Home Tech Reviews Vivo V15 Pro Review – Best midrange phone for its price?

Vivo V15 Pro Review – Best midrange phone for its price?

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Vivo-v15-pro-super-night-mode-camera-philippines

Vivo continues to establish itself as one of the prominent premium mid-range smartphone brands in the Philippines. With its latest Vivo V15 Pro 2019 packing flagship features at its very reasonable price, it’s pretty hard to ignore what the company has achieved when it comes to innovation.

As the Vivo V15 Pro launched for Php 23,999 price, could this finally be the perfect mid-range smartphone that every smartphone user is looking for?

Read: Vivo V15, Vivo V15 Pro launched for P18k starting price

Specifications

Vivo V15 Pro
Display 6.39-inch Full HD Super AMOLED
Chipset Snapdragon 675 octa-core processor (11nm)
GPU Adreno 612
Memory 128 GB ROM, 6/8 GB RAM
Main Camera 48 MP, f/1.8, 1/2″, 0.8µm, PDAF
8 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide)
5 MP, f/2.4, depth sensor
Front Camera Motorized pop-up 32 MP, f/2.0 capable of 1080p @30/60fps videos, HDR
Connectivity Bluetooth 5.0, 4G LTE, WiFi, GPS, micro USB port
Battery Non-removable Li-Po 3700 mAh battery; Fast battery charging 18W (24% in 15 min)
OS FunTouch 09 OS based on Android 9.0 Pie

Design & Display

Vivo V15 Pro boasts its take on over-all design.

One of the strong points of Vivo V15 Pro is found in front. With no visible notch, it provides a true full-screen aka FullView display for its FHD+ AMOLED panel. The screen makes use of Super AMOLED for that saturated look and great contrast ratio. However, it does lack brightness a bit but still readable under broad daylight.

Vivo V15 Pro uses Super AMOLED display giving you crisp and vivid colors.

Only a few midrange phones feature AMOLED screen for this price aside from Samsung which makes their displays. And for Vivo V15 Pro, the display is surely one of the key features you should consider when buying especially it has a crazy screen-to-body ratio by removing the notch.

While the design remains to be top-notch, we wished they could’ve gone with a glass backing. Instead, you are going to be dealing with polycarbonate material featuring glass-like finish. Although looks can be deceiving, it doesn’t work that way once it’s in your hands.

As for the rest of the design, there’s a huge camera bump on the back together with the mechanical selfie camera and an audio jack up top. On the right side, locates the power button and the volume rocker that needs a bit of reaching. While the left side houses a dedicated AI button for Google Assistant or Vivo’s Jovi AI.

Down at the bottom are the speaker grille, a micro USB port, and a dual-SIM slot with dedicated microSD expansion of up to 256GB.

Vivo V15 Pro still uses old-generation micro-USB port alongside with its single-firing speakers and dedicated microphone at the bottom.

Wrapping up the design, the Vivo V15 Pro is a beautiful device on both front and back despite its one drawback which is the use of plastic at the back to accentuate the design.

Camera

Vivo has also joined the 48MP camera smartphone revolution alongside with Redmi Note 7 and Honor View 20. Unlike the two, Vivo V15 Pro has triple-rear cameras accompanied by AI that have the combination of primary, ultrawide, and depth sensor cameras. The primary sensor is able to capture detailed images and is capable of high-dynamic (HDR) photos. When taking videos, this device is able to capture 4K videos, 1080p and 720p resolutions @30 or 60fps.

What makes Vivo V15 Pro interesting is its 32MP f/2.0 selfie shooter capable of HDR that pops up when selfie camera is opened.

Vivo V15 Pro has a motorized pop-up selfie camera system that opens when you switch to Selfie mode.

Check these photos below captured during daytime:

In terms of camera quality, the main camera takes really great shots with sharp details and bright low light output. It’s comparable to a flagship device you can find on a much higher price. Also thanks to the smarter software feature like AI auto detection both in the selfie and rear shooters.

VIvo V15 Pro’s ultrawide camera still able to capture HDR photo.
Photo taken under lowlight indoor capture.
Another shot taken in lowlight.

While the elevating or motorized selfie camera takes a fraction of second to open, its portrait photos are convincingly more natural looking than the previous midrange cameraphones of Vivo. It is also a reliable shooter even when taking selfies indoor and night time as the sensor is equipped with a wider aperture and larger pixel size similar to the back cameras.

Vivo V15 Pro selfie camera samples.
Photos taken against the light, HDR on on the left, HDR off on the right.

For video recording, the Snapdragon 675 boost its max resolution up to 60fps.

Performance & Benchmark

Despite missing the Snapdragon 710 memo, the SD 675 is no slouch either. It’s still a respectable and good mobile chipset including gaming like PUBG Mobile. When it comes to normal day-to-day tasks, the Funtouch OS 9 breezes through everything as it’s paired with 6GB of RAM with an 8GB option for the higher model. But when it comes to UI familiarity, Vivo’s OS is almost a perfect mimic of iOS with a slide down for notification and slide up for quick toggles.

Geekbench Test shows that Vivo V15 Pro was able to top some of the high-end devices when it comes to performance:

Device Single-core Multi-core
Vivo V15 Pro 2386 6643
Google Pixel 2 1870 6373
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 2460 6972

Meanwhile, when compared Vivo V15 Pro against Pocophone F1:

Device AnTuTu Scores
Vivo V15 Pro 170102
Pocophone F1 295215

Overall, the performance is exceptional considering that this is not a flagship device.

Battery Life

In terms of its battery endurance, Vivo V15 Pro has confidently met our expectations thanks to its generous 3700 mAh battery and powered by Snapdragon 675 processor that is proven to be power-efficient. During our tests, at maximum brightness and when the Wi-Fi connectivity was on, it just lost 5% of battery in 30 minutes even if apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are being used in the background. Video streaming also lasted for more than what we expected.

However, Vivo V15 Pro still uses micro-USB to charge its battery. A bit of a downer but thanks to its Dual-Engine Fast Charging Technology, it is able to charge up above most of the average smartphones with micro-USB supported ports.

Manila Shaker Battery Test

Endurance rating 30 hours
Charging 18 W
Charging time 25% in 20 minutes

Audio

The audio test was not too exceptional but a bit above the average. Since it has only a single firing speaker at the bottom, the loudspeaker doesn’t really impress well.

When used its earphones out of the box, it managed to give an average sound performance. But when we tried other branded-earphones, the sound quality was impressive.

PROS

  • Great Super AMOLED screen and screen to body ratio
  • Snapdragon 675 is a performer
  • Battery life is solid
  • Fast Charging 18W

CONS

  • Not consistent lowlight camera performance
  • Plastic back
  • Sunlight readability
  • Use of old-generation micro-USB port

Conclusion

Vivo-V15-Pro

Unlike other midrange smartphones in the market today under the same price point, Vivo V15 Pro really stands out.

The camera technology makes it different having able to capture more details and HDR photos, thanks to its 48MP primary camera.

However, Vivo needs to consider the use of the USB Type-C port that could have placed this device on top even better. At the back, even under the midrange category, Vivo should have considered using the back-glass design to make it look more stunning.

Overall, Vivo V15 Pro will truly give you a flagship-like smartphone experience. So far, Vivo has able to amaze us considering its generous price that is affordable yet very reliable.

Read: Top 5 Features of Vivo V15 Pro

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