It recently dawned on me that the smartphone gimbal is the new selfie stick. The revelation came when multiple Instagram husbands (and dads) expressed astonishment that I don’t own a DJI Osmo 3 -- or any similar stabilizing tool that allows regular people like you and me to take mobile videos that look like they’re shot with the help of a professional Steadicam. So it doesn’t entirely surprise me that a new smartphone unveiled today comes equipped with a built-in camera gimbal.
The flagship handset, one of three from the new X50 series, brings yet another experimental idea from Vivo’s concept device into a consumer product. First introduced with the concept Apex 2020 phone, the gimbal-in-a-phone is said to be modeled after a full size professional gimbal. It’s designed to help users take sharp and smooth photos and videos with the main camera while moving -- like if you’re riding a speedboat or trying to capture a video of your running toddler.
You can tell when the frame is stable and ready for taking pictures by looking at a screen animation called the Gimbal Radar. Vivo says the X50 Pro’s camera also keeps continuous focus on a moving subject, and the algorithm can artificially remove blur.
The Vivo X50 Pro has four cameras on the back and a selfie camera. (Picture: Vivo)
Another star camera feature? The periscope lens. Vivo says the X50 Pro and X50 Pro+ can achieve a digital zoom of up to 60x, though we’ll have to wait to get our hands on the phone to see how much detail is retained in images zoomed in that closely. The lens has an optical zoom of 5x -- on par with the periscope lens first championed by Huawei last year.
The X50 Pro’s main camera features Sony's 48-megapixel IMX586 sensor, along with a 120-degree ultra-wide camera and a 50mm portrait lens. If you’re a photography buff though, you might be more interested in the top-level leather-back X50 Pro+, which uses Samsung’s brand new ISOCELL GN1 sensor. It’s got a resolution of 50 megapixels and fast auto-focus.
The Vivo X50 Pro’s display curves on the edges. (Picture: Vivo)
Like most new flagship smartphones you’ll see this year, every X50 series phone supports 5G. Vivo says at 7.49mm, the X50 is the slimmest 5G phone to date. It’s a full millimeter slimmer than the Xiaomi Mi 10 or the Huawei P40 5G, which probably isn’t going to be noticeable to most people.
And if you’ve been paying attention to new flagships coming out this year, you won’t be shocked to find that the screens of the X50 series have high refresh rates between 90Hz and 120Hz. That should make games and scrolling through content look smoother. The X50 Pro+ has a 240Hz touch sampling rate, same as what sister brand Oppo offers.
The X50, X50 Pro and X50 Pro+ start at 3,498 yuan (US$490), 4,298 yuan (US$602) and 4,998 (US$700) respectively. The X50 will be the first to launch in China on June 6, followed by the X50 Pro on June 12 and the X50 Pro+ in July.
