Of late, many Chinese smartphones have flooded the Indian market and the race for those phones which are Rs. 25,000 plus is becoming very tough. In order to compete in this segment, Chinese makers have mastered the art of good designs. One such reputed Chinese company is Vivo which has come out with their latest flagship X5Pro smartphone. This phone was launched in India last month and from the looks, it will give run for money to many premium smartphones available in the market. If you are instintive buyer, you will definitely pick-it up with its attractive appearance. This phone does not look like any other stale Chinese phone with dull look. Besides its impressive look, does this phone justify its high price with its hardware and software features? Let us find it.
The Vivo X5Pro comes with following key features:
• 5.2 inch Super AMOLED Full HD Display (1920×1080)
• 1.5 GHz Snapdragon 615 64bit Octa-core Processor
• 2GB RAM/ 16GB ROM (Expandable up to 128 GB)
• 13 MP Rear & 8 MP Front Camera
• 2450mAh Battery
• 4G LTE Network Support
• Dual SIM
• Funtouch OS 2.1 (Based on Android 5.0)
Design
The Vivo X5Pro design reminds me of Sony Xperia range of smartphones. If there is no logo of Vivo on the back, you cannot distinguish between Xperia and X5Pro and this Chinese trait cannot be beaten by anybody. This phone has glass and metal design which gel seamlessly. This phone has neatly polished aluminium chasis with front and rear glass panels which are slightly higher than the frame and this phone looks good from all angles. On top of the right side, aluminum volume rocker and power button have been provided and on the bottom of right side, Dual-SIM card slot has been given. The second SIM slot is for your second SIM card or can be used as a microSD card to expand the internal memory of this phone to 128GB. This phone comes with standard internal storage of 16GB.
On the left side of the phone, there is no button and 3.5mm headphone jack is on top and front camera is on top of the glass panle whereas the 3 capacitive buttons have been given at the bottom like many phones . The rear camera module with LED flash has been fixed on top left hand side of the back panle withThe Vivo logo in square has been given in the middle of the back panel.
The design of this phone looks good and definitely gives the feeling of premium look and despite its thickness of 6.4mm and display of 5.2 inch, it is very easy to operate with one hand and can be easily tucked in your trouser pocket or front pocket of your shirt.
Display
Super AMOLED display which haS been employed by Samsung in its latest high-end devices, is also one of the salient feature of the X5Pro, which features a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED Full HD Display (1920×1080) having 424 pixels per inch. This Super AMOLED display produces vibrant colors and your indoor and outdoor experience on this display would be great. The viewing angles on this display are good and you would love to browse or see videos on the screen of the X5Pro.
Camera
Camera is very important part of a smartphone and the first thing that comes to mid at the time of selection of a phone is how good is its camera. The 13MP of X5Pro rear camera reproduces fairly good results if taken in good daylight but when it comes to clicking images in fading light or in dark-lit areas then the results are not as good as one would expect from such a camera. Since there is no Optimal Image Stablisation feature on this camera, there are chances of blur if the users hands are not steady. However these drawbacks are compensated by few useful different modes such as PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus) Capture, Gender based Beautification, Night and Panorama featurers with which you can click images which look more appealing and beautiful. The 8 megapixel camera for selfies look good and is capable of snapping high resolution images except that sometimes you feel problem of auto-focus which result in blurred image. My personal experience with front camera say that it is advisable to take two or three snap of same image to be on safer side especially if you are clicking in the night.
Result of images clicked in dark and in street lights:
Images taken indoors and in sunlight:
Performance
Like other phones, which run on 1st generation 1.5 GHz Snapdragon 615 64bit Octa-core Processor, this phone also faces problem of lag and has heating issues. Sometimes it is slow in handling high-powered games and respond time to run few apps is quite slow. I faced problem sometimes in browsing web pages having multiple images. Despite these small issues, you do not have feeling of irritation and in due course of time, one becomes accustomed to such minor glitches.
The calling and receiving quality of calls is good on this phone and you can also enjoy good music with the help of outstanding audio output.
Battery
It is packed with 2450mAh non-removable battery with Battery Stamina Mode which is capable of lasting for full day if you are moderate user of apps, surfing and calling. If your usuage is quite heavy eveen then the capacity of the battery will still not let you down and you can charge it in the evening for your night work.
Software
The X5Pro runs on Android 5.0.2 OS with Vivo’s Funtouch OS 2.1 layered over it. We are not big fans of layered UI of many manufactueres including of Vivo. Some of Vivo icons look like copies of icons which one can find on iPhone and this is not praiseworthy at all. Even one of the themes of this have faint reflection of theme of Galaxy S6. This phone comes with many themes, which you can apply on your screen. To be precise, you have the option of choosing from 34 different themes.
Conclusion
The Vivo X5Pro is definitely for those who are in search of good design and superb display, reasonably good battery back-up and overall good software experience. On gets little bit bowed down by under-performance of its rear and front cameras, heating issues and minor glitches. It is very strange that despite 13MP Rear and 8MP front camera provided on this smartphone yet the end-results are not as sharp and crisp as it should have been. We are afraid whether these irritants can be removed with the help of software upgrades or not.
In our opinion, this phone is over-priced at Rs. 27,000. From its features and performance, this handset should have been ideally priced in the range of Rs. 18,000. If a buyer has to spend over Rs. 25,000 then he gets numerous options such as OnePlus 2 and mid-range of Galaxy devices by Samsung.
