Vivo India on Thursday launched their new addition to the popular V5 series- the new V5S. Just like the V5 and V5 Plus, this new smartphone is also a selfie focused one and that is the biggest USP of the V5s. The device is priced at Rs. 18,999 in India and is available in crown gold and matte black colors. Now we are reviewing the new Vivo V5S smartphone for our readers. Read now: Vivo V5S Review.
Vivo V5s Specifications
- Operating System: Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Funtouch OS 3.0
- Display: 13.97cm (5.5-inch) HD | 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass
- Processor: 1.5GHz octa-core 64-bit MediaTek MT6750 | Mali T860 GPU
- RAM: 4GB
- Internal Storage: 64GB; expandable up to 256GB with microSD card
- Front Camera: 20MP with LED flash| Sony IMX376 sensor | f/2.0 aperture
- Rear Camera: 13MP with PDAF | f/2.2 aperture
- Battery: 3000mAh
Vivo V5S Review:
[taq_review]
Design & Build Quality
The new Vivo V5S has an interesting design. It has a combined appearance of V5 and V5 Plus. The front of the device looks like V5 and the backside looks like the V5 Plus. We can notice a mixed design of many smartphones in the V5s. It comes with a metal unibody and it is very thin as compared to some other models in the same price range. It has two different color variants- crown gold and matte black. Both of them are really good and suits your fashion.
In the top front, it has a 20-Megapixel front camera, speaker grille, moonlight flash and a sensor. It is almost like The front appearance of the V5s is exactly same as in the V5. There is nothing new about the front appearance of the V5s. In the front down, it has navigation buttons and a fingerprint scanner in the home button. So it acts as both home button and fingerprint scanner. On the bottom, it has a speaker at the right side, micro-USB charging port at the middle and a headphone port at the left.
In the back side, it looks exactly like the Vivo V5 Plus. At the top left corner of the back side, it has a 13-megapixel main camera – just like the V5. There is a U-type network antenna at the top- just like the iPhone 7 series. If you remove the Vivo branding from the back panel, it would look exactly like the iPhone 7. Vivo is very aggressive in copying the iPhone stuff including some UI elements, design etc. But the brand is still claiming that they have a great research team for the perfection of their design and related things.
Talking about the build quality, the new V5s has a metal body at the back side and it is well polished and elegantly equipped. But it is not powerful enough to take the shocks, it is very thin. Just like the V5, the front panel doesn’t come with a metal body. They are minimizing the protection of the device for keeping the pricing under 19,000. But this device is really compact and easy to hold. With the package, Vivo offers a complimentary TPU case cover for the device. So it does make the device more easy to hold. So there is nothing great or worst about the build quality of the device, it is just average.
Software
The new Vivo V5S runs on the Funtouch OS 3.0 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system. The software part is cool as it feels very smooth and faster. The multi-tasking capabilities and the added multi-screen splitting features are really awesome. The user interface comes with features like Smart Split multi-tasking which as the name suggests allows for split-screen multitasking on supported apps. There are no lag or performance issues in the device. At the same time, it has some small bugs as well. Most importantly it takes too long to switch off or reboot the device.
You can see some iOS-like elements in the Funtouch UI. Actually, this is designed for the people who are looking for an iPhone-like experience for a low budget. The Funtouch 3.0 looks exactly like the iOS 10, even some of the icons and wallpapers are very similar to the iOS 10. There is no doubt, anyone can say that it is a copy of iPhone. The Funtouch 3.0 comes with some useful tools like low power consumption mode, s-capture, eye-protection mode and a wide variety of themes, wallpapers etc. The built-in iTheme app lets you customize your phone with some amazing features. Even though it is same as the iOS, it is still very interesting.
Hardware & features
The new Vivo V5s offers the same specifications of the V5. The V5 phone comes with a 5.5-inch 720p display and is powered by a 1.8GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6750 processor clubbed with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal memory which is further expandable by up to 256GB via microSD card. In fact, the only difference from the hardware of V5 is the increased storage space. The V5s sports a 64GB of internal storage and the V5 features a 32GB storage only.
