Vivo X5Pro review: Proficient

Synthetic benchmarks

The vivo X5Pro is another in a long line of midrangers, which rely on the proven Snapdragon 615 formula. This holds true for the international version we're reviewing, as there's another one, powered by the Mediatek 6752 chip, but limited to the Chinese market.

The S615 is so popular that we have 43 devices in our database, which while extensive is certainly not exhaustive. That number has grown from the 36 we had a month ago, when we reviewed vivo's own X5Max - guess the chip in that one.

Even though it's the same base hardware, vivo has tinkered it a bit differently for the Pro compared to the Max. Where the clock rates of the Max were 1.5GHz and 1.0GHz for the performance and efficiency quad-core clusters respectively, the Pro's numbers are 1.5GHz and 1.1GHz.

And as you know, just because it's the same hardware, doesn't remotely mean that the same results are to be expected. Variations in clock rates (up to a maximum of 1.7GHz), coupled with different screen resolutions lead to markedly different scores, and that's before we factor in the level of software optimization, achieved by the manufacturers.

This becomes evident pretty quickly, as the vivo X5Pro sits towards the bottom of the S615 crowd in GeekBench, only to find itself near the top in Antutu. Apparently, the modest clock speeds have hurt the device in the CPU-only Geekbench, but overall performance is top-notch (given the innards, of course). Bear in mind that Antutu is dominated here by Mediatek-equipped devices, and the Lenovo Vibe X2 is running the Chinese chipmaker current top-dog, the Helio X10, f.k.a. MT6595.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  4242
• Meizu m1 note
  3988
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  3647
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  3557
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  2880
• Huawei P8lite
  2813
• Oppo R5
  2806
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  2717
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  2683
• Meizu m2 note
  2649
• HTC Desire 820
  2586
• Oppo R1x
  2507
• Archos 50 Diamond
  2460
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2375
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  2336
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  2298
• vivo X5Max
  2291
• vivo X5Pro
  2241
• ZTE Blade S6
  2086

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  46666
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  46307
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  39637
• Meizu m1 note
  39224
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  35582
• Huawei P8lite
  35205
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  35038
• vivo X5Pro
  34649
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  34491
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  32217
• Meizu m2 note
  32054
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  31436
• Oppo R5
  31417
• Oppo R1x
  30187
• vivo X5Max
  29630
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  29452
• Archos 50 Diamond
  28756
• ZTE Blade S6
  27198
• HTC Desire 820
  27070

Judging by the Antutu score, one would expect that the X5Pro would perform admirably in the other compound benchmarks, but that isn't exactly so. The overall score in the older Basemark OS II is uninspiring, though it's noticeably higher than the X5Max and the Huawei P8lite (the Kirin 620 version).

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor 7
  1038
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  930
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  883
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  857
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  843
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  818
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  799
• Meizu m2 note
  794
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  786
• Oppo R5
  772
• Archos 50 Diamond
  762
• Oppo R1x
  745
• ZTE Blade S6
  741
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  737
• vivo X5Pro
  728
• HTC Desire 820
  725
• Meizu m1 note
  715
• vivo X5Max
  620
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  619
• Huawei P8lite
  600

Basemark OS II 2.0 is a bit more flattering, and the X5Pro places towards the middle of the pack. Its single-core performance helps its case, and since a lot of apps can only utilize a single CPU core, this is arguably the more important number. The multi-core result is rather low though, about half of what the Samsung Galaxy A7 is capable of with the same chipset.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  939
• Meizu m1 note
  880
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  858
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  813
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  757
• Oppo R1x
  753
• ZTE Blade S6
  751
• Archos 50 Diamond
  745
• vivo X5Pro
  738
• HTC Desire 820
  728
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  725
• Oppo R5
  710
• Huawei P8lite
  691
• Meizu m2 note
  673
• vivo X5Max
  656
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  296
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  282

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  3008
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  2900
• vivo X5Pro
  2767
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  2676
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2628
• Meizu m1 note
  2617
• vivo X5Max
  2580
• HTC Desire 820
  2546
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  2480
• Archos 50 Diamond
  2454
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  2452
• ZTE Blade S6
  2446
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  2438
• Oppo R5
  2437
• Oppo R1x
  2177
• Huawei P8lite
  2154
• Meizu m2 note
  1709

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  24035
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  18968
• Huawei P8lite
  17099
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  16640
• Meizu m1 note
  14565
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  13521
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  13167
• Oppo R5
  12044
• Archos 50 Diamond
  11587
• HTC Desire 820
  10275
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  9979
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  9755
• vivo X5Pro
  8733
• Oppo R1x
  8683
• vivo X5Max
  8327
• ZTE Blade S6
  8229
• Meizu m2 note
  8105

