Vivo V3 Review - All Rounder Under 10K!

Few weeks back, we were initially pleased with the way Vivo's V3 performed. It's exciting to use as there are few handsets out there with this level of refinement for the price. Having said that, everything that we found out about this handset is in this review. Let's start!

Vivo V3 review

For the review part 1: Vivo V3 Unboxing And First Impressions - A Potential Killer Deal?

Display Quality

The beauty of 2.5D curved glass

Sporting a 5 inch IPS screen with HD resolution and 2.5D curved glass, Vivo's V3 is on the average side on things in the world of smartphone screen. Viewing angles are fine and sharpness is okay, far from pixelated at 294 ppi.

Colors aren't overly done and feels easy on the eyes. However, don't expect that blacks are deep and colors are as punchy as AMOLED panels. As a whole, this screen is decent and feels just right.

Moving to the software side, we can't find options such as color tone adjustments for the viewing preference of your eyes. Gladly, it is the type of screen that shouls be suitable and acceptable for most.

Checking its brightness, it is bright enough to be legible even under direct sunlight hit. There's also accurate light sensor that adjust the brightness automatically depending on the situation.

10 points of multitouch experience

To cap things, there's 10 points of touch that gives the best possible touch, typing, and swiping experience on a phone screen today.

Audio Quality

Packing an AK4375 HiFi DAC that supports up to 32 bit of high resolution audio, there's a lot of expectation with the type of audio quality this handset can deliver.

Going to the speaker, its single speaker below isn't the loudest out there, but it is full sounding and clean. It comes with decent punch, good enough clarity, and great details as a whole.

For the headphone audio out, this is the cleanest and most I heard on a sub-10K phone yet. It sounds well balanced, musical, and delivers little to zero distortion. Lows are punchy and deep enough, mids are crystal clear, details are well alive (micro details are also present), and highs shines well. Soundstage is also wider than your usual smartphone without a dedicated HiFi chip.

Vivo V3 is a very good sounding DAP (music player), truly HiFi

It can also drive most of my lossless FLAC files easily and doesn't require equalization to truly shine.

This phone can compete with old and bulky HiFi DAPs in the past in terms of loudness

The best part here is the driving power. The Vivo V3 is arguably the loudest we tested on a sub-10K phone today. As a result, it can drive the power hungry Havi B3 Pro 1 with no sweat at 70% loudness only. It also pairs well with the rest of my low powered IEMs and headphones such as the TFZ Series 1 and SoundMagic P11S.

Call quality is good too. Then audio recording sound fine due to its dual mic setup. However, make sure that you're not using the case included while recording as it'll block the microphone on top.

Battery Life

Almost 7 hours and 30 mins of juice!

Packing a 2,550 mAh battery on a 6 inch screen paired with a Snapdragon 616, the V3 performed as expected. It delivered almost 7 hours and 30 mins score at PC Mark battery test which is average on smartphones with this type of setup.

Enough battery life for normal users!

On real life usage, we can squeeze a single charge on a full day of work with casual usage. It includes: Social Media browsing, taking occasional photos, SMS, and doing calls. Just enough!

However, unlike others who has quick charging support, this phone only has average charging speed. It can fill up to 70% in 2 hours and 100% in less than 3 hours.

Camera

13 MP PDAF camera at the back

The phone is equipped with a 13 MP main camera w/ PDAF and single LED flash at the back and an 8 MP selfie shooter in front.

The complete manual camera controls of Vivo V3

On the software side, its jam-packed with goodies! You'll find face beauty, filters, HDR, panorama, night, motion track, ppt, fast (time-lapse), slow (slow-motion), and ppt (power-point cropper) modes.

The most feature packed camera for the price!

Apart from that, it goes with one of the most complete Pro camera mode found on an affordable phone. It has exposure adjustments, up to ISO 1600, shutter speed, white balance, and manual focus mode. Then it's also complete with guides such as grids, golden ratio, and horizontal leveling.

As long as the lighting is good, your shots will be fine!

For the picture quality, it is great for the price, but you'll need adequate lighting. It comes with pretty detailed images with good color tones (close to accurate) that has the right amount of pop or punch.

For lowlight, expect that there's a fair amount of noise (grains) in your photos. The good thing is there are times that you can take advantage of the night mode or flash to rescue your shots.

On well lit places, the shutter speed is decent and can focus quick. For HDRs, steady hands is a must (to avoid blurry stills) as it'll have the usual 3 seconds delay before saving the captured image.

Rear Camera Samples

Hot noontime shot

Normal mode performs better against HDR in this scene

Our pasta looks great in this shot

Trying out macro in dim resto light

Night mode, grainy but brings mode details than normal shots

No overexposure here (flash test)

Selfie is also good on this phone. To compliment its 8 MP lens, there's a nice type of Face beauty mode that has "one tap makeover" and filter adjustments to let you take nice front facing snaps. It also has the usual filter options, night mode, and a decent type of screen flash in the dark.

In terms of quality, it is just fine. Once you get proper focus on good lighting condition, shots are incredibly detailed. However, in lowlight it won't perform that well as expected. It's screen flash isn't also enough to save your images.

Selfie Camera Samples

My sunburn is very visible in this image

Grainy in dim light

Selfie flash test

For videos, both its 13 MP (main camera) and 8 MP (selfie camera) can take up to 1080p videos. It's just fine, but there will be grains and a lot of shakiness if you won't use a tripod.

Video Sample

Performance

Antutu and Geekbench scores

In the sub-10K range it is still rare to see a phone that's officially available in PH that's loaded Snapdragon 616 chip paired with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage. That's what made the Vivo V3 special.

As a result, most of the apps have loaded with ease. Multitasking is also fine with 3 GB RAM and we can install a lot of apps and files due to its 32 GB of expandable storage. In gaming, normal games are smooth sailing and even heavy 3D games like Asphalt 8 loaded with ease on high settings. For NBA 2K16, we used a combination of low and medium graphics settings to run everything smoothly. There's also no annoying heating issues found with this phone.

The UI of Vivo

For the UI, Vivo is using a heavily skinned type of Android 5.1 Lollipop OS called FunTouch OS. What we like here is unlike other heavily skinned UI, it still made the phone speedy with little to zero app crashes.

Fingerprint scanner options and other smart gestures

We also love its several features such as the theme changer, easy speed-up mode (close apps), S capture (screen recording and screenshot), and a lot of other smart gestures found in the settings of this phone. It's also packed with a its speedy and accurate fingerprint scanner at the back.

It takes time to master FunTouch OS

Maybe the thing that we didn't like here is it is still on Android 5.1 Lollipop and it'll take time to get used to with FunTouch OS. Plus, there are several restrictions like you cannot open the files on your phone without installing the Vivo tools application.

Connectivity such as WiFi, 4G data, and Bluetooth works well. For Pokemon GO, the GPS is mostly stable and close to accurate. 

Pros - Stylish and solid build, good specs for the price, speedy performance, HiFi on a budget, feature packed cameras
Cons - FunTouch skin is light but has limitations, not on Marshmallow yet, grainy lowlight shots

Verdict

On its original price of 11,990 Pesos, the Vivo V3 is a decent deal. However, now that you can grab this phone under 10K, it is close to a steal! Why? This is a great type of an all around handset that won't disappoint in looks, performance, and features. Plus, it is a true HiFi capable smartphone that's hard to find in most affordable phones.

Overall, we are confident that the Vivo V3 is one of the must check phones in the sub-10K range.

GIZ Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

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