Priced at Rs 17,980, the Vivo V5 comes with a 20-megapixel selfie camera along with a ‘moonlight glow’ LED light.
The selfie obsession has now reached a level where people don’t need a reason to click one. A selfie after waking up, once before going to sleep, a selfie at weddings, family functions, parties and more. If that wasn’t enough, selfies have permeated into pop culture with Bollywood numbers about the trend. Chinese smartphone makers Gionee and OPPO have already launched their selfie-centric smartphones, and Vivo is trying to do the same with its V5, which the company launched in India today. Touted as the world’s first smartphone featuring a front-facing 20-megapixel selfie camera with ‘moonlight glow’ LED light, the Vivo V5 is priced at Rs 17,980. The smartphone will go on pre-order soon and will go on sale from November 26. I had a chance to go hands-on with the Vivo V5 at the launch event, and here are my first impressions.
The V5 is the successor to the Vivo V3, which was launched earlier this year in April. It features a metal unibody and 2.5D curved glass on the front. You have the selfie camera and moonlight glow LED flash, the ambient light sensor and earpiece above the display. Just below the display, you have the home button flanked by the capacitive keys for menu (long press for app switcher) on the left and back button on the right. The home button is not clickable, and also doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Vivo says unlock the device in 0.2 seconds and also works with moist fingers.
Talking about the buttons placement, the volume rocker and power / sleep button is on the right, whereas the SIM card slot is on the left. It is a hybrid slot that lets you use two nano-SIM cards or one nano-SIM and one microSD card up to 128GB. The edges are curved and it looks and feels a bit like the iPhone 6s. The 3.5mm audio jack, micro-USB port and speaker grille are placed at the bottom. The back of the device has the camera module and LED flash placed on the top-left, with Vivo branding at the centre. The thin antenna lines can be seen along the top and lower half. Overall, the Vivo V5 is lightweight, well built and looks quite sturdy too. ALSO READ: Vivo V5, world’s first smartphone with 20-megapixel selfie camera, launched in India: Price, specifications, features
The Vivo V5 flaunts a 5.5-inch HD display with 2.5D curved glass. The display is crisp, bright and color reproduction is quite punchy too. I did find the reds and greens a little oversaturated. Vivo’s decision to go with a 720p display instead of a 1080p full HD display is bewildering. These days one can easily get a smartphone with full HD display under Rs 10,000 and that certainly should be the case for a smartphone priced close to Rs 18,000.
At the heart of the Vivo V5 runs MediaTek’s 64-bit 6750 octa-core SoC, paired with 4GB of RAM and 32GB expandable storage. The combination is pretty good to handle daily tasks with ease, but again, for the price I could have expected a better chipset. The Redmi Note 3 which is priced at Rs 9,999 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 hexa-core SoC, the LeEco Le 2 which is priced at Rs 11,999 comes with Snapdragon octa-core SoC. Even the Lenovo Z2 Plus with a starting price of Rs 17,999 is powered by the flagship Snapdragon 820 SoC.
The smartphone runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS with FunTouch 2.6 UI running on top. The interface does not feature any app drawer and all the installed apps show up on the homescreens. Vivo has pre-installed apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook and WPS Office. The company has also loaded EasyShare app to transfer photos, videos and other files using Wi-Fi direct, an i Manager app that lets you clean the cache, monitor data, apps, privacy settings and more. Lastly, there is also VivoCloud app that lets you take a backup of your notes, bookmarks, contacts and SMS on the cloud. The UI seemed pretty smooth and I did not encounter any lag while using the smartphone.
Now, coming to the smartphone’s USP, the 20-megapixel selfie camera is excellent. The company is using Sony’s IMX 376 image sensor with aperture f/2.0 and a 5P lens. The camera interface is slick and you can capture selfies using your voice or by raising your palm in front of the camera. I took a couple of selfies and they looked pretty bright and detailed. The colors looked good, even with dull lighting conditions.
Vivo is also highlighting the ‘moonlight glow’ LED light to capture better selfies in low-light. The LED light glows to illuminate the scene, but an implementation like a flash could have been better. Besides the selfie camera, you also get a 13-megapixel rear snapper with LED flash. It is also capable of recording full-HD (1080p) videos.
Along with the camera, audio has also been one of the key focus points of Vivo smartphones. The V5 is equipped with a custom built AK4376 Hi-Fi audio chip with signal-to-noise ratio of up to 115dB. The company claims that the audio chip is capable of offering better audio experience when listening to music or watching videos.
Armed with a 3,000mAh battery, the smartphone also features connectivity options such as 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. At its price tag, the Vivo V5 will be competing with other selfie-centric smartphones such as the OPPO F1s, which is priced at Rs 17,990 and the Gionee S6s which is priced at Rs 17,999. Purely based on the specifications and features, the smartphone looks a little overpriced. A full-HD display and better processor could have been better, but the 20-megapixel selfie camera alone cannot justify its Rs 17,980 price tag. But we will reserve our final verdict until we review the smartphone.