Vivo X5 Max

The third slimmest smartphone in existence, the vivo X5Max turns out to be a multidimensional performer. Sure, its claim to fame lies in its upmarket design, which we need to be really picky to find fault with. The execution is top-notch as well, and the smartphone is working hard to justify its price tag, though of course you need to be willing to accept the premise that style and build are worth a premium. Believe it or not, this nearly paper-thin smartphone excels in battery life, of all areas. If you steer clear of the proprietary browser, you're in for a pleasant surprise in terms of uptime. An endurance rating around the 70-hour mark is the summary of a balanced performance in all areas, both active on-screen time and standby. The 5.5-inch FullHD Super AMOLED is another excellent performer scoring high in the brightness department, for a Super AMOLED that is. It's sharp, has lively colors and only exhibits a slight green tint when viewed from an angle. Funtouch OS is perhaps a little controversial. Some will embrace the fresh-looking Android skin with its customization options and nifty gesture controls. Others won't be able to get over how disorganized it is and the strong iOS influence will certainly bother Android purists. It may also be hard to swallow the fact that you're buying into a year-old OS release. Granted, hardware performance isn't the X5Max' strong suit. Vivo apparently held back a little when tweaking the chipset and that may have something to do with the great battery numbers, but we don't see much fault with such a bias, certainly not in the case of the X5Max. The 13MP camera creates images with a lot of detail, but also plenty of noise, though we appreciate the conservative approach to noise-suppression. True-to-life colors and dependable exposure round up a good overall experience in terms of stills, while 1080p videos are decent at best.