vivo X5Max
- RishiGuru
- utg
- 31 Jan 2016
I thought to share a few points about my X5Max, V1 and Vivo in general:
Pros:
1) Excellent built quality. Be it X5Max or V1, from the moment you hold X5Max or V1 in your hand you feel the premium built quality and precision engineering. The handsets radiate as if they were curved from a single block of magnesium/ aluminum and are built to last. But this premium quality comes at a premium price just like an Apple iPhone. So Vivo is not like LeTv/ LeEco, providing premium quality at an insanely low price.
2) Vivo's own Funtouch overlay over Android. As the name implies this custom operating system overlay is "fun to touch" and comes with many useful gesture controls which are truly helpful at times. But don't expect blazingly fast performance and range topping benchmark scores against this OS. Even though Funtouch OS overlay is a shameless copy of Apple's own iOS found in iPhones, coping iPhone have made Vivo to offer us a very useful and intuitive OS and truly engaging for day to day activity. I love this OS.
3) If you are a music lover and cherish high sound quality over headphones, then Vivo flagship models like X5Max or X5Pro are for you. Two years back we had not too many options, Meizu was not available in India and X5max was the best and only choice for music buffs like me. Fortunately now we have many choices like Lenevo Vibe X3 which has the premium built quality like X5Max coupled with high quality sound and also comes way cheaper at INR 20K while X5max retailed at INR 33K. Meizu MX5 Pro and Xiaomi Mi Note are also other options you can look out for.
Cons:
1) Zero Android OS updates. Let me give you an example. I gifted my wife's a Motorola Moto G (2nd Gen) in 2014 which came preinstalled with Android 4.4.4 (KitKat). The Moto G retailed online at INR 11K in Flipkart. In the same year I got myself a Vivo X5Max at INR 33K (3x the price of Moto G) from a local offline Vivo dealer. This also came with Android 4.4.4 (KitKat) with their own Funtouch 2.0 overlay. Standing as of today the Moto G was subsequently updated via OTA by Motorola to Android 5.0.1 (Lolipop) -> Android 5.1.0 (Lolipop) -> Android 6.0.0 (Marshmallow). Unfortunately the X5Max being a flagship device and initially costing 3x the price of a budget Moto G is still stuck to the same version it came pre-installed with, Android 4.4.4 (KitKat) . This is the biggest disappointed I have against Vivo, and after waiting for over a year I have understood they never do updates. The Android version in which your Vivo handset will come is the version it will remain for the rest of its life be it even a flagship device like X5Max. I have lost a lot of respect against the company in this aspect only.
2) Vivo handsets are not meant for gaming. Poor optimization of the Android with its Funtouch OS means it always remains in the bottom of the score chart in benchmarks like AnTuTu when compared with other handsets with same chipsets from rival companies. You will find more of this is GsmArena reviews itself like that of X5Max or X5Pro. You can imagine the level of stuttering and frame loss when I started to play Asphalt 8 on my flagship X5Max which comes with 64-bit Snapdragon 615 processor and 32-bit Android 4.4.4 with a poorly optimized Funtouch OS. The same game blazes in my wife's new Moto X Play with same chipset and 2GB RAM. With V1 my advice will be to stick to very low end games like Subway Surfers.
3) Always buy Vivo phones with 2GB RAM at minimum. As I said before and also mentioned by GSMArena reviews many a times, this custom Funtouch OS is very poorly optimized so require much more resources to perform optimally. To give you an example, my wife's old Moto G came with a 32-bit Snapdragon 400 with 1GB RAM and at that moment was updated to Android 5.0.1. My Vivo V1 on the other hand had 64-bit Snapdragon 410 with 2GB RAM and also comes with Android 5.0.1 having Funtouch 2.1 overlay. So V1 had much superior processor with twice the RAM of Moto G. But when I ran AnTuTu benchmarks in both handsets all hell break loose and Moto G was just a notch below V1 in total score, and most absurdly had higher scores in RAM utilization and optimization while V1 with two times the RAM of Moto G was lagging much behind it. You get the picture. This is the reason why the Vivo Y27L has so many complains which uses the same CPU of V1 but with 1GB RAM only.
4) Absurd sky high offline price when compared to online sales of its competitor models through online sales channels like Flipkart or Amazon. Let us take the example of the maximum retail price of INR 18K of Vivo V1. Comparing the absurdly high priced V1 with LeTv Le 1s (INR 11K) or Lenovo K4 Note (INR 12K) is simply injustice; they will simply blow the V1 out of the water and then stampede it in every category be it screen size or performance category bar none even being INR 6 to 7K cheaper. Same goes for every other model of Vivo.
5) If you really love to use a Vivo handset better gun for second's sale in Quikr or Olx. You will find a ton of Vivo users trying to sale their Vivo phones with barely two to three months of use, at almost half the price. I got one such two months old V1 in brand new condition at INR 7K (60% discount on INR 18K MRP). At 7K the Vivo V1 is a complete VFM and a great device worthy to buy.
Enjoy!!!
- RishiGuru
- utg
- 28 Jan 2016
Here is my take on Vivo after using their X5Max & V1 smartphones:
1) You should only buy a vivo if you are a music aficionado. You love high quality music that comes is huge uncompressed FLAC files & compressed 320 kbps MP3. Then also you should better stay away from V1 as it does not support FLAC files. Better buy the best music phone in the world X5Max which supports all audio file formats known to man.
