We may be out on the embargo session of this high-midrange smartphone but it does mean (like on our tradition) to reveal more yays and nays of this phone that you might never seen anywhere else. Here is our verdict on the Vivo V9.
By the way during our review period, we got a total of four system updates.
By the way during our review period, we got a total of four system updates.
On the UI, it is the latest Funtouch OS 4.0 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Multitasking is much easier on this one and not that much changes compared to Vivo V7 so not that much learning curve. If there were some things that I would not love that even that you will try to put a third party keyboard (like GBoard) on default, after a few minutes it will automatically go back to Touchpal (which since Vivo's first days here, you cannot diasble the said app) plus everytime you try to open a site link from app, it will force to oopen it via their stock browser which for me, I just gonna copy the site link and tap my preferred app browsers anyway. At first after three OTAs, I am worried that the 19:9 display cannot maximize my video viewing. After the fourth OTA, I just found out that it was not on MX Player's fault but on the UI itself. The sad story continues as Vivo still has the least of number of apps who can support or force to adapt apps to multi-window mode (still that epic discovery when I had Grab and Youtube at the multiwindow from another phone brand)
Display as I came in from it's closest rival OPPO F7, I would pick the V9 for that additional vibrance. It's pleasing especially if I spent numbers of hours in watching offline videos and Youtube and also a bit in photo editing.
Connectivity on the V9 is almost a-ok to calls, text, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and OTG except on the mobile data part. It is not bad but it could be better as based on most of Snapdragon-based smartphones that I reviewed that having a very good mobile data connection is a already a norm
On benchmarks, the V9 got at over 90,000 on Antutu and seven out of nine sensors are working including gyro sensor
On battery with 3,260 mAh battery and 14 nm based Qualcomm Snapdragon 626, V9 managed to get me in 15 hours and 45 minutes on video battery rundown test. On real-life heavy usage, the device can give me an average of 30 hours of battery life with 6 hours of screen on time set at 20%
On camera, the UI is still same-same if to compared to V7 with some lil additions including timestamp and thanks to those 4 OTAs, V( just added a watermark in your selfies. The auto mode with or without HDR were both fast in terms of image processing. Shooting on daylight and artificial lighting, the outputs were very good with enough sharpness and color accuracy. The night shots can be tweaked in a bit to have some less noise. In to comparison of normal and bokeh selfies, the V9 almost made it for my taste
Vivo V9 rear camera samples
Vivo V9 selfie camera samples (normal to bokeh mode)
Extras:
There were some comments online that the V9 has a flaw on flickering screen when you are about to view the live chat on Youtube (which is not true as we also saw the same incident on OPPO F5, for sure it is on the app) but there were some instances when you are about to use HDR photos on standby for a long time.
The Vivo V9's price is at Php 17,990 which if you will instantly look at the SoC on the specs sheet, it is a bit not right compared to other rival phone at the same price but with around +50% more power based on the benchmarks and gaming experiences. Except for the pearl black, I will gonna pick either the gold or velvet red if you do not like to wipe a phone for so many times (if you are not a fan of protective cases and you want to savor the curves of the phone). Display, sound, battery life, cameras and some nifty features of Funtouch OS are my main selling points to it but I hope the brand will give it's users more freedom to choose their own third-party keyboard and browser to use if you are clicking an external link coming from an app. I will gonna give 4 out of 5 for the Vivo V9.