vivo V15 Pro hands-on review

Design

The vivo V15 Pro is definitely a looker with its sweet blue gradient color immediately making an impression. It also has a subtle stripes pattern giving it a distinct look.

The front is even cooler with the nearly bezel-less front panel as impressive as any flagship's. Since the front-facing camera pops up on a motorized slider, it eliminates the need of a notch. In fact, the upper bezel is so thin, it barely has enough space to incorporate the earpiece so vivo put the ambient and proximity sensors under the display in the upper-left corner.

In fact the only bezel that's noticeable is the bottom one and vivo still did a pretty good job here. The side frame is just 1.75mm while the top one is merely 2.22mm. With this, vivo claims to have achieved an impressive 91.64% screen-to-body ratio.

Unfortunately, the company doesn't specify the type of protection on the display so we assume there's no Gorilla Glass here. The back and the frame are made from plastic with glossy finish.

We do understand that vivo wanted to turn the rear camera setup into somewhat of an accent but the slightly protruding blocky piece won't be everyone's cup of tea. Still, considering the sensors used by both the primary camera and the slider selfie snapper we can certainly live with some bulging.

The sides of the vivo V15 Pro are rather interesting. First, there's a dedicated button on the left to summon the voice assistant and right above it, is the second tray for the microSD card. Yep, that means no hybrid SIM slot - you can stick a memory card and two SIM cards at the same time.

The whole body feels well-designed and balanced. Despite the huge 6.39-inch panel, the phone is reasonably comfortable to handle with the non-existent bezels meaning the screen fits in a body much more compact than you'd expect. The rounded back panel does contribute to the overall grip, although the glossy finish takes some of it away.

And even though vivo claims that the front panel uses a 2.5D glass, the edges around it are actually in two steps so they are not perfectly smooth. It's not unpleasant, but it doesn't earn any bonus points either.

To get a better idea of the design here's a 360-degree view of the V15 Pro.

Hardware overview

The vivo V15 Pro brings plenty of innovation to the mid-range - it's the first to bring periscope-like selfie camera after the NEX S and the first commercially available handset with a Snapdragon 675 chipset. Plus it's among the few at this price point to have an in-display fingerprint reader and an ultra-wide camera.

Quick note - the in-display fingerprint is Goodix's 5th generation sensor. Goodix is also the supplier for Oppo R17 Pro and OnePlus 6T's scanners. The reader does well in terms of speed but it's accuracy leaves something to be desired. Every few attempts, it would fail to recognize a finger, which is a minor nuisance but not quite a deal-breaker. Speed-wise, the OnePlus 6T still comes on top so perhaps due to its faster chipset.

As far as memory goes, our unit came with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage - plenty generous for a mid-ranger already. There's even a 8GB/128GB version if that's not enough for you.

And as for the display, it's got the deep blacks and excellent contrast you'd expect from a decent OLED panel and the FullHD+ resolution is certainly adequate. Brightness could have been a bit higher perhaps, but still this is certainly one of the better screens around these parts of the market.

Battery capacity isn't overlooked either. The unit inside is rated at 3,700 mAh and should easily be able to last you a full day even if you are a heavy user. Our full set of testing will give you a better idea of how it performs, but we were already able to test the so-called Dual-Engine fast charging. The 18W charger included in the package take a completely flat battery to 38% in 30 minutes, which is a fine achievement for a mid-ranger. Oppo's VOOC can outdo that vivo, but most other rivals have to wait much longer.

The only thing about the hardware that really grinds our gears is the outdated microUSB port. When you've squeezed in a motorized selfie camera unit, an AMOLED display with in-display fingerprint tech under, the microUSB port feels like it belongs in a different era. Sure, it's still good enough to handle the Dual-Engine Fast Charging tech from vivo, but it's 2019 and it's about time all phones moved over to USB-C connectors.