Vivo has officially released their next smartphone under the tagline SelfieExpert, Vivo V5s is the third selfie-centric device of V5 series, it has a 20MP Sony IMX376 front camera with moonlight flash.
Vivo has been doing the extremely aggressive marketing and advertisements of their selfie-centric devices in India. No matter where you go if you look around you will surely see some Vivo posters and banners around you. Earlier Vivo had launched the Vivo V5 with a 20MP front camera and Vivo V5 Plus with a 20MP+8MP dual front camera, both of the devices are still a hot cake in the market, especially for those who love taking selfies.
Related Article: Full Review Vivo V7 Plus | Unboxing & Hands-on Vivo V7 Plus
Thanks to Vivo and AccordPR for sending the V5s early. I’ve been using the device since last 4-5 days and my first experience with the Vivo V5s is better than I was expecting. This is basically the combination of Vivo V5 and Vivo V5 Plus, the company has combined the beautiful design of Vivo V5 Plus and the specification of Vivo V5 together, V5s comes with the matte black colour which is making the device looks even better than Vivo V5 Plus.
Key Specifications Of Vivo V5s:
- Dual SIM; Hybrid SIM slot; VoLTE Support
- Body: Plastic unibody
- 5.5-inch (1280×720) HD display; 267ppi; 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass
- MediaTek MT6750 octa-core CPU based on Cortex A53 (clocked at 1.51GHz); Mali T860 GPU
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB internal storage, expandable up to 256GB using MicroSD
- Fast fingerprint sensor(Unlock in 0.2 seconds)
- AK4376 Hi-Fi audio chip
- 13MP rear camera; f/2.2 lens; PDAF; single LED flash; 1080p video recordings
- 20 MP Front camera with Sony IMX376, 1/2.78 sensor size; f/2.0 aperture; LED flash
- Dimension: 153.8mm x 75.5mm x 7.55mm; Weight: 154g
- No NFC and No fast charging
- 3000mAh Non-removable battery
- FuntouchOS 3.0 based on Android 6 Marshmallow
- Colour: Matte Black, Crown Gold
Unboxing the Vivo V5s:
As I have mentioned already that I have got the device earlier but I don’t think this is dedicated review unit since it has price tag mentioned on it. I am assuming that this is a normal retail unit and all accessories will be the same even if you purchase it from the store.
What’s In The Box ?:
You will get a Vivo V5s handset, 2.0A charger, earphone with mic inbuilt, transparent plastic back cover, micro-USB data cable, and a tempered glass already applied on the phone.
Vivo V5s Review | Review Of Vivo V5s
Design & Build Quality:
Apart from the beautiful matte black colour the design, the Vivo V5s is looking exactly same as the Vivo V5 Plus. I think most of the gadgets lover would love to see the devices in matte black colour variant and they can even pay some extra bucks for that. The apple has started the trend by launching the full black variants of iPhone, then OnePlus launched the matte black variant of OnePlus 3T and now Vivo, hope other brands will also follow this trend soon.
Vivo V5s has a plastic unibody with redesigned antenna lines which looks better than its predecessor Vivo V5 and similar to the Vivo V5 Plus. The matte finish is complementing its sleek design and lightweight which feels good while holding the phone in hand, you will feel the grip even without using any case/covers again thanks to matte finishing.
Up front, you will have a 20MP camera, LED-flash and earpiece perfectly aligned above the display. The fingerprint sensor is mounted on the front just below the 5.5 inches HD (720 x 1280 pixels) 267ppi display. Volume buttons are placed above the power/sleep button on the right side of the device.
On the left side of Vivo V5s, you have the hybrid SIM slot. The bottom of the device has a 3.5mm audio jack, micro-USB port, mic, and the speaker grille. A 13-megapixel camera along with a single LED flash is placed on top-right of the rear side with Vivo branding at the centre.
