Vivo V15 Pro Review - 3 months after, still worth it?
How does the Vivo V15 Pro hold up after three months of use? Let's dive deeper into our full review!
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| Vivo V15 Pro's Selfie Camera |
In our first impressions, we stressed the huge improvement of Vivo in the build and design that has elevated the V15 way above against its predecessors. You can read more about it at the link below
For our review part 1: Vivo V15 Pro Unboxing and First Impressions
Inside the V15 Pro is the Snapdragon 675 processor with the Adreno 612 GPU, 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage that is powered by a 3,700mAh battery. It is running on Android 9.0 Pie with FunTouchOS on top.
Let's dive into the review!
In front is a 6.39-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5 Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 at 403 PPI that is immersive, bright, vibrant and sharp.
The top and side bezels are one of the thinnest we've ever seen in its price point. The only gripe is the thicker bottom bezel. This doesn't ruin the full-screen experience though as it has one of the highest screen-to-body ratios from any phone yet.
The V15 Pro is a tall device as a result but my small hands were able to tap objects from the very top while holding the phone near the bottom edge.
It has Eye Protection features that allow for a cooler or warmer display that you can set manually or at a set time. At its maximum brightness levels, images and text are visible even under direct sunlight.
Inside is a 3,700mAh battery. It would have been better if it had 4,000mAh. What does that mean? The V15 Pro's 3700mAh proves that you don't need the highest capacity battery to give more than a day of battery life.
Our usual PCMark battery test kept crashing whenever we would run it. In our real-world use where we had LTE and WiFi turned on the whole day, we got more than a day of use from the V15 Pro that included social media, email, texting, calling, web surfing and YouTube streaming. Our screenshot above shows the battery consumption after 1 day and 3 hours, and if you look at the battery, it still has 13 percent left.
There are several power management tools available: Normal, Low Power Mode and Super Power-Saving Mode. Low Power mode slows down the CPU and GPU clock speeds, lowers the display brightness, disables WiFi, and lowers touch feedback to reduce power consumption. In super power-saving mode, the phone turns off all features except for the dialer, contacts, messages and clock apps.
Vivo V15 Pro is charged via micro USB with support for Vivo's Dual Engine fast charging. This results in charging times of 0 to 100 in under 90 minutes. It is 2019, and we wish Vivo would transition to USB-C.
At the back is the rear triple camera set-up made out of a 48MP f/1.8 main sensor, 8MP f/2.2 120-degree ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 5MP f/2.4 depth sensor that uses Phase detect autofocus with an LED flash.
Main camera has 8 modes that include Photo, Pro, Video, Night, Panorama, AR stickers, and Document mode.
You can access the ultra-wide mode that uses the 8MP sensor to capture a wider field of view by tapping the ultra-wide button on the camera app.
V15 Pro's Pro mode allows for manually changing the exposure compensation, ISO, Shutter speed, white balance, and Auto Focus.
Standard Photo mode has an option to turn on and turn off the HDR mode and the shutter engages as soon as you tap the shutter button.
In low light, the main camera is able to hold its own and maintain detail and color but with some noticeable grain and noise reduction.
Night mode is able to remedy this concern for subjects that aren't moving or are staying still. Images with the night mode are cleaner and sharper than the standard photo mode.
Vivo V15 Pro's Selfie pop-up camera hides the 32MP f/2.0 Samsung ISOCELL GD1 sensor with AI and with screen flash. Selfie camera modes include Photo, Video, AI beauty, and AR stickers.
In daylight and indoors, the V15 Pro's selfies are sharp with great color accuracy. While in low light, the images soften because of some noise but the color accuracy is retained.
The 1080p footage is surprisingly decently smooth even if there was no mention of EIS and OIS. 4K doesn't have stabilization.
The stabilization of the regular V15 is better.
Selfie video shoots up to 1080p at 30fps, while Video Face Beauty mode records up to 720p. The footage is smooth with highly detailed footage with vibrant color and decent contrast.
