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Selfie focussed smartphone is one of the popular segment on which Vivo is concentrating with the launch of their new smartphones. They already have devices such as Vivo V5, Vivo V5 Plus and Vivo V5s. The latest entrant in this category is Vivo V7+ which is once again a selfie-focused smartphone with 24 MP front shooter with Selfie flash and also offers a Full View display with 18:9 aspect ratio. We have tested Vivo V7+ for more than two weeks as our primary device and this review is based on our experience during that period.
If you remember, Vivo V5 Plus offers a dual front selfie camera of 20 MP + 8 MP which runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, but with Vivo V7+ the company is once again relying on a single front camera with more megapixels (24 MP), powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 and a FullView Display at lower price compared to Vivo V5 Plus.
Vivo V7+ specifications
- Display: 6.0-inch HD+ IPS Full View 18:9 capacitive touchscreen with 1440 x 720 pixels resolution and 268.8 PPI pixel density
- CPU: 1.8 GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Processor
- GPU: Adreno 506
- RAM: 4 GB
- Storage: 64 GB internal, expandable storage support via MicroSD card up to 256 GB
- Misc: Dual SIM (nano+nano) dual-standby (4G+4G), Fingerprint sensor, 3.5mm audio jack, AK4376A Hifi audio chip, Dedicated MicroSD Card Slot
- OS: Android 7.1 (Nougat) Funtouch 3.2 operating system
- Camera: 16MP primary camera, f/2.0, with face beauty, group selfie, bokeh mode, liveon, watermark, touch capture, voice capture, palm capture, timer, mirrored selfie, videos and 24 MP front shooter camera
- Dimensions:156 x 8.0 x 76 mm
- Weight: 159 gm
- Connectivity : 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS + GLONASS, USB OTG
- Battery: 3225 mAh, No fast charging
Design and Build Quality
In terms of design & build quality, Vivo V7+ looks premium, well built and slim. The fingerprint sensor is placed on the rear panel thanks to the new 18:9 FullView display, instead of being embedded in the front Home button. The antenna lines are at top & bottom of the rear panel, integrated seamlessly. There is a slight bump with the main rear camera placement. The Vivo branding is visible below the fingerprint sensor. The SIM card tray (Hybrid SIM slot) is on one side, while the power & Volume rocker buttons are placed on the other side. Thanks to the new 18:9 FullView display, there are narrow bezels at top & bottom, while negligible bezels at both sides. Also, now the 6.0-inch display is almost same size as that of conventional 5.5-inch display smartphones and it doesn’t feel big or heavy (159 grams), to hold or carry in spite of 6.0-inch display. There is no USB type C port but only the conventional microUSB port at the bottom along with speaker grills and 3.5mm audio jack.
Thanks to the new 18:9 FullView display, there are narrow bezels at top & bottom, while negligible bezels at both sides. Also, now the 6.0-inch display is almost same size as that of conventional 5.5-inch display smartphones and it doesn’t feel big or heavy (159 grams), to hold or carry in spite of 6.0-inch display. It uses the on-screen navigation buttons and there is no home button. There is no USB type C port but only the conventional microUSB port at the bottom along with speaker grills and 3.5mm audio jack.
Check out some of the device shots below to understand better. Click on the images for full resolution images.
Display, Performance, Gaming and Benchmarks
The phone sports a 6.0-inch HD+ IPS Full View 18:9 capacitive touchscreen with 1440 x 720 pixels resolution having a pixel density of 268.8 PPI. This is basically an HD display with different aspect ratio hence a different resolution of1440 x 720 pixels. Thanks to the 18:9 Display with 78.4% screen-to-body ratio, it manages to pack more screen (6.0 inch) with the same size of the smartphone as that of 5.5 inch. The display looks good with good colour reproduction and brightness, but it’s not a Full HD or Full HD+ display though it looks good even under sunlight in the outdoor environment with good viewing angles.
Vivo V5 is powered by 1.8 GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Processor with 4 GB of RAM.Snapdragon 450 is one of the high-end SOC chip by Qualcomm under Snapdragon 4XX category that powers many entry-level smartphones. Surprisingly, the performance was smooth under normal day to day usage with apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp etc., yet we can still feel a certain amount of lag while opening some apps. With a price point of Rs. 21,990 we though expected a processor from Snapdragon 6XX instead of Snapdragon 450.
It runs well under daily usage with casual gaming, browsing, music etc. without any issues including some graphics intensive games under default conditions, but if you observe closely you can clearly see some random frame drops or some random lag while playing Asphalt 8, Nova 3 etc. under high-quality settings. The colour reproduction and graphics is good, but not as good as full HD device.
It comes with 64 GB of internal storage out of which ~52 GB is available to end user. It supports USB OTG feature but is disabled by default. You can enable USB OTG from settings. There is a dedicated MicroSD card slot which you can use, in addition to two nano SIM cards.
The call quality during voice calls was pretty clear without any issues. The dialer app also gives you an option to record calls without installing any additional app or rooting the device. The sound from speakers is decent enough, but not loud.
The AnTuTu benchmark score for Vivo V7+ comes out to be about 58,690+ which is a considerable improvement if you look at Vivo V5 and is comparable to the Antutu score we got Vivo V5 Plus, yet is low for a device priced ~Rs. 22,000 and reflects in performance in of the device under conditions especially during gaming. Even a year old device such as LeEco Le 2 (Read Review)offer better performance and scored 80,000+ in Antutu Benchmarks, yet priced much lower.
