vivo X200 FE review

Display

The vivo X200 FE features a 6.31-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 1216x2640px resolution, 10-bit color depth, and 120Hz maximum refresh rate. vivo promises 1,800nits of maximum automatic brightness, which can go up to a 5,000-nit peak value for smaller patches.

Other noteworthy display specs include HDR10+ certification and high-frequency 2160Hz PWM dimming that can get a boost to 4,320Hz, but you can enable it only within the Developer options (the screen may flicker and it will drain more power than usual).

We measured 617nits of maximum brightness when setting it manually, and 1758 nits when the ambient light sensor was left in charge. We can also confirm that the smaller the white patch, the higher the brightness (we got 3000+ nits on a small white square).

The minimum brightness on a white screen was just 2 nits.

The vivo X200 FE features an LTPO OLED panel, which supports refresh rates between 1Hz and 120Hz. There are three refresh rate modes - Auto Switch, High (up to 120Hz), and Standard (up to 60Hz).

The phone readily switches down to 1Hz, according to the Android refresh rate utility, regardless of which of the three refresh rate modes is active.

Videos get refresh rates to match their frame rates - or sort of - 30 and 60fps clips get relatively steady 30 and 60Hz, while 24 and 48fps videos get something like an averaged 48Hz, with the phone alternating between 36 and 72Hz. Everything looks smooth anyway. We also got 120Hz in browsers and games, both 3D and arcade ones, though you need to be in the 'High' refresh rate mode - the Smart option appears to set a 90Hz for browsers and 60Hz cap on games.

The vivo X200 FE comes with an HDR10+ certification. We got HDR streams in YouTube and Netflix, with Netflix reporting HDR10 compliance.

vivo X200 FE battery life

The X200 FE packs an impressive 6,500mAh Si/C Li-Ion battery and vivo promises over 25h of YouTube streaming or near 10h of gaming on a single charge. We put those claims to the test, of course.

Vivo uses C-PACK packaging for the battery, which shaves over a millimeter of its thickness and thus allows for a higher capacity for a given physical size.

We must mention that the X200 FE packs a lower-capacity 5300mAh battery in Austria and Hungary. So, if you are getting it via an authorized seller in those markets, you can expect shorter runtimes than folks across the border.

In our testing of our 6500 mAh model, the phone got an Active Use Score of 15:16h, which is an excellent result. It aced all tests and lasted almost 30h on a voice call, 14.5h of web browsing, over 17h of YouTube streaming, and 9:46mins of gaming. While the game score is in line with the official promise, in our proprietary testing, the phone didn't get even close to those 25h of YouTube video streaming that vivo is claiming.

Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.

Charging speed

The vivo X200 FE supports 90W FlashCharge and ships with a 90W power adapter inside its retail box (in some markets, at least).

We ran our charging test with the original adapter and the phone was pretty fast to top up, though not impressively so. We got 24% of charge in 15 mins, 48% in 30mins, and 100% at 58 min mark. Oddly, this is notably slower than the X200 charging speed, though it feels like charging speed is the price you'd be paying for the large capacity.

You do get a lot of options to extend the longevity of your battery in the long run if you value that. You can keep the fast charging off and only tap on the prompt to engage it on a case by case basis. There's also the usual 'Optimized battery charging' option that will learn your charging habits and do the final top-off just before the time you typically pick up your phone from the charger. There's also an option to limit charging to a certain level (80%, 90%, 100%).

Speakers

The vivo X200 FE packs two speakers in a stereo pair - one is at the bottom, while the other is the front-facing earpiece. Naturally, the earpiece is not as loud or deep as the bottom one, but the overall audio balance is solid.

Bottom speaker • Top speaker/earpiece

The speakers scored a Good mark on our loudness test. The audio quality is also good - the high frequencies are well presented; there is some bass and the vocals are okay. The sound is a bit shallow, but we've heard much worse.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.