Faster than Faster as they call it, Vivo V3 Max is the best presentation from the VIVO yet. Priced at Rs. 23, 980 with 4 GB, 32GB ROM, 0.3 sec fast auto focus, 0.7 secs camera open time and with fast charging technology this smartphone looks impressive and is fast in almost all the functions it performs.
Pros
- Full metal Body design and Chamfered edges
- Fast and precise fingerprint scanning
- Ergonomic design
- Ultra fast charging
- Customizable Themes
- Some amazing unconventional features in camera
- Hybrid SIM option
Cons
- Captive buttons do not light up
- Vivo Logo in the front is not a pleasure to see
- Battery drains out soon
- Some Applications restart abruptly
Specifications
| Model | Vivo V3 Max |
| Display | 5.5-inch, FHD (1920*1080 )pixels, TFT Display |
| CPU | 1.5GHz octa-core processor |
| GPU | Adreno (TM) 510 |
| RAM | 4 GB |
| Storage | 32GB |
| Memory | Expandable upto 128 GB |
| Camera | Front 5 Mega-Pixel Rear 13 Mega-Pixel |
| Battery | 3000 mAh Li-Polymer |
| OS | Funtouch OS 2.5, based on 5.1.1 Lollipop |
| Dimensions | 153.90 × 77.10 × 7.58 mm |
| Weight | 168 gm |
| Colour | Golden, Silver |
| Network | GSM: Band 2/3/5/8
WCDMA: Band 1/5/8 FDD-LTE: Band 1/3/5/7/8 TDD-LTE: Band 40 |
| Sensor | G-Sensor/ E-Compass/ Gyroscope/ Proximity/ Light Sensor/ GPS/GLONASS |
| M.R.P. | Rs. 23, 980 |
Design
The design of the device follows the suit with full metal body design and chamfered edges. The device has been given a very subtle and classy design. The metal has been sandwiched between the metallic back and front glass with chamfered edges. The back of the device looks different from the league, the camera has been placed at the top left in a square-shaped casing which is pretty unusual and round LED flash just below it. The fingerprint scanner at the back has been placed in the centre of the upper half section of the back panel and is exactly of the same size as the camera module. The fingerprint scanner has also been given chamfered edges just like the edges which make its design in sync with the design of the device.
In the centre of the device is the silver metallic engraved logo that goes vertically. The back has small strips at the top and bottom cut across in a metal that is a shade darker than the body of the smartphone.
On the right of the device are the volume rockers and a power button while the left-hand side has an SIM tray that cann be ejected using a SIM ejector tool. The Volume keys and the power button are pretty sharp giving the device a sleek look complimenting the chamfered edges of the device.
The metallic rim across the edges of the device protrudes a bit that gives a comfortable grip and an ergonomically sound design to the device.
The front of the device is clean with an earpiece in the centre coupled with the front camera on the left and a light & proximity sensor on the right of it. There is also the logo of the company placed on the left below to the front Camera module which was not really required pertaining to the fact that the back already has a logo in the centre. The device notifies you about any notifications with a notification light placed on the right in symmetry to the Vivo logo in front. Vivo could have made the front of the device cleaner by removing the logo in the front which is not a pleasure to look at.
At the bottom are the three capacitive buttons that do not light up at all, again a thing which could have been improved. Another thing I did not understand is the placement of the ‘Back’ button to the right of the home button when it’s placement on the left is more convenient and is conventionally correct.
At the top of the device is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the and two strips in a white casing of the antennae are clearly visible. Just like the top, there are antennae strips going across at the bottom as well and in between them are the speakers, mini USB charging port and a mic. The speakers at the bottom carry an unconventional design which is in the form of three elliptical holes that are pleasing to the eyes.
In an all the design satisfies and manages to get a score of 8.5 out of 10, however taking care of some nitty gritty the design engineers could have managed to impress us more.
Camera
The device has been blessed with a 13MP (4160 X 3120) rear camera and 5MP (3200 X 2400) front camera. As aforementioned, the rear camera is really fast and it just takes 0.7 secs for the camera app to open and while taking the pictures the auto-focus outperforms by giving you an autofocus speed of just 0.3 secs. The camera performs well under the sunlight, the pictures are sharp and the colours are equally good. The camera brings out natural colours in the pictures (much better than the iPhone 6S) that are really close to what the eye can see. When compared to the pictures taken with an iPhone 6S, the pictures taken from the iPhone 6S seemed to have a yellow pinch however, those on the Vivo were more natural. Well, this comparison was in context to the normal light. The camera offers up to 4X of optical zoom and the image quality with the maximum zoom is satisfactory.