Graphics performance is good, as long as you have in mind we're talking about the combination of an Adreno 405 GPU and a FullHD display. In the onscreen parts of GFXBench there's a clear line between the 1080p and 720p devices, indicating that the GPU is a lot better suited to HD screens. In the standardized 1080p offscreen T-Rex routine, however, the X5Pro is a frame behind the majority of similarly equipped devices. The more demanding Manhattan test shows little difference.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  17.8
• Huawei Honor 7
  17
• Oppo R5
  15.1
• vivo X5Max
  15
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  15
• HTC Desire 820
  15
• ZTE Blade S6
  15
• Archos 50 Diamond
  15
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  15
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  15
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  15
• Meizu m1 note
  15
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  14.9
• vivo X5Pro
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  14
• Oppo R1x
  12
• Meizu m2 note
  12
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  11
• Huawei P8lite
  10

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  26
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  26
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  25.8
• ZTE Blade S6
  24
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  22
• Oppo R1x
  20
• Huawei Honor 7
  19
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  17
• Huawei P8lite
  16
• Meizu m1 note
  16
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  15
• Archos 50 Diamond
  15
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  15
• Oppo R5
  14.8
• vivo X5Max
  14
• vivo X5Pro
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  14
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  14
• Meizu m2 note
  12

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor 7
  9.2
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  6.2
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6.1
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  6
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  6
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  5.9
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  5.9
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  5.84
• vivo X5Pro
  5.8
• Oppo R5
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• ZTE Blade S6
  5.8
• Archos 50 Diamond
  5.8
• Meizu m1 note
  5.8
• vivo X5Max
  5.7
• HTC Desire 820
  5.7
• Oppo R1x
  4.9
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  4.9
• Meizu m2 note
  2.3

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  12.2
• HTC Desire 820
  12
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  12
• ZTE Blade S6
  11
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  10
• Oppo R1x
  9.6
• Huawei Honor 7
  9.3
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  6.4
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  6.2
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6.1
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  5.9
• vivo X5Pro
  5.8
• Oppo R5
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  5.8
• vivo X5Max
  5.7
• Archos 50 Diamond
  5.7
• Meizu m1 note
  5.7
• Meizu m2 note
  2.3

Basemark X has all the Snapdragon 615s closely spaced, but the vivo X5Pro is still among the best performers, with only the Oppo R7 noticeably better.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor 7
  9377
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6512
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  5382
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  5105
• vivo X5Pro
  5091
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  5062
• ZTE Blade S6
  5039
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  5003
• vivo X5Max
  4893
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  4875
• HTC Desire 820
  4859
• Oppo R5
  4855
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  4802
• Meizu m1 note
  4617
• Oppo R1x
  4018
• Meizu m2 note
  3946
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  3934
• Huawei P8lite
  3648

Browser performance is another area where the X5Pro does pretty well. It's on par with the Galaxy A7 when it comes to handling JavaScript in the Kraken 1.1 benchmark, though the Oppo R7 escapes to the top again with some 10% better scores. General HTML performance is top notch, in its own right and especially compared to the mediocre X5Max.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  4747
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  11257
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  11410
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  11439
• Huawei Honor 7
  11493
• Oppo R5
  11656
• vivo X5Max
  11967
• Archos 50 Diamond
  12110
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  12266
• vivo X5Pro
  12525
• Oppo R1x
  12826
• ZTE Blade S6
  12865
• HTC Desire 820
  13568
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  13609
• Meizu m2 note
  14462
• Meizu m1 note
  15055
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  15815
• Huawei P8lite
  16743
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  18583
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  18665

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  2211
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  1655
• vivo X5Pro
  1509
• Archos 50 Diamond
  1437
• Oppo R7 (retail)
  1433
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  1396
• Oppo R5
  1319
• ZTE Blade S6
  1271
• Acer Liquid Jade S
  1175
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  1171
• HTC Desire 820
  991
• Huawei P8lite
  981
• Huawei Honor 7
  825
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  793
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  767
• Meizu m2 note
  656
• Oppo R1x
  627
• vivo X5Max
  607
• Meizu m1 note
  536
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  501

All in all, the vivo X5Pro is a dependable performer, often outclassing competitors with the same hardware. Most importantly, vivo has done a much better job with optimizing the software package and the Pro does considerably better than the Max. The improvement could be partially attributed to the newer Android version (the Pro is running Lollipop, while the Max is still on KitKat), but whatever the reasons, the result is what counts.