Vivo V5 Review | | Resource Centre by Reliance Digital

Vivo V5 Review

6.0/10
6.5/10
6.0/10
6.0/10



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Vivo, the Chinese smartphones maker has been manufacturing and marketing their own range of smartphones since 2011. Soon after they launched the ‘V’ series of smartphones, the brand has slowly gained recognition in the Indian market. The Vivo V3 and the Vivo V3 Max are two well-known models priced at Rs. 17,980 and Rs. 23,980. Now, there is an addition to the Vivo ‘V’ series with the launch of the Vivo V5. Although the smartphone market is flourishing these days, Vivo has plenty of competition. There are several phones powered by powerful processors with attractive designs, with the Vivo V5 being one among them. The V5 is designed mainly for selfie lovers with its 20MP front camera and ‘Moonlight’ flash. Let’s find if the phone performs well and stands out in the competition. 

Design

In terms of design and build quality, there’s nothing new or different. The phone features a distinctive design unlike most other affordable phones. The construction is a mix of plastic, glass and metal. It has a thick plastic casing with a metallic finish at the back and a glass coating at the front. There is a small shiny metal strip surrounding the curved edges.  

 

The phone comes with a 5.5-inch touch screen display with a thickness of 7.5mm and it weighs 154g. Overall, this makes the phone light enough to hold comfortably in one hand.

 

The power button and the volume controls are on the right, while on the left, you’ll find a hybrid SIM card tray. It can hold two SIM cards, one Micro and the other Nano. There is no separate memory card slot, which means you cannot use two SIM cards at a time if you’re using a memory card.

 

The top of the screen houses the camera and a LED flash, while the 13MP camera at the rear protrudes a little. Besides, there is also a LED flash on the right of the camera lens and the brand name embossed in the middle. There are three navigation buttons at the lower end of the screen which are barely noticeable in bright light. The home button which appears to be clickable, is not. The microUSB port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and the speaker are placed at the bottom.


6.0/10

Features

The combination of the 1.5GHz Octa-core MediaTek MT6750 and 4GB of RAM of the Vivo V5 should ensure good performance. The Vivo V5 runs Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) along with FunTouchOS 2.6. The phone is powered by a 3000mAh non-removable battery which can last for a day or two on average use.

 

You can store plenty of movies, games and music on its 32GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 128GB using a microSD card. The connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, USB and FM. The phone supports 4G VoLTE which lets you make HD Voice and Video calls to your close ones. One of the additional connectivity options of the Vivo V5 is USB On-The-Go (OTG) which allows you connect USB flash drives to watch movies and listen to your favourite playlists.

 

People who have used other Android phones may find the interface of the V5, like other Vivo phones, to be a bit confusing. For one, you don’t find a separate app drawer. All the installed apps appear on the home screen itself.

 

You get access to the notification panel and recent apps by swiping from the bottom to top, instead of top to bottom. The left button brings up customization menus such as widgets, transition and hide app options. The customizations end there; the rest of the controls are like any other Android phone. There are plenty of other features too, but they are similar to the features of the Vivo V3 and the Vivo V3 Max. These include gesture controls and Smart Split Screen which allow you to receive messages even when you are playing games or watching videos.

 

The Vivo V5 has an interesting feature that lets you record your phone’s screen. For example, you can use it to record training tutorials on how to perform tasks on your phone, and share them with your friends. Another introduction is the one-handed screen feature which lets you shrink the display of the phone. This feature is useful to access the entire workspace with just your thumb. The Eye-protection mode, Vivo claims helps protect your eyes from strain.

 

The camera interface on the Vivo V5 is easy to use. It only has a camera toggle button, a flash control and a capture button. Advanced camera features are present too but those can be accessed, as needed using the Settings menu. The most highlighted feature of the Vivo V5 is its 20-megapixel selfie camera that features a Sony IMX376 sensor with an f/2.0 aperture. Vivo has added 7 camera modes and 9 filters that let you click quality photos and record HD videos.

 

Besides these, Vivo has added a Themes app to help customize the V5’s interface, something most other Android smartphones don’t have. There are other interesting in-built apps added by Vivo. One of them is EasyShare, that lets you share videos, photos and other data. The vivoCloud app can be used to backup all your contacts, notes and messages. There is an iManager app which gives you the options to clear cache data, monitor data usage, uninstall and secure all your apps using the fingerprint sensor.


6.5/10

Performance

The 5.5-inch screen is bright and crisp. It produces saturated colours and high contrast levels. The phone has a resolution of 1280 x 720 which is quite good. The display has a slight blue tinge which is not easily noticeable. Vivo doesn’t let you tweak the colours manually.

 

The fingerprint scanner is responsive and it can unlock the phone instantly. We opened several apps such as Facebook, YouTube, Music Player and Chrome Browser with five tabs running to check whether the V5 could handle it efficiently. We noticed some stuttering while switching between apps. We also played games such as Real Racing 3 and Asphalt 8: Airborne and both these games ran very smoothly. We played these games for more than 30 minutes and there was no heating.

 

The V5 is powered by a 1.5GHz Octa-core MediaTek MT6750 processor. This is the first Vivo phone from the V series, running a high-end MediaTek processor. We ran a couple of benchmarks such as AnTuTu, Quadrant Standard and PCMark for Android. All the benchmarks scored average points. Although, the benchmark scores seem average, the real world performance is pretty good. 3D Mark scores were good too, confirming that the phone is decent for gaming.

 

The speaker of the Vivo V5 is placed at the bottom. It delivers loud sound and clear vocals, but only when you hold the phone upside down. The 3000 mAh battery of the Vivo V5 should last a day easily under average usage.

 

The most highlighted feature of the Vivo V5 is its 20 mega-pixel front camera with Moonlight selfie. The quality of the selfies we clicked did not match our expectations. For example, we noticed the reds appeared pinkish and details were lacking as well. The rear camera is not the main focus of the Vivo V5 but it captures better photos than the front camera. At times, we found focusing to be a bit tricky. The camera feature of the Vivo V5 is certainly not as impressive as we initially thought.


6.0/10

Verdict

The Vivo V5 is a good smartphone but it’s not extraordinary. It has a decent build while other smartphone manufacturers are offering metal body phones. The features are more or less, the same as its predecessor models. The interface of the Vivo V5 is different unlike other Android phones which makes using it a bit interesting. One of the key features of the V5 is its 20 mega-pixel Selfie camera which we weren’t impressed by. We would recommend the Vivo V5 as a gaming phone, and for its design. The phone is available in two variants - Crown Gold and Space Gray, priced at Rs. 17,980*. Do come check out the Vivo V5 at your nearest Reliance Digital stores and take a closer look for yourself.

*Prices subject to change.


6.0/10