Just before heading on vacation I received a brand new Vivo X5 Pro from Vivo Global, a phone I was very excited to receive, but ultimately been disappointed with from the start.
Early last year, due to the poor customer service and a dodgy Oppo Find 7 display, I found myself in need of a new phone. At that time I opted for the Vivo Xplay 3S, a phone I throughly enjoyed and the same device my wife used up until recently getting her hands on the Asus Zenfone 2 (she still prefers the Vivo). After the Xplay 3S I got a Vivo Xshot which was quite simply the best flagship phone of 2014 by far (of course my opinion but one I stick by).
With prior knowledge of Vivo phones I had high expectations for the Vivo X5 Pro and believed that the new glass and metal smartphone would easily live up to them. I soon discovered that this was not to be.
For design and build the Vivo X5 Pro is pretty nice. It boasts an alloy chassis inspired by the iPhone 6 and front and rear 2.5D glass panels. The body is thin too measuring just 6.39mm. All in all it is a good-looking and well made phone, but no where close to the level of design and build that Xiaomi managed with the Mi Note, and I wouldn’t say that the Vivo X5 Pro is much better than the LeTV Le 1 in build either.
So from a design and build point of view I would say that it isn’t bad but nothing to write home about either.
As I am discussing the build and size of the phone it might be interesting for some of you to know that the Vivo X5 Pro has a 5.2-inch display, yet it is physically the almost identically the same height and width as the LeTV Le 1 with larger 5.5-inch panel. The thin body also means just a 2450mAh battery can fit inside the phone. Vivo impressed me with the battery life of the Xshot and the battery life of the X5 Pro has been good too, but that might simply be due to lack of use (see below).
From my experience with Vivo phones I know them to be fast, stable and have a very well optimised FunTouch ROM based on Android. The Vivo X5 Pro is a huge disappointment compared to my previous experiences.
The fundamental issue with the phone is the 1st generation Snapdragon 615 chipset running at 1.5hz. This 64bit octacore processor should easily be able to handle gaming, social media and any other application you might choose to run. In reality though the processor is junk. The SD615 overheats and is slow to respond to the simplest of tasks. Even opening the camera from the lock screen takes a few seconds, a totally unacceptable length of time given the cost of the phone and the fact it should be a premium mid-range device.
The X5 Pro isn’t the only Snapdragon 615 phone we have had issues with. The Xiaomi Mi4i is also a terribly laggy and constantly overheating device, but I feel the Vivo suffers even more.
After discovering the phone is just simply too slow, I quickly moved on to the camera. Vivo usually do very well in the camera department. Both the Xshot and Xplay 3S had great camera’s for their time, surely the Vivo X5 Pro could redeem itself?
Unfortunately no. The 13 mega-pixel F2.0 camera on the Vivo X5 Pro has all the signs of a great camera but the performance is hit and miss. Take the phone out and snap a photo in perfect conditions and you might get a good image if the focus responds fast enough. Use the phone in low light or night conditions and you will quickly find the results are terrible and you won’t likely try again!
Vivo X5 Pro Day Light Photos Samples
Speaking of night-time performance, the Vivo X5 Pro lens reflect light much more than I have experienced on other phones. Taking a photo at night with street lamps around will result in light blotches from those light sources showing up in your images. The effect looks almost like UFO’s which would be cool if it wasn’t so annoying.
The scary thing is I believe the proximity of the lens to the camera sensor is to blame here and it isn’t likely to get fixed in OTA updates.
Vivo X5 Pro Night Photo Samples
As you can see there is a ton of noise in these photos. Also, those white dots are not stars, that is light reflecting from the lens.
I’ve carried my Xiaomi Mi Note and LeTV Le 1 along with me when using the Vivo X5 Pro, and both of these devices are simply light years ahead of the Vivo in speed, optimisation and camera performance. This leads to me opting to use the LeTV and Xiaomi phones more often. This might be why I am seeing better battery life from the Vivo too.
Are their any good point? Well yes there are. The Super AMOLED display is much clearer to see in sunny conditions than a standard display. Fun touch OS is feature packed, Audio is outstanding as usual, and GPS is super fast and accurate but that’s not enough!
So far the Vivo X5 Pro is not a phone I can happily recommend you buy. Sure it looks great, has nice features and build and the hardware looks great on paper, but in use it is laggy, unstable and performs badly in most situations.
