Vivo announces the V15 Pro, without notch and with 32 megapixel pop-up selfie camera

Last year, Vivo was one of the most prominent companies in the smartphone market, offering a series of devices with wild and experimental hardware. The first major launch of Vivo in 2019 is the V15 Pro, a new phone that sees high-end features spreading to the company's flagship product line, Nex. This is an unusual device with no direct competitors and a ubiquitous data sheet.

Recently, Vivo's V Series was a harbinger of screen design trends, with the V9 being one of the first Android phones with a notch and the V11 wearing what might still be the smallest. The V15, meanwhile, goes even further with a 6.4-inch OLED screen without clutter, obtained thanks to the reappearance of one of the best stuff from Vivo: the camera selfie surge original Nex.

This time, however, this front camera is much more formidable. It has a 32 megapixel sensor, which, even with its default setting of 8 megapixels in case of pixel removal, marks a clear improvement over the Nex's 5 megapixel pokey unit. At the back, at the same time, a set of three cameras including a 48-megapixel main sensor (taking 12-megapixel photos by default), an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera and a 5-megapixel depth sensor.

The three rear cameras are arranged side by side in a section of the phone also housing the contextual selfie camera. The result is a hell of a camera bump. I think it's pretty cool to have so many cameras side by side, without really changing the design of the phone.

The hump, however, draws attention to the words AI TRIPLE CAMERA, and Vivo has failed to apply the AI ​​mark to the camera's features. There is an AI Night Super Night scene, a wide angle AI camera and AI body shaping; the latter looks like Vivo's AI Face Beauty, but to "create a slimmer waist, an improved bust or longer legs". I have not tried yet.

The V15 Pro is the first phone built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor, announced shortly after the 710 and surpassing it even on paper, even though it was in the lower slot. We're not a rigorous reference site for a variety of reasons, but I've had some quick tests just out of curiosity, and the results have been impressive – often trading hits with flagship products a year or two ago. Although I would not necessarily use statistics of this type as part of a purchase decision, since references do not give much guidance on actual use, it It is clear that the new 675 Cortex-A76 cores will deliver extremely robust performance. for the mid-range segment. That said, the first flagship phones Snapdragon 855 will be announced this week, which should put into perspective the performance of the 675.

Vivo has been the pioneer of on-screen fingerprint sensors, and they continue to improve. The V15 Pro has a fifth generation component that has worked very fast and reliable for me, but no more than the already outstanding implementation of the Nex Dual Display. You can also use the selfie camera for unlocking faces, which appears quickly in one movement, but is not as secure as fingerprint authentication.

Elsewhere, the V15 Pro has a battery of 3,700 mAh, 6 or 8 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, Android 9 Pie and a headphone jack, which helps the strength of the high-end phone. Except for one thing: the inexplicable use of Micro USB. There is a twin-engine quick charger included in the box, but in a world where Xiaomi ships phones with USB-C ports at $ 150, I really do not see why Vivo insisted on continuing to deprive its customers of the pleasure of Reversible cables – especially as the company continues to completely ignore the wireless charge.

(If I miss something here and you are a potential customer of this phone that is really happy with its micro USB, contact us! I'm sure Vivo has its reasons.)

In addition to its unfortunate choice of charge port, the V15 Pro is a very powerful device for its segment and a typically original way to start the year for Vivo. Who would have thought that mid-range smartphones would kill frames and notches before the micro USB? What time to live.

The V15 Pro will be launched in India and other key markets for Vivo, with prices being announced by region. It starts at Rs 28,990 in India, about $ 400.