The Vivo V15 Pro is carrying a 2.0GHz Snapdragon 675 AIE octa-core processor with an Adreno 612 GPU, 8GB RAM, and 128GB internal storage that is pushing a 1080p display.
It is powerful enough to score 177K in AnTuTu which beats the competing OPPO F11 Pro which scores up to 150K only. In GeekBench, the V15 Pro scores a respectable 2385 in single-core tests and 6514 in multi-core tests.
This results in a respectable gaming machine that is above most of its similarly priced peers except for Xiaomi Mi 9. Few more affordable phones like the OnePlus 6T and POCOPHONE F1 are also faster.
It has a gaming mode called Game Cube where you can block notifications, enable Game Assistant, reject calls, and activate E-sports mode. E-sports mode pushes the phone's performance to the max to make the most of battle royale games and AoV games.
Gaming on the V15 Pro has been a smooth ride, especially with the esports mode and when the notifications are blocked. After playing for an extended period, the V15 Pro was warmer but was never alarmingly hot.
Vivo V15 Pro runs on Android 9.0 with FunTouch OS 9 on top. Vivo has made some visual changes that make the new skin look more modern and in tune with Google's vision. What separates FunTouch OS is that their notifications are accessed by swiping down while their quick access toggles are accessed by swiping up.
There is no app drawer by default. So you will be able to swipe from the right side until you've seen all of your apps. You can also turn on the Easy Touch feature that gives you a floating button that offers shortcuts to screenshots, screen, and audio recording.
Inside the V15 Pro is the Snapdragon 675 processor with the Adreno 612 GPU, 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage that is powered by a 3,700mAh battery. It is running on Android 9.0 Pie with FunTouchOS on top.
Let's dive into the review!
Display Quality
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| Vivo V15 Pro's display |
In front is a 6.39-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5 Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 at 403 PPI that is immersive, bright, vibrant and sharp.
The top and side bezels are one of the thinnest we've ever seen in its price point. The only gripe is the thicker bottom bezel. This doesn't ruin the full-screen experience though as it has one of the highest screen-to-body ratios from any phone yet.
The V15 Pro is a tall device as a result but my small hands were able to tap objects from the very top while holding the phone near the bottom edge.
It has Eye Protection features that allow for a cooler or warmer display that you can set manually or at a set time. At its maximum brightness levels, images and text are visible even under direct sunlight.
The display supports 10 points of multitouch which allows for better UI interaction especially in games where multitouch is a necessity.
Audio Quality
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| Single speaker grill at the bottom |
The Vivo V15 Pro has a single bottom-firing speaker that doesn't produce the loudest sound from a phone in its price range but makes up for better sound quality. The clarity, separation and sound stage are good and we would argue the best at its price point.
Depending on the song or audio file, there is some discernible distortion at maximum volume while in other songs or audio file, there is almost no distortion. It is loud enough to fill a room so if you wanted to sound trip in your bedroom, you can.
When plugging the stock earphones to the 3.5mm headphone, sound quality improves even further with a bigger sound stage, with more distinct separation and with better clarity.
There is the DeepField Audio effect which simulates a 360-degree panoramic sound with mega bass and a clear voice called 'Deep Space' sound effect. It's nice to try once and never use it again.
There is a built-in EQ that can customize to your liking and will please any audiophile.
Depending on the song or audio file, there is some discernible distortion at maximum volume while in other songs or audio file, there is almost no distortion. It is loud enough to fill a room so if you wanted to sound trip in your bedroom, you can.
When plugging the stock earphones to the 3.5mm headphone, sound quality improves even further with a bigger sound stage, with more distinct separation and with better clarity.
There is the DeepField Audio effect which simulates a 360-degree panoramic sound with mega bass and a clear voice called 'Deep Space' sound effect. It's nice to try once and never use it again.
There is a built-in EQ that can customize to your liking and will please any audiophile.