The issue is really that Snapdragon 615, if it had a comparable Meidatek processor or even last years Snapdragon 801, and the camera issues fixed then the Vivo X5 Pro would have been killer.
I’m happy to hear such conflicting experiences between two phones by the same manufacturer, especially one now being sold on the gizchina store. Keep up the honest reviews.
if not even Vivo can deliver a good phone then i can see Meizu selling their phones like candies.
With all the negativity, i still dont see why manufacturers keep using these hotplates. They are more expensive than their Taiwanese counterparts even slower. I guess people are just blind to the truth.
Most likely many of them have deals with Qualcomm in which the actual price paid isn’t that far off from what MTK devices sell for and could even be cheaper.
Seriously? So what happens when consumers dont buy these phones because the processor isnt good enough? Who looses?
the majority of customers don’t even know about a processor.
mostly they look at the design and camera.
Thats is true to an extent. But people who buy unknown brands usually do research before buying.
yeah but sometimes even with a research you don’t really know what’s the deal until you buy it.
look at how many disappointed people leaving comments about this or that phone. Even Balcobomber bought an Elephone!!! hehe.
Yes he did and he bought a Doogee.
seriously, how many people have been through the “too good to be true”.
it doesn’t matter how many reviews somebody reads, if you think you are getting the best deal, you’ll buy it and then you’ll regret it.
myself included, it’s in man’s nature.
that’s why scammers are always in business!
I have convnced myself before that a phone would be amazing despite the negative reviews. On the same hand though I have read some negative reviews and ended up loving the device. I usually try to avoid negative or positive reviews and look for ones that highlight strengths and weaknesses.
Or if it is a brand I love I ignore the reviews listen to Frank Sinatra’s My Way and order the damn phone lol.
But what percentage of their sales are from people who never heard of the brand before? The majority of phone buyers though really don’t know the difference between a SD and MTK SoC. They buy phones because of the brand name, the price, the design or the camera. They see that it has a Snapdragon or that it scored 40,000 on Antutu and they think its amazing. We even get some of those comments on here from time to time.
Do they even have a choice when it comes to processors? Which android phone in the west does not carry a Qualcomm processor other than the S6 family. Nvidia Tegra and Ti OMAP were the only ones to compete in the processor market, OMAP is dead and nvidia cant seem to make a processor for mobile phones. Sooner or later phone manufacturers will have to adopt mediatek. All of MTK’s present gen chips beat qualcomm’s across the board, both in terms of performance and heat dissipation.
Plus you don’t know how a Mediatek phone would sell in the West.
Personally i would buy it blindfolded, but people are still used to Qualcomm devices and they don’t want to hear about anything else, not even Samsung.
Look at how many S4 S5 have been sold with a Qualcomm SoC or how HTC makes their E9+ only for Asian market.
Yup just read the tech bloggers from the US. Many of them are still clueless about Mediatek and Chinese phones in general.
Wow, now this is what I call an honest review.
That’s what I find bad about some Chinese companies – they suggest amazing value products only for few years after foundation. Once company get millions of sales, they try to mask worse products under famous nam to get more profit.
Vivo never played the budget market.
From what I see, the Vivo x5 pro is Vivo experimenting and tuning built quality for their real upcoming flagships.
Certain brands in China have always been priced more than others, Vivo is one of them. They always made premium phones for a premium segment. Whether they were premium because of their super thin design, amazing camera or amazing audio they were always a step above the competition in some way.
Guys, I did not want to say Vivo was a budget company. I wanted to say that they don’t suggest anything worth the price in their budget models, except the famous name. They offer amazing flagships, but once these get more sales, they start producing phones like this to take adventage of their name.
But they have always been producing phones like this, this isn’t something new because they have a big name. And although this particular one isn’t that great due to a poorly optimized SoC, I disagree that they don’t offer anything worth the price. Vivo has excellent build quality, a stable UI, good cameras and some of the best audio in any phone as well as good customer service. They are not a brand for everyone but they do offer something that companies like Elephone never come close to: quality.
To hear this from Andi who loves Vivo phones it means something. It would be like me giving a negative review of Xiaomi.
For the record the Xshot was a fantastic phone but the best flagship was the Mi4 last year.
Vivo was better than MI4, not 200$ better thou.
Disagree. Vivo had better overall hardware but I prefer MIUI to Color Os and for me software is the most important thing so I give the edge to Mi4.
Sorry but Vivo uses funtouch os. That system is much better optimized than color os.
