Vivo V7+: Superb 24MP 'selfie' camera with bezel-less display

Bezel-less devices began gaining popularity with premium smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and LG G6. At Rs 21,990, V7+ joins the bandwagon with slimmer top and bottom bezels.

The key highlight of the V7+ is its edge-to-edge IPS "Full View" display that is similar to Samsung's "Infinity Display" and LG's "FullVision Display".

Vivo has positioned the device as a "revolutionary selfie camera" smartphone, but is it enough to entice buyers in the fiercely competitive Indian market?

Let's find out.

Talking about the design, there is no fingerprint sensor at the front. On-screen buttons are placed above the thin bezel at the bottom while above the top bezel sits the ear piece, the selfie camera with flash and the proximity sensor.

Vivo has been riding on the success of its selfie-focused smartphones and V7+ too delivers impressive selfies. The camera produces images with "bokeh" effect sans a dual-camera setup. With bokeh, users can blur the background with sharper contrast and visual appeal of the subject.

The device sports a 24MP selfie camera with "selfie softlight" which is a significant upgrade from 20MP front cameras on V5 Plus and V5s smartphones.

An interesting addition to the camera is the "live photo" feature that is similar to what we saw on iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.

The "live photo" feature creates a moving image instead of capturing a moment in time with a still photo. The user has to select the feature to capture an image with the moments just before and after the picture is taken having sound and movement.

The camera interface is fairly simple and comes with handy modes such as group selfie, face beauty, HDR and portrait.

The device, with a 16MP rear camera, sports dual antenna bands at the rear. The metal unibody design makes the phone extremely sturdy and feel premium. The power and volume keys are placed on the right with good tactile feel.

A dual-SIM slot and a dedicated MicroSD card slot to expand memory up to 256GB are located on the left.

The bottom of the device houses a speaker grille, a Micro-USB 2.0 port and a standard 3.5-mm audio jack.

In terms of connectivity, the V7+ offers 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS.

The 5.99-inch IPS display (1440x720 pixels) offers decent sunlight legibility and colour reproduction. The screen is topped with a 2.5D curved-edge Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection.

Like many other smartphones in the market these days, there is an "eye protection" mode to cut out blue light.

The almost 6-inch edge-to-edge display makes for a great video browsing experience.

In terms of software, Vivo V7+ sports 1.8Ghz Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset with 4GB RAM and 64GB onboard storage, which is a good combination for multi-tasking.

Vivo V7+ is powered by a 3,225mAh battery, which lasted over a day-and-a-half on a single charge.

The Snapdragon 450 processor is known to be power-efficient which reflects on the battery life of V7+. It lasted over a day on moderate usage during our review.

Vivo's custom "Funtouch OS" that is based on Android 7.1 Nougat, offers smooth performance despite being a heavy Android skin.

There was no noticeable stutter when we browsed the internet (opened multiple tabs), watched videos and used WhatsApp simultaneously.

The fingerprint sensor is very responsive in unlocking the device.

Its edge-to-edge display is not full-HD -- which is a disappointment. V5 Plus came with a 5.5-inch full-HD display.

The 16MP primary camera struggled a bit in low-light conditions. There is no fast-charging support either.

Conclusion: V7+ is the first smartphone to feature a 24MP front camera and edge-to-edge "Full View" display -- a great package. Its dual selfie cameras and availability in the offline market make it an impressive selfie smartphone your hard-earned money may love to buy.