The microphone quality is crisp and clear. We never had a caller who had a hard time hearing us.
Battery
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| After 1 day and 3 hours, we still had 13 percent of battery left |
Inside is a 3,700mAh battery. It would have been better if it had 4,000mAh. What does that mean? The V15 Pro's 3700mAh proves that you don't need the highest capacity battery to give more than a day of battery life.
Our usual PCMark battery test kept crashing whenever we would run it. In our real-world use where we had LTE and WiFi turned on the whole day, we got more than a day of use from the V15 Pro that included social media, email, texting, calling, web surfing and YouTube streaming. Our screenshot above shows the battery consumption after 1 day and 3 hours, and if you look at the battery, it still has 13 percent left.
There are several power management tools available: Normal, Low Power Mode and Super Power-Saving Mode. Low Power mode slows down the CPU and GPU clock speeds, lowers the display brightness, disables WiFi, and lowers touch feedback to reduce power consumption. In super power-saving mode, the phone turns off all features except for the dialer, contacts, messages and clock apps.
Vivo V15 Pro is charged via micro USB with support for Vivo's Dual Engine fast charging. This results in charging times of 0 to 100 in under 90 minutes. It is 2019, and we wish Vivo would transition to USB-C.
Camera
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| Triple rear cameras |
At the back is the rear triple camera set-up made out of a 48MP f/1.8 main sensor, 8MP f/2.2 120-degree ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 5MP f/2.4 depth sensor that uses Phase detect autofocus with an LED flash.
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| Camera UI |
Main camera has 8 modes that include Photo, Pro, Video, Night, Panorama, AR stickers, and Document mode.
You can access the ultra-wide mode that uses the 8MP sensor to capture a wider field of view by tapping the ultra-wide button on the camera app.
V15 Pro's Pro mode allows for manually changing the exposure compensation, ISO, Shutter speed, white balance, and Auto Focus.
Standard Photo mode has an option to turn on and turn off the HDR mode and the shutter engages as soon as you tap the shutter button.
One of the biggest new AI Portrait features aside from the Face Beauty is the Body slimming feature that slims your body down in real-time, along with a composition assistant that guides the user using AI for a better composition.
Rear Camera Samples
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| Daylight main camera |
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| Daylight ultra-wide camera |
Vivo's 48MP main camera takes beautiful daylight images with vibrant color and sharp images while 8MP ultra-wide camera takes vibrant colored images but with noticeably less detail.
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| Indoor main camera |
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| Indoor ultra-wide camera |
In indoors, the main camera and the ultrawide retains the vibrant colors and their sharpness in daylight. The pictures are beautiful. Like in daylight, the main camera is significantly sharper than the ultra-wide.
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| Main camera close up |
The 48MP is able to shine with the close-up shots because of how much detail is resolved. You can see the fine details of the Curry wax figure.
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| Low light main camera |
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| Main camera night mode |
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| Low light ultra-wide camera |
In low light, the main camera is able to hold its own and maintain detail and color but with some noticeable grain and noise reduction.
Night mode is able to remedy this concern for subjects that aren't moving or are staying still. Images with the night mode are cleaner and sharper than the standard photo mode.
The ultra-wide angle's images soften by a noticeable degree because of the grain and noise reduction. It does retain the color accuracy rather well.
See also: Vivo V15 Pro can also shoot breathtaking ultra-wide shots!
See also: Vivo V15 Pro can also shoot breathtaking ultra-wide shots!
In summary, the main and ultra-wide cameras produce beautiful images with great color accuracy in all conditions with the sharpness softening only in low light.
Watch: Vivo V15 Pro's Super Night Mode feature allowed us to shoot clearer images in the dark
Watch: Vivo V15 Pro's Super Night Mode feature allowed us to shoot clearer images in the dark
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| Selfie camera UI |
Vivo V15 Pro's Selfie pop-up camera hides the 32MP f/2.0 Samsung ISOCELL GD1 sensor with AI and with screen flash. Selfie camera modes include Photo, Video, AI beauty, and AR stickers.