Actually I knew that just got the names mixed up. Neither of them come close to MIUI thought IMO.
Completely disagree
We all have different opinions.
I completely agree. Lol
I prefer heavily skinned versions of Android, because to me stock Android is one of the ugliest and most boring UI’s. The more skinned it is the more I like it visually. But it also has to perform well so my favorites are MIUI (Xiaomi) and Flyme (Meizu). Although the latest version of Amigo (Gionee) is surprising me as well, and that has usually been a terrible UI.
Agree, the Xshot is an excellent phone with a superb camera, the build quality is great as it really does feel very premium without being overly heavy. It’s still receiving updates (my wife has had 3 updates in the last 4 weeks alone) so only lollipop missing at the moment and since it’s shit anyway I think kit kat is more than adequate.
Really? OPO has lots of fans and good user reviews.
Every phone has their fans and we all have our opinions about what is best. My opinion is the Mi4.
I really don’t get it. Why? Why 8 out of 10 phones must declare their own death even before they gets released? They either throw in SD615, SD810 or MT6753, or make fake bezels, put 16GB without SD card slot, leave unoptimized software inside, with 1.8GB of ram, and things like that. Sure, even such half-products will find their home, but smartphone manufacturers obviously can’t imagine how much higher would their profits go with other hardware components slightly more expensive than shitty hardware they put in (God forbids Helio X10). Ofcourse, design and build quality are also important, and that changed alot in past 12 months, but I don’t plan to hang my phone on the wall and admiring it all day and night. It should perform the same way it looks and feels. Make one such model (*cough*..5″..*cough*) with realistic price, then release other shitty combinations any way you like it. Maybe it’s just me wanting impossible…
MT6753 is a very good budget SoC….
Exactly, a budget SoC. I agree, but it doesn’t go in hand with Vivo X5 Pro class. My point is about mixing premium features with the ones not even worth mentioning, and personaly that’s an instant deal-breaker for me. Maybe I’m in a search for a perfect phone, but what they’re doing seems to be either a cleverly designed or utterly stupid marketing afterall.
The X5 Pro doesn’t have a 6753, it has a SD 615 so I am not sure what your original point about having 6753 being bad for a phone is about. For a budget phone it is a great SoC to use and offers better performance and value than competing SoC’s from SD.
It’s because the X5 Pro isn’t a budget phone. It’s not priced or designed like a budget phone, so sticking a budget processor would sort of kill it.
But they don’t have a budget Soc in it. There is no X5 Pro with the 6753 so it’s a moot point to even mention it. It’s like saying if the new One Plus One uses the SD 410.
@balcobomber25:disqus The S615 is a mid-range/budget SoC that even in the Mi4i priced at $195 USD is probably not doing well. This “Pro” just as if it had the 6753 has been ruined as a flagship unit, which it is priced at. I brushed through the Vivo store the other day and it makes no sense. The best phone they had was the SD 801 Xshot (Photos/Features) and that was priced considerably lower than any other device which either had the 615 or some unmarked SoC running at 1.3Ghz.
Again it makes zero sense why you even mention the 6753 if it is not available in this phone. It has nothing to do with the 615 they are from completely different companies.
The international version uses Snapdragon 615, the Chinese version is using MediaTek 6752. I am thinking that the software optimisation is where it is lacking that causes X5 Pro to underperform for both processors.
The 6752 and the 6753 are different SoC’s. the 52 is a midrange SoC and one of the best you can get today, the 6753 is a budget SoC.
Why d oyou want “premium features” and fast SoC? What do you on your phone, programm and launch nuclear missiles? You don’t need all that power dor Facebook, Viber and all sort of common apps. Your post doesn’t make sense.
Yes, launching nuclear missiles is a must for me. I take nothing less than that. And if it can make me a coffee, even better. So what? Buy yourself what you think it’s best for you, instead of telling others that premium is too much for them. In that context, I don’t see sense in your post either. Let’s stick to the subject.
Ok, I went very sarcastic, sorry for that. 🙂 But the point is that you MOST PROBABLY don’t need that and you are just obsessed with numbers. If that is so, buy an iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6 and enjoy the “best of the best”. Go whinning somewhere else with “I need more power, I need more thousands on AnTuTu”. That is childish (maybe you are child, I don’t know :D).
he is merely making the point that the mt6753 is good (many would say its early good enough for most users), we are all becoming spec whores, we want more powerful processors we want more ram etc yet hardly anyone actually manages to use what they have got, let alone what they think they want.
