So we’ve been given the opportunity to play around with the Vivo V7, the V7+ little brother who was just released a few months prior. Sadly, I wasn’t able to play around with it’s older brother, so most of the comments I’ll be listing down here will be based mostly on the few days I’ve been able to play around with the device.

Here’s a short rundown of the V7‘s specs

Vivo V7 Specs:

• 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Octa-Core Processor
• 4GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage expandable via microSD card (up to 256GB)
• 5.7-inch 18:9 IPS HD FullView Display with 2.5D Gorilla Glass Protection
• 16MP Rear Camera, Ultra HD Mode, PDAF, f/2.0
• 24MP Front Camera, Selfie Flash, Face Beauty 7.0, Portrait Mode, f/2.0
• Dual SIM, 4G/LTE
• USB OTG
• Fingerprint Sensor
• Funtouch OS 3.2 on top of Android 7.1 Nougat
• 3,000mAh battery

As you can see, the V7 sports a high resolution front camera, partnered with a lower spec rear camera. The setup pretty much stays true to the Clearer selfie and perfect shot marketing the brand is banking heavily on for the V7.

Box Contents

Here’s a shot video on what you’re getting from the box:

Build and Display

Sporting a 5.7-inch display with a resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels or at least slightly above HD. Watching movies, playing games and even reading on the device is somewhat comfortable with the vibrant display. However, if you’re like me, who’s used to reading on bigger screens like the Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra, it’s going to be a big jump and a bit unnerving. Also, since the device is around 6 inches, for someone who has big hands like mine, navigation is going to be a bit tedious.

Moving on the unit’s build. The build itself is pretty solid and has that small but premium feel. Since this is the first time experiencing a Vivo unit, I’m pretty happy with the way they have built the device. Normally I was expecting brands like Vivo to have a bit cheap or plastic feel, but the V7 dispels my presumptions on the whole build.

Media and Gaming

The V7 doesn’t have great pair of speakers. Calls are often hard to hear and would often have to rely on the loudspeaker to hear calls clearly. This is weird though since when you play media on the V7, the speakers are loud, a bit too loud though. Also, for a device of this price, I would’ve expected a bit of quality in the sounds it produces, but, sadly, the V7 sounds like a can on higher volumes while passable on the mid to low volume settings.

It’s definitely better to plug in a pair of earphones or headphones if you want to consume media on the V7.

With the 4GB RAM on the V7, playing games like Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Arena of Valor or any of the more famous mobile games out there is really fun and smooth.

Battery

Since I’ve already talked about gaming on the V7, I’m going to jump into the battery life for the V7. The 3,000 mAh battery is felt hard specially on a hard day of use for gaming, watching stuff, or listening to music. However I love the battery saver feature of the V7 which really pushes the battery longer than I expected.

My judgement for the V7’s battery life would be worse but because of the unit’s fast charge capabilities, it pretty much saves my score for the device because I can just use the battery through and charge it as fast.

Pictures

Moving on to the biggest draw for the V7, the selfie feature. Not surprisingly, the V7’s 24Mp camera really brings in a ton of beautiful selfie shots and clearly succeeds in bringing in the Clearer Selfie and Perfect Shot feature it boasts as.

 

So here we are! But due to the confidentiality of the place this is the most that I can do @haoson (for now)

A post shared by DAGeeks (@dageeksdotcom) on Nov 21, 2017 at 7:25pm PST

Meanwhile,  as expected, the 16MP rear camera brings in a decent amount of shots even on low light situations, which is something I am pretty happy with.

This was taken without any filters done in clearly a lowlight setting.

 

It was such an exhilirating experience to be taught how to combat with lightsabers! If you’re a geek and in Singapore, you really should take the time and attend The Force Academy by @thesaberauthority class at least once! -@haoson Thanks to @vivophil For V7 unit! #SGAdventures

A post shared by DAGeeks (@dageeksdotcom) on Nov 22, 2017 at 4:54am PST

Final Thoughts

The Vivo V7 is a solid phone that delivers what it promises. As an overall smartphone it’s provides a solid experience especially with the price point of 14,900 php. So if you’re looking for a decent selfie phone that you can use to consume media and games then the Vivo V7 is a solid contender for your wallet.

Thanks for Vivo Philippines for letting me play with the V7.

Pros

• Fast Charge
• Really solid Front Camera
• Decent Rear Camera

Cons

• Short battery life
• Screen is bad for those who have huge fingers

If you want to have the more in-depth review of the V7 you can head to to Gadget Pilipinas.