There is no Selfie camera Autofocus but it detects faces quickly and the Shutter engages as soon as you tap the shutter button with a slight delay when saving the image.
It has no AF, but face detection is swift. Shutter speed is quite fast as well.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Daylight selfie |
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| Well-lit selfie |
In daylight and indoors, the V15 Pro's selfies are sharp with great color accuracy. While in low light, the images soften because of some noise but the color accuracy is retained.
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| Indoor dim with face beauty |
For face beauty, we recommend going up to level three only where it maintains the detail with just enough softening that doesn't look artificial.
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| With selfie bokeh |
For the artificial bokeh mode, we found that edge detection still wasn't perfect. It was either a hit or miss, but it should get better with time.
Vivo V15 Pro also has a lot of portrait effects and filters, you may read more about it here.
Vivo V15 Pro also has a lot of portrait effects and filters, you may read more about it here.
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| Low light selfie |
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| Low light selfie with bokeh |
While in low light, the images soften because of some noise but the color accuracy is retained. Compared with other selfie shooters at this price point, it is one of the best.
Oh, by the way, you can also use the screen flash to take better low light selfies.
See also: Reasons that make Vivo V15 Pro's 32MP pop-up selfie camera great?
Oh, by the way, you can also use the screen flash to take better low light selfies.
See also: Reasons that make Vivo V15 Pro's 32MP pop-up selfie camera great?
For videos, it can shoot up to 4K at 30fps with video face beauty, time-lapse and slow-mo mode. There is a unique time-lapse for the ultra-wide lens.
The main camera video focuses quickly and accurately. Video footage is sharp with great color accuracy across the ultra-wide-angle and the main camera in daylight. Like in stills, the main camera is noticeably sharper. In low light, the ultra-wide angle video footage softens and losses color accuracy to the point that we only recommend using it when you really need to. Stick with the main sensor for low light video footage.
The main camera video focuses quickly and accurately. Video footage is sharp with great color accuracy across the ultra-wide-angle and the main camera in daylight. Like in stills, the main camera is noticeably sharper. In low light, the ultra-wide angle video footage softens and losses color accuracy to the point that we only recommend using it when you really need to. Stick with the main sensor for low light video footage.
The stabilization of the regular V15 is better.
Selfie video shoots up to 1080p at 30fps, while Video Face Beauty mode records up to 720p. The footage is smooth with highly detailed footage with vibrant color and decent contrast.
Video Samples
Performance
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| AnTuTu and Geekbench scores |
The Vivo V15 Pro is carrying a 2.0GHz Snapdragon 675 AIE octa-core processor with an Adreno 612 GPU, 8GB RAM, and 128GB internal storage that is pushing a 1080p display.
Quite fast, but not the fastest for the price!
It is powerful enough to score 177K in AnTuTu which beats the competing OPPO F11 Pro which scores up to 150K only. In GeekBench, the V15 Pro scores a respectable 2385 in single-core tests and 6514 in multi-core tests.
This results in a respectable gaming machine that is above most of its similarly priced peers except for Xiaomi Mi 9. Few more affordable phones like the OnePlus 6T and POCOPHONE F1 are also faster.
It has a gaming mode called Game Cube where you can block notifications, enable Game Assistant, reject calls, and activate E-sports mode. E-sports mode pushes the phone's performance to the max to make the most of battle royale games and AoV games.
Gaming on the V15 Pro has been a smooth ride, especially with the esports mode and when the notifications are blocked. After playing for an extended period, the V15 Pro was warmer but was never alarmingly hot.
The UI
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| FunTouch OS 9 |
Vivo V15 Pro runs on Android 9.0 with FunTouch OS 9 on top. Vivo has made some visual changes that make the new skin look more modern and in tune with Google's vision. What separates FunTouch OS is that their notifications are accessed by swiping down while their quick access toggles are accessed by swiping up.