I would rather have companies stick with a SOC and a phone for longer spending more time optimising an OS to run cleanly with it, one thing that Apple does well is to get the OS working well on lower end processors and ram etc.
hopefully the guys over at XDA and nerdy etc can show what the mt6753 is truly capable of on the new Elephone P8000 now they have access to kernel sources etc.
Or we could just keep waiting for chip foundries to churn out the next even more powerful hand heater (cheers qualcomm lol)
In order to have a good phone from the start, it is needed a thing called time. A thing that doesn’t exist nowadays. To pressure to release phones ASAP must be the greatest for companies. No time, no maturity.
I’m happy to hear such conflicting experiences between two phones by the same manufacturer, especially one now being sold on the gizchina store. Keep up the honest reviews.
if not even Vivo can deliver a good phone then i can see Meizu selling their phones like candies.
First of all, I would need some clarifications: are there three Vivo X5 models? X5, X5Max and X5 Pro? Confusing. Second: I saw a review of X5 Max and the camera samples looked way better than these, sharp and with great details. I’m starting to think that the unit Andi got has a faulty lens, especially noticing the blurriness on the left side of the photos. Or maybe X5Max and X5 Pro don’t share the same camera hw at all…
They are three different models. Their website doesn’t list actual components used but from what I can make of it the Max and Pro use the same sensor with different optics (lenses).
Ok that would make some sense, because the Max photos look amazingly sharp, with more fine details than my Mi Note. The Pro seems to shoot lower quality photos, although it does have PDAF, which Max lacks.
With all the negativity, i still dont see why manufacturers keep using these hotplates. They are more expensive than their Taiwanese counterparts even slower. I guess people are just blind to the truth.
Most likely many of them have deals with Qualcomm in which the actual price paid isn’t that far off from what MTK devices sell for and could even be cheaper.
Seriously? So what happens when consumers dont buy these phones because the processor isnt good enough? Who looses?
Plus you don’t know how a Mediatek phone would sell in the West.
Personally i would buy it blindfolded, but people are still used to Qualcomm devices and they don’t want to hear about anything else, not even Samsung.
Look at how many S4 S5 have been sold with a Qualcomm SoC or how HTC makes their E9+ only for Asian market.
the majority of customers don’t even know about a processor.
mostly they look at the design and camera.
Thats is true to an extent. But people who buy unknown brands usually do research before buying.
Do they even have a choice when it comes to processors? Which android phone in the west does not carry a Qualcomm processor other than the S6 family. Nvidia Tegra and Ti OMAP were the only ones to compete in the processor market, OMAP is dead and nvidia cant seem to make a processor for mobile phones. Sooner or later phone manufacturers will have to adopt mediatek. All of MTK’s present gen chips beat qualcomm’s across the board, both in terms of performance and heat dissipation.
Yup just read the tech bloggers from the US. Many of them are still clueless about Mediatek and Chinese phones in general.
yeah but sometimes even with a research you don’t really know what’s the deal until you buy it.
look at how many disappointed people leaving comments about this or that phone. Even Balcobomber bought an Elephone!!! hehe.
Yes he did and he bought a Doogee.
But what percentage of their sales are from people who never heard of the brand before? The majority of phone buyers though really don’t know the difference between a SD and MTK SoC. They buy phones because of the brand name, the price, the design or the camera. They see that it has a Snapdragon or that it scored 40,000 on Antutu and they think its amazing. We even get some of those comments on here from time to time.
seriously, how many people have been through the “too good to be true”.
it doesn’t matter how many reviews somebody reads, if you think you are getting the best deal, you’ll buy it and then you’ll regret it.
myself included, it’s in man’s nature.
that’s why scammers are always in business!
I have convnced myself before that a phone would be amazing despite the negative reviews. On the same hand though I have read some negative reviews and ended up loving the device. I usually try to avoid negative or positive reviews and look for ones that highlight strengths and weaknesses.
Or if it is a brand I love I ignore the reviews listen to Frank Sinatra’s My Way and order the damn phone lol.
Wow, now this is what I call an honest review.
That’s what I find bad about some Chinese companies – they suggest amazing value products only for few years after foundation. Once company get millions of sales, they try to mask worse products under famous nam to get more profit.
Vivo never played the budget market.
From what I see, the Vivo x5 pro is Vivo experimenting and tuning built quality for their real upcoming flagships.
