Vivo V7+ Review: Value, More Than Ever

This year, the smartphone race is arguably focused on the display. Since the introduction of the new 18:9 aspect ratio, devices even in mid-range scale keeps on getting better in terms of screen capabilities. Vivo V7+ is one of the firsts to introduce an edge-to-edge display with the said aspect ratio in this segment.

Vivo V7+ Review

The Vivo V7+ is one of the handsets that reminds us how a smartphone looks like in 2017. But aside from its appearance, it's also an important player in the selfie department. Let's find out what else Vivo V7+ has to offer on the table; and how competitive it is in comparison to other brands in this price standpoint.

Design

Let's start with the design. The Vivo V7+ is definitely a stunner. The front panel is primarily defined by the 5.99-inch display treated by 2.5D curved glass. The screen is accompanied by the equally impressive 24MP front camera with its own LED flash to help you get the best selfies in low light conditions.

The chin of the handset registers to be thin; and it also comes with its own interesting points. For one, above it are the navigational on-screen buttons that  are customizable in terms of the order of their respective functions; say for example, I want to have a Back-Home-Menu arrangement. More customizations in the navigation area can be done like changing the icons or choosing your preferred color bars.

Rounding the sides, the Vivo V7+ is designed to have both the power button and the volume rocker on the right side. The top side is a home to a microphone. The left side carries the SIM tray while the bottom side comes with a microUSB slot, 3.5-mm audio jack, speaker grill and another microphone. The good thing about this handset is that it features dedicated slots for two Nano SIM cards and the microSD card.

The Vivo V7+ is a stunning candy bar smartphone with a faux metal design. In fact, it comes with metal frame and plastic body. The handset always feels great on the hands and registers to be a premium device with its solid build. Without the bundled case; the Vivo V7+ would easily slip in the hands. Good thing Vivo decided to include a dedicated case right out of the box.

There's a 16MP rear shooter with LED flash at the back accompanied by the fingerprint sensor and the Vivo branding.

Display

For sure, one of the deal makers of this handset is its 5.99-inch FullView IPS LCD display. The Vivo V7+ is generous enough to give crisp and vivid details despite the fact that it only features 1440 x 720p HD+ display. Initially, I thought I am using a full HD smartphone but placing it side by side with an Oppo F5 draws the difference in their pixel density. The Vivo V7+ frames about 269 ppi.

However, I am drooling with V7+’s screen to body ratio of 84.4%. Bezels are nearly there and this goes to show that the handset is perfect for multimedia consumption. Many apps have already been optimized with the 18:9 ratio but in any case you wanted to prompt this frame, Vivo V7+ allows you to stretch the display to fit the said aspect ratio. 

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Viewing angles are just fine. There’s a slight washing out of the colors in oblique angles but it’s tolerable. Vivo V7+ also comes with a screen protector on top of the Gorilla Glass 3 treatment.

There’s an Eye Protection feature which is quite similar to Blue Light Filter in Galaxy S8. This gradually blocks blue light which could affect sleeping pattern. You can set it manually or schedule it in your desired time. You can also set apps to be in Full Screen modes.

Performance, Multimedia, Gaming

The Vivo V7+ ticks with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 which features a 1.8GHz CPU and Adreno 506 GPU. The chipset is coupled with 4GB of RAM which makes app launching and multitasking activities faster. Managing daily tasks is smooth and I could say that the handset is a great daily driver. There’s no noticeable lag for basic activities like texting, navigating the homescreen, app launching, etc.

The Vivo V7+ fires crisp and powerful audio. This is also one of the handset’s marquee features. The AK4376A Hi-Fi DAC registers good treble and mids. Bass is also defined. Streaming on popular titles like Netflix is a worthwhile experience. Popular games like Mobile Legends and Arena of Valor run smoothly on the Snapdragon 450. 

There is almost zero dropping of frames while playing these titles. Highly intensive games run smoothly, but there are occasional hiccups. You can also set the Game feature to optimize the experience when firing up gaming apps. Likewise, I have not experienced heating issues when using graphic-intensive games.

Benchmarks, Fingerprint Sensor, Interface

The rear-mounted fingerprint sensor is insanely fast in unlocking the device. Plus it’s not hard to reach even when using the phone in one hand. Likewise, the face unlock feature is also a nifty feature, though I tend to use the fingerprint sensor more due to its simplicity.

It scored 58,031 in Antutu Benchmark. In GeekBench, the handset tallies 766 single-core and 3861 in multi-score. These scores are quite great for a mobile chipset in the Snapdragon 400 series. 

The Vivo V7+ also comes with a very clean software skin called FunTouch OS. It is very similar to Oppo's Color OS which is also designed with Apple's iOS in mind.

