THAT Screen
The Vivo V9, first and foremost, is all about that screen. That massive 6.3-inch Full HD+ screen which, apart from a notch on the top and a narrow chin, is largely bezel-less. It looks spectacular and watching movies or just about doing anything is a joy on this phone. Although, it would have been better if Vivo has included an OLED panel.
Design
The plastic design of the Vivo V9 is equally admirable and more importantly, stands out among the competition. The curved rear makes sure it sits comfortably in your hands. Because of the shiny coating, though, it is slippery and a fingerprint magnet as well. You do get a protective case in the box, thankfully. There’s a MicroUSB port on the bottom which is a little disappointing. The dedicated Micro SD card slot, on the other hand, is a welcome feature which has almost gone extinct from this price range.
Android 8.1
One of the more surprising elements of the Vivo V9 is that it comes preloaded with Android 8.1. Although you probably won’t realize this as Vivo has layered with a thick skin of its own that borrows a lot of interface elements from iOS. The software is laden with features, some of which like the control center are nifty and the rest such as the custom notification panel, downright horrible.
Navigation Gestures
To take full advantage of that big display, you can also enable navigation gestures on the Vivo V9. This will replace the standard onscreen buttons and let you move around the software with just a couple of gestures like swipe up to return home, swipe up and hold for the multitasking menu, and more.
24-Megapixel Selfie Camera
That notch also holds one of the key features of the Vivo V9, the 24-megapixel selfie camera. Of course, it comes with all the AI novelties you would need like applying artificial makeup or even dog masks through the native camera app. To know how well they work, we’ll need a few more days but based on a couple of snaps, I’m optimistic. The face beauty feature on the Vivo V9 can be also turned on for video calls on apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. You can even adjust the filter intensity during calls through a floating slider.
Face Unlock
In addition to the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, you can also unlock the Vivo V9 with your face. There are no special sensors here as the feature works through only the front camera. Fortunately, we couldn’t fool it with just a photograph.
Smart Motion
If scribbling on the screen is not your thing, you can also just turn the phone around to do some things. Things like turning on the flashlight by shaking the phone or waving your hand over the screen to glance over notifications or tilt the phone for zooming in pictures. Called “Smart Motion”, the features are a little erratic and usually, don’t function on the first attempt.
Message Screen Splitting
Yet another handy software feature is called “Message screen splitting”. As the name suggests, it lets you quickly jump into the split screen mode whenever a new message arrives when you’re in the landscape mode watching a YouTube video or something.
Dual Rear Cameras
Lastly, there are those two camera sensors on the back. One regular 16-megapixel and another 5-megapixel. Both can work together to produce live depth of field effects and enable the Portrait Mode. The camera app also comes with a professional mode and lets you record 4K videos as well.
