Apple’s has always led and influenced the mobile phone market and its recent “notch” addition on the iPhone X proves that. In the iPhone X case, the “notch” gives the phone distinction and allows several features of the phone such as the front camera to be enhanced.
Although the “notch” has met with mixed reviews, it hasn’t stopped Android phone manufacturers such as Vivo from copying the idea. In fact, the Vivo V9 is constantly compared to the iPhone X because it too has a “notch.”
Is there, however, more to the Vivo V9 than meets the eye? Let’s find out.
Vivo V9 – Heavily influenced by the iPhone X
The V9 has clearly been not just influenced by Apple’s offering but truly inspired. It features Android 8.1 and utilises FunTouch OS 4.0. Vivo’s design team has done everything it can to make the icons look and feel the same as iOS without directly ripping it off. It is easy to distinguish between Android OS and Apple’s iOS, but it is also easy to see how it was inspired.
Like the iPhone X, the phone has dual cameras, and the design team has tried hard to give a bezel-free an experience as possible, although there is a little bit of a chin at the bottom of the screen.
The phone is also packed with gesture sensor features iPhone X style in one form or another. From facial recognition to unlock the phone, to answer a call by putting the phone to your ear, nearly every shake and hand motion will, in theory, give you access to menus and other aspects of the phone. Some of these work better than others on the V9.
Even the phone’s bloatware has been partly inspired by Apple’s offering. ‘i Music’, ‘Calendar’, ‘i Theme’, ‘Clock’, ‘Albums’, ‘Videos’, ‘Notes’, ‘Calculator’, ‘Recorder’, ‘Contacts’, and ‘Weather’ are all shipped as standard.
But what about the V9 as a phone? What does it pack besides homage to the iPhone X?
Vivo V9 Features Plenty of Screen Real Estate
One of the cooler things about the phone is the screen real estate. It packs 6.3inches of LED screen and although it fails to live up to the sharpness of OLED screens, it does have a nice feel to it. It is big and bright, giving 1080 x 2280 pixels with an aspect ratio of 19:9. This is great for viewing pictures and videos, and the curved edges and largely plastic based build do not make the phone too heavy to use.
Pleasingly, the “notch” does not really get in the way of most apps, and no doubt in future variations of apps the coders will take into account the “notch”. That said there were times when the “notch” did get in the way and although infrequent was truly annoying, sometimes disabling a feature of the app.
V9 Performance
The V9 has not been given the best snapdragon build you can imagine, but the efficiency focused Snapdragon 626 with 4GB of RAM keeps the phone functioning well unless you are playing high-end gaming apps. That said, the phone does offer a gaming mode which allows you to switch off notifications which are the last thing you want when trying to achieve the best score.
Battery life is adequate without being amazing. This is kind of what you expect from a midrange phone – enough for a day out but no more than that.
The memory is expandable to 256GB and given that you start with 64GB of storage to begin with, you will probably need a micro SD card just to store all the pictures and other data you pick up on a day to day use.
Camera
The selfie camera is arguably the phone’s best feature. It works well even if lighting conditions are not the best. Vivo has given it some useful and helpful apps to make pictures and films of you more sharper and fun. The rear cameras, however, contrast this. They are ok and that really is all you can say about them. They do not perform well in low light, and the ‘AI’ influence on your shots and movies is virtually unnoticeable.
Other than the ability to shoot 4k films, there is no real difference here than the V7, the phone’s predecessor.
V9 Needs a Better, Tougher Build?
The V9’s build is mostly shiny plastic. It has neither bulkiness nor lightness, and it is hard to imagine it falling on a hard surface without a scratch or two. The screen is one of its better features, so getting a nasty crack across it would no doubt kill the joy.
That said, there are plenty of cases, and it goes without saying that you should invest in a good, sturdy one.
V9 vs. V7
The V9 is a better phone than its predecessor the V7. Specs wise they all improve on the predecessor and it has a nicer screen. That said, the V7 is a phone that comes in a £100 cheaper than the V9. You are only losing less than 0.5 inches of screen and it is arguably easier to hold than its bigger cousin.
The nothing to shout about rear camera on the V9 may find that you lean towards the V7 on price.
Overall
The V9 is an offering that like other new Android phones features the “notch.” This can easily turn you on to the phone or turn you off of it completely.
This is a good midrange phone and although it can’t offer the iPhone X functionality it is significantly cheaper and is a good all-around offering for the price.
Whether you want to pay the extra for the V9 or go for the V7, in many ways will depend on whether the extra screen size and the extra features it offers are for you. The inbuilt V9’s 64GB storage may just score a win for the V9 rather than the V7.
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