In the low-light situation, the auto-focus works as fast as in a good light situation provided the flash is on. The pictures taken under low light conditions are grainy and do not come that well. The object details are also not so clear and zooming the images distorts the quality. While recording the video, there is very less of audio noise that enters the video which is good to listen. However the optical image stabilisation is not that effective, the camera finds it hard to focus on moving object hence it appears to be blurry. The front camera is good for selfies and your groupies since it offers a good wide angle that can cover a significant amount of area (a lot more than what the iPhone 6S does).
Coming on to the camera app, there is a lag of about half a second when you open the camera app from the lock screen which is not there when you open the camera app while the device is unlocked and during that period a black screen appears, the lag is clearly visible. The default camera app offers the menu options in a very subtle way and the interface is really clean. There are three options on the top: Flash, Invert camera, and Settings menu, while at the bottom are the Face beauty, Photo and the video option that allow you to beautify the picture (especially selfie) and take pictures and videos. Next to the shutter button on the left side is the link to the gallery while the right side has the filter options.
A couple of things that I like about the camera app includes the wide variety of filter options that have been categorised as Cate, Film, Time etc, all having 9 filter options each. Other than this the camera app also offers the Watermark option where you can select the pre-installed watermark templates to enhance your pictures which again are classified under various categories.
Let’s move to the settings option: Like in general the settings option has the Night Mode, Panorama, HDR, Time-lapse and also a manual mode (known as the Professional Photo mode) that allows you to adjust the ISO, shutter speed, exposure, white balance etc.
A couple of features that you do not find in other smartphones are also included in the package, one of these is the ‘Palm Mode’ that sets a timer when you bring your palm in front of the device. Although the feature is not precise enough as it failed a couple of times when I used it and randomly assumes some objects to be as a palm and set the timer itself.
Then there is a ‘Presentation Mode’ which allows you to take a shot of the blackboard or a white-board, slide, paper and it crops them intelligently thereafter it crops the picture automatically.
Another mode known as the ‘Gender Detection’ mode that works only in the front camera detects the gender automatically.
I have taken a sample of Low light and good light pictures to show how the camera performs under different light situations, you can have a glance below. The device scores in the camera department a score 8 out of 10.
Display
The device comes with a 5.5 (13.97cm) Inch Full HD TFT display with 1980 X 1080 resolution that comes to 400.53 PPI and0.0634mm dot pitch. Though not a 2k display however, display of the device is pretty impressive and performs great under the sunlight. The device offers great brightness levels which makes the screen clearly visible when under the sunlight. I would not mind rating this device at 8.5 out 10 when it comes to display.
Hardware
The device comes with a 8 core 64 bit ARM v8 Processor at 1.8Ghz with VFPv4, NEON and uses Adreno (TM) 510 renderer. The device manages to score 70607 on the Antutu Benchmark App (check out the screenshots below). 4 GB Rams supports all the multi-tasking pretty seamlessly and it wasn’t a single time that I observed any lag during the device usage. The V3 Max does not support NFC which would also have been a nice to have feature considering the price bracket. The speakers of the device are loud however, tend to get noisy at high volume most of the times.
Finger Print Scanner
The device features a fingerprint scanner as well that has become a necessity in a mid range and high range segment smartphone and is always a good to have feature. Like all, Vivo V3 Max also offers finger recognition of up to 5 fingers. The setting up is pretty easy and offers a very precise and accurate detection. Did a quick comparison of the fingerprint sensor of the iPhone and the one in Vivo outperforms it. It is significantly faster and the difference is clearly visible to the eyes.
The device features three captive buttons at the bottom, as aforementioned they do not light up and can be annoying when using the device in low light.
The device offers Dual SIM option and expandable storage using the Hybrid SIM. The option makes life easier for both the genres of consumers, one looking for Dual SIM options and the others wanting the expandable storage. The device also supports OTG and an OTG adaptor comes with the device to make up for the expandable storage option.
