SUMMARY
The Vivo V5 mobile features a 5.5 inches (13.97 cm), HD, 267 PPI, IPS LCD display and runs on Android v6.0 (Marshmallow) operating system. The device is powered by a Octa core, 1.5 GHz, Cortex A53 processor paired with 4 GB of RAM. As far as the battery is concerned it has 3000 mAh, No Quick Charging, Non-Removable. Over that, as far as the rear camera is concerned this mobile has a sensor and the front snapper is powered by a sensoMARKET STATUS:AVAILABLEMRP:₹ 16,559CRITIC REVIEW
Vivo V5 review: For the love of selfies
The budget smartphone segment in India has witnessed tremendous growth over the past few years. And now, that competition has seeped into the sub-Rs 20,000 price segment. Customers now expect more features in smartphones, even if they aren't flagships. No wonder companies like Lenovo, Gionee and Oppo are growing stronger, offering feature-loaded smartphones at affordable price points.
The latest entry in this series is Vivo's V5. Packed with features such as 20MP selfie camera with a unique 'Moonlight Glow' and Hi-Fi audio.
On paper, these seem to be really nice specs. Even more so, when you consider the relatively modest price tag of Rs 17,890. But does that make the
Vivo V5
a smartphone actually worth buying?We used the Vivo V5 for a few days to find the answers, and here's the rest of our review.
Design and display
Although it has a minimalistic design, the Vivo V5 smartphone looks quite premium. It's available in two colour options - Crown Gold and Grey, with our review unit being the former.
The front panel is dominated by a 5.5-inch HD display, below which lies a capacitive Home button. There's also a fingerprint sensor integrated into the button. Above the display, there's the earpiece, the 20MP selfie-camera (with Moonlight Glow LED flash) and a proximity sensor.
Flipping the phone back, the non-removable rear panel hides a 3,000mAh battery. The back has the Vivo branding in the centre, along with the 13MP primary camera and LED flash in the top left corner.
Coming to the sides, the volume rocker and power button are placed on the right, while the SIM tray is on the left. The bottom is where the speaker grille, a microUSB charging/data port and a 3.5mm audio jack are.
Weighing around 154g, the Vivo V5 is pretty lightweight. However, it's also a bit slippery when held in the hand.
Coming to the display of the device, we found it to be really good. The Vivo V5 sports a 5.5-inch HD display of 720x1280 pixel resolution. And even though the pixel density is a bit low at around 267ppi, we didn't notice major pixelation in the on-screen content such as text and games. The panel has quite good colour reproduction and viewing angles are okay as well.
We used the phone outdoors and found its sunlight legibility to be quite alright. The smartphone comes with a software-based eye protection mode, which filters the blue light emitted by the screen to reduce eye strain.
Performance and camera
Vivo V5 is powered by an unnamed (likely MediaTek) 1.5 GHz octa-core CPU paired with 4GB of RAM. The smartphone offers 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded further via microSD cards of up to 128GB in size. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box, with Vivo's Funtouch OS 2.6 UI layer running on top.
We quite liked the software customizations of the phone. There's no app drawer and all the apps are laid out on the homescreen. The handset also comes with a few pre-installed apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp and WPS Office.
Interestingly, the quick settings in the Vivo V5 do not appear on the notification shade, as they do on most Android smartphones. Instead, they show up when the finger is placed on the Home button and scrolled up, much like in the case of devices like Lenovo Z2 Plus and
Vivo V5 has another interesting feature -- Smart Screen Split. Similar to Android Nougat's split-view multitasking, it lets you run two apps at the same time. We found this to be quite a nifty addition.
Now, let's get to the major highlight of Vivo V5: The camera(s).
During our testing, the outdoor pictures clicked with the 13MP primary camera of the smartphone turned out to be really good. Colour reproduction is accurate and there is no distortion in images. The image quality doesn't deteriorate even when zooming in. However, indoor shots weren't as great as we'd hoped.
The camera app on the V5 comes with eight different filters that can be applied to the images. Other information like watermark, timestamp etc. can be added to the images as well.
We used the phone outdoors and found its sunlight legibility to be quite alright. The smartphone comes with a software-based eye protection mode, which filters the blue light emitted by the screen to reduce eye strain.
