Holding Vivo V15, you quickly realize the subtle design cues borrowed straight from its elder sibling the V15 Pro. This slightly downgraded version of the reverent V15 Pro follows the suit that offers cool tech like pop-up camera available to the masses. The only thing that sets the V15 apart from the pro version is the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and absence of a dedicated face unlock feature. Besides the similarities there are many things that the new V15 brings to the table, let`s find out…!
Design
As far as the design goes, the V15 looks similar to the V15 Pro with a body made out of plastic as opposed to glass. This build makes it durable but exposes it to a lot of scratches and smudges in daily use. Also, the device is quite heavy, weighing in at 189 grams, however, the heft is well contained by its ergonomic form factor and well-balanced design.
Back is flaunt by the gradient finish on the back looks attractive around the edges and garners a lot of attention, however, the protruding three camera setup on the back makes the device wobbly when placed on a flat surface. The device comes in three colour options namely – Royal Blue, Frozen Black and Glamour Red.
Display
The front is flanked by a massive 6.5-inch Ultra Full View display having a resolution of 2340×1080 pixels. The side bezels are quite thin and maintain a decent aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The screen is perfect for watching videos and playing games as it renders good colour reproduction with life-like clarity. The screen gets immensely bright, as we found in our in-house testing where the screen was readable even under 50% brightness at bright outdoor conditions. There is no notch on the top but the bottom bezel has slightly moved up which makes it prominent member taking up a lot of screen real-estate. The V15 is a sturdy device that comes with the latest 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front.
Processor
The device is powered by a MediaTek P70 processor which is a major let down considering the price point. It`s evident that Vivo has sacrificed on the inbuilt hardware to accommodate the pop-up selfie camera hardware. This downplay makes the device struggle when scouring through demanding applications and games.
The only caveat we faced came through the gaming performance when the chipset suffered through low FPS and occasional lag. It wasn’t until we dropped down the graphics were the games playable with a tinge of enjoyment under satisfactory limits. It also faces a bit of heating while playing intense graphics games for the long run.
Software
The Fun Touch OS 9 build on top of the Android 9 is similar and nothing new added an experience perspective. The setbacks in terms of the UI comes in the form of some important titbits like a missing toggle option under the pull-down notification tray. You need to swipe up from the bottom to reveal an iOS-style control centre. It’s ok to place a control centre that slides from the bottom but considering we are too used to the toggle centre at the top, it feels out of place to me personally.
Audio quality with the headset provided in the box was balanced and also there were no problems with the external firing speaker.
Camera
As far as the camera specs go the Vivo V15 has a triple camera setup of AI-based camera of 12MP + 8MP + 5MP units that protrudes enormously out the back. The front camera is similar to V15 Pro which means it comes with a 32MP shooter up front.
The camera performance is very commendable as the images we took were really vibrant with the accurate sharpness and details without getting too overexposed. The pictures were spot on under good lighting conditions with a plethora of manual controls that made the experience a pleasant one. The ultra-wide-angle camera option shoots shots with a fixed focus which makes the images come out on a softer side.
If there is one thing that differentiates this device from the masses is its revolutionary mechanical pop-up selfie camera. The camera outshines the competition on any day with its realistic selfies even under low lighting conditions. The edge detection in portrait mode is stunning and captures the exposure with the right amount of saturation levels.
Overall the camera package the V15 packs is top notch but falls short of the image quality you get with the Nokia 8.1.
Battery
The Vivo V15 has a massive 4000mAh battery with Vivo`s Dual-Engine Charing support that can last for hours on a single charge. We managed to get a screen on time of over 9 hours after prying through some pretty intensive titles like Asphalt 8, PUBG, MC5, etc.
The 18W charger block juices up the device through its age-old micro USB ports in a jiffy.
Gizmo Verdict
The Vivo V15 is a perfect example of an ideal all-around smartphone that boasts of a design that is beautiful beyond words. If you are looking for a device that has a stunning design, great camera and good battery life within a budget of 25K, well look no further.
