vivo V7 Plus

Why has the bezel-free trend caught on like wildfire? Well, simply put, a bigger screen equates to a more immersive media consumption experience. However, in the race for bigger screens, the overall bulk of a smartphone is increased as well and therefore, manufacturers decided to cut down the bezels to make the handsets more manageable. Now, having used the Vivo V7+ for almost a week, I can tell you first hand (pun intended), that the device is not meant for one-handed usage, despite its high screen-to-body ratio. While Vivo did manage to fit a 6-inch panel inside the shell of a 5.5-incher, the smartphone feels awkward when you hold it with one hand and tends to slip as well. That said, the overall design of the smartphone is prepossessing and from a distance, you can easily mistake the V7+ for a premium smartphone offering. In fact, based on the design shots, I am willing to bet that you thought that the V7+ was constructed out of metal. However, the smartphone employs plastic in its construction which is a slight let-down considering the asking price of the device. I would like to reiterate that the phone doesn’t look bad per se, however, a little metal in the smartphone’s construction would’ve seen it age better.

Over the years, one of the most prominent trends in the smartphone industry has been the rise of the selfie camera and brands like OPPO and Vivo have been at the forefront of the selfie revolution. Both aforementioned brands have created a niche category of selfie-centric smartphones and are amongst the best when it comes to portrait photography. So much so, when I was first greeted with the Vivo V7+, I jumped into the camera application and clicked a few selfies, without even knowing or caring about the specifications of the camera. I just knew that the selfies would turn out great and to the company’s credit, they did. But don’t just take my word for it. The camera department of the V7+ comprises a pair of 24MP and 16MP sensors on the front and the back respectively, with each camera aided by a dedicated LED flash module to assist with lowlight photography. Both the camera modules feature f2.0 aperture sensors and the front-facing shooter can even shoot live selfies, the likes of which you might have seen on Apple’s iPhones. Now, if the spec sheet doesn’t have you convinced, I do have some sample shots attached below as well but before we dissect the smartphone’s camera performance, let me give you a tour of the built-in camera application.

Buyers familiar with Chinese OEMs know what to expect here – a heavily themed skin running on Android Nougat which lacks an app drawer and lays all of your apps on the homescreen. Now, since it's powered by a Snapdragon 450 chip, I would have preferred the smartphone to run stock Android as it would have given the performance a slight boost. However, to Vivo’s credit, the smartphone flew through the custom skin without any hiccups.

Driving the cores underneath the V7 Plus’s plastic chassis is a Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor which works with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. Like most of you reading this review, I was apprehensive about the smartphone’s performance too, especially when you consider that the competition is offering a 6-series Snapdragon chip for much cheaper. However, to the company’s credit, the device wasn’t a complete lag-fest and the V7+ managed to handle its own when it came to everyday tasks. Thanks to its low-res display and 4 gigs of RAM, jumping in and out of applications or navigating through the smartphone’s UI was buttery smooth. There were some minor hiccups when I jumped back into Chrome and had too many tabs open however, it wasn’t prominent enough and occurred occasionally. The smartphone managed to retain most of my applications in memory too, which made multitasking a breeze as well.