Camera
The phone comes with a 16 MP main rear camera with OmniVision OV16880 sensor with LED Flash, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF and 24MP front-shooter with Moonlight Flash, f/2.0 aperture & LED flash. Vivo is again targeting the selfie-obsessed younger generation by offering a 24 MP front camera along with selfie flash, for selfies & video calls. AT the moment, we are yet to see another smartphone with 24 MP front shooter.
The 16 MP main rear camera produced great images under normal lighting conditions with good colour and details. It even managed to suppress the noise to a good extent while shooting in low light or dark conditions. Thanks to the portrait mode, Vivo V7+ produced good macro and landscape shots with good details. The portrait mode worked great, but it still needs improvement in terms of customisation. The Portrait mode is available even for the front camera which makes it a great tool while shooting selfies.
Vivo V7+ camera app comes with some great modes with Face beauty 7.0 and even a professional mode. Other modes that camera features are Night Mode, Panorama mode, Motion tracking mode, Fast mode, HDR mode, Ultra HD mode, PPT mode and Slow Motion mode. It offers more features such as touch capture, Voice shutter, gender detection and much more. There is a feature called “Face Beauty for video calls” for apps like Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook messenger etc.
The front camera setup comes with same 24 MP front shooter with f/2.0 aperture along with Moonlight Flash for selfies. Vivo V7+ did shot great selfies which are much better than what we had shot with Vivo V5 Plus or Vivo V5s. The portrait mode produced some great selfies with Bokeh effect under normal lighting conditions, though it doesn’t let you adjust the aperture or manage the depth of field as it was possible with Vivo V5 Plus. Under dark conditions, the moonlight flash let you click good enough selfies which are better than any other camera without a flash.
Camera samples
Check out the images below taken under different light conditions and different modes. Click on the images for full resolution images on Flickr.
Front Selfie Camera
Main Rear Camera
Fingerprint Sensor
The fingerprint sensor is placed on the rear panel. It works great and unlocks device pretty fast every time irrespective of how you put your finger on the sensor. You can add up to five fingers which can be used to unlock the phone and to unlock private files that can be locked. In terms of accuracy and speed, we found Vivo V7+ much better than any other Vivo device that we have tested before. Also, you can use the fingerprint for two functions i.e.
- Unlock the Phone
- Privacy and App encryption i.e. you can lock any of the app or feature on the phone and it will need your fingerprint to get unlocked or get accessed.
Privacy and App encryption is a good addition to fingerprint sensor features, yet we still would like features such as opening an App or dialling a contact or any other custom function with individual fingerprints. Almost more than a year old Coolpad Note 3 lite fingerprint sensor comes with these features which makes fingerprints much more useful than just unlocking your phone.
Face Unlock
Vivo V7+ comes with Face Unlock feature. Our original review unit (before the official launch) didn’t have this feature, but an OTA update recently pushed the Face Unlock feature. We tested the face unlock feature and it is surprisingly fast & accurate. Just set it up and it works everytime you use it, irrespective of your changed appearance or beard or while you are sleepy. It, in fact, makes the fingerprint sensor unlock the phone feature redundant. Yet as we know it is not too secure, as photographs of you may fool it sometimes. We tried with some of our own photographs, but it didn’t get fooled. At least for me, phone remained locked in spite of using some of the photos of myself. For you, that may not be the case.
Battery
The battery performance of Vivo V7+ is just average and it lasts a full day with average to moderate usage. During our review, we used dual SIMs with a 4G VOLTE Jio SIM for data and another SIM for voice calls. Our average use includes some Voice calls, browsing Twitter, Facebook, messaging apps such as Whatsapp, Telegram & other social sites. Vivo V7+ is backed by 3225 mAh embedded battery which may not last long once you starting shooting many selfies with flash.
Operating System and UI
Once again, Vivo smartphones are powered by its Funtouch OS which imitates APple iOS. Vivo V7+ runs on Funtouch OS 3.2 based on Android 7.1 Nougat based operating system. OUr experience with Funtouch OS remains same as we have often reported in Vivo reviews earlier. It comes with different settings UI and is difficult to access many conventional settings. The feature toggles can be accessed by swiping from the bottom screen while the notifications can be accessed by swiping from the top. There is no app drawer and it uses a launcher similar to iOS. You can get access to widgets on-screen using the left button which usually is the recent key in other smartphones.
It comes with different settings UI and is difficult to access many conventional settings. The feature toggles can be accessed by swiping from the bottom screen while the notifications can be accessed by swiping from the top. There is no app drawer and it uses a launcher similar to iOS.
Some of the useful features that Vivo offers include the Smart Motion which includes “Smart Wake (Gestures), Air Operation, Smart Turn on/off screen, Smart call, tilt to zoom picture etc. It also comes with a one-hand mode if you need. You can clone apps to run more than one account on different apps. It also comes with support for Smart Split using which you can simultaneously use two apps on the screen. It also comes with bloatware such as UC browser, Saavn, WPS Office etc., yet the number of bloatware is considerably less.
Conclusion
Vivo V7+ is a great phone if shooting great selfies each day and having a big display, is your primary objective for buying the smartphone. The design and build quality of the smartphone is premium, comes with a good main rear camera & great selfie camera. But when it comes to performance, Snapdragon 450 falls behind other smartphones with the same pricing that are powered by better processors. Also the pricing ~Rs. 22,000 puts it into direct competition with some popular smartphones such as OnePlus 3 that offer a flagship performance with a good camera.
