The V17 Pro is Vivo’s latest entry in their V series of smartphones, with their latest before that being the V15 lineup. Those came out early this year too, so I’m not quite sure what the point of this one coming in was. But one thing I can say for sure is, based on design, I quite enjoy the V17 Pro much more than I ever liked the V15 Pro. So there’s that. But regardless, it’s here. Undoubtedly this was quite an upgrade in terms of many different factors, of which I’ll get to in a bit. With that being said, let’s get straight into the review of the Vivo V17 Pro!
Design & Aesthetics – Small, and Attractive Package
Design wise, I’d say this one fares better than its previous iteration, the V15 Pro. It has a better form factor, better looking display, weight, colour, and overall aesthetic which I personally enjoyed. The V17 Pro comes with a 6.44″ Super AMOLED with a resolution of 1080 X 2400. It’s a pretty good screen, but wasn’t as bright as I’d like.
But to counteract that, one of my favourite things about the V17 Pro is the fact that it’s relatively smaller than other smartphones. It comes in at 159 x 74.7 x 9.8 mm dimensions, but weighs 201.8g. So it’s a bit thicker, and heftier, but it feels great in your hands. It’s been a while since I’ve had a phone fit like that. It wasn’t hard to reach around the screen, but at the same time the size of the screen was good enough to enjoy streaming videos, playing games, checking emails, and pretty much anything I had to do. The Knight Black colour I got was also great, and I really liked how it looked overall. Even the quad camera setup on the back was surprisingly enough, good looking, and blended well with the design.
Overall, I’d have to say that the phone is a looker. It’s form also accentuates how good the phone looks and feels, because it’s been awhile since I’ve reviewed a phone that fit perfectly, in my small, tiny hands.
Performance – About What You’d Expect
Even though the V17 Pro has the same processor as the V15 Pro (which was surprising and not all to great to find out) I didn’t find it to be laggy much. That’s not say it performed perfectly, but it was good enough to get stuff done. The V17 Pro comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 chip, which isn’t bad, but definitely isn’t the greatest. It also comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, an on-screen fingerprint sensor, and USB-C charging, which makes it different from the V15 Pro, which used a microUSB to charge.
Gaming was also surprisingly good, but don’t bother trying to play Call of Duty Mobile’s battle royale mode, because it just didn’t look pretty. That could be attributed to the game’s optimization and port, rather than the phone itself. It ran other modes well, but I noticed a lot of lag when opening up my new favourite past time, Tennis Clash. I don’t know what it is, but it takes forever to load up. But hey, that’s what I found during testing. Speaking of gaming, another important feature when you do game, is battery life. The V17 Pro comes with a decently sized 4100mAh battery, which lasted most times, the whole day. One thing I did find was the phone was overheating a lot, to uncomfortable levels. Maybe I was gaming too hard, but it’s important to take note of.
Besides that, I’d say the UI of the V17 Pro isn’t bad, and takes some getting used to. Especially the shortcut centre which I hated, but soon came to actually enjoy. The on-screen fingerprint sensor was snappy, and I didn’t have too many problems with it. Overall it’s a good performer, especially when you consider the price.
Cameras – World’s First Dual Pop Up Camera
The cameras are what seem to be the highlight of the phone, and I had a great time shooting with it. It has a quad cam AI setup with a 48MP main shooter, 8MP Wide angle cam, 2MP depth cam and 2MP macro camera. On the front the V17 Pro has the world’s first dual pop up selfie camera of 32 MP, which really took some solid selfies. I mean, check this one out! Aren’t I beautiful?
Besides that, the AI camera was also pretty good. It could distinguish what I was taking pictures of most times. There’s different modes inbuilt when you point the camera at an object, such as flowers. It will set the camera to take the best pictures of the subject, based on what the phone thinks it is. Check out some of the shots I got with the V17 Pro.
Final Thoughts
All in all, I really enjoyed my time with Vivo’s V17 Pro. It’s form factor, design, even their dual pop up front cameras. I didn’t have many issues with it truth be told. The occasional stutter some times, but that’s to be expected, and I can’t fault it on much else. If you were looking for a good camera phone, with a smaller form factor not compromising on the fullview display, then the V17 Pro is for you.
