The Vivo V11 is stunning on its own, with stylish color variants and specs fit for a midranger. We tested it out to see if it will fare well with our standards, and now we are ready to dish out the tea. Let’s begin!
Design & Construction
Upon laying my hands on the unit, the first thing I noticed was its weight. At 156g, the V11 is very light compared to other phones of the same price. One of the causes for this is its smooth plastic and glass exterior. Some people might find this a good thing, but for me, this runs the risk of not being that durable compared to aluminum frames. At the top, there is an earpiece cleverly hidden along the phone’s edge, with the volume control and power buttons placed on the right side. On the left is the sim card tray, and at the bottom is the USB Micro-B port for charging, an earphone jack and a loudspeaker. The fingerprint sensor is placed underneath the display and can be customized to glow when the phone is on standby.
Display & Multimedia
The V11’s 6.41-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen has a relatively high pixel density of 402ppi. Its aspect ratio of 19.5:9 is perfect for Facebook and Instagram stories, but might not work well with some games. I also noticed that you can’t turn off the display incompatibility message, which can get pretty distracting. But overall, the V11’s display can produce crisp images and sharp text. The colors aren’t oversaturated and the screen itself doesn’t cause too much eyestrain even when stared at for a prolonged period of time. Since it’s an AMOLED display, there’s no drastic color distortion when the screen is viewed at different angles.
The V11 has a decent loudspeaker and can’t be easily drowned out in a crowded room. Even when the volume is turned all the way up, the sound quality is still pretty clean which makes it perfect for watching videos. But for gaming, the speaker placement isn’t very ideal as it gets in the way when you grip the phone horizontally.
Camera
The 12MP+5MP dual rear camera can snap beautiful and detailed photos. It works just as well with indoor lighting, and though originally meant for use on the face, the AI face beauty mode enhances light settings when used with the rear camera. Its 25MP front-facing camera, on the other hand, captures amazing selfies and doesn’t wash out skin tones. Just like the rear camera, the selfie cam still takes great pictures in low-light conditions.
There is a Professional mode that allows you to fully control camera settings manually, and fun AR stickers that can totally keep you entertained for hours on end.
Vivo V11 Sample Camera Photos:
Performance
The Snapdragon 660 together with its Adreno 512 GPU can work wonders when watching videos or playing graphics-heavy games. The large 6GB RAM can handle large games without lagging, and still has enough space for multitasking. While the V11’s performance is pretty impressive, there are a few inconveniences that come with it. Android users who are not used to the Funtouch OS might find a bit of difficulty navigating the interface, as the quick settings can be accessed by swiping up instead of the usual swiping down.
The fingerprint sensor is also pretty inconsistent. Trying to unlock your phone can get cumbersome as the sensor often fails to read fingerprints when you place your thumb at a comfortable angle. You would either need to awkwardly adjust your thumb’s position or resort to enrolling a different finger instead. The face recognition, on the other hand, is a much more reliable option as it works well even when I’m wearing glasses or in a low-light setting.
As for benchmarks, the V11 has scored 128895 on Antutu and ranks below the Huawei Nova 3i and the ASUS Zenfone 5.
In conclusion, the Vivo V11 is a good phone that can deliver amazing performance. The 3,400mAh battery can last all day depending on use and can withstand a few hours of gaming. However, given its suggested retail price of Php 19,999, the current smartphone market is rife with better options that can offer more.