Display, Fingerprint Sensor & Connectivity:
The company had a good chance to correct the mistake made with Vivo V5 by launching the Rs. 18k range device without the full HD display. It is very important for any device to have a very good display because the display is the part of any smartphone which user will interact the most.
If you are not buffering/playing very high-resolution video or games then even HD display should work fine for you and it will also give you some extra battery backup. Whereas Vivo has done software level tweak to improve the display appearances. The colour rendering of V5s is just above the average but the screen offers mostly accurate colours. The images and videos are appearing sharp and decent with accurate colours on the 5.5-inch 720p IPS display with the pixel density of 267ppi.
Basically, if you aren’t switching to Vivo V5s from some very good quality full HD display then it should be totally fine for you because you can barely find any differences between the display of low budget full HD display smartphone and the display of V5s.
Vivo is advertising what is their main focus but what I found is the fingerprint sensor of V5 series devices are also worth promoting. I have noticed that the fingerprint sensor of Vivo V5, V5 Plus and now V5s is very impressive, it is insanely fast and accurate.
I have compared the fingerprint speed with OnePlus 3, Redmi 3s Prime, Redmi Note 3 and Nexus 5X, it is noticeably faster than 5x, Redmi Note 3, 3s Prime and sometimes it’s fingerprint sensor was even faster than the fingerprint sensor of OnePlus 3. Most of the time both of the devices, OnePlus 3 and V5s recognized the fingerprint at the same time but the screen/home screen of V5s appeared before the OnePlus 3.
Vivo V5s is Dual SIM device with the 4G-VoLTE support, its hybrid SIM slot accepts the combination of one nano + one micro SIM and one micro + up to 256GB micro SD card. Both SIM card together can connect to 2G/3G network whereas only one SIM can connect to the 4G/LTE network at a time. There is dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot support, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS.
Vivo V5s also has an FM radio on board, but there is no NFC support. Its Micro USB 2.0 port can be used for charging and data transfer too, you need to enable the OTS from setting if you want to connect any OTG peripherals (see screenshot in the gallery). Vivo still maintained the classic 3.5mm audio jack for the audio output.
V5s Camera and Image Quality:
V5s has a 13MP rear shooter with phase detection autofocus, face detection, touch focus and a single LED flash, the camera app gives you an easy interface to click the photos. The options to flash control, settings, HDR mode and different camera modes are at top of the camera app.
You can switch between rear and front camera from the right bottom of the app, bottom of the camera app also has a shortcut to the gallery, filters and camera shutter at the centre. Camera app featured all the popular settings like HDR, night mode, and Panorama. It also has features like slow-motion & time-lapse video recording, UltraHD photos and professional mode.
You can record the slow-motion video at 480p and time-lapse video up to 1080p, time-lapse video supports the resolution up to 1080p. Using the UltraHD mode you can click the very good photos with more details than normal photo mode but the UltraHD mode takes around 3-5 second to process the image so you need to be steady while taking the photo in UltraHD mode.
Professional mode is kind of manual mode which enables the options to customize the shutter speed, ISO, exposure and white balance. The rear camera of Vivo V5s can record the normal and time-lapse video 1080p full HD video.
The 13MP rear camera is good, it takes a really good photo when the proper lights are available. The colour reproductions and colour accuracy are just good. Photo from rear camera in dark or low light is catching the noise even if you use the flash but if the object is not too far than flash will do fine. There is night mode option which can help you take more detail of distant objects in dark or in low light.
Rear Camera with UltraHD Mode – (Low light ↓)
Rear Camera – Low light condition (using night mode ↓)
Vivo V5s comes with a 20 MegaPixel Sony IMX376 camera with 1/2.78 sensor size; f/2.0 aperture. The front-facing selfie shooter takes the really great selfies which it should be, considering its camera specifications. V5s also has a LED flash on front which they are calling moonlight flash, it helps the 20MP front camera to maintain the image quality in all light condition, the front LED flash is producing a perfect amount of light which resulting a natural photo, like the photos, were taken in bright moonlight which might be the reason behind calling it a moonlight flash.
