vivio 11 review

Introduction

Many are playing the notch game after Apple made it trendy and vivo was among the first to join. While it all started with Essential and its selfie camera hole, Apple made it much bigger to fit its Kinect-like FaceID tech and that's where the market went. Now, mere months later vivo is already challenging the notch concept with the new V11.                                                                                                                              Meanwhile, the company that was the first to introduce the under-display fingerprint scanner is now also the first to try and trickle it down to the mid-range.

This puts the vivo V11 in a rather interesting place - it's not a flagship but more of a mid-range smartphone with not one but two standout features. The V11's glass design is certainly a looker, but the screen with that tiny curvy notch is the place where all eyes will go.

Despite not belonging to the X series, the V11 has very capable hardware - there is a Snapdragon 660 chip with AI processor inside, plenty of RAM and storage, a dual-camera camera setup for those blurry backgroud shots and a high-res selfie shooter at the front.

vivo V11 specs:

• Body: Glass body, plastic frame 157.9 x 75 x 7.9 mm, 156g
• Screen: 6.41" 2,340 x 1,080px (19.5:9) Super AMOLED, 402ppi, notched
• Chipset: Snapdragon 660 chipset - octa-core processor (4x2.2 GHz Kryo 260 & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260), Adreno 512 GPU
• Memory: 6GB RAM, 128GB of storage, (dedicated) microSD slot
• Camera: Dual: 12MP (f/1.8) + 5MP for depth sensing, phase detection autofocus; 1080p @ 30fps video
• Selfie cam: 25MP (f/2.0), 1080p video
• OS: Android 8.1 Oreo with FunTouch 4.5
• Battery: 3,400 mAh, 18W fast charging
• Connectivity: Dual Nano-SIM; microUSB (USB 2.0), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, GLONASS, FM radio
• Misc: Under-display fingerprint sensor, bottom-firing loudspeaker, 3.5mm audio port

Unfortunately, vivo, just like Oppo, is still stuck in the microUSB era. Sure, the NEX S flagship went for USB-C, but here are we again back to the outdated port. On the upside it comes with fast charging support, so it's not like you will be missing on functionality - just compatibility.

Hopping on another trend from 2018, vivo has opted for gradient paintjobs for the V11 - Starry Night and Nebula. The one we are going to review today is the Starry Night option with Black/Blue color scheme.

And now it's time to unpack the vivo V11 and put it through its paces.

Unboxing the vivo V11

The vivo V11 retail box contains a lot - in addition to the vivo V11, we also found a microUSB cable, an 18W charger, and even a headset with design closely resembling Apple's EarPods.

vivo also provides a transparent silicone case for protection, while the V11 itself comes with a factory-applied screen protector. Nice!                                                                                      

Design

The V11's glass-sandwich body is arguably the most common among premium smartphones these days and even plenty of its mid-range peers employ it. But vivo did try to make it standout in more than one way.

For starters - we just can't take our eyes off the AMOLED screen. It's quite large at 6.41", but thanks to the thin, almost non-existing, bezels - the phone isn't a huge slab. The small cutout on top accommodates the 25MP selfie camera and nothing else. It's still an interruption of the screen, but as far as notches go this is certainly the most elegant solution we've seen so far. Some might even say that it adds some character to the phone, but to each their own.

If you look closely though you'll see the long earpiece grille on the bezel.

We've seen quite a few phones claiming to have bezel-less displays, but the Halo FullView screen on the V11 is indeed very close to this concept with 1.76mm side bezels, about 3mm top one, and minimal chin.

The fingerprint-scanner is under the display and that's the second impressive thing about the V11's design. vivo pioneered this feature and is now starting to use it even on its mid-rangers. The sensor has an always-on option so you always see a small fingerprint on the screen, but this turned out to be quite the battery drainer. We'll circle back to that later.

If you opt to turn the Offscreen Unlock off, then you'll need to use the power button to wake the phone up and then use the sensor. It's a bit sluggish, just like the other in-display sensors we've seen so far, so it's probably for the best that vivo provides face unlock as an alternative.

The V11 has a stunning back. Vivo opted for two gradient paintjobs - Starry Night and Nebula. The Starry Night is the one we have here, and it uses black and blue hues, with the latter having some light-blue stars sprinkled around.

The dual-camera is protruding at the back. It has a 12MP primary sensor with bright lens and another 5MP for depth sensing. The gold accent around the buldge wouldn't be our top pick, but it's not that bad either.

The back is all glass, though vivo hasn't mentioned the specific type it used. We have to warn you that it's hardly very durable because it started picking up scratches rather quickly. The piece is trendily curved towards the frame, which makes for a rather thin profile but hurts the overall grip.

The frame itself is made of plastic, it's curved, and has a slippery glossy finish. That's three out of three. We wouldn't have minded the plastic, but the thin yet curved shape a make the V11 a particularly slippery phone. We suggest you use the case provided in the retail package or get a third party one or this phone may be rendered incapable of serving you very quickly.

The vivo V11 has a 3.5mm audio port at the bottom, which is nice. There is also a triple card slot, which has gained some popularity recently. This is a tray that can accommodate two SIMs and a microSD card at the same time.

    
Vivo V11

The vivo V11 has a rather big 6.41" display, larger than the 6.3" unit on its Oppo F9 cousin. The V11 spreads at 157.9 x 75 x 7.9 mm - that's just 1mm wider and taller than the F9, and it weighs 13g less at 156g.