Vivo X21 with in-display fingerprint sensor Unboxing and First Impressions


Vivo today launched the X21, world’s first commercial smartphone that comes equipped with in-display fingerprint scanner in India. It was introduced in China last month, and earlier this month in Singapore. Here we have the unboxing and the first impressions of the phone.

Box Contents

  • Vivo X21 in Black color
  • 2-pin fast charger (5V-2A / 9V-2A)
  • Micro USB Cable
  • Headset with microphone
  • SIM Ejector tool
  • Clear protective case
  • Quick start guide and warranty information

Talking about the build, the Vivo X21 comes with a glass back and has shiny black aluminum frame running on the sides. The X21 measures 7.5 mm in thickness and weighs around 156 grams. The device is sleek and weightless which in turn make it very comfortable to hold, however it doesn’t feel that premium.

The Vivo X21 sports a 6.28-inch FHD+ 19:9 aspect ratio display with 402ppi. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to avoid damages and scratches. The display looks bright, vibrant, color reproductions, viewing angles are good too. It also comes pre-installed with a screen protector. It has a 90.3% screen-to-body ratio thanks to 1.66mm narrow bezels on the sides, 1.79mm bezels on the top and 5mm on the bottom.

The Vivo X21 always shows a fingerprint icon when the screen is turned off, just to let you know where the embedded sensor is.

The sensor easily detects your finger, but it is slow at times, however it is decent for the first-time implementation. It doesn’t detect if your fingers are wet.

Talking about the placements, it has a notch at top that houses earpiece, 12MP selfie shooter with support for face unlock, AI beauty recognition, and a bunch of sensors on the top. The right side of the device houses the volume rocker, power button while the left side is pretty much empty. Up top, we have 3.5mm audio jack, secondary microphone. Moving down we have unusually placed Hybrid SIM slot, Micro USB port, primary Microphone and speaker grille. At this point of time, implementation of Micro USB on a phone like Vivo X21 at this price point looks outdated.

On the back we have a dual camera setup with that has 12MP  ( f/1.8 aperture) +5MP (f/2.4 aperture) dual rear cameras with LED flash, support for AI scene recognition, dual pixel technology, along Vivo branding beneath it. At the bottom, we also have a ‘Designed by Vivo’ branding.

The Vivo X21 is powered by the Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 Mobile Platform clocked at 2.2GHz under the hood. The storage part looks very generous with 6GB RAM and 128GB onboard storage. You can also expand the storage through the card slot up to 256GB.

This Vivo X21 runs on Android 8.1 (Oreo) on top of Funtouch OS 4. This device is powered by a 3,200mAh battery and supports Dual engine quick charge technology so it can charge from 0 to 50% in less than half an hour.

The Vivo X21 is priced at Rs. 35,990 and will be available exclusively from Flipkart online starting from. We will bring you the camera samples and the complete review of the smartphone soon.

Srivatsan contributed to this post. Photography by Siraj