Vivo V7 Unboxing and First Impressions: Full-view Selfies

Vivo India launched yet another selfie-phone, the V7, which, as the name suggests, will play second fiddle to the existing V7+ (Quick review). The new Vivo V7 is a tad more compact and doesn’t have vastly different hardware underneath. It also retains key V7+ talking points, like the full-view screen and the 24MP selfie camera.

So, basically, it’s an attempt to pass on the same experience at a slightly lower price point. We have already spent some quality time with the new Vivo phone in our own space and have jotted down our Vivo V7 first impressions below. Let’s proceed.

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Vivo V7 vs Vivo V7+ Specifications

Vivo V7 Box Content

Here is all that you’ll find in the Vivo V7 Box:

• 5V-2A Charger
• Regular Type-A USB Cable
• Decent headphones
• A good quality TPU Back cover
• Sim ejector tool
• Documentation: User Guide, Warranty Card, Etc.

Vivo V7 Design and Build

In design terms, It’s hard to go wrong with an 18:9 full view display when it comes to affordable or mid-range phones.

The Vivo V7 looks attractive and exciting, is reasonably compact for a 5.7-inch display phone, which, in turn, makes it quite comfortable to handle.

What primarily differentiates it from its elder sibling, the V7 Plus, is the use of polycarbonate as the construction material instead of metal. That doesn’t make much of a difference in terms of look and feel of the phone and is perhaps even inconsequential once you drape the phone in the bundled (good quality) TPU case. Also, the plastic back helps noticeably cut down the overall heft.

The fingerprint sensor has been moved to the rear. The audio jack, speaker grill, primary microphone and speaker grill are present at the bottom edge. The SIM tray has a dedicated slot for MicroSD card.

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Vivo V7 Display

The 5.7-inch IPS LCD display on the V7 has HD+ resolution. It’s not a super sharp display, but those not accustomed to high-resolution panels wouldn’t know the difference. At the same time, you wouldn’t be out of place expecting at least a full HD panel in this price range.

The display has high contrast, wide viewing angles and is bright enough to operate under direct sunlight every now and then. Since it’s an 18:9 panel, you will get more screen space and will be able to fit more content on it for social media, browser and other apps, but when you’ll get black strips when watching 16:9 video content.

The software, however, lets you crop YouTube video to fit full screen and that works more often than not.

Vivo V7 Camera Performance

The Vivo V7 includes a 24MP selfie camera supported by front flash and deft selfie software. The selfies we clicked form the phone indeed turned out impressive and detailed. The camera, however, struggles with metering when there are light sources in the backdrop.

The Vivo camera app has a deft beautify mode, if that’s your thing, and also allows you to click Group selfies (panorama) and workable portrait selfies.

The rear 16MP camera also provides some engagement in the form of a portrait mode, Live photos, Pro mode and more. The camera quality seems above average for now, but we are still not done with our testing. We reserve our final verdict for now.

Vivo V7 Performance and Software

The Vivo V7 has the same Snapdragon 450 octa-core chipset as the V7+. The SoC is paired with 4GB RAM and 32GB of built-in storage, and the dedicated microSD slot lets you add another 256GB of secondary storage.

The Snapdragon 450 mobile platform that powers the phone has more in common with the Snapdragon 625 than other contemporary 400 series chipsets from Qualcomm. It’s based on 14nm process and the maxium clock frequency is 1.8GHz. This choice of SoC certainly counts as a progress compared to the MediaTek chip Vivo had been using for the last year in its affordable selfie phones.

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The phone runs FuntouchOS based on Android Nougat out of the box. The is well optimized, smooth, iOS like, and feature rich, but what it still needs is a facelift.

The day-to-day performance in our first couple of days of usage has been very smooth. The phone can also run high-end games with fair ease.  For all basic and moderate users, performance shouldn’t be an issue.

Vivo V7 Benchmark Scores

Vivo V7 Battery Backup, Fingerprint Sensor, and Audio

The 3000mAh battery on the phone is initially lasting us for a day of moderate usage. We have two SIM cards plugged in, and have multiple accounts synced. It’s still too soon to pass on a full verdict regarding battery backup, but things look good.

The fingerprint sensor on the rear is extremely fast and accurate. You can also use it to as shutter button while clicking selfies. The Audio Output is quite loud and clear, you can also turn on Hi-Fi audio to further enhance experience.

Vivo V7 First Impressions and Hands On Review

The Vivo V7 offers almost similar hardware to Vivo V7 Plus, but the price isn’t significantly lower either. It still remains an attractive phone with  a good camera and will be even more alluring after the first few price cuts. We will continue testing the V7 and will soon get back to you with a full review.

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