Vivo V11 Review: Yet Another Good Mid-ranger

The Vivo V11 or the V11i, whatever you call it, is Vivo’s new not-so-new smartphone of the V-series. The device has gathered a lot of attention right now, and I feel like it’s the right time to do its full review, after all, I have used it for 3 months already. I kind of like the device for its price, but there are a few shortcomings. So, let’s get started.

V11 Specifications:

• Display: 6.3 inches, IPS LCD
• Resolution: 1080 x 2280 pixels, 19:9 ratio (400 PPI density)
• Dimensions: 155.9 x 75.6 x 8.1 mm (6.14 x 2.98 x 0.32 in)
• Weight: 163g
• Chipset: MediaTek MT6771 Helio P60 Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A53)
• GPU: Mali-G72 MP3
• OS: Android 8.1 Oreo with Funtouch OS 4.5
• RAM: 4GB
• Internal Memory: 128GB; expandable up to 256GB
• Primary Camera: Dual 16 MP + 5 MP, 1080p@30fps
• Secondary Camera:  25 MP, f/2.0, 1080p@30fps
• Sensors: Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
• Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 3400 mAh battery, Fast Charging
• Available Colors: Starry Night, Dazzling Gold, Nebula
• Price: Rs 39,990

Design

2018 has been the year of glass back phones. Even the mid-range devices are providing glass back smartphones. And the ones that have stuck with metal, come with quite a premium feel to it. However, the Vivo V11 has taken a different route here. It features a glass-like plastic back. And this is where I have an issue. The back is cheap and over time it has developed a lot of scratches. Yes, plastic backs are more secure than glass, but I think a phone like the V11 should have at least a metallic back. This back is probably the reason why it is light, and I kind of don’t like that. But this is totally my personal preference. The same goes with the buttons that are all on the right side. They feel cheap, and I just don’t like the feel of it. Another thing that I don’t like here is the lack of LED notification light. Yeah-yeah, I get that there’s little space up front for the LED light, and there is the wakeup screen remainder feature, but I don’t like to see my phone wake up every time I get a notification. You do get to see the notification by waving your hand above the sensors, but this is an IPS panel here, and I don’t like to lose battery life for even the slightest bit. Even though the build quality of this device is not that good, I have liked its design and the thinness, and there might be someone who might even like its lightweight. Also, the Vivo V11 comes in a variety of unique colors, but I have liked this Nebula color variant which is featuring in a lot of Chinese smartphones these now. And despite the thinness, there is still the beloved headphone jack on the bottom here.

Display

The Vivo V11 features the Halo Full View display up front and it is everything you can ask for. This 6.3-inch IPS panel is vibrant, it is colorful, it is bright, it does justice while watching videos, and it has ample sharpness as well. The bezels are quite minimalistic and even the notch has shrunk down to give users more screen space. I have to give the Essential phone credits for doing this before anyone else. This notch here doesn’t come in between the user experience. Vivo has added an option to let the users themselves decide on whether they want their content to fill up the whole display or not according to individual applications, which is cool!

Performance

On to the performance side, the MediaTek Helio P60 processor along with 4 GB of RAM is a good combination for the price on the Vivo V11. It has been able to do everything I have wanted it to do without any issue whatsoever like multitasking, apps opening time, and using heavy apps – all run flawlessly. Even the benchmark scores show how close the Snapdragon 660 and the MediaTek P60 is as you can see them for yourself. 

However, when you game on the V11, it falls just a tad bit behind the competition like the Xiaomi Mi A2. I did play a lot of games on this phone, and you get a few stutters around 4-5 times on, say, 20 minutes of game time. I felt this mostly while playing PUBG on medium settings. 

  Now you have to note that this issue will be faced by someone who plays a lot of high-end games on their mobile phone, but if you are someone who does a light gaming at the end of the day, you might not be bothered with this issue.

Software

Now I don’t think you can review a Vivo phone without talking about the software. I have to give credit to Vivo for providing me with software updates as in my 3 months of use I have already received 2 updates. But that doesn’t cover how much I dislike iOS running on top of Android. Oh, did I say iOS? Well, I am not wrong then, see it for yourself. Funtouch OS is a blatant copy of iOS. It also has a ton of bloatware that you cannot delete. It’s about time, Vivo, it’s about time you change the User Interface on your devices. Now I criticized the software, but there are some features that I have liked. You get gesture control and other gesture shortcuts that have made the user experience easier. The three-finger swipe for capturing screenshots has been useful for me as well.

