Vivo’s new smartphone: Vivo V9

Phone companies are experimenting with the thin bezel to distinguish their products from those of rivals. Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ have no sideways bezel and their screen almost touches the spine. The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 has no bezels on three sides. Apple iPhone X has almost no bezels around the screen except for a small strip at the top called a notch. After Asus, Chinese company Vivo has adopted a similar notch-like design in its latest smartphone, the V9. It is priced at Rs22,990 and will be available in champagne gold, pearl black and sapphire blue colour options through offline stores from 2 April, 2018.

Here are the key features of the Vivo V9:

• Vivo V9 has a notch-like thin strip (measuring 1.85mm) at the top. However, the rest of the screen is not completely bezel less as it is in the Apple iPhone X. There is a thin bezel (5.93mm) under the screen.

• Vivo has managed to accommodate a truly big 6.3-inch screen in a 154.8mm x 75.1mm form factor, which is quite impressive. The Redmi Note 5 Pro (starts Rs 13,999) offers a slightly smaller 6-inch screen, yet it is slightly bigger at 158.6mm x 75.4mm.

• At 150g, Vivo V9 is the lightest big-screen smartphone with a screen size of 6 inches or more. The Redmi Note 5 Pro has a 6-inch screen and tips the scales at 181g.

• The V9’s screen offers a slightly wider aspect ratio of 19:9 and screen resolution of 2,280x1080p. Most thin-bezel smartphones including the Redmi Note 5 Pro offer an aspect ratio of 18:9 and screen resolution of 2,160x1,080p.

• The V9 is also one of the few smartphones which run the latest Android 8.1 (Oreo) out of the box with Vivo’s custom UI called FunTouch OS. Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 Pro still runs Android 7.1 but is expected to get the Android 8 update sometime this year.

• Vivo has used Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 626 octa-core processor to power the V9 and has clubbed it with 4GB RAM. The smartphone offers 64GB internal storage with the option to expand by another 256GB via microSD card. The Redmi Note 5 Pro runs on a slightly more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 octa-core processor with up to 6GB RAM (in the Rs16,999 variant).

• For camera buffs, the V9 has a 16-megapixel camera for capturing detail shots and a 5-megapixel camera for taking shots in bokeh and portrait mode. For selfie enthusiasts the phone has a 24-megapixel camera with AI-backed beauty mode and AR stickers. The front camera can also be used for unlocking the smartphone or an app with the face as ID.