vivo X5Pro Review

Introduction

vivo is a smartphone manufacturer, which became famous at the end of 2014, when it released the "thinnest smartphone in the world" – the vivo X5 Max. Its profile measured at just 0.187 inches (4.75 mm) and with such a slender body, some hardware corner-cutting had to be done – most prominently, in the battery department, which ended up with a 2,000 mAh juicer. So, the company released a more "normal" version of the handset – the vivo X5Pro, which is slightly thicker, at 0.253 inches (6.44 mm), with a smaller 5.2" display and a larger 2,450 mAh battery.

On the hardware end of things, the vivo X5Pro is a midranger, priced somewhere around the $550 mark – if you manage to grab a hold of one that is, as online retailers that stock it are still fairly hard to sniff out. With a glass-and-metal build, the phone does offer the looks, but for the price, we'd also expect it to deliver a pretty solid performance.

In the box:

• vivo X5Pro
• In-ear headset
• Wall charger
• USB Data cable
• SIM Ejector tool
• Quick start guide
• Plastic clear cover-type case

Design

Hand me that iPhone. What do you mean it's a vivo?

No exaggeration here, whenever you look at the vivo lying on a table, you can easily mistake it for an iPhone 6. Its display is larger, sure, but its general proportions, shape, and openings for the earpiece, frontal camera, and proximity sensor are placed very similarly to how they are on Apple's handset. Upon closer inspection, however, we can see some differences – there are three capactive navigation buttons at the bottom, reflecting light with their beautiful silver finish. The name of the smartphone's manufacturer can also be found above the top-left of the display, written in the same silver paint.

Upon inspecting the phone's frame, one can find the volume rocker, power button, and SIM card tray on the right, headphone jack on the top, and the USB port on the bottom, surrounded by two symmetrical grilles – one for the speaker and one for the mic.

On the back, we have another glass slab, making the phone a glass-and-metal sandwich. Decoration-wise, it's pretty minimal – the vivo logo in the center, the usual "Designed by..." text at the bottom, and the camera can be found in the top-left – much like the phone from which vivo drew design inspirations from. The sensor's ring still protrudes, similar to the archetype, but a bit less so.

In terms of feel – the phone is thin enough to feel comfortable to hold. It's not too light, nor too heavy, so it doesn't feel awkwardly burdensome to carry around. Still, a 5.2" display is fairly big, so some single-handed operations are a bit awkward and dangerous to perform, but users that have owned a handset of the same caliber before will have no trouble here. The metal frame feels cool to the touch and the hardware buttons are fairly clicky, but are uncomfortably thin and have short travel. All in all, some gripes aside, we'd say that vivo pulled off the glass-and-metal combo pretty well.