Vivo V17 review: Good cameras, slick design but competition is tough

Written by Sneha Saha | New Delhi | Published: December 9, 2019 4:54:43 pm

Vivo V17 review: The phone comes with a 48MP quad camera and a 32MP front selfie camera. Here’s what we thought of its performance. (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

With the V17 Pro, Vivo set a new benchmark in smartphone photography thanks to its six cameras. The Vivo V17 Pro set itself up as a phone for camera enthusiasts. And that seems to be the USP all other Vivo phones too are playing on, including the just-announced Vivo V17.

The V17 Pro introduced a dual selfie pop-up camera setup. In fact, the V17 Pro is still the only phone to come with such a camera technology. With the V17, Vivo takes inspiration from Samsung and shifts to a punch-hole camera.

In addition to the front camera design, Vivo has also changed the look of the rear camera setup compared to the V17 Pro. The V17 includes a rectangular camera moduled aligned vertically on the top left corner of the back. The module includes all the four cameras and LED flash. The Vivo V17 looks much better than the V17 Pro which was a bit bulky. The Vivo V17 is extremely lightweight, despite the 4500 mAh battery inside. The phone has the right size and that makes it very easy to use it with just one hand which was difficult with the Pro.

Vivo V17 has a 32MP camera on the front with the punch hole display. (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

Vivo V17 price in India: Rs 22,990

Vivo V17 specifications: 6.44-inches Super AMOLED display | Snapdragon 675 processor | 8GB RAM | 128GB internal storage | 4500mAh battery with 18W fast charging | 48MP main camera + 8MP ultra-wide camera + 2MP macro camera + 2MP depth sensor | 32MP selfie camera | FunTouch 9.2 OS based on Android 9 Pie.

Vivo V17 camera

Camera is one of the most important aspects of the Vivo V17, so let’s start with that. The first thing I noticed was that the V17’s camera app was slightly cluttered with too many options on one screen. This often confuses users on which camera mode to try. This is actually a problem with Vivo’s custom skin FunTouchOS 9 that runs on the V17.

Vivo V17 regular sampl.e (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

Vivo V17 ultra-wide sample. (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

Vivo V17 regular sample take in bright daylight. (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

Vivo V17 regular sample. The phone manages to make colours stand out. (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

I used the phone to click pictures in almost all lighting situations from bright sunlight to low-light. Pictures shot in bright daylight show good amount of details and decent colours. I like the fact that this Vivo phone doesn’t pop the colours too much and captures the right colour-shade, almost. The ultra-wide shots clicked with the phone also look decent, but often miss out on details. The portrait shots clicked with the V17 also turn out to be good, but I would have liked the edges to be slightly more sharp.

The two areas where I believe the Vivo V17’s camera does a great job are with macro and low-light. Almost every picture clicked with Super Macro camera mode showed great details and good colours. The macro mode works best in good lighting conditions.

Low-light camera sample with the Vivo V17, and this mode ensures excellent results in our review period. (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

A macro sample shot with the Vivo V17. (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

I have also clicked numerous low-light pictures with the V17 and all of them turned out impressive. The Night camera mode of the V17 captures better details and colours in low-light conditions compared to the default photo mode. The good news is that V17 brings night mode not just for back camera but also for the front and it also works pretty well. The Vivo V17 also clicks great selfies in situations with good light.

Vivo V17 design and display

The V17 is undoubtedly one of the best-looking Vivo phones of 2019. It looks unique and that is mostly due to different rear camera design and the punch-hole screen on the front. For the first time Vivo opts for a rectangular (vertically) camera module and this adds to the overall design of the phone. Despite the four cameras, the back panel of the V17 doesn’t look cluttered which is great. The smartphone overall sports a clean design. The punch-hole on the front is small, which doesn’t make it look odd. It is much smaller than the camera hole on Samsung Galaxy M40 and Galaxy S10 series.

I loved watching movies and YouTube videos on the V17 thanks to the big, bezel-less AMOLED screen that produces punchy colours and offers great viewing angles in almost every scenario. The screen of the phone gets pretty bright even under the scorching Delhi sun. Keeping the brightness level of the phone to around 60 – 70 per cent in daylight worked pretty well for me while in indoors brightness level at 30 per cent approx seemed adequate.

Under the screen of the phone, there’s a fingerprint sensor that works like a breeze. The face unlock system also unlocks the phone in just a blink of an eye.

The Vivo V17 has an in-display fingerprint sensor, which works very accurately and unlocks the phone quickly. (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

Vivo V17 performance

The Vivo-Qualcomm partnership for Snapdragon 675 chipset appears to be never-ending. The Vivo’s V15 Pro and V17 Pro and now the V17 are all powered by the same processor. So, if specs matter to you then the Vivo V17 will seem outdated in terms of hardware as it uses a processor that is over a year old. In reality, however, the V17 handles day-to-day tasks very well with no stutters.

I played games like Asphalt 9, Temple Run on the Vivo V17 and both of them worked pretty well for me with no frame drops. At no point did the phone lag. The ultra game mode enhances the overall gaming experience as it blocks calls and notifications during an on-going match. The Vivo V17 also manages to multitask very well, but sometimes too many apps running in the background slowed down the phone slightly. Some of the apps also took some time to open in a few instances.

The Vivo V17 also manages to multitask very well, but sometimes too many apps running in the background slowed down the phone. (Image source: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)

The phone runs FunTouch 9 OS based on Android 9 Pie, which brings with it lots of bloatware. Software is one area Vivo should make quick changes as FunTouch is too cluttered. There are several third-party apps pre-installed, some can be deleted others can’t. FunTouch also brings along some nifty features like dark-more and always-on display.

Vivo V17 battery

Vivo V17 easily lasts more than a day on a single charge. The phone also charges pretty quickly. The V17 comes with 18W fast charger inside the box and it takes around 1.5 hours to fully charge. It is also good to see that Vivo has finally ditched microUSB and made Type C port standard for all its premium phones.

Vivo V17 verdict

At this price, the Vivo V17 offers great value. The phone sports a clean design and looks unique. It captures great pictures in almost all situations and does a great job with macro and low-light shots. It offers a long-lasting battery life and supports fast charging support inside the box. The only area where I believe Vivo V17 could have been slightly better is hardware.

I wish the phone could have used a Snapdragon 712 or the newer 730 similar to other phones available at this price like the Redmi K20 Pro and Realme XT. As I mentioned, the existing Snapdragon 675 processor does a good job, but a new chipset could have offered a smoother experience and future-proof the device for users.

Should you buy the Vivo V17? Well, although there are some of the most popular phones like Redmi K20 Pro and Realme XT available at this price point I believe the Vivo V17 stands strong against the competition as it offers pretty good value for the money.

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