Vivo V15

The Vivo V15 tries to pose as a striking example of a premium handset arriving at a lower price. Priced at Rs. 21,990, this phone has all the necessary features required from a premium phone, packing a weaker variant of it.

Given the price, the Vivo V15 is quite a mid-range phone. It comes with a mid-tier performance and is unsuitable for graphic-intensive gaming. However, the phone does pack a punch with its fantastic set of cameras and a massive front camera. All in all, it is a suitable model for selfie enthusiasts.

The Vivo V15 has a similar design as the V15 Pro and is just a bit larger. It comes with the dimensions of  161.97×75.93×8.54mm, which makes it quite challenging to handle with one hand, and on top of that, the phone has quite some heft at 189.5g.

The curved edge makes it sit comfortably in hand, but the glossy finish of the rear panel quickly attracts fingerprint smudges and small scratches. The phone comes with a gradient touch, which allows it to change its colors based on how the light falls on it.

The back panel is made of polycarbonate and is quite durable, making the phone quite a solid build. It also has a popup selfie camera which is quite efficient. The only problem is with the camera which creates a slight bump on the rear. In this market where most cameras sit in flush with the back panel, the V15’s back panel is a definite eye-sore.

Also, it comes with the dated Micro-USB port and not the popular and recent USB Type-C port.

The Vivo V15 sports a 6.53-inch Ultra FullView In-Cell fullHD+ display with a resolution of 1080×2340. It comes with a 90.95 body-to-screen ratio giving adequate space for the user to play with. However, the phone does not feature the beautiful AMOLED screen contrast and sharper.

The colors are accurate, and the text looks crisp enough. The viewing angles are decent, though there is a minimal color shift present in hard angles. The color temperature is a bit on the colder side. The brightness is splendid, but it does falter outside as the sunlight legibility of the phone is not as good as expected from a premium model.

The Vivo V15 arrives with an octa-core MediaTek Helio P70 chipset which is clocked at 2.1GHz. It is quite a power-efficient model and is capable of processing multiple tasks without slowing down. Due to the presence of the 6GB RAM, you can switch numerous apps on this phone smoothly.

The phone gets 5,767 multi-core score which is quite decent. Gaming performance, however, is not pleasant. Even in Medium settings, high-end games tended to lag. Another notable omission is the lack of face recognition on the phone.

The main highlight of the Vivo V15 Pro is the camera set that it comes with. The phone comes with a 32MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture same as the camera of V15 Pro. It has a secondary 8MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture which is a wide-angle lens with the ability to capture 108-degree wide shots.

There is also a 5MP depth-sensing camera with an f/2.4 aperture. The primary camera has Dual Pixel Focusing mode which provides brighter shots with accurate colors. The subjects which have vibrant colors preserve their details with this phone. However, there is a bit of color bleeding at the edges. Otherwise, the daylight photos have nice contrast and captures accurate colors without an issue. Even the macros turn out to be rich, with excellent dynamic range.

However, under harsh lights, the colors appear washed out. In low light, there is a lot of visual noise that gets captured, and while the HDR mode tries to tackle them, it softens the colors and makes it artificial.

The portraits are quite excellent, and there is a distinction that can be spotted between the subject and the background. However, blur effects can be uneven at times. The wide-angle camera works marvelously, and there was no barrel distortion. Panoramas came out just fine though it might look a bit flatter.

The video recording gets to Full-HD with the 30fps. With modern phones coming with 4K capturing qualities, it is disappointing that Vivo V15 is stuck at Full-HD videos. Lack of stabilization also results in shaky footage.

The popup 32MP selfie camera is excellent and lets you reproduce images with deep color and great details. The edge detection is quite accurate, and the shots are better than social-media good shots. Even the AI mode has a lot of beautification tactics like skin lightening, eye enlargement, and waistline reduction too.

Vivo V15 comes with a sizable 4,000 mAh battery which can last one whole day with demanding use. Running an HD video on loop found that the V15 can last for 15 hours and 22 minutes. The phone does have fast charging too and can get from 0% to 40% within 30 minutes. For a full charge, you need to keep it plugged in for an hour and 40 minutes.

The Vivo V15 can be impressive in terms of its camera set up, design, and long-lasting battery. But it is still a phone of the past. It cannot record 4K videos and arrives with Micro-USB port which has long been replaced by USB Type-C port. Also, the low-light snaps do not impress.

Samsung Galaxy A50 is a more potent competitor of Vivo V15 coming with Super AMOLED and in-display fingerprint scanner. Otherwise, if selfies are your thing, then V15 is a great phone to go for.