By Sourabh Kulesh
New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) Even among the many Chinese players that have taken the Indian smartphone market by storm with their large marketing spends and increasing retail presence, Vivo stands out. It is the only one that has a full-fledged manufacturing unit in India, and is rapidly powering into tier II and III cities.
And it has not disappointed customers either. Vivo recently launched two devices -- the V3 Max and the V3 -- that seem to have found traction in the market, with the V3 Max standing out in the Rs 20,000-25,000 segment.
Let us see today what its sibling, the V3 -- cheaper at Rs 14,980 -- holds for you.
An evenly-built smartphone, it has a lightweight refined aluminum alloy body treated with zircon sand coating and anodised for a shimmering finish. The side panels perfectly complement the curvy 2.5D tempered glass front cover.
Although the device does not have an impressive display as compared to others in the segment, it fares well when it comes to quality. The 5-inch bright-screen is excellent for playing games and watching videos.
One of the best features of the dual-SIM device is its fingerprint scanner. It was very responsive and unlocked the device as soon as I touched it. You can even use the fingerprint scanner to unlock different apps.
With a 3GB RAM and Adreno 405 GPU, Vivo V3 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 616 octa-core processor. It comes with an internal 32GB storage which can be further expanded up to 128GB using a microSD card.
The 2,550mAh battery works for a day with normal usage.
Another striking feature is the hi-fi music output. It is fitted with an exclusive "AK4375 Hi-Fi" chip that makes listening to music a good experience. Try this with different types of headphones and equalisers and you will feel like a disc jockey.
The output through three speakers is better than most of the smartphones available in the market in this segment.
The device has a normal camera. You can click a selfie in four ways -- tapping the camera button, showing your palm, by voice control feature and the fingerprint sensor.
Vivo runs on Android 5.1-based FunTouch UI. The icons of the UI are similar to Apple's iOS. The UI has an "S-capture" feature that lets you save screenshots with a twist.
With this feature, you can save one long screenshot instead of multiple small screenshots. Another option provides different patterns to capture screenshots.
What doesn't work?
Firstly, the UI did not impress much. There is no drop-down menu. Instead, it has a pull-up menu which is a bit odd.
At Rs 14,980, the device should have packed in some great features. Especially when, owing to growing competition, devices in Rs 10,000-12,000 price segment are offering much better specifications.
Conclusion: Grab it if you are a music lover and looking for a device with a better fingerprint scanner.
(Sourabh Kulesh can be contacted at sourabh.k@ians.in)