Camera

Vivo V7+’s rear camera is a 16MP affair accompanied by a single LED flash. This OmniVision QV16880 sensor is paired with f/2.0 lens. The inclusion phase detection autofocus feature is also a breath of fresh air for faster focusing of subjects. Aside from the Auto Mode, the camera app allows you to use the Professional Mode wherein you’ll have controls over ISO, Shutter Speed, Exposure, White Balance and Focus. 

Likewise, you’ll also have the option to switch to other modes like Slow Motion, Time Lapse, Ultra HD and PPT (capture photos for PowerPoint presentation). My personal favourite is the Live Photo, a feature which captures a small clip before taking the videos. To put more icing in the cake, the Face Beauty mode feature is available using the rear camera. This means that you can adjust skin tone, buffing and whitening while using the rear camera.

Daylight shots are great. In good lighting condition, most of the shots we’ve made register clear with vivid colors. In HDR, produced images have good contrast and balanced saturation. Shots taken in lowlight are decent but noise is evident. I should say that using the flash helps produce better lowlight shots. Here are the sample shots in Auto HDR mode.

The 24MP front-facing camera also comes with its own LED flash and f/2.0 aperture. It features a plethora of modes in the camera app – Face Beauty, Group Selfies, Photo, Video, HDR, Portrait, Live Photo and filters. I should say that the Vivo V7+ front camera is one of the best selfie cameras I’ve used. The Portrait selfies are just awesome. It is defined and calibrated to produce minimal edge blurring. 

I also love the way the camera app allows you to toggle beautification features. As mentioned before, there are three presets in the Face Beauty modes: the Buffing which technically removes spots and blemishes, the Whitening for skin brightening and the Skin Tone for changing skin color. In lowlight, the front camera is also decent. However, we could see noise even when the dedicated flash is in use.

Videos

You can invoke capture of shots using your voice, palm or touch. All three works well in our testing, though we had a hard time using the palm option. Likewise, Video Recording is also neat. It could take up to 1080p FHD videos at 30fps. The Slow Motion only takes 480p resolution though. Videos from V7+ are decent while the audio is clear due to the fact the handset comes with two microphones.

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Battery

The Vivo V7+ is packed with 3225 mAh battery. In our battery test, a single charge with average use lasted roughly 30 hours. Meanwhile, the handset lasted 21 hours when used by a heavy user. This is quite reasonable since the smartphone employs a battery-efficient processor and an HD+ display. Our average use includes occasional emails and texts, 15-minute calls, one-hour music streaming via 4G, two-hour Netflix streaming via Wi-Fi, two-dozen shots, 5 minute video recording, two hours Arena of Valor and one hour Hay Day.

You can also use software-enabled battery saving scheme like the Low Power Mode or the Super Power-Saving Mode to extend your battery life when needed. Sadly, the Vivo V7+ does not support fast charging. In our case, it took us 2 hours and 2 minutes to recharge the phone from 10% to 100% and an hour to reach 50 percent.

The Wrap

Being one of the firsts to offer FullView display in the local market, Vivo V7+ certainly captured most of our attention. Vivo has outpaced most of its competition. In our time using the handset, I could definitely say that it’s a strong multimedia device. The lack of screen resolution is patched up by a great sound quality. Its compact body is also one of its stronger points, it’s very easy to use at 5.99-inch.

The Vivo V7+ has also proven to us that it’s the handset to beat when it comes to selfie game. It offers tons of customizations in the native app which allow us to capture stunning selfies without sacrificing the natural feel of output. It comes with a Php 17,990 price standpoint which is definitely appealing to consumers. 

If you’re in the market for a solid device that aces the selfie game and has great multimedia feature set, then the Vivo V7+ will definitely offer a great value to you.

What We Like:

1. 5.99-inch FullView display

2. Compact body

3. Great unibody design

4. Portrait selfie

5. Dedicated slots for SIM and microSD card

6. Battery life
7. Hi-Fi audio

What we don’t like:

Low resolution for a 5.99-inch screen

Vivo V7+ Specs

5.99-inch HD+ IPS LCD Display, 720 x 1440 pixels at 269 ppi

Corning Gorilla Glass 4

Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 SoC

Octa-core 1.8GHz Cortex-A53

Adreno 506 GPU

4GB of RAM

64GB Internal Memory, up to 256GB via microSD card (dedicated slot)

16MP f/2.0 aperture, LED Flash, PDAF

24MP Selfie Camera, f/2.0 aperture

4G LTE, 3G, 2G

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

Bluetooth 4.2

microUSB 2.0, USB OTG

3.5mm Audio Jack

Fingerprint Sensor

Gyroscope, Proximity, Compass, Accelerometer Sensors

Android 7.1 Nougat with FunTouch OS 3.2
155.9 x 75.8 x 7.7 mm, 160 grams

3225 mAh Battery

Champagne Gold, Matte Black

₱17,990 Official Price in the Philippines