Vivo has had a good quarter sales figure in India this year. Vivo is enjoying a strong presence in the off-line retail store and in non-metro cities. Vivo has mobiles across all segment. The Vivo V1 max is a mid range mobile. I have been using this mobile for over a month now and here are my thoughts.

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Design

The Vivo V1 max has got a solid construction. When you hold the device in your hand it feels like a solid piece of gadget. The metal-like back and the chrome rims adds to its premium look. I dropped the mobile a couple of times accidentally and it has no signs of damages. The back has the 13 MP primary camera with a single LED flash. The dual speaker grills are also at the back. The bottom has the USB port and the top has the 3.5mm audio port. The right side has the metal finished volume and power buttons, which have a good tactile feedback. The left side has the dual hybrid SIM slot. The second SIM tray can either hold a nano SIM or a microSD card. The display is a 5.5 inch device, but the screen is a 720p HD screen and hence you get just 267 ppi of pixel density. The image and text are not really sharp. But the colors are nice and vivid. Overall, this sturdy device feels good to hold in the hand and use.

Hardware and Performance

The device is powered by an octa core 1.36 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor. It has 2 GB or RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. Unfortunately the microSD can expand the memory just by another 32 GB. I threw in some graphic intensive games and the device handled it smoothly. But the archaic 720p display does not impress with its graphics. This is a mid segment device and clearly behaves like one. I am happy that Vivo has chosen the 615 snapdragon processor, but additionally a full HD display would have done some justice to the processor’s capability. Also the dual speakers are not loud and clear enough. I tried using it for the conference calls, but the speakers are not loud enough.

Software User Experience

Vivo V1 max runs on Android 5.0.1 out of the box. It has a UI skin on top called the FunTouch OS. Functionally the OS is perfect, but in terms of visual finesse, it has a long way to go. It has some nice features built into it like the double tap to wake, customizable gestures, in-built screen casting, multi window. It also has the manual and service network details under the settings. The UI is fast and smooth, but in terms of user experience, it is not very friendly. The notification shade does not have the quick toggles. Swipe up on the screen reveals the toggles, which is very irritating to use. Also the multi task window has limited functionality. Simple features like screen-shot are hidden multi level beneath in the UI. It does not have many bloatwares installed and yet I feel that the Vivo must have gone with a plain simple Android experience like the Moto devices. Overall, the UI is nascent and has a long way to go.

Camera

The Vivo V1 max has 13 MP primary camera and 5 MP front facing camera. Both these camera produce decent image under daylight and low light conditions. The Camera UI is also simple and functional. I liked the camera UI for a couple of reasons. Touch anywhere and it focuses on the subject and immediately clicks a shot. Simple set of modes available in the UI are very useful. The HDR mode is good and lightens up dark or dimly exposed areas of the image. The PPT mode is useful in clicking white board sketches or scanned documents and then convert them into legible images. The fun mode is a set of instagram like filters. The best mode is the children mode, which creates some sounds to attract the attention of babies so you can click them while they are looking at you. The settings are easy to find and the UI controls are easy to use. The low light images are good; it has less noise, but bright. The colors are natural and the lens arrangement gives a good depth of field. To sum up, I am completely impressed with the camera. It is one of the best camera mobiles I have seen in this year.

Battery

The Vivo V1 mas has a non-user-replaceable 2720 mAh battery. The device lasts for over a day with single charge and with the 3G always on. The device also supports 4G, but I didn’t test its battery on 4G network in India.

Verdict

This is one of the best mid range Android mobiles you can buy in an offline market. But if you have access to online retailers, you must consider the OnePlus X, OnePlus One or even the Moto X play. But for the market segment who prefer to buy the mobile from brick and mortar shops, the Vivo V1 max is a good choice. It retails at Rs 21,500, but you can manage to get if for little less than 17k if you browse around in shops. An excellent camera, decent performance and sturdy build makes the Vivo V1 max an excellent buy.