Vivo NEX 3 Philippines Price is PHP 39,999, Full Specs, Initial Review, Antutu Benchmark Score, Actual Photos

Vivo Mobile is finally poised to win in the big league!

Since 2016 - when the brand started to sell their devices here, Chinese brand Vivo Mobile has become very popular in the Philippines for releasing 'great value for money' midrange Android smartphones with industry-leading selfie-snapping capabilities.

The great market performance of Vivo V5s, Vivo V7, Vivo V9, Vivo V15, and Vivo V17 Pro has pretty much cemented Vivo's lofty position in the mid-level bracket and has established the company as a maker of reliable yet fairly affordable smartphones.

Despite that success, however, Vivo Mobile has yet to really enter the ultra-premium flagship smartphone category in the Philippines. It has done so in other countries like China and India but they have yet to make that landmark move in this territory.

Well, last October 29, 2019 at Green Sun AXON in Makati City, Vivo Mobile Philippines changed all that by finally launching its first ever top-tier, super high-end handset in our country, the stunning Vivo NEX 3.

This model heralds a new era for the company in which they will give brands in the ultra-premium bracket a big run for the money by also releasing great top-of-the-line challenger devices.

As I've mentioned on social media, the effortlessly eye-catching and truly classy Vivo NEX 3 has standout features that push the boundaries of what we expect from an ultra-premium flagship smartphone.

Let me go through my favorite things about this new smartphone one by one.

Upon unboxing the Vivo NEX 3, the first thing that stood out to me about this model is its downright Beautiful Design Identity and Opulent Build.

The device features a real metal midrange sandwiched by two curved sheets of glass, which frankly gave me a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vibe. However, the look of the circular Triple Camera Module of Vivo NEX 3, which ever slightly protrudes at the back and has rays coming from the middle, is something unique to it and is definitely one of its identifying physical characteristic.

Another external feature that's unique to the Vivo NEX 3 is its Button-Less Frame that gives it a more svelte silhouette. In lieu of your typical volume rocker and power button, this smartphone has pressure sensitive sections on its right panel, which deliver the same functionalities. Vivo NEX 3's power button has ridges that gives away its location with just a touch, on top of it, there's the pad for Volume Up and below, Volume Down.

The second thing that I love about this model is its very large 6.89-inch FullHD+ Super AMOLED HDR10 Display that gloriously curves down either sides of the device like waterfalls falling off a cliff.

I've seen a handful of Android smartphones with curved edges but Vivo NEX 3 totally takes this feature to the next level. I mean, when you look at the sides, it's almost as if the screen wraps around the phone. It's that extreme!

If you're worried that accidental touches on the curved edges would affect your mobile experience, then worry no more because Vivo Mobile incorporated advanced touch rejection on these parts of the display. This is one of Vivo NEX 3 features that Mr. Colwin Tanhehco, Senior Brand Supervisor of Vivo Mobile Philippines, talked about during his keynote presentation at the launch of this flagship model. For those who are interested in this smartphone, you can watch the entire video below.

The notch-and-punch-hole-free Super AMOLED HDR10 screen of Vivo NEX3 definitely delivers an enhanced viewing experience when playing games like Mobile Legends Bang Bang, watching TV series or movies on Netflix app, viewing photos on social media apps, reading vlogs, or binging on vlogs on Youtube.

What's HDR10, you ask? Well, to put it simply, this display format gets ultra-bright at 1,000 nits, delivers the blackest black and whitest white, and lets the viewer enjoy up to a billion shades of colors. Amazing, right?

Third, I think both budding and avid mobile photographers will thoroughly enjoy Vivo NEX 3's reliable Triple Rear Camera module that's made up of the following shooters:

1. 64 MegaPixels, f/1.8 Aperture, 1/1.7" Sensor Size, 0.8µm Pixel Size, Phase Detection AutoFocus

This is most powerful of the bunch in terms of resolution, sensor size, and wideness of aperture. As such, it's the one that delivers the clearest and most brilliant shots in various conditions, even when there's little ambient light. The super high 64 MegaPixel resolution also lets you crop in on your subject without losing clarity.

2. 13 MegaPixels, f/2.5, Telephoto Lens, PDAF

This shooter is particularly useful when you want to zoom in on your subject optically without having to physically move closer to it. Vivo NEX 3 supports 2X lossless zoom and up to 20X digital zoom.

3. 13 MegaPixels, f/2.2, Ultra-Wide + Macro Lens, PDAF

Whereas other smartphone have separate ultra-wide-angle and macro cameras completing their Quad Rear Camera set-up, Vivo NEX 3 has these two shooters in one! This third camera can be relied on for taking landscape, architectural, or large group photos and can also snap close-up images and capture the tiniest details of objects.

As always, I will publish a separate TechPinas post to showcase sample shots taken using all of these cameras. Stay tuned!

Check out how the Circular Triple Rear Camera module of the Vivo NEX3 looks when we install the official smartphone hard case that's included in the official retail package. I think it looks balanced and striking.

Oh and lest I forget, for vloggers and Youtube content creators, the main camera of Vivo NEX 3 can record 4K videos up to 60 frames per second, FullHD 1080p clips at up to 120fps, and HD 720p vids up to a whopping 960fps. Love Slo-Mo? Vivo NEX 3 has got you covered!