Selfie In Low Light (normal mode with Moonlight flash ↓)
Selfie In Daylight (normal/auto mode ↓)
Selfie With HDR Mode ↓
Related Article: Review Vivo V5 Plus | First Impression Vivo V5
Software and Performance Of Vivo V5s:
Vivo V5s runs the Funtouch OS 3.0 based on Android M 6.0, it doesn’t have much bloatware, there are few preinstalled apps which you may find useful eg. apps for the theme, backup/restore, file manager, EasyShare(file sharing), internet browser and vivoCloud to backup your data on the cloud. You can make use of iManager to clear cache, monitor data users, uninstall apps and you can also lock the apps using iManager which can be unlocked using the fingerprint.
By default FunouchOS doesn’t come with the app drawer, so all installed app will be placed on the home screen and to organize the apps all you can do is create folders based on the type of apps or you can also hide the app icons from settings. If you like to feel the taste of stock android you can install the Google Now Launcher for basic or Nova launcher for more customizable options. Notifications are appearing by dragging from top to bottom and sliding the screen from the bottom will show up the quick settings for example brightness and volume control bar, the Wi-Fi, flashlight, mobile data, Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi hotspot etc. options to rearrange and customise the quick settings are also available.
Vivo could have come with better icons and UI in their FuntouchOS, the icons and UI of Functouch OS looks exactly to the iOS, even the name & colour of the app’s icon are similar to iOS. Luckily I can install the 3rd party launcher which can make the UI looks like the stock android.
Currently, I have around 50 apps installed on it including Vivo’s preinstalled apps, I will post a separate review article focusing on its performance in different scenarios with more apps installed and the gaming performances.
Its been only 4-5 days so it would be unfair if I say I have explored the full potentials of the device, but till now I am having good experience with Vivo V5s, all apps are working very smoothly thanks to its 4GB RAM and 1.51GHz octa-core (8-Core) processor.
Memory management also seems fine, multitasking is appreciable since it’s not reloading the most recent background apps but if your open too many apps like more than 15-20 apps then few apps may reload after switching to it.
Music & Call Quality:
Vivo is continuously working on music and camera which is now also their tagline “Camera & Music”. The audio output from the speaker is very good and loud you may feel a little distortion depending on the what music you are playing. The voice during a call is loud and clear in all scenarios either indoor or outdoor.
Vivo V5s packed a custom-built AK4376 Hi-Fi audio chip that provides an amazing sound quality by giving a signal-to-noise ratio experience of up to 115dB.
The overall sound quality of Vivo V5s from the speaker, voice call quality and sound quality from earphone/headphone is impressive but Vivo has to still work hard to impress the hardcore audiophiles.
Vivo V5s has 3000 mAh battery without any fast charging technology, it takes 30 minutes the charge the 25% and around two hours to charge the 0-100%. Till now I am getting more 35 hours of battery backup with the normal uses like few phone calls, basic browsing, and video/audio playing.
I am expecting it may give the minimum a day or more battery backup even after the heavy uses like playing games and high-quality videos. I will post the detailed battery information in the upcoming article about the Vivo V5s.
Price and Release Date of Vivo V5s in India:
The Vivo has announced the two colour variants of Vivo V5s which has 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. The device will be available in all major online and offline stores in India.
The Pre-booking will start from today 27th April and the first sale will happen on 6th May with a price tag of Rs. 18,999/-
Related Article: Full Review Vivo V7 Plus | Review Vivo V5 Plus
Buy Vivo V5s Crown Gold From Flipkart
Buy Vivo V5s Matte Black From Flipkart
Note: – All used images are the compressed images with lower resolutions, download or see the untouched full resolution images with more camera samples soon. Click Here for front camera samples and Click Here for rear camera samples.
