By Sourabh Kulesh
New Delhi, Jan 29 (IANS): While 2016 was a successful year for the Chinese smartphone maker Vivo in India, the company has now come up with an innovative V5 Plus which is touted as the first device to have a 20MP dual-selfie camera.
Riding on the success of the V5 smartphone that had a 20MP selfie camera accompanied with the front-facing "Moonlight Glow", the Rs 27,980 V5 Plus sports two front cameras -- a 20MP regular camera and an 8MP shooter for the depth -- along with a 16MP rear camera.
Let us see what works for the device.
Since inception, Vivo has been selling its devices with two USPs -- camera and music. This time, the company has put in a lot of innovation into the V5 Plus camera.
Design-wise, the V5 Plus looks premium with a slight resemblance to the iPhone 7. The 7.26mm slim device fits very well in the hand.
The V5 Plus has camera sensors to the left of the earpiece while the flash and sensor are on the right. The fingerprint scanner is situated in the front.
At the back, the 5.5-inch display device boasts a camera and a flash in the top left corner with branding at the centre.
The phone clicks amazing selfies in 20MP resolution and the second camera comes into play when you use the device to take a photo in "bokeh" mode which allows one to focus on any point in the viewfinder and blur the background.
The device, without parallel, clicks beautiful bokeh photos. In case you do not get a perfect blur in the photo or you want to shift the focus to any other object, V5 Plus makes it possible for a user to selectively focus and refocus on another object after clicking a shot.
Facing a problem while taking pictures in low-light conditions? The V5 Plus has sorted this out with "selfie flash". The rear camera was not too disappointing either.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB memory powers the full-metal body device. We did not experience any lag while using the device and there were no heating issues as well.
The dual-SIM device asked us to register the fingerprint scanner twice -- one to register the central patch and the other to register the edges.
The scanner is very sensitive and responsive. The company claimed that it unlocks the device in just 0.02 seconds and the scanner unlocked the device in a jiffy.
The smartphone runs on Funtouch OS 3.0 that includes impressive features like Super Screenshot that allows a user to record voice as well.
One can also choose from a selection of screenshot types such as long screenshot, pattern screenshot, etc.
With the "Smart Split" feature, an app notification can be displayed as a floating icon. Just tap on the icon and it will expand on the half screen.
The device packs a 3,160mAh battery that lasted for almost 26 hours with medium to heavy usage. The V5 Plus charges in nearly two hours.
As far as the music part is concerned, the single speaker in the V5 Plus does quite well. Also, the output through 3.5mm jack was stunning. We would recommend buyers to purchase high quality earphones for maximum pleasure.
What doesn't work?
Users feel that if Vivo is selling its device with camera as USP, it should have made the rear camera as good as the one in the front. The rear shooter failed our test of clicking sharp images in the night.
The device undoubtedly steered us through when it became heavy on the processor, but for such a price point, the Snapdragon 625 is an unfair deal. At a similar price, OnePlus 3T offers a better Snapdragon 821 processor.
Conclusion: You won't mind shelling out money on the Vivo V5 Plus and those who have had their hands on V5, it makes perfect sense to have V5 Plus for a better selfie and music experience.