Certain brands in China have always been priced more than others, Vivo is one of them. They always made premium phones for a premium segment. Whether they were premium because of their super thin design, amazing camera or amazing audio they were always a step above the competition in some way.
Guys, I did not want to say Vivo was a budget company. I wanted to say that they don’t suggest anything worth the price in their budget models, except the famous name. They offer amazing flagships, but once these get more sales, they start producing phones like this to take adventage of their name.
But they have always been producing phones like this, this isn’t something new because they have a big name. And although this particular one isn’t that great due to a poorly optimized SoC, I disagree that they don’t offer anything worth the price. Vivo has excellent build quality, a stable UI, good cameras and some of the best audio in any phone as well as good customer service. They are not a brand for everyone but they do offer something that companies like Elephone never come close to: quality.
To hear this from Andi who loves Vivo phones it means something. It would be like me giving a negative review of Xiaomi.
For the record the Xshot was a fantastic phone but the best flagship was the Mi4 last year.
Vivo was better than MI4, not 200$ better thou.
Really? OPO has lots of fans and good user reviews.
Every phone has their fans and we all have our opinions about what is best. My opinion is the Mi4.
Disagree. Vivo had better overall hardware but I prefer MIUI to Color Os and for me software is the most important thing so I give the edge to Mi4.
Agree, the Xshot is an excellent phone with a superb camera, the build quality is great as it really does feel very premium without being overly heavy. It’s still receiving updates (my wife has had 3 updates in the last 4 weeks alone) so only lollipop missing at the moment and since it’s shit anyway I think kit kat is more than adequate.
Sorry but Vivo uses funtouch os. That system is much better optimized than color os.
Actually I knew that just got the names mixed up. Neither of them come close to MIUI thought IMO.
Completely disagree
We all have different opinions.
I completely agree. Lol
I prefer heavily skinned versions of Android, because to me stock Android is one of the ugliest and most boring UI’s. The more skinned it is the more I like it visually. But it also has to perform well so my favorites are MIUI (Xiaomi) and Flyme (Meizu). Although the latest version of Amigo (Gionee) is surprising me as well, and that has usually been a terrible UI.
I really don’t get it. Why? Why 8 out of 10 phones must declare their own death even before they gets released? They either throw in SD615, SD810 or MT6753, or make fake bezels, put 16GB without SD card slot, leave unoptimized software inside, with 1.8GB of ram, and things like that. Sure, even such half-products will find their home, but smartphone manufacturers obviously can’t imagine how much higher would their profits go with other hardware components slightly more expensive than shitty hardware they put in (God forbids Helio X10). Ofcourse, design and build quality are also important, and that changed alot in past 12 months, but I don’t plan to hang my phone on the wall and admiring it all day and night. It should perform the same way it looks and feels. Make one such model (*cough*..5″..*cough*) with realistic price, then release other shitty combinations any way you like it. Maybe it’s just me wanting impossible…
MT6753 is a very good budget SoC….
Exactly, a budget SoC. I agree, but it doesn’t go in hand with Vivo X5 Pro class. My point is about mixing premium features with the ones not even worth mentioning, and personaly that’s an instant deal-breaker for me. Maybe I’m in a search for a perfect phone, but what they’re doing seems to be either a cleverly designed or utterly stupid marketing afterall.
The X5 Pro doesn’t have a 6753, it has a SD 615 so I am not sure what your original point about having 6753 being bad for a phone is about. For a budget phone it is a great SoC to use and offers better performance and value than competing SoC’s from SD.
It’s because the X5 Pro isn’t a budget phone. It’s not priced or designed like a budget phone, so sticking a budget processor would sort of kill it.
But they don’t have a budget Soc in it. There is no X5 Pro with the 6753 so it’s a moot point to even mention it. It’s like saying if the new One Plus One uses the SD 410.
Why d oyou want “premium features” and fast SoC? What do you on your phone, programm and launch nuclear missiles? You don’t need all that power dor Facebook, Viber and all sort of common apps. Your post doesn’t make sense.
@balcobomber25:disqus The S615 is a mid-range/budget SoC that even in the Mi4i priced at $195 USD is probably not doing well. This “Pro” just as if it had the 6753 has been ruined as a flagship unit, which it is priced at. I brushed through the Vivo store the other day and it makes no sense. The best phone they had was the SD 801 Xshot (Photos/Features) and that was priced considerably lower than any other device which either had the 615 or some unmarked SoC running at 1.3Ghz.
