Vivo V1 Max – great camera and sturdy build [Review]
Vivo has had a good quarter sales figure in India this year. Vivo is enjoying a strong presence in the off-line retail store and in non-metro cities. Vivo has mobiles across all segment. The Vivo V1 max is a mid range mobile. I have been using this mobile for over a month now and here are my thoughts.
Vivo V1 Max
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CPU:
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RAM:
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Storage:
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Display:
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Camera:
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OS:
An excellent camera, decent performance and sturdy build makes the Vivo V1 max an excellent buy.
Specs
General
Price | Rs 20000 |
Announced | 01 August, 2015 |
Status | Available |
Display
Display Type <strong>Display Technology => </strong> A number of display technologies and types used in mobile phones => TFT (Thin Film Transistor), IPS (In-Place Switching), OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), Super AMOLED (an even advanced version of AMOLED), Resistive Touchscreen (Resistive touchscreens contain two layer of conductive material with a very small gap between them which acts as a resistance), Capacitive Touchsceen (Capacitive touchscreen technology consists of a layer of glass coated with a transparent conductor) | IPS LCD capacitive |
Size | 5.5 inches |
Resolution | 720 x 1280 pixels |
Pixel Density <strong>Pixel Density (PPI)</strong> is refers to the concentration of pixels on a particular display, measured in pixels per inch (ppi). Pixel density is calculated by dividing the diagonal pixel resolution of a display by its diagonal size, higher pixel density better display quality. | ~267 ppi |
Display Protection <strong>Display Protection => </strong> Gorilla Glass is a special alkali-aluminosilicate glass shield with exceptional damage resistance that helps protect mobile displays from scratches, drops, and bumps of everyday use, It is always better to go for a smartphone with Gorilla Glass for that added protection and peace of mind. | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
Hardware
Chipset <strong>Chipset</strong> is a group of integrated circuits designed to perform one or a more dedicated functions, often with real time computing constraints, Popular smartphones are equipped with more advanced embedded chipsets that can do many different tasks depending on their programming. | Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 |
CPU <strong>CPU</strong> (Central Processing Unit) mostly known as processors, CPU processes instructions in order to carry out certain functions that make your device operate properly. Processors are often described as the brain of computers, smartphones and tablets, Smartphones and tablets rely on processors to carry out their every task, Processors are an incredibly important factor in selecting any type of computing device, including your smartphone. | Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 & quad-core 1.0 GHz Cortex-A53 |
GPU <strong>GPU</strong> (Graphics Processing Unit) is a single-chip processor designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display, This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion. | Adreno 405 |
RAM (Memory) <strong>RAM</strong> (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes that allows information to be stored and accessed quickly from random locations. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computer systems, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices. | 2 GB |
Internal Storage <strong>Internal Storage</strong> is a data storage space (flash memory) mostly used in smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices where operating system, apps, music, photos, videos, files and other user data Is stored. | 16 GB |
Card Slot <strong>Memory Card Slot</strong> is a special slot for inserting a memory card. Memory cards allow you to expand the phone's built-in memory, A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players, digital cameras. | microSD upto 128 GB |
Battery
Battery Type <strong>Battery Type => </strong> Cell phones run on various kinds of batteries depending on the manufacturer, phone size or shape and features. There are basically four types of cell phone batteries => Lithium Polymer, Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium. | Li-Poly (Lithium Polymer) |
Capacity <strong>Battery Capacity</strong> is a measure (typically in Amp-hr) of the charge stored by the battery, and is determined by the mass of active material contained in the battery. The battery capacity represents the maximum amount of energy that can be extracted from the battery under certain conditions. | 2720 |
Fast Charging | No |
Camera
Primary <strong>Camera</strong> is able to capture photographs and usually videos, The most important characteristics of a camera are the resolution (measured in megapixels), lens focus type (fixed or automatic), higher megapixel cameras are known to capture higher quality photos, but not always a good measurement of the photos quality. | 13 MP |
Secondary | 5 MP |
Image | 4128 x 3096 pixels |
Video | 1080p@30fps |
Flash <strong>Flash Light => </strong> There is commonly two types of flash lights are used in camera mobile phones, LED Flash (LED flash offers lower power consumption with drive circuitry that takes up very little room, LEDs can be strobed faster than any other light source), Xenon Flash (xenon flash produces an extremely intense full-spectrum white light for a very short duration) | Single LED |
Design
Type <strong>Design Type</strong> called form factor refers to a mobile phone's size, shape, and style as well as the layout and position of major components of phone. There are three major form factors seen in mobile phones => bar phones, folding phones and sliding phones. | Bar |
Dimensions | 154 x 77 x 6.8 mm |
Weight | 165 g |
Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
Colors | White |
Network
