Why buy an iPhone 11 for the same price? After trying out the vivo NEX3, I realized that this is the phone of the future.

The mobile phone market is becoming increasingly smaller, and the remaining manufacturers can only gain a foothold in the red ocean through more unique innovations.

In the layout of vivo's overall product line, the NEX series has always been positioned as a flagship benchmark, committed to exploring cutting-edge technologies and future directions. From the pop-up camera of the first generation of NEX that broke the shackles of full-screen applications, to the further evolution of the dual-screen version, to the concept exploration of the hole-free body of vivo APEX 2019, each generation of vivo NEX can bring different experiences to users.

This year, with the influx of 5G, users have higher requirements for flagship models. Can the vivo NEX3, which spent 200 million to build a waterfall screen and inherited the APEX 2019 pressure-free button design, meet the needs of consumers? In the context of market iteration, can the vivo NEX3 win a good start in the 5G mobile phone market? Let's actually get started and tell you the answer.

Appearance

Let's first talk about the front of the vivo NEX3, which is the waterfall screen that cost 200 million yuan to build. The official claims that the screen-to-body ratio on the front has reached 99.6%, which is an extremely amazing value that allows you to enjoy a wider visual experience. More importantly, this borderless waterfall screen has a curvature far exceeding that of ordinary mobile phone curved screens, so the left and right sides give people a great sense of extension. Whether in games or daily browsing, this phone will not give you a sense of restraint from the "black border".

From a design perspective, such a high screen-to-body ratio is due on the one hand to the fact that the vivo NEX3 uses a lifting camera and a micro-slit earpiece design, and on the other hand to the flexible material of the borderless waterfall screen itself. We have seen too much of the former, which is a relatively mature full-screen solution in the industry, while the application of the latter flexible AMOLED requires manufacturers to negotiate and debug with the upstream supply chain. According to vivo, not only the panel itself, but also such a high curvature has certain strength requirements for the cover glass. Including several aspects, vivo has upgraded the production process and equipment, and the total R&D cost of the overall screen has reached 200 million yuan, not counting the actual material cost.

In terms of exploration, the NEX series has always been a big R&D, and the R&D of technology has in turn contributed to the core competitiveness of NEX products. Putting aside the immersive visual effects, just from the display quality, the 6.89-inch Super AMOLED screen of vivo NEX3 can cover 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and supports HDR10, and the overall visual experience is very friendly.

For a curvature close to 90°, users often worry about accidental touches, which brings us to another innovation of the vivo NEX3 - the hidden pressure-sensitive button. This design has been applied to the APEX 2019, which is both beautiful and practical. The power button has a prominent texture for easy identification, while the volume plus and minus buttons are distributed above and below it. When you adjust the volume, the corresponding logo will be displayed on the screen to assist in sensing the position. In order to simulate the feedback feel of physical buttons, this time the vivo NEX3 is equipped with a linear motor. If you adjust the volume smoothly back and forth, you can feel a clear sense of paragraphs, and the feedback effect is very neat.

Back to the back of the phone, this time we got the Deep Space Streamer color. Its overall tone is black, and the mirror effect is very obvious. When the light and shadow change, you can see the brilliance flowing on the surface. The middle camera module uses a circular star ring imaging system, with three cameras symmetrically distributed and a flash below. At the bottom of the phone, you can see the iconic "NEX (5G)" logo to confirm its identity as a 5G phone.

Back to the lifting camera, it is not only equipped with a 16-megapixel front lens, but also a soft light on the left. Compared with the previous lifting camera models, the lens module of vivo NEX3 this time is full of texture and tends to be darker. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, which is worth a little praise.

Photograph

The vivo NEX3 uses a rear triple camera this time, with a 64-megapixel main camera on the left, a 13-megapixel telephoto lens on the top, and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens (rich in macro function) on the right. With the support of lenses of different focal lengths, the vivo NEX3 has the ability to create more scenes, and it is also equipped with a 64-megapixel ultra-clear main camera, with clearer details and ample space for secondary cropping and creation.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the sample photos.

In terms of photo-taking capabilities, the multi-focal-length image-taking capability of the vivo NEX3 leaves users with a large framing space. In addition, vivo's AI scene recognition has always been aimed at high saturation and high-contrast vividness. In this regard, the images taken by the vivo NEX3 can more easily catch the attention of consumers.