The Vivo V5S has a hybrid SIM slot which can be used as SIM+SIM or SIM + microSD slots. The device has 4G VoLTE capabilities and the voice calling quality is pretty good. The processor is not that great and it is too old. But still, it gives a seamless experience for that price. Th 4GB RAM is good enough to carry out the multi-tasking functions. It has a 5.5 inch 720 x 1280 pixels IPS display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass on top. The display is not very good as it is not a full-HD display. In this area, Vivo is disappointing the users. They could have packed it with a much better display for this price. At the same time, other features including the Hi-Fi music are really good.
Performance
There is nothing great or bad about the performance of V5s. We used it for a week and it was a really good experience. The Vivo V5S delivers a really good performance without any other issues. The multitasking is smoother and lag-free. App opening time is really short in the V5s, that’s really great. At the same time, this phone is not for hard-core mobile gamers. You need to adjust the graphics settings of high-end games to play smoothly on this device. At the same time, you can play normal games without any issues.
The best thing about the device is that it doesn’t heat up much. We have tried playing some heavy games, watched some movies and used benchmarking apps etc. But still, the phone rarely heats up. That is one of the good quality of Vivo as compared to some other Chinese phones. Other features such as call quality, audio quality etc. are really adorable. The Hi-Fi audio system is much better than the Dolby Atmos and gives a premium music listening experience. The Vivo V5S is fitted with an AK4376 audio chip, which can be activated by tapping on the Hi-Fi icon in the music player. The call quality is really good and there are no other issues. So Vivo satisfies their taglines – Camera & Music.
Vivo V5S Review benchmark results of the device:
AnTuTu:
Geekbench 4:
Camera
Here comes the best part of the Vivo V5S review. The new Vivo V5S is a selfie focused device. It has an incredible 20-megapixel front camera with moonlight flash for mind-blowing selfies. But the camera is much better than the predecessors and there are some easily noticeable improvements in the V5s. Vivo has improved the color reproduction, camera speed and the quality of the camera modes. Anyway, it is a great upgrade from the over-hyped milk white selfie camera. It does click some really good selfies with the 20-megapixel front camera.
“No matter what time of day, with V5s’ Front Moonlight Glow, your beauty will shine through.”
The device has a 13-megapixel PDAF rear camera with flash. The camera can be activated in as little as 0.7 seconds which is really true, thanks to its 4GB RAM. Due to PDAF technology, the camera of this device is able to autofocus on the objects faster than the smartphone cameras without PDAF technology. The pictures captured by the camera are bright with good detailing and there is no shutter lag. The camera app comes with different shooting modes such as Face Beauty, Panorama, HDR, Night, Motion Track, Filter, Watermark and more.
Vivo V5S Review camera samples: Please click on the thumbnails to see the full picture.
Battery
The new Vivo V5S comes with 3,000mAh battery. But surprisingly, our review unit has a 3,900mAh battery. So the review unit of the V5s has a 3,900mAh battery and it gives a really good battery backup. Sadly, the device doesn’t have a fast charging support, so it will take around 2 hours to completely charge the phone from 10% to 100%. At the same time, it gives a really good battery backup. Another advantage in the V5s is that the battery part of the device is not heating up while charging.
The Funtouch UI has so many tools for managing the battery of the device. It has a wonderful low power consumption mode which helps you to get more battery backup by cutting off unnecessary background activities and the screen brightness. It disables Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth, GPS and touch feedback for the optimum battery backup. If you need even more battery backup, you can use the super saving mode which enables a simple interface and blocks all other functionalities except call and SMS.
Final thoughts
The V5s is a good upgrade from the Vivo V5. At the same time the performance, design etc. are quite similar to the predecessor. The main change in the V5s is the upgraded storage space and the design changes. It is a hybrid design of the V5 and V5 Plus. If you are looking for the best selfie camera under a budget of Rs. 20,000, the new V5s is for you. It has the best selfie camera, a good design, and a good battery backup. The device costs Rs. 18,990 in India and you will get a complimentary Saavn Pro subscription for 3 months with the device. So, if your priorities are camera and music, the new Vivo V5S is the best choice under Rs. 20,000.
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