SAR Value
The highest SAR values under the FCC guidelines for this device model are: 0.697 W/kg and 0.952 W/kg (Body). The tightest SAR values under the CE guidelines for this device model are 0.164 W/kg (Head) and 0.470 W/kg (Body). The above test results meet the requirements.
The device manages to score 8.5 out of 10 in the hardware department.
Software
Vivo uses the Android skin for their devices known as FunTouch, and the Vivo V3 Max uses the version 2.5 for FunTouch. It runs on the Android version 5.1.1 which is again a disappointment for the Android Fans who are keen on getting the Marshmallow when Google has already showcased Android N.
I must say that the Fun Touch Android Skin is a treat to use with plenty of options that make handling tasks much easier and you would not find similar options in the pure Android experience. Some of the features include the Super Snapshot Option (Which is explained later in the section), ‘Wave to Hands-Free’ that offers you to wave your hand off the device and activate the call on the hands-free, Tilt to Zoom and etc. You can access the recently opened apps as a list of thumbnails when you swipe up the screen from the bottom. Also tapping on the multi-tasking button pops up a window to access the widget options which is an unconventional way and much more convenient. Other than this, Fun Touch offers great customization options with its themes as well.
I really like how the settings option have been segregated when you log into the settings menu with colour coding. The list is clean and easier to access and understand. The device does not come with any major bloatware installed except a couple (which is not that annoying) that you can not remove until you root the device.
Pro-Tip: How to take a screenshot in Vivo?
Just press the Home button and the power button simultaneously to take a screenshot.
Super Screenshot
Super screenshot offers three features: Long Screenshot, Screen Recording and Funny Screenshot. The long screenshot offers you to take a screenshot of a chat without scrolling across the whole conversation in one go and allows you to share it with your friends.
The funny screenshot allows you to make the images funny and more beautiful. It offers you different options like give a colourful outline to images, add Doodle shape or heart shape.
The last option is the screen recording. This option captures all the on-screen activities that can be saved and shared later in the form of a video.
The device running Funtouch 2.5 manages to score 8.5 out of 10 in Software department.
Gaming
Full HD TFT display with 4 GB of RAM and a 64-bit processor seems to be a perfect package when you want to take some time off for gaming and this phone was well up to the expectations in this department (Keeping aside the battery drainage). The rendering is fast and there was no visible lag in the gaming session that lasted for about half an hour. The device did not show any signs of heating that was a good thing to see. However, a disappointing thing to observe was that a couple of my gaming sessions were interrupted where the application stopped working without any warning (Screenshot attached below) that resulted in the restart of the game.
The overall experience in this section was impressive and the device offered what I had expected. I would rate it 8 out of 10 in the department.
Battery and Charging
The device is supported by a humongous 3000 mph battery that offers really fast charging. I drained the battery completely and started charging the device the results were as follows.
2:21 PM: Started
2:30: 15 Percent Charged
2:47: 40 Percent Charged
3:01: 60 Percent Charged
3:30: 100 Percent Charged
Looking at the above facts the battery seems to be performing pretty well while charging and as per what the company claims. Since this part of the device is subject I am going to give exact figures to show the usage and the battery drain out the percentage to give you the exact scenario and the result.
Playing 4 minutes of video on Youtube on Wifi with full brightness drains the battery by 2 percent that is pretty fast, another 2 minutes of video dropped the battery level by another 1 percent. That means the device offers a video playtime of about an hour and a half. Running the AnTuTu Benchmark test application alone drained about 4-5 percent of battery.
While with minimal usage of calling and using Whatsapp, the phone manages to last for 12-13 hours.
I played Sniper Fury and the data was as follows:
60 %: 5:25 PM
57 %: 5:30 PM
52 %: 5:45
So that means playing a game for about 20 minutes drained the battery by 8-9 percent. I would have expected a bit more from the device but it seems that the battery performance is average however since it supports fast charging I don’t mind charging the device twice a day. You can switch on and Off the feature of ‘Dual Engine Quick Charge’ by changing the setting in Settings—> More settings —> Dual Engine Quick Charge
I would rate such battery performance as 7.5 out of 10.
The overall rating for the device comes to be 8.
Gallery
