Under US$ 1,100: Clever cost-cutting of the Vivo X300 FE is giving high-end phones a hard time

This phone strikes a chord: With prices for high-end smartphones exceeding the mark of US$ 1,500, a gap is opening up between high-quality mid-range phones and top-of-the-line models – a gap that needs to be filled.

The Vivo X300 FE is available in some places for well under US$ 1,100 – a few years ago, this price range would have been occupied by the most expensive phones. Now, you have to accept some compromises. However, it depends on whether the manufacturer implements these wisely and cuts costs in the right places.

High-Quality Despite Cost-Cutting Measures

In some cases, you don’t even notice that you’re not dealing with an absolute top-of-the-line phone here: The attractive metal and glass body would look just as good on an even more expensive phone. It’s very sturdy, didn’t bend during our test, and is protected against water and dust according to IP68/IP69 standards.

The bezels around the 6.3-inch screen are also very narrow, allowing the phone to maintain a compact design and making it easy to use even with slightly smaller hands.

Slow USB

Vivo has also cut corners with the USB port: Instead of a USB 3.2 port, as is common on high-end phones, it only features a USB 2.0 port. As a result, you have to do without high wired transfer speeds and wired video output.

In an era of ever-increasing wireless connectivity, however, this is less of an issue, and some users might not even notice the difference.

Especially since in many areas, the Vivo X300 FE can easily keep up with the more expensive models in the X300 series or other high-end phones: It features plenty of RAM, lightning-fast UFS 4.1 storage, and speedy Wi-Fi 7, which proved to be very stable in our test.

Most of the cost-cutting measures are acceptable

The battery is also large and delivers impressive battery life in everyday use. However, in some areas, you do notice that cost-cutting was necessary.

To find out exactly what those areas are and how they affect our overall rating, check out our in-depth review of the Vivo X300 FE.