We're now familiar with phones ditching the notch in favor of pop-up selfie cameras, but the new Vivo V17 Pro goes further than anything we've seen before, packing a dual-lens camera, an earpiece, and a flash that Vivo describes as a Selfie Softlight.
That 32 MP + 8 MP front-facing camera means wide angle selfies with more of a landscape or more faces in a shot, while the flash should ensure decent results even in low light. As with the other pop-up selfie cameras we've seen on phones up to this point, the design is really just a stopgap while manufacturers figure out how to put the front-facing camera right under the screen. Having the earpiece in the motorized pop-up unit is an unusual approach – presumably it needs to be raised to make and receive calls – but it does mean more screen space.
Speaking of the screen, it's a a 6.44-inch, 1,080 x 2,400-pixel Super AMOLED display, but much of the rest of the specs are mid-range rather than flagship: the Snapdragon 675 processor from Qualcomm, the 8 GB of RAM, and the 128 GB of internal storage (which can be boosted via a microSD card, if needed).
The camera on the back of the Vivo V17 Pro is a 48 MP + 13 MP + 8 MP + 2 MP quad-lens unit, capable of 2x optical zoom and 105-degree wide angle shots, when the situation requires it. A 4,100-mAh battery completes the package, though Vivo hasn't said how much battery life that equates to.
It's the first Vivo phone to adopt USB-C, and the fingerprint sensor is embedded under the display. Disappointingly there's only Android 9 on board, with Vivo's own Funtouch software layered on top (including a dedicated gaming mode, should you want to ramp up performance at the cost of battery life). You don't get waterproofing or wireless charging support here, but then you do have to make some compromises down at the mid-range-to-budget end of the market.
While it doesn't hit the heights of the recently launched Vivo Nex 3, the Vivo V17 Pro is at least more affordable, and might have enough going for it to tempt those who spend more time shooting with the camera on the front of their phones rather than the rear.
As is often the case with Chinese firm Vivo, the phone is launching in India first, with no confirmation yet regarding international availability or pricing. In India you can pick up the device for 29,990 rupees (which converts to around US$420) from September 29.
Product page: Vivo