Review | Vivo X50 Pro review: new gimbal camera system captures more fluid videos, but it’s still a work in progress

This phone’s built-in gimbal is truly innovative, and acts as a stabiliser for the main camera. It comes into its own for shooting while running or in the dark

Vivo’s Funtouch OS is much improved here, the battery lasts all day, the processor is powerful enough to handle any app, and the phone comes 5G-ready

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The Vivo X50 Pro’s biggest selling point is its main camera, which sits on a miniaturised gimbal inside the phone and produces more fluid video. However, the difference is only noticeable under fairly extreme conditions. Photo: Ben Sin

Published: 10:15am, 25 Jun 2020Updated: 10:15am, 25 Jun 2020

Three years ago Vivo stole the show at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona with a surprise unveiling of a concept device named the Apex.

It introduced the pop-up selfie camera and in-display fingerprint scanner, two hardware trends that respectively became the fad du jour in 2019 and the industry standard for mobile phones.

Vivo was hoping to make the same kind of splash at this year’s MWC, where it was set to unveil the Apex 2020, featuring another attention-grabbing innovation: a camera built on a tiny gimbal inside the device’s body. But the coronavirus killed the event, along with media access to the Apex 2020.

Still, Chinese brands work fast. Vivo turned the concept “gimbal camera” into a commercial device with the launch last week of the Vivo X50 Pro smartphone in China.

The gimbal used in the Vivo X50 Pro is a pivoted stabilising system that allows the camera to capture more fluid videos. Photo: Ben Sin

Design and hardware

The new camera technology is immediately noticeable when you unbox the Vivo X50 Pro. The main camera is noticeably larger and wobbles slightly as the phone is being moved around. It looks as though the lens is floating instead of being mounted onto a surface.