Security

Like almost all smartphones of the present time, the Vivo V11 offers two major security options for the users. Now the bigger brother of this phone, the V11 Pro, features an in-display fingerprint scanner, but I still fill that the technology has a long way to go, and I am happy that Vivo has included the traditional fingerprint scanner here. It is fast, blazing fast, and it gets it right all the time. The front camera seconds as the face unlock option which, like the fingerprint sensor, works 100% of the time and fast. It also works during night time, so I definitely give full marks to Vivo here.

Camera

The overall camera performance of the Vivo V11 is good as it is one of the best camera smartphones of the mid-range price segment as of now. The pictures from the device have a slight pinkish tint to it, but the saturation and details are top-notch. It has a good dynamic range as it preserves the highlight details and shadow details of the images quite nicely. However, the V11 doesn’t do that well if the contrast and exposure are concerned. Portrait images are good as well. But, even with the secondary camera featuring a higher megapixel count of 5MP, the Oppo F9 with its 2MP depth sensor does a better job than the V11 here. However, the Vivo V11 portrait shots are not that bad either. During night time, the images from the V11 come out slightly warmer to my taste. However, on the details and saturation front, it did better than the Nova 3i. The Oppo F9 outperformed the V11 in this aspect though. Talking about the videos, well, this is a mid-range smartphone and for what its worth, it did an “okay” job. With the lack of stabilization, the videos come out a little shaky although it does a respectable job in terms of the color reproduction. Now, Vivo has been boasting about its selfie standards on almost every phone they launch. And they have been great. There have been times where even the front-facing camera has done a better job than the rear one. And this time with the V11, Vivo has a lot to offer with the 25-megapixel selfie shooter. The camera smoothens the face even without the beauty mode enabled, but overall, I really like how bright and colorful the selfies have come out. Just look at these selfies. If you really want to beautify your face, Vivo has even included AI-enabled beauty mode than applies the necessary setting according to your skin. Also, Check out this comparison shot between the V11 and the other two phones I talked about before. Now I will let you, the viewers are the judge of the selfies, but I think the Oppo and Huawei phones capture in more details than the V11. During night time, the selfies are great too, and that’s definitely good to see. The V11 has ample lighting and details even on the pictures from night time. The 3i isn’t that good, and even the F9 falls behind in this aspect. For more high-resolution image samples from the Vivo V11, click here.

Quality, Speaker, and Storage

In terms of call quality, well I have had no issues with this device. Yes, the call volume could have been slightly better, but you have nothing to worry about. Now, this might sound as nitpicking as even the flagship phones aren’t dealing well with this issue, but the speakers on this phone is a little low for my taste. I know I can’t expect much for this price, but I think Vivo could have made the speakers a little louder as, at times, this device could even fill up a room.

The Vivo V11 has also set a standard even for the flagship phones, and that’s in the storage front. This mid-range device is available in 128 GB variant for its mid-range price, and that’s just great considering how its competitors 64 GB variant are being sold for a similar price tag. Now the storage chip may not be as fast as the ones on the flagship phones, but it’s good to see mid-range smartphones offer higher storage variants for the user to use. There is also a support for expandable storage, so you can forget about running out of memory with the V11.

Battery

On the battery front, with the 3,400 mAh capacity on the V11, you get around 4hrs 30min to 5 hours of screen on time which normally translates to me charging the phone before the day ends. But what I like about it is the fast charging technology that’s here. It’s not as fast as the Oppo F9’s VOOC charge or even the V11 Pro’s Dual Engine technology for that matter, but this battery charges up in around 1 hour and 50 minutes, that’s considering how the speed decreases after 80% of charge. It’s definitely good to see OEMs include quick charge on their mid-range phones this year.

CONCLUSION

So, in the end, what do I make of the Vivo V11? Well, there are the issues I have with this device which I discussed earlier. It has that software, obviously, the poor build quality, and the only average Gaming performance. But if you take a good look at all the negatives I have pointed out, except for the build, you can overlook the issues this phone has. I mean it has a good camera, a good display, a well-performing CPU, one of the fast fingerprint scanner, and fast charge technology. During my time with the phone, I have thoroughly enjoyed using it. So, if you are out in the market for a mid-range smartphone, I think you should take a look at the Vivo V11 too.

Pros	Cons
- Good overall Performance	- Average gaming performance
- Fast Charging	- No LED Notification Light
- Top-quality selfies	- Plastic Build