Vivo V9 First Impressions: Killer looks and lively selfies

Vivo V9 is priced at Rs. 22,990 and will be available from second week of April on Vivo E-store, Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm mall.

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Vivo V9 Unboxing and First Impressions

Vivo has announced its latest selfie smartphone- Vivo V9 in the Indian market. The first flagship smartphone from Vivo in the year 2018 sports a 24MP AI powered selfie camera and also features a dual-lens rear camera setup. Vivo V9 also brings the new 19:9 aspect ratio screen with iPhone X like notch at top, which results in 90% screen-to-body ratio. The high screen-to-body ratio offers plenty of screen real estate in compact form factor. Vivo V9 also runs the latest Android 8.1 Oreo and is backed by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.

 
Vivo V9 First Impressions: Killer looks and lively selfies

Priced at Rs. 22,990, Vivo V9 will be available from 2nd week of April, 2018 on Vivo E-stores, Flipkart, Amazon.in and Paytm mall. Vivo sent us the Pearl Black color variant of the new flagship smartphone and here's how the smartphone performed in our initial testing.

 
Vivo V9 First Impressions: Killer looks and lively selfies

Sleek and Lightweight

The iPhone X like full-screen notch display is making its way to affordable Android smartphones, and Vivo is among the first ones to adopt the design. It works in the favor of Vivo V9 and makes it an instant head turner in the mid-range smartphone segment. We showed the handset to our friends and family members and no one was able to resist its eye-catchy design. The smartphone has an impressive 90% screen-to-body ratio, which offers a plenty of screen real-estate in a compact form factor. As you can see in the pictures, the front fascia of Vivo V9 is mostly covered by the screen, which gives the handset an iPhone X like look and feel.

As far as aesthetics are concerned, the edge-to-edge display combined with rounded edges and sleek profile also makes Vivo V9 quite ergonomic. Moreover, Vivo V9 is also among the lightest handset we have tested till date in this price segment.

Vivo V9 First Impressions: Killer looks and lively selfies

Dual-lens rear camera

Vivo V9 features a dual-lens camera module positioned at the top left corner of the rear panel along with an LED flash light. The rear mounted fingerprint scanner is quite snappy but is placed slightly upwards from our liking. The smartphone follows a standard button configuration. The power button and volume rockers are placed on the right side, whereas the hybrid SIM card tray is positioned on the left side. The 3.5mm headphone jack, a microphone, USB 2.0 charging port and a speaker unit is placed at the bottom of the handset. Sadly, Vivo V9 does not ship with the latest Type C port, which at this price-point is a bit disppointing.

Vivo V9 First Impressions: Killer looks and lively selfies

6.3-inch Full-HD+ (1080x2280 pixels) panel

The star of the show is indeed the 6.3-inch FHD+ screen that goes from edge-to-edge and offers a pixel density of 403ppi. The IPS LCD screen is bright and punches vibrant colors however it seems a bit reflective in direct sunlight. Thankfully, the brightness levels are good and comparatively better than smartphones from Huawei priced in the same segment.

As the smartphone boasts the new 19:9 aspect ratio screen, not all the applications support the native resolution, which leaves two black bars on top and bottom of the display. Web pages run in the full-screen mode but apps like YouTube, MX Player, games, etc. still need to be customized to offer the best possible viewing experience on the new aspect ratio. We will keep you updated on the developments for the app support for 19:9 aspect ratio handsets.

Vivo V9 First Impressions: Killer looks and lively selfies

24MP Wide-angle Selfie camera

The next big highlight of Vivo V9 is its 24MP selfie camera. The front-facing camera works on F/2.0 aperture and captures crisp and detailed selfies. Vivo has also injected the camera with the power of Artificial Intelligence that makes appropriate and relevant beautification enhancements wherever required to deliver lively selfies.

As far as the rear camera is concerned, Vivo has used a dual-lens camera setup that uses one 16MP primary lens and 5MP secondary lens to create bokeh images. The camera offers a decent dynamic range and delivers impressive shots in daylight. The bokeh effect is good but it could use some refinements to detect the edges of subjects in focus. The dual-lens camera also needs ample light to efficiently differentiate the foreground from background to create a depth of field effect. The rear camera can also record videos in 4K format at 30fps and the output is quite crisp. The camera app also offers a variety of modes and filters such as Face Beauty video call, HDR, AR stickers, Portrait lighting effect to let you experiment with the photography.

We will spend some more time with the camera to find out Vivo V9's full potential in the photography department.

Vivo V9 First Impressions: Killer looks and lively selfies

Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, 4GB RAM and Android Oreo

Vivo V9 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the box and is backed by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 chipset. The 2.2GHz octa-core CPU is paired with 4GB RAM to handle multitasking. Vivo V9 handled everyday tasks with an ease where you can click pictures, browse multiple web pages, and stream 1080p videos on YouTube without any performnace slowdown. But I did come across some hiccups and frame drops while playing graphically intensive games like Marvel Contest of Champions and Asphalt 8. We will stress test the phone in the coming week to find out more about its performance.

The smartphone runs on Funtouch OS, which is quite feature-rich and easy to use. Vivo's customized skin also offers a dedicated game mode and other useful features like App clone, gesture support, one-handed mode, etc. to enhance the overall mobile user experience. The smartphone also uses AI smart engine to provide smooth everyday performance and intelligent user-experience by learning user's habits.

Vivo V9 First Impressions: Killer looks and lively selfies

3,250 mAh battery unit and connectivity

Vivo V9 easily lasted for a day on a single charge. The smartphone is backed by a 3,260 mAh battery unit that can survive a day or even more with moderate to heavy usage.

Vivo V9 First Impressions: Killer looks and lively selfies

Conclusion

Vivo V9 has got some killer looks that makes it an interesting buy in the mid-range smartphone segment. It also offers a crisp edge-to-edge display and a capable AI equipped selfie camera to please multimedia and selfie lovers. We will spend some more time with the smartphone in the coming week to find out how it works as an everyday Android handset.

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