The competition in the front-camera on a smartphone has become the main focus of Chinese manufacturers and vivo doesn’t like to be left out. And dual cameras will become the trend this year, but vivo’s strategy is to improve the photos of the one handling the phone, the selling point is to become the perfect selfie and blur the background
By integrating another camera in the front that turns the background of the subject blurred then your selfie shot becomes a perfect selfie. Let’s find out in our vivo V5 Plus Review.
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Introduction
vivo V5 Plus is a midrange device but it has the presentation of a premium device including the price tag. The winning feature of the smartphone is the “bokeh” shots out of the dual-front camera and also the generally huge storage of 64G plus the 4G RAM.
Officially launched on January 23 in the Philippines, the vivo V5 Plus is now available in stores in the Philippines.
vivo V5 Plus specs
5.5-inch full HD IPS LCD, 1920 x 1080 pixels
2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5
2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core CPU
Adreno 506
4GB + 64GB ROM & RAM
microSD support up to 256G
16-megapixel f/2.0 autofocus rear camera w/ LED flash
20MP f/2.0 + 8MP front-facing camera
Dual nano SIM, 4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0
GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Fingerprint scanner
AK4376 Hi-Fi chip
USB OTG
3,160mAh non-removable battery, fast charging
Android 6.0 Marshmallow w/ Funtouch OS 3.0
152.58 x 74.00 x 7.26 mm
158.6 g
Unboxing vivo V5 Plus
Like we initially mentioned, the V5 Plus has premium looks to it including the packaging. Inside the well-crafted square box are accessories that are packaged in smaller boxes. In the first small box are the cables, wall charger, and headphones. In the slightly bigger box are the SIM ejector tool, a free transparent jelly case, and a free screen protector.
Design & Build
Solid and sleek. This is what the vivo V5 Plus is all about. The body is made up of all-metal material that curves towards the edges. What’s interesting with V5 Plus is that they were able to install a 5.5-inch display on a 5.2-inch body. So when you hold the device, it doesn’t feel huge and it quite slim at only 7.26mm.
All ports are installed at the bottom part of the device. This includes the 3.5mm audio jack, the microUSB port as well as the speaker grill.
The power button and volume control are on the right side while on the opposite is the SIM tray.
The antenna lines were kept minimal on the outer endge of the device.
On the front of the device, at the bottom part is the home button which is used as the fingerprint scanner as well. There are two capacitive buttons that are backlighted.
Up top are the loudspeaker, the dual cameras, and the proximity sensor.
The vivo v5 Plus has a thin bezel. You won’t notice it until you closely examine it.
Display and UI
The V5 Plus has a 5.5-inch full HD IPS LCD, 1920 x 1080 pixels. And you get a bright and crisp display out of the device. No viewing angle issue, only gorgeous colors right there.
If you read our vivo V5 Review, the V5 Plus has the same UI and skin. There is no app drawer, therefore you are responsible for grouping your favorite apps. Pre-installed Google Apps are organized in a folder and a few of the vivo homegrown apps.
Battery
There is a slightly bumped up battery on the V5 Plus. A 3,160mAh non-removable battery with fast charging feature. Charging time using the owner-supplied wall charger takes only more than an hour. Third party quick charger like the Tronsmart also do fast charging. Generally, battery life that lasts for about eight (8) hours of casual use.
Camera
The main subject of thisvivo V5 Plus Review is the camera. Let’s talk about the dual-front camera first. In one touch from the menu, you can enable the bokeh effect and it blurs the background. Here’s one sample that shows the bokeh effect.
On selfie shots, the dual camera setup works like magic! Just turn on the bokeh feature and boom! But how about if there are two of you in the picture? Here’s the result.
The other person in the frame gets defocused. You better turn off the bokeh to and enable the Face Beauty feature to get this kind of effect.
Now, the rear camera should not be left out. It is the main camera so when a perfect shot is done, you get a really beautiful photo. This one is the best example I can share:
Performance
To talk about performance, let us talk about what is powering up the V5 Plus, the RAM and storage as well. It has 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core CPU, Adreno 506, 4GB + 64GB ROM & RAM, microSD support up to 256G.
To clarify things, the only model that is available in the Philippines is the 4G+64G. There is no hybrid SIM tray, therefore no microSD support is present.
The 64G is very capable and can store a lot of your media files for sure. It uses dual nano SIM.
Overall, the performance of the vivo V5 Plus is outstanding. There were no lags when apps are run at the same time. The occasional crashing of the Facebook app was traced to the trick done by FB itself.
Voice calls are clear and crisp. No heating issues observed. No crashing apps. We did not experience freezing or sudden stoppage of any of the apps we installed.
Verdict
The v5 Plus is a very abled device. It can deliver your productivity needs. I record few of unboxing videos with it. I took a lot of photos and was satisfied with the results. On low a light both the front and rear camera struggles to focus, but otherwise, it delivers crisp and clear images.
The only one that we complain about it the pricing. We’ve seen a similarly configured device like the Zenfone 3, but its retail price was still pegged at P18,995, to think that it is sandwiched by glass. The v5 Plus has a metal body, no microSD support and still use microSD slot. Currently priced at P19,990. Steep.
Also, the bokeh effect and the dual camera setup would have great if installed in the back. It would have been better if the second camera takes a wider shot and the main camera takes the standard shot. We are talking about the setup done by LG in the G5.
The fingerprint scanner works like charm. It is very responsive and accurate.
Vivo V5 Plus supports reverse charging. So in case we need to charge other devices we can do that using a USB OTG with V5 Plus.