With this price, the Vivo V5 Plus smartphone is definitely challenging the OnePlus 3T. Both these smartphones come in different categories. At the same time, it is difficult for the user to choose which device is better in terms of value. The Vivo V5 Plus is the ‘ultimate’ selfie smartphone but does it have what it takes to be a flagship-level phone? Find out in the V5 Plus review.
Vivo V5 Plus design and build
The design of Vivo V5 Plus is not much different from the design of Vivo V5 we reviewed. The fingerprint sensor is integrated into the home button below the screen in the phone and there is a sensor, notification LED and a fill light at the top. It is not hidden from anyone that Vivo and Oppo like to copy Apple’s hardware and software designs and Vivo has continued this in its latest variants as well. The antenna band given in Vivo V5 Plus looks exactly like the new iPhone 7. The full metal rear is quite durable and we liked the soft gold finish of the phone. The finish of the chassis and buttons give a premium feel and we have no complaints with the company here.
There is a SIM tray on the left side of the phone in which two nano-SIM cards can be used. However, it is not a hybrid SIM card and does not have a separate slot for a microSD card. At the bottom, there is a micro-USB port, headphone jack and speaker. Vivo V5 Plus has a good grip and feels light with a weight of 158 grams.
The 5.5 inch IPS display given in Vivo V5 Plus is bright and the touch response is also good. Sharpness is also good given the Full HD resolution. There isn’t a color correction option in the Settings app but you will get an eye-protection mode. Color saturation is good and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 has been provided to protect the display.
In the box, you will get an 18W/10W adapter, data cable, headset, case, screen guard, and SIM ejector tool. Overall, the Vivo V5 Plus scores well in terms of design and build, just like the previous smartphones in this series. However, the phone has ample inbuilt storage and the lack of expandable storage may disappoint some users.
Vivo V5 Plus Specifications
Vivo V5 Plus has Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. However, we cannot find it attractive because Xiaomi has launched Redmi Note 4 (Review) with similar specifications at half the price.
Apart from this, Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band Wi-Fi B/G/N, GPS and USB-OTG are provided in Vivo V5 Plus. The phone has an AK4376 audio DAC for better sound quality. The phone doesn’t have NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, or FM radio. The phone also does not have the new Type-C USB connector. Talking about sensors, the phone has all the other sensors along with Gyroscope. Vivo V5 Plus supports VoLTE along with 4G on both SIM cards.
Vivo V5 Plus runs on Funtouch OS 3.0 based on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1. Stock icons and panels like the Control Center – which pops up from the bottom – all have a hint of iOS in them. The phone has Google’s preinstalled apps, including Duo. Apart from this, WhatsApp, UC Browser and WPS Office are included. Vivo has also provided some of its own apps like Themes, Vivo Cloud and a manager app for permissions, app locking etc. You can learn about all the gesture-based features of the new Vivo V5 Plus in our Vivo V5 review.
If you are using this phone after stock Android then it will take some time for you to get used to the new software. We expected Vivo V5 Plus to come with the new Android Nougat as Marshmallow is a bit old now.
Vivo V5 Plus Performance
The Vivo V5 Plus smartphone with Snapdragon 625 processor runs well despite Vivo’s heavy Android skin. Multitasking on the phone is easy and we didn’t face any problems even playing animated games. The fingerprint sensor detects fingers very quickly and apart from unlocking the phone, you can also lock the app with this sensor. Talking about benchmarks, Vivo V5 Plus scored well. The phone doesn’t heat up even when doing serious tasks like recording 4K videos and playing games. The upper part is a little hot but not very much.
The processor comes with the ability to play 4K videos and play other media files smoothly on the phone. The phone has a ‘Smart Split’ mode that lets you view messages from Facebook, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger without leaving the video player. This mode also works with MX Player, YouTube and Google Play Movies. The mono speaker on the Vivo V5 Plus isn’t bad for media and is quite loud, but it’s not as good as the stereo speaker. If you’ve connected wired earphones, you can toggle the inbuilt DAC on or off using the Hi-Fi icon in the Music and Video Player apps. If you look at the headsets that come with Vivo V5 Plus, Apple’s influence is clearly visible on them because they look exactly like Apple’s headsets. However, the audio quality is not good at all.
The front camera of the phone is the most special part of this phone and now we will talk about it. Vivo V5 Plus has a 20-megapixel sensor with aperture F/2.0 and an additional 8-megapixel sensor for depth. The latter sensor is used to generate the polka effect in the camera app by separating you from the background. You can adjust the aperture according to the depth-of-field effect. The effect is quite good and the 20-megapixel camera produces selfies with good detailing even in low light. Apart from this you also get other modes like Auto HDR and Face Beauty and fill light helps when it is dark.
The rear camera of V5 was very weak but the company has removed this problem in Vivo V5 Plus. The 16-megapixel sensor produces macro and landscape shots with plenty of detail. However, we did have some issues with white balance but the app mostly gets it right. Even in low light, the performance wasn’t too bad and detailing is a bit low and objects appear a bit scattered when zoomed in. But overall the performance has definitely improved from the previous variant.
4K video recording is good. Like other previous Vivo phones, Night, PPT, Pro and Ultra HD modes have been provided in V5.
Vivo V5 Plus has a 3055 mAh non-removable battery which easily lasts for a whole day on a single charge. In our HD video loop test, we were able to run the phone smoothly for 10 hours and 53 minutes, which cannot be called bad. Fast charging support is also provided with Vivo’s ‘dual-charging engine’ technology, in which two microchips are provided for more current. With this, we could charge the device up to 43 percent in just half an hour.
our decision
Chinese smartphone manufacturers have set the trend of offering products with strong specifications at very affordable prices. And perhaps Vivo is also doing the same now. The V5 Plus is a great smartphone because it dares to break convention. However, we don’t think this phone performs as well as its premium price tag, especially when you can get the same features for much less.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 is probably not the best example because Xiaomi sells it online and thus gets rid of distributors, sub-distributors, retailers etc. which reduces the price. But even with all this, we could not figure out why the Vivo V5 Plus is priced so high. Despite being premium, the V5 Plus lacks features like USB Type-C, NFC, Wi-Fi AC, expandable storage and FM radio. FM radio is still liked by many people in India. Apart from this, if this phone had been given a better chip like OnePlus 3T, then it could have been better.
Along with this, there are some shortcomings in the software also. At the price at which Vivo and similar brands are offering the phone, its upgraded variant with Android Nougat can be introduced soon. If software updates are important to you, the OnePlus 3T would be a better option for spending a little more money. It may not have a fancy dual-camera setup like the Vivo V5 Plus, but it can take good selfies and in many cases it performs better than the V5 Plus.
The Vivo V5 Plus smartphone could have been a strong phone in the V-series if it had been priced around Rs 20,000. However, at Rs 27,980, it is an expensive phone as there are phones like OnePlus 3T and Honor 8 (Review) available in this price range. But if you are just fond of taking good selfies then the Oppo F1s (review) or Vivo V5 (Review) perform better at a lower price.