 "Vivo V3 Max")
Vivo recently launched the Vivo V3 and V3 Max, boasting of a super-fast fingerprint scanner and overall a powerful phone. I got my hands on the V3 Max. The rose gold metal back and stylish finish makes it look similar to the iPhone 6S plus. So, in terms of appearance the phone is a looker.
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The V3 Max comes with a 5.5-inch full HD display. The colours are sharp and watching videos on the phone is a delight. The phone runs the Funtouch OS based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. Usually, I have a problem with custom OSes, but Vivo's Funtouch managed not to get on my nerves. The phone has a feature called 'Dynamic Sliding Effects', which basically animates the way you scroll through your app drawer. Swiping up on the home screen brings up the control centre. And though it seems novel on Androids, it is a standard feature in iPhones. So one can't help but think, whether Vivo is just trying to knock off iOS at places where its own design lacunae exist.
The phone houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor with 4 GB of RAM. This is hands down my favourite part - testing a phone's performance. 4 GB of RAM is more than enough for a heavy smartphone user. So, I installed as many as apps as I could and took the phone out for a spin. First, I tried opening the camera app - which is slow to load in most phones - but to my surprise, there was no lag. Next, I played Order and Chaos - a RAM-heavy online game - the phone didn't lag or heat up. So far, so good.
Next on my list was its camera - a 13-megapixel (MP) primary and an 8MP secondary. The photos are clear and sharp; there is no colour loss evident. Low-light photos are better than most but still not the best. The front camera clicks decent selfies and its beauty mode has a hilarious feature called 'Makeup'. Basically, after you select the beauty mode, the 'Makeup' feature will let you choose from different filters called 'Candy', 'Cool', 'Social', etc. Once selected, these filters will make your face appear as if you were wearing make-up. At the risk of sounding sexist, it is safe to say that this feature will attract a lot of attention from women.
The phone has a more-than-enough 3,000-mAh battery which lasted for about one-and-a-half days on a full charge and with heavy usage. It has a battery saver mode which is pretty effective. It supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 which boasts of two hours of music playback on a five-minute charge. I tested it out and went through my entire music collection. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised.
The V3 Max takes multitasking quite literally. It has a split-screen feature which lets you use two apps simultaneously. I tried it out by watching a video and chatting with a friend on WhatsApp.
But the showstealer is the fingerprint sensor. Located at the back of the phone, the sensor is lightning fast. Once your fingerprint is registered, it wakes your phone the moment your skin makes contact with the phone. I've used and reviewed various phones with fast fingerprint sensors, but the V3 Max is hands down the fastest.
Priced at Rs 23,980, the Vivo V3 Max is a pretty good phone with decent specifications. But it may lose out to competitors such as OnePlus which offer similar specifications at a lower price.
