Vivo V5 Plus Review: The best selfie smartphone?

Vivo V5 Plus is a well-crafted smartphone with a beautiful metallic chassis and gorgeous display.

Riding on the success spree of last year's flagship V5, the Chinese manufacturer Vivo has launched another selfie camera focused device the Vivo V5 plus. The smartphone is equipped with with its main USP dual lenses i.e 20 MP and 8 MP cameras which, according to Vivo, offer crystal clear selfies. Priced at Rs 27,980, the phone is in direct competition with the OnePlus 3T which is selling at Rs 29,999. Though the company had announced both V5 and V5 Plus last year, but the latter was only made available in January. Vivo, with its new flagship device, promises to deliver on most of the aspects, especially the front camera. Let's find out in our review whether the Vivo V5 Plus worth all the hype? DESIGN: Vivo V5 Plus is a premium-looking smartphone with a unibody metallic finish covering the entire back and side panel and it certainly looks elegant.  You look at the device, and you will be immediately reminded of the Apple iPhone 6. The smartphone weighs 159 grams and features a 5.5-inch Full HD display with curved edges and ultra-narrow bezels for a more comfortable touch coupled with the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the top. The quality of display on Vivo V5 Plus is good as it offers bright and vivid colors with good viewing angles. The build quality offers better grip over the phone and gives the device a premium look. Upfront, the USP of Vivo V5, the 20MP dual camera setup is placed along with a 'moonlight glow' selfie flash, next to the ambient light sensor.  Below the screen there's an oval shaped finger-print scanner which is integrated into the Home button. The back of the device has the rear camera and LED flash placed on the top-left, with Vivo logo at the centre. Placement of U-shaped antenna bands on the top and bottom gives a stylish look to the all-metal Vivo V5 Plus. The volume rocker and power button on the right hand side, while the hybrid SIM tray is placed on the left. At the bottom edge, there is a micro USB port with USB OTG support, bottom-firing speaker, headphone jack and the microphone. CAMERA: The camera is the major highlight and USP of Vivo V5 Plus. The device is equipped with dual lenses i.e 20 MP, 8 MP that offer a great selfie experience. The 20-megapixel camera, which uses Sony IMX376 1/2.78-inch sensor with a f/2.0 aperture and 5P lens system, creates a depth-of-field effect that keeps selfies sharp. The 8-megapixel camera, in the dual setup, captures depth of field in photos. With the help of this depth information, you can add DSLR-like blur background effects to your photos, before and after taking them. You can even adjust the area to be focused on the effect after taking a shot. Users can shoot first and then select the desired focus area, adding Bokeh effect wherever necessary. It also gives Vivo V5 Plus an edge over myriad of Android handsets in terms of detailing while clicking selfies. In our review Vivo V5 Plus gets the job done most of the times and is able to bring up the details and shadow and preserve the color information. Images appear sharp even after zooming in and the skin tone and colors remain accurate. There's plenty of depth in the images as well. The 'moonlight glow' flash allows you to take selfie shots with natural colors even when the lighting condition is not good. There is a 'beauty mode' that removes facial imperfections. Overall, the camera performance of the Vivo V5 is pretty good. You would love it, if you’re a selfie lover. The rear camera on V5 is a 16MP shooter with phase detection autofocus and LED flash. The camera fared well in natural lighting conditions. However, under challenging low light conditions, the V5 Plus tends to struggle a bit. Auto-focus works well most of the time but struggles a bit in low-light conditions. It includes 'Professional mode' which offers users control over the camera's ISO, shutter speed, exposure compensation and more. We will rate its rear camera as above average, if not great. The camera app comes with different shooting modes such as Face Beauty, Panorama, HDR, Night, Motion Track, Filter, Watermark, Pro mode and more. PERFORMANCE: Vivo V5 Plus is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 Octa-core 2.0 GHz Processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal memory. It runs on Android 6.0 with Vivo’s FunTouch 3.0 OS. In our review, we didn't notice any lag even while playing heavy graphics consuming games such as Asphalt 8 with multiple apps running in the background. The smartphone delivers on everyday tasks and even when pushed to its limits. Sadly, there's no microSD card support. The Vivo V5 Plus' fingerprint scanner works better than expected and unlocks the device instantly in about 0.2 sec. It also allows you to access your favourite apps by pressing the fingerprint sensor twice. The 'Smart Screen-Split' feature allows users to multi-task without having to switch back and forth every time a message pops up. Users can chat and watch videos simultaneously on one screen. The smartphone is equipped with an 'Eye Protection Mode' feature that filters out blue light to protect vision and prevents eye strain. BATTERY: The Vivo V5 Plus is powered by a 3,160mAh cell, along with the twin-engine charging technology offers a faster charging speed which takes about 90 minutes to charge the battery from 0-100 percent. The battery easily managed to last for a day with calling, social media applications, music playback, web browsing and light gaming. VERDICT: Vivo V5 Plus is a well-crafted smartphone with a beautiful metallic chassis and gorgeous display. The interface is smooth and does not lag, and the battery life is also good. Vivo V5 Plus is a selfie-centric smartphone and it, without a doubt, delivers on that front. Though, there are many selfie-centric smartphones are available in the market but none of them matches with the camera quality of Vivo V5 Plus. The dual camera setup with the Bokeheffect, creates the phone's USP. If you're a selfie enthusiast then the Vivo V5 Plus, even if it's a bit pricey, is the smartphone for you.