Vivo V5 smartphone: Powerful selfie camera, balanced performance (Tech Review)

The selfie craze is not going to die down any time soon and keeping this in mind, devices that pack bigger front shooters are now arriving in India every month. Chinese smartphone maker Vivo recently brought the Vivo V5 -- sporting a massive 20MP front camera -- to the country.

Priced at Rs 17,980, Vivo V5 has raised the bar for rivals in the same price band like Gionee (S6s with 8MP front camera) and Oppo (F1s with 16MP front shooter) when it comes to taking selfies.

Here is what works for the device.

With a slim frame, Corning Gorilla 2.5D curved glass and a smooth back finish, the uni-body designed V5 looks elegant in hand.

The 20MP front camera worked better than Gionee S6s and Oppo F1s, giving selfies with great detail. Even when you zoom in, you will clearly see the details captured by the device.

The "Moonlight Glow" feature gives a natural glow to the face without straining eyes and brightens up the selfie irrespective of the lighting conditions.

With the "Facebeauty 6.0" feature turned on, the camera produced sharp faces, well-adjusted colour saturation with proper contrast and brightness.

The 13MP rear camera is good, fast and captures rich colours. Auto-focus works well most of the time but struggles while capturing good images in low-light conditions.

The 64-bit octa-core processor with 4GB RAM help with smooth multi-tasking, offering a zero lag computing performance. There is hardly anything that won't run with ease on this device.

The "Funtouch OS 2.6" based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow is bright, colourful and easy to navigate.

The 5.5-inch HD resolution offers good gaming and movie-watching experience. The device works well under direct sunlight although you need to set the brightness levels to above 70 per cent.

The finger-print scanner integrated on the front button works brilliantly and unlocks the device within a fraction of a second.

The "Smart Screen-Split" feature allowed easy multi-tasking without having to switch back and forth every time a message popped up.

The 3,000mAh battery gave us approximately 12-15 hours of back-up with calling, social media applications, music playback, web browsing and light gaming.

What does not work?

The design is not new or refreshing. Cover the Vivo logo at the back and V5 looks like an iPhone 6.

Devices priced under 10k now carry a full-HD resolution and competing in this segment, V5 sporting HD resolution disappoints in display performance.

We were not impressed by the slow-motion videos recorded on the device.

Conclusion: If you are a selfie lover and want to impress friends on social media platforms like Instagram or Snapchat, Vivo V5 is a must-have device for you. Overall, the device stays ahead of its rivals when it comes to front camera performance. Have a happy selfie moment!

(Anuj Sharma can be contacted at anuj.s@ians.in <mailto:anuj.s@ians.in>)

--IANS

anuj/na/vm/ky/sac