Vivo V5 Plus Review: Another World of Selfies - Hungry Geeks

Nowadays, it is proven that dual-camera setups are the future for smartphones. There are so many rear dual-camera phones made by so many manufacturers but never have they ventured to put that setup in front of the smartphone. Until now. This is our review of the Vivo V5 Plus — a smartphone that has two camera lens in front. And I’m just going to say right at the top that this one of the best selfie phones out there. First, here are the specs:

2.0 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor
4GB of RAM
Adreno 506 GPU
5.5-inch Full HD display; 1920×1080 resolution, 2.5D curved glass, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Protection
64GB of storage
16-megapixel rear camera, f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus, LED flash
20-megapixel front camera with 8-megapixel secondary camera, f/2.0 aperture, Sony IMX376 sensor
4G, LTE
Dual SIM
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
Fingerprint scanner
3160mAh battery with fast charging
Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Body and Design

Alright, right out of the box and looking at the phone itself, I know what you’re thinking — It’s similar to a certain popular phone out there (ehem, Apple). At the back, you’ll see the same antenna band and position of the rear camera, the only difference that you’ll notice is the logo. At the side, you’ll get the volume rocker and lock button on one side and the sim tray on the other. As for the sim tray, it can only accommodate 2 sim cards and not an SD card for expandable storage. At the bottom you’ll also get an Apple-esque design with the headset jack, microphone, micro USB port and the speaker. For the front you’ll be greeted with the 5.5-inch display full HD screen toughened by a 2.5D Gorilla Glass 5, call receiver, sensors, LED notification lights, the capacitive home button and 2 camera lenses which we’ll talk about later.

I’m not saying that making the design similar to Apple is a negative one as Apple really makes their design functional and utilitarian. It’s subjective and we want you to be the judge if this is a good thing or not.

Display

The Vivo V5 Plus features a 5.5-inch display with full HD resolution at 401 pixels per inch. The bezels are noticeable but stunning to look at. It has accurate colors and close to deep blacks that looks nice when viewing video content. The viewing angles are sufficient and the brightness output enables you to use the smartphone while the sun is shining directly to your screen.

As for the sound quality, it’s not too good but it gets the job done. Having only one speaker and the fact that it’s a bottom-firing one hints you that there’s really nothing special about this one. The sound is clear enough even your playing music at the highest volume level.

User Experience

With Android Marshmallow and FunTouch OS 3.0, the Vivo V5 Plus delivers an experience similar to the iPhones iOS 8 and 9. From the home screen containing familiar icons to the control center pane when you swipe from the bottom, it all looks similar. But it’s not a bad thing as the icons are neatly organized, the look and feel of the whole operating system gives off a premium vibe and the way you use the phone is so familiar especially when you’ve experienced iOS before.

I also liked that Vivo didn’t include too many bloatware applications in their operating system. You’ll only see some apps that you won’t need like the UC Browser and WPS Office which you can immediately uninstall. With having less bloatware compared to other smartphone manufacturers, it also gave us a lot of storage even though you won’t be able to insert an SD card for expanding — 50.43GB to be exact.

Performance

Inside the Vivo V5 Plus is a 2.0Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM and the Andreno 506 GPU to handle the graphics. With these specs and the numbers from the benchmark app, you’ll know that this smartphone breezes through your usual needs like basic web browsing and app usage. Gaming is no problem especially when you’re using apps that are not too graphic-hungry. Multitasking is smooth and with 4GB of RAM, you won’t to worry about apps refreshing constantly when switching.

It also has a 3160 mAh battery with fast charging features that will easily get you through the day with light to medium usage. Rest assured that you’ll go through the whole day without charging when you’re just using the phone for calls, text and a little bit of browsing. But if you happen to need a power source, the V5 Plus features fast charging so a little bit of charging will have a significant addition to your battery.

Camera

The camera is the main selling point of the Vivo V5 Plus. The rear camera features 16-megapixel shooter with an f/2.0 aperture. It may not be the best spec-ed rear camera out there but I can easily say that it is one of the best shooters compared to its competitions. The auto-focus is snappy and the colors that it gives off is vibrant and sharp that you’ll be confident enough to share it to your Instagram followers. There are some in-camera features that you can use, although less than the competitors. But you’ll be satisfied enough with the core process that you’ll not want to use it.

But unlike any other dual camera phones out there, the main highlight is located in front of the phone. The dual front camera set up features an 8 megapixel and 20 megapixel lenses that works together. The lesser sensor creates the bokeh effect while the main sensor does the heavy lifting. They way this camera works is similar to the iPhone 7’s portrait mode. To use the effect, all you is to tap on the bokeh button and slide to adjust the depth of field to your liking. The bokeh effect gets the job done although sometimes you it may not be accurate, especially when it detects multiple face on different distances.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the Vivo V5 Plus does everything smoothly while it takes selfies to a whole new level. We now have entered the time wherein rear dual-camera setups are a thing but this smartphone thought outside the box and created its own market. If you’re looking for a good selfie phone, if not THE best selfie phone, the Vivo V5 Plus will surely take the cake as it does its primary job perfectly: taking good selfies and being an overall fast smartphone.