There is no app drawer by default. So you will be able to swipe from the right side until you've seen all of your apps. You can also turn on the Easy Touch feature that gives you a floating button that offers shortcuts to screenshots, screen, and audio recording.
Vivo's smart assistant Jovi is present throughout the UI of the phone like in Smart scene at the notification panel that gives you direct access to the information page where you have access to your step counter, rest monitor, weather and the events that Jovi recommends.
Other features
Vivo V15 Pro can connect via Wi-Fi, GSM, 4G LTE and Bluetooth 5.0. Connections are stable, reliable and fast.
There is an FM Radio for those who are interested and it works like it should.
In front is the In-Display fingerprint scanner that is noticeably faster than Vivo's previous iterations. Face unlock is also present with the pop-up camera popping up whenever your face is scanned. The mechanism is fast enough to not make you feel like there is a delay when scanning.
There is an FM Radio for those who are interested and it works like it should.
In front is the In-Display fingerprint scanner that is noticeably faster than Vivo's previous iterations. Face unlock is also present with the pop-up camera popping up whenever your face is scanned. The mechanism is fast enough to not make you feel like there is a delay when scanning.
Pros - Beautiful design, long-lasting battery with fast charging, Above average specs for the price, rear triple-camera setup, good night mode, 32MP selfie camera, big screen with no notch and slim bezels, improved FunTouch OS
Cons - Micro USB port in 2019, no night mode for the wide cam, no stabilization for videos
Vivo V15 Pro Specs
Display: 6.39-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5 Super AMOLED screen w/ FHD+ 2340 x 1080 resolution at 403 ppi
CPU: 2.0GHz 64-bit Snapdragon 675 AIE octa-core processor
GPU: Adreno 612
CPU: 2.0GHz 64-bit Snapdragon 675 AIE octa-core processor
GPU: Adreno 612
RAM: 8GB
ROM: 128GB expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB
Back Camera: 48MP f/1.8 + 8MP f/2.2 120-degree ultra-wide-angle lens + 5MP f/2.4 w/ PDAF and LED flash
Selfie Camera: 32MP f/2.0 Samsung ISOCELL GD1 sensor w/ AI and screen flash
Battery: 3,700mAh w/ Dual Engine fast charging
OS: Android 9.0 Pie w/ Funtouch OS 9
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), dual 700MHz 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5, A2DP, LE, OTG, GPS, A-GPS, dual SIM (nano)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, dual mic, Colors: topaz blue, ruby red
Dimensions: 157.25 x 74.1 x 8.21 mm
Weight: 185 g
Price: PHP 23,999
Verdict
After 3 months, is the Vivo V15 Pro still worth it? For us, Vivo V15 Pro is still a great phone with a big bright notchless screen, strong selfie shooter, and good cameras which can last all-day even with 4G LTE.
When compared to the standard V15, the V15 Pro adds a more powerful Snapdragon 675 and a 48MP f/1.8 main rear camera over the standard V15 which is worth the price if you need the extra power and the better main camera.
Overall, it is one of the best when it was first released even if it has the aging micro USB port and if you're okay with a single bottom-firing speaker.
However, because of the strong competition, we think that the V15 Pro needs a price cut 3 months after just like its sibling, the V15.
When compared to the standard V15, the V15 Pro adds a more powerful Snapdragon 675 and a 48MP f/1.8 main rear camera over the standard V15 which is worth the price if you need the extra power and the better main camera.
Overall, it is one of the best when it was first released even if it has the aging micro USB port and if you're okay with a single bottom-firing speaker.
However, because of the strong competition, we think that the V15 Pro needs a price cut 3 months after just like its sibling, the V15.
Build/Design - 4.25
Display - 4.5
Audio - 4.25
Battery - 4.5
Camera - 4.5
Performance - 4
Average - 4.33/5
Display - 4.5
Audio - 4.25
Battery - 4.5
Camera - 4.5
Performance - 4
Average - 4.33/5
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