Vivo V5s review: Offers perfect selfies and good battery life

Design

Design-wise, the Vivo V5s is in line with the V5 Plus, but the antenna lines are given a miss to follow the iPhone-like U-shaped design at the lower edge. We received a unit dipped in Crown Gold (other option is Matte black), sporting a metal finish.

The right edge accommodates the volume keys and power button, while the left edge houses the hybrid SIM slot. The lower edge gets the audio jack, microUSB slot and the speaker grilles. On the front, the 5.5-inch display is flanked by larger bezel area on the upper and lower side. It gets a 2.5D curved glass design that adds the premium factor to the device. Below the display you will find the home button that also doubles as the fingerprint scanner, flanked by capacitive buttons on both sides.  

Vivo has designed a good-looking device that feels sturdy in hands. It's light in weight and we didn't have any trouble using it with one hand. The device isn't exactly a head turner, but there isn't anything to dislike about it either. 

Display
The front houses a 5.5-inch HD display with 720 x 1280 pixels of resolution with Gorilla Glass protection. It's disappointing to see the device in this price range with a HD quality. The viewing angles were fine and so was sunlight legibility. We didn't find anything go amiss while watching videos, too.

Camera
The biggest highlight of the device is the camera, precisely the 20MP Moonlight selfie camera. It is accompanied by Beauty Pro mode that lets you control the skin texture and colour. It looks natural to some extent, but that would depend upon how much beatification you prefer. 

We tested selfies outdoors, indoors with bright light and also in low light conditions. The pictures were quite detailed, and colours seemed punchy. The  low light selfies still had some noise, but they were better than most of the phones we've used in the similar price range. 

The 13MP rear snapper also captured some detailed outdoor shots. The macro shots were good, but it falls short of impressing us in low light conditions.

Performance
The Vivo V5s is powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6750 processor, just like the V5 Plus, and includes 4GB of RAM. The device did a decent jobs in multi-tasking as we tried to dabble with music, social media and run searches simultaneously. It runs Android-marshmallow based FunTouch 3.0 OS. No Nougat update yet! The OS aims at an iOS-like feel, and packs in features like App lock, Switching between apps was smooth could handle casual games such as Temple Run, effectively. 

Once you get the hang of it, the OS is easy to navigate. On swiping upwards, you will find a series of shortcut options. There are other features like the Clone that lets you create two accounts, Smart Split that lets you run two applications simultaneously, Smart Click that lets you customise the volume key and has bundled several easy gesture features. However, we wonder how many actually use gestures. 

The fingerprint scanner was quick to unlock the device. However, there is no tactile feedback for the home button.

Running some popular benchmarks, look at what the Y66 scored on Antutu, Geekbench and GFX.

Battery

The device packs in a 3000mAh battery that gave us 10 hours and 17 minutes on running the test, with almost 20 percent battery left. With average usage, we could easily use the device for over a day. 

Verdict

The Vivo V5s is true to its name and ensures you get the perfect selfie. Apart from the 20MP Moonlight camera, it also impresses when it comes to the battery life. However, the HD display is a let down. In terms of overall value for money, there are better options at that price. However, if a selfie camera and battery life are on top of your list, then you could give this one a try.