Performance and camera
Vivo V5 is powered by an unnamed (likely MediaTek) 1.5 GHz octa-core CPU paired with 4GB of RAM. The smartphone offers 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded further via microSD cards of up to 128GB in size. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box, with Vivo's Funtouch OS 2.6 UI layer running on top.
We quite liked the software customizations of the phone. There's no app drawer and all the apps are laid out on the homescreen. The handset also comes with a few pre-installed apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp and WPS Office.
Interestingly, the quick settings in the Vivo V5 do not appear on the notification shade, as they do on most Android smartphones. Instead, they show up when the finger is placed on the Home button and scrolled up, much like in the case of devices like Lenovo Z2 Plus and
Coolpad Note 5
.Vivo V5 has another interesting feature -- Smart Screen Split. Similar to Android Nougat's split-view multitasking, it lets you run two apps at the same time. We found this to be quite a nifty addition.
Now, let's get to the major highlight of Vivo V5: The camera(s).
During our testing, the outdoor pictures clicked with the 13MP primary camera of the smartphone turned out to be really good. Colour reproduction is accurate and there is no distortion in images. The image quality doesn't deteriorate even when zooming in. However, indoor shots weren't as great as we'd hoped.
The camera app on the V5 comes with eight different filters that can be applied to the images. Other information like watermark, timestamp etc. can be added to the images as well.
Vivo V5 | VS | Gionee S6s |
| Octa core (1.5 GHz, Quad Core + 1 GHz, Quad core), MediaTek MT6750, 4 GB RAM | PERFORMANCE | Octa Core, 1.3 GHz, MediaTek MT6753, 3 GB RAM |
| 5.5 inches (13.97 cm), HD, 267 PPI, IPS LCD | DISPLAY | 5.5 inches (13.97 cm), Full HD, 401 PPI, IPS LCD |
| 32 GB | STORAGE | 32 GB |
| 13 MP Primary Camera, LED Flash, 20 MP Front Camera | CAMERA | 13 MP Primary Camera, LED Flash, 8 MP Front Camera |
| 3000 mAh, No Quick Charging, Non-Removable | BATTERY | 3150 mAh, No Quick Charging, Non-Removable |
| 4 GB | RAM | 3 GB |
As for the USP 20MP selfie-camera, it left us really impressed. We clicked quite a few selfies and the Vivo V5 didn't disappoint. There are numerous beautification features in the app that can be used to make selfies look even better. These include everything from face slimming to skin tone correction.
Also, the 'Moonlight Glow' LED flash that accompanies the selfie camera resulted in great-looking selfies even in dimly-lit areas. It's worth noting that Moonlight Glow isn't the same thing as a regular LED flash. While LED flashes tend to make pictures taken in dark look unnaturally white, the Moonlight Glow is softer. It brightens up the face of the user by adding a natural glow.
It should also be mentioned that the Moonlight Glow flash doesn't strain the eyes.
Besides camera, Vivo V5 focuses quite a bit on music and features built-in Hi-Fi audio. We played different tracks on the smartphone and found the audio quality to be really good. Overall sound output is nice and audio doesn't get distorted even at higher volume levels. Video playback is really good, both for locally-stored and streaming videos.
As for the call quality, the Vivo V5 performed as expected. Although it's something that depends quite a lot on network coverage, we didn't experience any call drops during our usage. Network reception is good, even in areas such as elevators and parking lots.
Talking about the battery, the 3,000mAh battery of the V5 lasted from morning to evening with moderate usage. This involved a little bit each of social media browsing, navigation, clicking images, taking calls and watching YouTube videos. Quite a decent battery backup, we'd say.
The Vivo V5 does get a little warm when being used for navigation, but it's nothing too major.
The only aspect of the phone that we didn't find impressive was the fingerprint sensor. Although the company claims that it can unlock V5 in just 0.2 seconds, there were multiple occasions when it couldn't register fingerprints.
Verdict
The new Vivo V5 is really great in the imaging department. Both the primary camera and the 20MP selfie-snapper are capable of taking really impressive shots, at least given the price of the smartphone. Other features like premium design, bright display and good sound output make things better as well.
Overall, we think that at a price of Rs 17,980, the Vivo V5 is definitely a value-for-money device. But for those looking at alternatives, the recently-launched
Lenovo Z2 Plus 64GB (Zuk Z2)
is also a good option.VIVO V5 SPECIFICATIONS
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