SIM <strong>SIM</strong> (Subscriber Identity Module) is a small card that contains mobile network subscriber's account information. This allows the phone using the card to attach to a mobile network. The SIM card is most commonly associated with GSM and UMTS mobile networks. Moving a SIM card from one phone to another allows a subscriber to switch mobile phones without having to contact their mobile network carrier. SIM cards can also be used by a phone to store limited amounts of data, such as phone numbers and text messages. | Micro SIM |
Dual SIM | Yes |
2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2 |
3G Network | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 |
4G Network | LTE 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / TD-LTE 2300 |
Software
Operating System <strong>OS => </strong> Every computer system run on a base software called Operating System (OS). Operating System controls all basic operations of the computer (such as smartphone, PDAs, tablet computers and other handheld devices). The Operating System allows the user to install and run third party applications (apps), apps are used to add new functionality to the device. | Android 5.0 |
User Interface <strong>UI</strong> or user interface of a device is the look and feel of the on-screen menu system. How it works, its color scheme, how it responds to button presses, all of these things are part of the user interface. | FunTouch OS |
Connectivity
Benchmarks
Reviews
Design
The Vivo V1 max has got a solid construction. When you hold the device in your hand it feels like a solid piece of gadget. The metal-like back and the chrome rims adds to its premium look. I dropped the mobile a couple of times accidentally and it has no signs of damages. The back has the 13 MP primary camera with a single LED flash. The dual speaker grills are also at the back. The bottom has the USB port and the top has the 3.5mm audio port. The right side has the metal finished volume and power buttons, which have a good tactile feedback. The left side has the dual hybrid SIM slot. The second SIM tray can either hold a nano SIM or a microSD card. The display is a 5.5 inch device, but the screen is a 720p HD screen and hence you get just 267 ppi of pixel density. The image and text are not really sharp. But the colors are nice and vivid. Overall, this sturdy device feels good to hold in the hand and use.
Hardware and Performance
The device is powered by an octa core 1.36 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor. It has 2 GB or RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. Unfortunately the microSD can expand the memory just by another 32 GB. I threw in some graphic intensive games and the device handled it smoothly. But the archaic 720p display does not impress with its graphics. This is a mid segment device and clearly behaves like one. I am happy that Vivo has chosen the 615 snapdragon processor, but additionally a full HD display would have done some justice to the processor’s capability. Also the dual speakers are not loud and clear enough. I tried using it for the conference calls, but the speakers are not loud enough.
Software User Experience
Vivo V1 max runs on Android 5.0.1 out of the box. It has a UI skin on top called the FunTouch OS. Functionally the OS is perfect, but in terms of visual finesse, it has a long way to go. It has some nice features built into it like the double tap to wake, customizable gestures, in-built screen casting, multi window. It also has the manual and service network details under the settings. The UI is fast and smooth, but in terms of user experience, it is not very friendly. The notification shade does not have the quick toggles. Swipe up on the screen reveals the toggles, which is very irritating to use. Also the multi task window has limited functionality. Simple features like screen-shot are hidden multi level beneath in the UI. It does not have many bloatwares installed and yet I feel that the Vivo must have gone with a plain simple Android experience like the Moto devices. Overall, the UI is nascent and has a long way to go.
Camera
The Vivo V1 max has 13 MP primary camera and 5 MP front facing camera. Both these camera produce decent image under daylight and low light conditions. The Camera UI is also simple and functional. I liked the camera UI for a couple of reasons. Touch anywhere and it focuses on the subject and immediately clicks a shot. Simple set of modes available in the UI are very useful. The HDR mode is good and lightens up dark or dimly exposed areas of the image. The PPT mode is useful in clicking white board sketches or scanned documents and then convert them into legible images. The fun mode is a set of instagram like filters. The best mode is the children mode, which creates some sounds to attract the attention of babies so you can click them while they are looking at you. The settings are easy to find and the UI controls are easy to use. The low light images are good; it has less noise, but bright. The colors are natural and the lens arrangement gives a good depth of field. To sum up, I am completely impressed with the camera. It is one of the best camera mobiles I have seen in this year.
Battery
The Vivo V1 mas has a non-user-replaceable 2720 mAh battery. The device lasts for over a day with single charge and with the 3G always on. The device also supports 4G, but I didn’t test its battery on 4G network in India.
Verdict
This is one of the best mid range Android mobiles you can buy in an offline market. But if you have access to online retailers, you must consider the OnePlus X, OnePlus One or even the Moto X play. But for the market segment who prefer to buy the mobile from brick and mortar shops, the Vivo V1 max is a good choice. It retails at Rs 21,500, but you can manage to get if for little less than 17k if you browse around in shops. An excellent camera, decent performance and sturdy build makes the Vivo V1 max an excellent buy.
The review was fair. But I’m only seeing the pictures of the device. There should be some screenshots of the user interface when you’re reviewing the UI section. Moreover, there are no images of the pictures taken by the camera. Please add some sample images next time you review any device.
Thanks for pointing it out. It has now been added.