14 x 9.4mm

Weight: 218.5g

Screen Size: 6.89-inch

CPU: Snapdragon 855 Plus

RAM: 8GB

Storage: 256GB

Camera: Front 16MP / Rear 64MP + 13MP +13MP

Battery: 4500mAh (TYP)

As I continue this review, I am extremely tempted in jumping ship.

First Impression

To be quite honest, my very very first impression of the phone when I took it out of the sleeve was, smooth. That’s it. The feeling of touching the phone with its almost bezel-less screen is that it is so darn smooth.

And light. For the size of it, the phone has almost no weight to it. The button-less sides takes some getting used to but it ain’t bad.

Aesthetic-wise, it looks good. Sleek. However, once I popped the cover on, it feels much secure in my hands. I swear, I have the fear of dropping phones every single time. Anyone has that same feeling too when they hold a brand new phone?

The Performance

I just could not wait to start playing around with the phone so the next thing I did was, take a photo of course! What I’ve noticed with the latest releases of phones are the inclusion of quad cameras to ensure the possibility of taking wide-angle photos. However, Vivo NEX 3 only has three cameras at the back. Does it mean it’s not as good as those with quad cameras? Here’s a photo taken from the Vivo NEX 3 camera using its wide-angle function. Why don’t you decide?

There’s something about the colours of the picture that really appeals to me. In fact, I had a few replies when I posted on my IG of people really loving how good it looks!

The next photo is without using the wide-angle function.

The difference with wide-angle and without is extremely obvious. But I am appreciative of the fact that the colours of both picture are still very clear and vivid.

I did take a selfie using the elevating front camera. There’s a built-in filter for the camera that makes you look extremely good. You’d have to take my word for it as the husband [sis got married y’all!] prefers that I keep my face out of my articles. But, a girl knows when her selfie game is flawless.

Test Results

Next up are the tests. Unfortunately, once more, a cheeky entity decided to stop me from running the battery test. So, as suggested by my EIC, I played youtube starting from 100% to 50%.

It took approximately 7 hours for the battery life to reach the halfway point. By doubling the time, it means that the battery could possibly last for 14 hours (or more) with minimal usage. That sounds pretty on par with the other phones that I have reviewed, yes?

The 3DMark results are quite impressive. The graphics score indicates that your game experience would be a good one as it’s actually quite comparable with Asus ROG Phone II results.

My first thought when I saw the results was disbelief. Then I checked my own article and, hello?

Just to be clear, this is comparable to when the X-mode of that particular phone is turned on. Vivo NEX 3 has their own version of X-Mode which is called the Ultra Game Mode.

Next up, is the work performance results.

In all honesty, as I do this review, I am finding more and more reasons to get this phone. Based on two other reviews that I had done, Vivo NEX 3 has the highest work performance results. Colour me impressed sis.

A more detailed result

Out of curiosity, I decided to compare the results using the previous two reviews I had done. Both are two different phones from different companies. Vivo NEX 3 did score lower on the Web Browsing and Video Editing as compared to the other two phones. However, the writing, photo editing and data manipulation scores are all pretty comparable.

The Bottom Line

I’m tempted. I’m extremely tempted to switch over to the Vivo NEX 3 phone. Not only do I love the camera, both back and front, but the ease of use too.

The feel of the phone is smooth and sleek, which is a plus. The cool elevating front camera adds to the attraction. There’s not much of a difference in other aspects that I can compare on to be perfectly frank.

The loading of apps, the graphics of games and also, how the pictures turns out are what I look out for whenever I am using the phones. As the average consumer, I typically use my phones for the casual game-play of Pokemon Go and also for messages. A good camera which produces nice photos are also something that I want in my phones.

So, do I want to change? It’s a high possibility. Look out for my next review maybe?

Occasional writer here. Full-time mother in real life.