The 64-megapixel Samsung GW1 solution also makes it easier for users to re-create. Due to the disadvantage of low light intake of a single pixel size under high pixels, under normal circumstances, the vivo NEX3 defaults to 16-megapixel output. If you want to achieve 64-megapixel, you need to adjust it manually.

In addition, the size of the picture at 64 megapixels is further expanded. Generally, the size of a 16 megapixel picture is about 4M, while at 64 megapixels, the size of the picture has increased to about 20M, which poses a new challenge to the memory size. For example, the following picture, at 16 megapixels, is 5.98M, while at 64 megapixels, it is 22.9M.

Although there is a huge difference in size, if you just view it on a mobile phone, the initial effect is basically the same. Therefore, if there is no need for printing or re-creation, it is recommended to use the default 16 million pixel output for daily use. If the light conditions allow or there is a need for creation, 64 million pixels will be more appropriate.

Performance/5G

As the annual technology flagship, the vivo NEX3 is equipped with Qualcomm's current highest-specification Snapdragon 855 Plus platform, so its powerful performance is needless to say. Not only that, the vivo NEX3 is also equipped with a UFS 3.0 flash memory chip, which has faster sequential read and write speeds.

We used AnTuTu, Geekbench, 3DMark and Androbench to test the CPU, GPU, comprehensive performance and reading and writing capabilities of vivo NEX3.

In terms of performance, vivo NEX3 is naturally in the first echelon, with a CPU single-core performance of 3625 and a multi-core performance of 11260; the GPU score is 6004; its read and write capabilities are much better than the previous UFS 2.1 specifications, especially in sequential read and write. This means that you only need a shorter time to install large software or games in daily life, and the speed of copying movies will also be faster.

We then used Honor of Kings for testing. With full high-definition graphics turned on, the overall gaming experience of the vivo NEX3 was very smooth. Even in large-scale group battles, the picture did not show any fluctuations or obvious frame drops, and the overall FPS was stable at 60.

In the actual game experience, the borderless waterfall screen of vivo NEX3 is more immersive in visual effects compared to ordinary mobile phones, and the entire screen is unobstructed. However, when playing games, some UI interfaces will remain on the curved surface, such as the number of kills in Pesticide, but considering that these UI interfaces are not necessary attributes in the actual game, they do not affect the normal game experience.

In addition to the common features of traditional mobile phones, the vivo NEX3 in your hand is also a 5G mobile phone. If there is a 5G network point near you, you can turn on the 5G switch in the mobile data, and then the vivo NEX3 will start to display the 5G signal.

Due to the problem of promoting nearby 5G network points, when testing the nearby 5G signal, although the logo shows 5G, the network speed still does not meet the corresponding requirements. When 5G base stations are widely deployed, I believe that vivo NEX3 will better play the role of 5G's extremely fast network effect.

Battery life

The vivo NEX3 is equipped with a 4500mAh large-capacity battery, which is at an upper-middle level among current flagship models and is completely suitable for daily use by light users. With full high-definition graphics turned on, a 9-minute infinite brawl consumes about 4% of the power. Based on the power consumption, even in heavy games, the good battery life of the vivo NEX3 can allow users to have a continuous gaming experience.

In terms of charging, the vivo NEX3 is equipped with 44W ultra-fast flash charging, which can "recharge" faster. In actual tests, it takes about 1 hour for the vivo NEX3 to charge from 1% to 100%. If you are only pursuing fragmented charging efficiency, the vivo NEX3 will charge faster without reducing the voltage.

Summarize

Currently, vivo NEX3 has launched 4G and 5G versions, of which the 8+256GB version is 5698 yuan, the 12+256GB version is 6198 yuan, and the 4G 8+128GB version is 4998 yuan. From the pricing level, the premium ability of vivo NEX3 is also at the upper level among flagship models, which is also determined by the overall design of vivo NEX3 itself.

In terms of flagship models, if we only talk about parameter configuration, all manufacturers are basically the same. In order to highlight the characteristics of their flagships, each manufacturer needs to come up with more novel technologies. This time, the vivo NEX3 has a futuristic-designed borderless waterfall screen, which has amazed the market with its extreme screen-to-body ratio. This is the advantage of the NEX series in technology exploration. If you want to try out new technologies and 5G, then the vivo NEX3 will be a good start.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.