For those who are thinking or wondering how Vivo Mobile was able to stay away for adding a notch or a punch hole to the gorgeous display of the Vivo NEX 3, they were able to do that by putting the 16 MegaPixel f/2.1 Selfie with - get this - Soft LED flash!

The LED flash in front lets you capture clear and crisp selfies or FullHD videos even at night or when you're clubbing in bars with your friends! For me, this is another way that Vivo NEX 3 pushes the boundaries of you what you can expect from a flagship smartphone. I mean, frankly, this feature is quite rare in this price bracket.

Fourth, I love Vivo NEX 3's Large 4,500 mAh Li-Po battery that ensures a whole day of uptime with average use -- and with low power mode for non-heavy-gamers or power-users, you can even get at least two days of use from this device.

What's even more amazing is that this battery can charged quickly -- thanks to its 44W Fast Charging support. When plugged to an electrical outlet using the provided wall charger and cable, this model can go from 0% to 100% in less than an hour!

Finally, Vivo NEX 3 is handsome on the outside but it's just as amazing inside.

This stellar phone is powered by a 7nm 2.96 GHz Octa Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ processor, which is easily the most powerful chipset for smartphones that Qualcomm has released to date. Incorporating a 700 MHz Adreno 640 GPU, this CPU ensures top-level, buttery-smooth overall mobile experience even when running the most resource intensive games and applications that you can download from Google Play Store.

Additionally, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ gives Vivo NEX 3 5G mobile connectivity support. In fact, this model is one of the first 5G-enabled devices to be officially released in the Philippines.

On top of all that, Vivo NEX 3 also has 8GB of RAM for lag-free multitasking and 128GB of UFS 3.0 internal storage. UFS almost doubles the data bandwidth or speed of communication between the memory and chipset all while consuming less power. I kind of wish, though, that this phone had a microSD card slot for memory expansion; But hey, I guess we can never really have it all.

So just how powerful is Vivo NEX 3? I ran Antutu Benchmark Test on my unit as soon right after the unboxing and initial set-up and I got a score of 476,705, which puts this model in the top 3% of all smartphones out in the market in terms of raw power! Believe it! I even saw a Youtube video that proves Vivo NEX 3 can beat many 2019 flagship Android smartphones in terms of Antutu Benchmark Score; It's that good.

Hmm. So what else? Oh, I also love Vivo NEX 3's Optical In-Display Fingerprint Scanner which is so much faster and more accurate that older versions of this sensor. Since I first turned on my unit, I don't recall doing multiple taps on this pad to unlock it. One quick touch and it's all good. I tell you: You won't be annoyed or disappointed with this scanner.

This is how Vivo NEX3 looks with its official hard case on. I love the cover's slip-and-grime-resistant finish and durable feel in the hand. Also, it's not too thick that it shades the beauty of the device inside it. Yes, it's plastic but for me, it doesn't look cheap.

Anyway, Vivo NEX 3 measures 167.4 x 76.1 x 9.4 mm and weighs 217.3 grams. Honestly, it's larger and heavier than many smartphones that I've reviewed in the past couple of years. But I call this "reassuring heft", which is reminiscent of the vibe that the Apple iPhone gives me when I hold it in my hand.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for more articles about the Vivo NEX3 here in TechPinas and on my official social media accounts. I have a lot more stuff to talk about, including this device's advanced gaming and connectivity features as well as other unique imaging capabilities.

To wrap up, let me quote Vivo Mobile Philippines, "As a leading global tech company, [we are] strongly committed to developing ground-breaking innovations anchored on future technologies that wouldn't only provide the best smartphone experience but would also help set the trend and shape the industry."

They added, "The latest flagship, Vivo NEX3, does just that as it breaks limits of present technology with next generation innovations that go beyond the edge, making it the device of the future."

Vivo NEX 3 Specs
167.4 x 76.1 x 9.4 mm
217.3 grams
6.89 inch, FullHD+, 1080 x 2256 pixels, 363 ppi, Super AMOLED
93.6% Screen-to-Body Ratio
Curved Waterfall Display
HDR10
Triple Rear Camera Module:
64 MegaPixels, f/1.8 Aperture, 1/1.7" Sensor Size, 0.8µm Pixel Size, Phase Detection AutoFocus
13 MegaPixels, f/2.5, Telephoto Lens, PDAF
13 MegaPixels, f/2.2, Ultra-Wide + Macro Lens, PDAF
Front-Facing Camera:
Motorized Elevating 16 MegaPixels, f/2.1 Aperture
Video Recorder
Back - 4K 2160p @ 30/60 frames per second, FullHD 1080p @ 30/60/120fps, HD 720p @ 960fps, Gyro-EIS
Front - FullHD 1080p 30fps
Funtouch 9.1 User Interface
Android 9.0 Pie
7nm 2.96 GHz Octa Core Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon 855 Plus
700 MHz Adreno 640 GPU
Vapor Chamber Cooling System
8GB RAM
128GB Internal Storage
UFS 3.0
No microSD Card Slot
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Dual WLAN Acceleration Technology
Bluetooth 5.0
4G LTE-A
5G
Optical In-Display Fingerprint Scanner
Gyroscope
USB Type C
USB On The Go
44W Vivo Super Flash Charge
Non-removable Li-Po 4500 mAh battery
Real Metal and Glass Design Elements
Black

Vivo NEX 3 Price in the Philippines
Official Suggested Retail Price - PHP 39,999
Official Launch Date in the Philippines - October 25, 2019