Again it makes zero sense why you even mention the 6753 if it is not available in this phone. It has nothing to do with the 615 they are from completely different companies.
The international version uses Snapdragon 615, the Chinese version is using MediaTek 6752. I am thinking that the software optimisation is where it is lacking that causes X5 Pro to underperform for both processors.
The 6752 and the 6753 are different SoC’s. the 52 is a midrange SoC and one of the best you can get today, the 6753 is a budget SoC.
Yes, launching nuclear missiles is a must for me. I take nothing less than that. And if it can make me a coffee, even better. So what? Buy yourself what you think it’s best for you, instead of telling others that premium is too much for them. In that context, I don’t see sense in your post either. Let’s stick to the subject.
Ok, I went very sarcastic, sorry for that. 🙂 But the point is that you MOST PROBABLY don’t need that and you are just obsessed with numbers. If that is so, buy an iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6 and enjoy the “best of the best”. Go whinning somewhere else with “I need more power, I need more thousands on AnTuTu”. That is childish (maybe you are child, I don’t know :D).
In order to have a good phone from the start, it is needed a thing called time. A thing that doesn’t exist nowadays. To pressure to release phones ASAP must be the greatest for companies. No time, no maturity.
he is merely making the point that the mt6753 is good (many would say its early good enough for most users), we are all becoming spec whores, we want more powerful processors we want more ram etc yet hardly anyone actually manages to use what they have got, let alone what they think they want.
I would rather have companies stick with a SOC and a phone for longer spending more time optimising an OS to run cleanly with it, one thing that Apple does well is to get the OS working well on lower end processors and ram etc.
hopefully the guys over at XDA and nerdy etc can show what the mt6753 is truly capable of on the new Elephone P8000 now they have access to kernel sources etc.
Or we could just keep waiting for chip foundries to churn out the next even more powerful hand heater (cheers qualcomm lol)
I think there is 2 version of the X5 Pro.
Chinese Version = MTK6752
International Version = Snapdragon 615
yep you are correct, the Chinese version is likely the better of the two
From what I have heard and read the Chinese version is just as bad. Seems like Vivo has some optimization issues with their ROM.
I notice that the Oppo R7 plus is the same, the 2 international versions have the crappy SD615 and the Chinese version has the Helio x10, I know which I would buy!
First of all, I would need some clarifications: are there three Vivo X5 models? X5, X5Max and X5 Pro? Confusing. Second: I saw a review of X5 Max and the camera samples looked way better than these, sharp and with great details. I’m starting to think that the unit Andi got has a faulty lens, especially noticing the blurriness on the left side of the photos. Or maybe X5Max and X5 Pro don’t share the same camera hw at all…
They are three different models. Their website doesn’t list actual components used but from what I can make of it the Max and Pro use the same sensor with different optics (lenses).
Ok that would make some sense, because the Max photos look amazingly sharp, with more fine details than my Mi Note. The Pro seems to shoot lower quality photos, although it does have PDAF, which Max lacks.
So Andi, if I was looking at a Vivo, would you still recommend the Xshot over this X5? I am amazed that the Xshot continues to hold its price quite well considering how long its been out for now. You rarely see it discounted except for some dodgy AliExpress sales sites. I can only guess its still selling quite well in China. Would love to see its total sales figures since ts release. I might have to pick one up in Bangkok when I am there next as it seems to be the cheapest place to get them for me being from Oz…
Most of last years flagships still hold up today including the Xshot, One Plus and Mi4. The reason: they all feature the excellent SD 801 and all of them have a good camera (IMX 214). Too many people are caught up in the 64 bit revolution that they think that without it a phone is no good. 64 bit is still in its infancy and is at least 1 year away from being a real difference maker. The 801 is still one of the top 5 SoC’s available today. If you live in a country with official Vivo stores, the price of the Xshot has been discounted to around $300, havent seen it online for that price yet tho.
Balco, what is the ROM like on it? Do you have the China version or int’l version of the Xshot? I have heard there is a bit of fudging around to be done if you purchase the China version of the phone…
I don’t have the Xshot, I had the Mi4. I did use an Xshot for a few weeks (a friend lent it to me) and the ROM was stable never had any issues but it just never wowed me like MIUI does.
I think there is 2 version of the X5 Pro.
