The Vivo V5 is for those who love to see themselves more on camera than mirror, writes Nur Izzah Sheikh Azmir
SELFIES present a window, where families, friends and even the average Joe living across the globe can get glimpses of your everyday activities. Having become an integral part of people’s lives, it is no wonder that smartphone makers are building smartphones focusing on the best selfie camera features.
Vivo joins the ranks of top smartphone makers giving more attention to the quality of its camera and the ability to capture sharp, top notch selfies.
The Vivo V5 is the latest addition to Vivo’s V-series, after the V3 and V3Max.
DESIGN
As I opened the box, I noticed the screen size. The V5 comes with a 5.5-inch touchscreen display and for those who appreciate large screens, this is definitely a plus point. It seems the ideal size for me as it is not too big and glaring.
At first glance, the phone design is similar to that of iPhone 7, Oppo F1s and Asus ZenFone 3 Max. Upon closer inspection, however, the V5 gives a distinct vibe that screamed Vivo. It has an elegant and slick design. At 153 x 75 x 7.6mm, the phone sits beautifully in my palm. The finishing is smooth with no rough edges and the sides are slightly bevelled, with gold trims giving the phone a premium feel. The plastic body is a bit slippery but the texture feels great to the touch.
The V5 is very light considering its size. It has a home button that doubles up as one of the fastest fingerprint scanners on a phone in its category. The phone comes with both a customised Vivo speaker and a matching monopod, suitable for its main purpose of taking selfies.
Besides having an interesting ‘V’ shape, there was nothing spectacular about the speaker. The same could also be said for the monopod. Putting aside those small setbacks, the phone itself gave a very good first impression.
DISPLAY
The V5 is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and a tempered glass pre-pasted on its 5.5-inch screen. The HD display is quite bright and colourful. However, the 720 x 1280 pixels and 267 ppi pixel density resolution is quite a letdown. The phone does not have a full HD display feature and given today’s market, where high resolution and virtual reality are the main focus, this could be considered a letdown. The V5 also has a split screen feature that allows users to browse through messages while enjoying videos (both online or offline). Users with busy schedules and are always multitasking would find this useful.
CAMERA
Nothing short of amazing! Starting with its front camera that gives 20MP shots with an aperture of f/2.0, it can take great pictures that are very detailed. Even in low-light conditions, there is minimum noticeable noise in the photos, thanks to Vivo’s modified camera softwares. There’s the usual settings here, such as beautification that helps fade away blemishes, panorama mode that allows you to take wide selfies, a double exposure shot and various filters.
The rear camera on the other hand, gets only 13MP but is still a decent shooter compared to its front camera. There is an expert mode for the rear camera that allows the user to manually control the ISO, shutter speed, exposure and white balance. However, the manual shutter can only go as low as one second, anything lower will require you to use the auto mode.
Videos can be recorded at 1080p quality at 30 fps, which is quite a let-down considering that most phones now can record 2160p quality but considering the V5’s price, it’s not that much of a big deal. The colouring is great but the rear camera is merely on par with most other phones in its range. However, indoor shots under artificial lighting are grainy and there’s a noticeable loss in quality. There’s quite a bit of shutter lag too, which makes photographing moving subjects a real challenge. After using the primary camera of the Vivo V5, it is obvious that Vivo hasn’t paid as much attention to it as the one in front as the quality of photos is strictly average.
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
The V5 is powered by an Octa-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 and uses the MediaTek MT6750 processor which is rather subpar compared to others like the Snapdragon 650s. The phone is equipped with 4GB of RAM and packs 32GB of internal storage. If that is still not enough, it can be expanded up to 256GB via a microSD card, which is plenty to ensure a smooth Android experience.
The Vivo V5 runs on Android 6.0.1 alongside its own operating system which is FunTouchOS 2.6, so users won’t have the same Android stock experience like the One Plus 3 and such. With most companies now moving away from heavy customisations, Vivo is among a handful of companies with a custom OS, though the trend is definitely more popular with Chinese companies. The OS has an iOS inspired user interface and no app drawer. However, this can easily be fixed by downloading third party launchers from stores such as Nova or Go launcher.
Other features of the Vivo V5 include WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, USB OTG, GPS, and FM radio. Vivo V5’s software looks and functions just like it did on the previous V-series phones. It is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts Micro-SIM and Nano-SIM. Vivo also throws in some one-handed gestures for the lock screen PIN keypad and you can even shrink the screen down to make it more accessible with one hand. There’s a one-handed mode for the TouchPal keyboard too but it didn’t seem to work. Thankfully, you can just get Google Keyboard, which has this feature and works much better.
In the gaming department, some high-end games like Asphalt 8: Airborne and Modern Combat 5 need their graphics settings reduced a bit for the best experience, which is not surprising due to its underwhelming GPU and CPU. What I really loved though, is that the phone rarely heats up. For light, casual games, like Pokemon Go, Temple Run and such, it plays quite well. Therefore, if you’re not really into hardcore mobile gaming, the Vivo V5 serves pretty well.
BATTERY
With mild or moderate use, the Vivo V5 can last throughout the day. However, more than that and it becomes an issue. I noticed that the battery drained faster when using heavy duty applications like Instagram and Snapchat, which is ironic because the phone is aimed at the younger generation. It also takes a long time to charge which is a major turnoff. Although it does not have a fast-charging feature, it can charge from zero per cent to full in about 100 minutes if used with a fast charger.
VERDICT
Overall, the Vivo V5 is not the best mid-range phone in the market but it does have one of the best front cameras in its category. I say it deserves to be called a selfie expert. For its price, it offers many features that’s hard to be found in other smartphones in this price range.
For RM1,299 (including GST), it is definitely a great value for money if you’re looking a premium-looking smartphone with premium features at affordable prices. Switching on the phone and exploring its features will always be an adventure to say the very least.