2) I can find in many posts people complain about the absurdly high price of Vivo handsets over their other Chinese competitors in India. But there is a marketing logic behind it. You see in order to sustain and survive in the cut throat competition in mobile market, as a company you can market your products in two ways, online or offline. Either you gun for maximum market share on the very entry by delivering a quality product to the end customer at minimum profit margin and taking help from a reputed and established online sales channel like Flipkart or Amazon. Here there are no middle man like distributors and dealers to compound their profits and increase the final selling price. The truth is with the online retail boom in India we are now habituated in receiving smartphones as a direct sale from the company at absurdly low price. Leneovo, Xiaomi & Letv to name a few follow this direct sales path and are successful.
The other way is not to give too much importance to online business and better focus on offline business by creating an offline sales channel infrastructure which initially costs a lot on money to the manufacturers. Frankly in India with only a minority of the population having access to the internet, the offline business through distributors and dealers offer a much higher potential of market share on a long run than online. Samsung, LG, HTC to name a few follow this path and so does Vivo. Vivo does offer their mobile phones at a very competitive price to their distributors rather than us, so compounding the profit margin made by distributors and dealers we end up with Vivo phones at almost twice the price of an online purchase. Take the example of much superior Lenovo K4 Note selling online at almost half the price of Vivo V1Max which is selling offline. We know the performance difference between these two models and we will always curse Vivo and always go for Lenovo or a LeTv. But what about those people who have no access to internet? They will end up buying a vivo. Also because the high profit margin provided by vivo to their dealers, they will take extra effort to convince and sell vivo products to the offline end customers.
In short run, you will find Letv to have over 2 lakh registrations of their Le 1s model on the initial two days only over flipkart, while vivo have only sold slightly over 3 lakh phones in India in their first seven months with all models combined. But 5 years down the line just like Samsung or LG, they will be more well known than Letv India ans sell more phones just like Samsung & LG. So as a company it is about either attaining short term success or a long term success. Mind you as a manufacturer you can be successful in both ways.
I as an end customers and in having access to internet, will better avoid vivo phones and gun for other options from Lenovo or LeTv if music is not my priority. Saying that an LeTv Le1s will have equal sound quality of a V1Max.
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- AnonD-492515
- v{R
- 24 Jan 2016
Banti, 04 Aug 2015Not good its very slowhahahah R u fool . viviox5max is very fast phone. i used it. no problem. very very good phone.
- D
- AnonD-492515
- v{R
- 24 Jan 2016
hello everyone, this is my truly opinion for buy vivo x5max .........., THIs Is very very very good product, all features included. i am very satisfied from this smart phone. love it. i have used iphone, samsung, htc, but this phone is amazing. so last i will give rate this product 100 out of 100. forget to buy htc, samsung ,iphone
- P
- Pakrol
- tVj
- 19 Jan 2016
Vivo X5 Max setting,gallery and imusic is black....can change to white??
because i dont like black ;-(
- g
- ghost
- Nu7
- 12 Jan 2016
AnonD-262250, 03 Nov 20155.5 inch full HD screen with only 2300mah battery? Can any ... moreIt runs down easily couldn't even use it for up to 12 hours
- P
- Pakrol
- KZJ
- 03 Jan 2016
hirah, 23 Oct 2015really an amzaing phone.i have been using vivo x5 max from ... moreIs the batterry drain so fast??
- M
- Mundhum
- PF5
- 29 Nov 2015
Battery performance is very poor.
- M
- Mundhum
- PF5
- 29 Nov 2015
sbns, 09 Oct 2015Can i use both SD and Sim in slor 2 You can not use both together.
- R
- Riyaz
- 3rB
- 26 Nov 2015
The only best thing in this phone...
the best of Vivo's traditions, the world's thinnest, 4.75mm phone, is also equipped with the company's usual high quality audio experience, Hi-fi 2.0, ensured this time by a Yamaha YSS-205X chip for the karaoke mode, SABRE ES9601 DAC and TI’s OPA1612 amplifier kit. As Vivo itself puts it, the phone "measures 120dB SNR, 118dB dynamic range, and distortion of less than -100dB".
- Z
- Zamri
- 25E
- 24 Nov 2015
Why my Vivo X unable to connect to PC using their USB? supposed it appear automatically..
- a
- anu
- Hkt
- 17 Nov 2015
sbns, 09 Oct 2015Can i use both SD and Sim in slor 2 Can I use both sim and sd card
- H
- HARMAN
- wiT
- 13 Nov 2015
Hehe, 09 Nov 2015How do you change the icon and nickname? I tried dragging ... moreTry holding that small icon for approx. 3 sec and if it didn't work than flip it over and again hold it than u will see a plus sign at the left bottom corner of the phone and then you can change the nickname and that pic as wel.
- H
- Hehe
- fxT
- 09 Nov 2015
How do you change the icon and nickname? I tried dragging the icon down but it is only the shortcut to music
- D
- AnonD-262250
- tVj
- 03 Nov 2015
5.5 inch full HD screen with only 2300mah battery? Can any owner tell me how's the battery life if heavy use?
- h
- hirah
- uu@
- 23 Oct 2015
really an amzaing phone.i have been using vivo x5 max from last 6 months.no problem at all.good job done.
- r
- raju
- uuS
- 20 Oct 2015
very nice phone and no complaints
- s
- surojit das
- u78
- 17 Oct 2015
it is a good phone .i love vivo.
- i
- ivy
- ua%
- 15 Oct 2015
sbns, 09 Oct 2015Can i use both SD and Sim in slor 2 yep,my X5max support both Sim card and Mini card.
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- Anonymous
- KAX
- 14 Oct 2015
no after sale service ,no updates,gets heated,gets automatically off .
features are good bt service is worst . no one is ready and bothered to reply