Chinese Version = MTK6752
International Version = Snapdragon 615
yep you are correct, the Chinese version is likely the better of the two
I notice that the Oppo R7 plus is the same, the 2 international versions have the crappy SD615 and the Chinese version has the Helio x10, I know which I would buy!
From what I have heard and read the Chinese version is just as bad. Seems like Vivo has some optimization issues with their ROM.
jd.com is selling this with an 8 core Mediatek 1.7Ghz processor. The phone does look and feel really nice in person but at 2698RMB for the 32GB version compared to 1499RMB for a 16GB Mi4 and 1999/2499 for a 16GB/32GB Mi Note, I’m not sure why many people would chose this phone, especially if there are issues with the camera.
So Andi, if I was looking at a Vivo, would you still recommend the Xshot over this X5? I am amazed that the Xshot continues to hold its price quite well considering how long its been out for now. You rarely see it discounted except for some dodgy AliExpress sales sites. I can only guess its still selling quite well in China. Would love to see its total sales figures since ts release. I might have to pick one up in Bangkok when I am there next as it seems to be the cheapest place to get them for me being from Oz…
Most of last years flagships still hold up today including the Xshot, One Plus and Mi4. The reason: they all feature the excellent SD 801 and all of them have a good camera (IMX 214). Too many people are caught up in the 64 bit revolution that they think that without it a phone is no good. 64 bit is still in its infancy and is at least 1 year away from being a real difference maker. The 801 is still one of the top 5 SoC’s available today. If you live in a country with official Vivo stores, the price of the Xshot has been discounted to around $300, havent seen it online for that price yet tho.
Balco, what is the ROM like on it? Do you have the China version or int’l version of the Xshot? I have heard there is a bit of fudging around to be done if you purchase the China version of the phone…
I don’t have the Xshot, I had the Mi4. I did use an Xshot for a few weeks (a friend lent it to me) and the ROM was stable never had any issues but it just never wowed me like MIUI does.
jd.com is selling this with an 8 core Mediatek 1.7Ghz processor. The phone does look and feel really nice in person but at 2698RMB for the 32GB version compared to 1499RMB for a 16GB Mi4 and 1999/2499 for a 16GB/32GB Mi Note, I’m not sure why many people would chose this phone, especially if there are issues with the camera.
they call it “pro”?? LOL
they call it “pro”?? LOL
Let’s see if vivo can pull X-Shot 3 up to its predecessor.
Still need your review on Lenovo Vibe Shot though.
I believe I already complained more than enough in GizChina forums about my Chinese version of Vivo X5 Pro. Part of my jump to Vivo was due to Andi’s good reviews on his earlier devices. Sad to say, Vivo is on a slide and sliding down fast too. My Chinese Vivo X5 Pro uses a MediaTek 6752 but compared to other 6752 devices, the software seems to be poorly optimized with lags occurring from time to time. I am judging this relative to my experience with my previous device, a Xiaomi Mi2. The lack of a way to install Gapps properly pretty much leave me stuck without a fully functional Google Play Store.
Let’s see if vivo can pull X-Shot 3 up to its predecessor.
Still need your review on Lenovo Vibe Shot though.
I believe I already complained more than enough in GizChina forums about my Chinese version of Vivo X5 Pro. Part of my jump to Vivo was due to Andi’s good reviews on his earlier devices. Sad to say, Vivo is on a slide and sliding down fast too. My Chinese Vivo X5 Pro uses a MediaTek 6752 but compared to other 6752 devices, the software seems to be poorly optimized with lags occurring from time to time. I am judging this relative to my experience with my previous device, a Xiaomi Mi2. The lack of a way to install Gapps properly pretty much leave me stuck without a fully functional Google Play Store.
BUT there is One Big selling point , This phone has unique sound chip dac and dedicated amplifier which is used in expensive audiophile players
BUT there is One Big selling point , This phone has unique sound chip dac and dedicated amplifier which is used in expensive audiophile players
I have purchased this just for £275 which is cool price and I have mediatek version where phone hits 45000 in antutu pretty good .. and version with SD615 has poor 32000 …
You suppose to review mediatek version not this ..!
And I been testing this vivo x5pro and I like it .. nice design I can call ,text , email , surf , videos ,photos in UHD are great .. (quality of image is 10MB)
It heats up but not extremely .. and phone is fast.. thanks to 64bit architecture..
I am pleased ..
2nd generation Snapdragon 615 chipset its better than this One?
2nd generation Snapdragon 615 chipset its better than this One?