Vivo V15 Pro Long-term Review: It still holds great

Smartphones have come a long way in terms of design language and many revolutionary aspects in the recent times. We started off with the single camera, and now we see devices coming with the three and four cameras. These cameras work dependently on each other to give us great outputs. And all these features and hardware coupled with software powered with AI provide us with stunning results.

It has been over two months we have reviewed the Vivo V15 Pro. And now, here we are with the long-term review of the device after being used the device for a good amount of time to be able to pick out every flaw in the device. You can check out our review of the Vivo V15 Pro here.

Design and Build

For starters, the device has been holding up pretty good in terms of usage. After being used the device for this long, we can surely say that the device stands out from the other mid-range Vivo phones build-quality. The design especially, which is glass both on front and plastic based gradient color scheme, looks gorgeous. The only difference that you will notice is that it has got the triple-lens rear camera setup which grabs a little attention.

After this long usage, the device still feels a bit heavier at 185 g, but it’s fine that we got used to these heavier phones that are in the market right now. Coming to the buttons, the extra voice assistant button on the left came out to be pretty useful with our interactions with the Google Assistant hiking up. And on the bottom, we have the speakers grills and the MicroUSB which we complained about earlier which we still do; but after using the device for this long, we got used to the fact.

Down to the huge 6.39-inch display which has no bezels and notch of any kind, thanks to the pop-up selfie camera, we still find it quite harder to use the device in one hand because of the large display. The review unit which we were provided is the Topaz Blue which looks gorgeous for a phone this huge, but we surely think that the other colors i.e the Ruby Red would also look equally beautiful.

Talking about what’s cooking in, the pop-up selfie camera, we didn’t find any kind of damage or malfunctioning of it even when we used it roughly. Again, makes the point that it is made for such conditions. And after Vivo introduced this pop-up selfie camera in the Vivo Nex, which is a flagship, Vivo started using the same mechanism, in the budget range smartphones as well.

Also, the in-display fingerprint sensor works like charm without any issues. Just have your finger put on it, there you go, the display unlocks quickly. Apart from this, you also have face unlock which make the pop-up selfie camera come out in quick 0.2 secs and unlock the device for you.

Display

The Vivo V15 pro comes with a gorgeous 6.39-inch Super AMOLED display. And thanks to the po-up selfie camera mechanism, we don’t have notches of any kind on this device. The Ultra FullView display comes with FHD+ resolution (2340×1080 pixels) and with 91.6% screen-to-body ratio. The saturation and colors on the device are balanced enough to look great. And with the brightness going on up to 429 nits, the display can get bright enough for usage under direct sunlight. We have used the device outdoors for a large amount of time for now and we can surely vouch for it.

And with the additional features provided, the device is great deal in terms of display. Including the basic feature like the Auto-brightness, we also get a blue light filter to protect the eyes during the usage in dark, color temperature management and the ability to set the different display ratios for the apps in the device. All in all, the display has never disappointed us in this long term usage.

Performance still holds strong

The Vivo V15 Pro comes with the Snapdragon 675 processor and this combined with the 6GB RAM provided proved to be a real great deal. Although for the price that the V15 Pro is priced at, we thought the more powerful Snapdragon 710 would be the right judge for this device. However, in our long term usage until now, the device ran through multiple tasks in the day-today life smoothly keeping the gaming aside.

But in terms of managing the RAM, the Funtouch OS is a little bit aggressive on the RAM by killing apps if we if there are more than 5-6 apps running in the background in the name of saving battery. And with the Game Mode 5.0 which is provided, it reduces the frame drops which we experience.

And after using the device for this long, we played PUBG the most while keeping some background apps running. We still faced frame drops even without any background apps running, but once we set the graphics level to medium, the game play is good enough with reduced frame drops. Overall, the Vivo V15 Pro does not feel like a great device in terms of gaming, at least PUBG.

Other than that, the Funtouch OS is buttery smooth for the other tasks. With multiple features including the customization options, the device feels really great to use even after a long time without getting bored.

Battery

The Vivo V15 Pro comes with a 3700 mAh battery and supports Vivo’s Dual-Engine Quick Charge. Even after using the device for this long over a month, we never did experience any kind of battery issues. The device still gives us a handful of day’s juice to be up and running with mediocre usage. And when we used the device for the gaming in large of the day, we had to charge up the device once in a day in between which can be termed as a hardcore usage.

Although the 18W fast battery charging doesn’t come any near to the OnePlus’s Dash Charge, it still is a great deal considering the amount of time it would take to charge up the battery otherwise. And just like any other smartphone, the v15 Pro does get heat up a bit while charging which is still okay. But yes, the battery did not disappoint us for most of the part in this long-term usage.

Cameras

Finally coming down to the cameras, which is the best part of the device and by which the device gets marketed, the Vivo V15 Pro comes with triple cameras on the rear including an LED flash along with a single pop-up selfie camera on the front. On the back, we have a 48MP primary sensor including the 5MP depth and 8MP wide-angle sensor. Coming to the front, there is a 32MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture.

As we have mentioned in our review of the device, the cameras hold up pretty good with great outputs. The 48MP primary rear sensor provides gorgeous images with great color reproduction and perfectly balanced outputs. If there is one thing that we stressed the device out on, it is the camera section right from the beginning.

Unlike in the review, we have tested the camera also in the low light conditions, and the result was just satisfying. Yes, the camera is flawless in the bright daylight conditions as you can see from the samples, but when it comes to low light, it struggles a bit.

The selfie camera is just stunning and you get crystal clear images with a bit of beautification. We can definitely say that it is hard to find a device with such good selfie quality at this price range. Also, the AR stickers come in handy if at all you are bored.

And the output images were crisp and with good amount of details, all thanks to the pixel binning technology. Although we have complained about the colors being over saturated before in the review, the issue got fixed in the software updates. And coming to portraits, the background gets good amount of blur effect but the edge detection is still kind of average in some conditions.

Although we did not focus much on video recording, the V15 Pro is capable of recording in 4K at 30 fps and the video came out pretty good. However, from what we can say, one should not buy this device for video recording. Overall, after using the device for this long being over a month, the camera stands still and does not disappoint us at all for the greater part. We can surely say that the camera is still flawless.

Vivo V15 Pro Verdict

Without any hesitation, we can say that the Vivo V15 Pro is one of the better devices with great design language. The best aspects of the device are the great super AMOLED large display, stunning design, flawless rear, and front cameras, the in-display fingerprint sensor which is really quick and the pop-up selfie camera. All-in-all, the Vivo V15 Pro can be a great buy at Rs. 28,990 if you are not a hater of the Funtouch OS. Although the Vivo V15 Pro can’t be a perfect device for most of the users, you can still buy the device for its design and innovative selfie camera.