Vivo’s new U10 with triple rear cameras, 5000mAh battery & Snapdragon 665 makes it the best option for budget smartphone seekers
We all know Vivo to be one of the best smartphone manufacturers in the world. Vivo has made an impact in India along with its brother Oppo in recent years, competing with the likes of Xiaomi and Samsung.
Vivo and Oppo along with Samsung were dominant in the offline market, until 2019 when it made a huge impact in the online market as well. Samsung’s cost-effective M series or Oppo’s K series have grabbed a significant amount of consumers. But in this online league, they have failed against the pre-dominant Xiaomi, Realme and Honor.
This year, Vivo also stepped up the online smartphone market with the cheaper and value-for-money Z1 Pro or Z1x which are the mid-range smartphones. Now with the Vivo U10, the Chinese manufacturer is targeting the budget audiences at its price of ₹8,990.
Specifications:
- 6.35-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 720×1544 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9
- Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor
- 3/4GB RAM & 32/64GB inbuilt storage
- Triple Rear Cameras: 13MP primary camera with an f/2.2 aperture; 8MP wide-angle camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a third 2MP camera with an f/2.4 aperture.
- An 8MP front camera with an f/1.8 aperture.
- Funtouch OS 9.1 based on Android 9 Pie
- 5000mAh lithium-ion battery with 18W fast charging
We have got a unit of this latest smartphone that is making an impact on the market, so here’s our full review:
Design & Display
The design of the smartphone looks decent, though it doesn’t have a glass back yet on top of the polycarbonate back there’s a plastic costing that looks like a glass back. This adds to the style of the mobile, looks much more premium than the Samsung M10s or Realme 5 which have a polycarbonate back only.
The gradient colour of the smartphone blends with the design and the camera cut-out design to looks good. Even though carrying such a huge battery the smartphone feels light, the weight balance has been done properly. To sum up, this smartphone looks good and has a great design honestly.
Coming to the display which is 6.35-inch HD+ display is a common one in this segment and the quality of it is “just ok”. The panel is not a bright one like in Realme 5 or Samsung M10s but gets the job done, watching videos, playing games is soothing at high brightness.
One thing that has worried me is about the toughness of the display, this smartphone has no certification to be a Corning Gorilla Glass display. Testing with a tougher object got the smartphone a tiny scratch on the display which even lacks a film that comes applied after manufacturing.
So if you are planning to buy this smartphone, first get a screen guard and then use it to avoid any scratches on the screen itself. Also, use the TPU case or any kind of case while using the device because the plastic coating gets dirty while using bare hands.
Performance
What really impressed me is the performance of the device, is powered by the latest Snapdragon 665 which is a slight upgrade over the Snapdragon 660. The new chipset is based on the 11nm process making it more efficient in day-to-day tasks.
Being clocked at 2GHz makes it slower to the 660 on the CPU front but the Adreno 610 is a major upgrade over the previous Adreno 510. While gaming or using apps I felt no log and the gaming experience considering this to be a budget device is awesome.
The 3GB RAM with 32GB storage might limit your app usage so you can get the 3GB/64GB variant or the 4GB/64GB variant.
Cameras
One of the major highlights of this smartphone is the Triple Rear Camera which is a decent one. The 13MP primary camera with an f/2.2 aperture is not the best in the market but gets the job done, and also performs well in low-light conditions as well.
The photos captured produces good colours and shadows, the detailing of the pictures aren’t that great yet but they are pleasing considering this to be a budget device.
Portrait shots too are fair enough, the edge detections aren’t the most accurate like other devices in this segment. The 8MP wide-angle camera works well and does a great job while taking daylight and even night photos.
The selfies taken with the 8MP front camera is “good”, not the best out there but seems fair to its budget. The AI mode sometimes works well and sometimes just destroys the naturalness of the image. You can also capture 1080p videos at 30FPS using the rear camera.
Battery & UI experience
One of the key features of the smartphone is the massive 5000mAh battery which easily lasts for a day and a half with heavy usage and even extends 2 days of battery life with moderate usage. The 11nm SoC is an efficient one, helping to get the max battery life from the huge 5000mAh battery.
Another good thing about the device is the 18W fast charger that comes pre-included in the box which in fact is rear in this price segment. The Vivo U10 gets fully charged in about 100 minutes which is great considering it has a massive 5000mAh battery.
What really spoils the show is Vivo’s Funtouch OS which looks cartoonish according to me, it is even poor than Oppo’s ColorOS or Xiaomi’s MIUI. The unnecessary app recommendations along with sloppy icons make it even worse, especially if you are a stock Android lover. If you can manage that then this is a great budget smartphone.
Audio and Connectivity
The bottom speaker grill produces enough sound to hear music or watch a video comfortably. It has a micro-USB port which is quite common in this range and the network reception of the device is also fair enough.
It also supports dual-band WiFi and it’s working great with the 5GHz WiFi band. Both the hotspot and Bluetooth works fine.
Pros
- Faster Snapdragon 665 SoC,
- Massive battery,
- Great design and build,
- 18W Fast charge support along with the charger.
Cons
- Display quality is average,
- Sloppy UI,
- Average cameras.
Overall this is a great smartphone by Vivo, one that is made for millennials who want great battery, decent camera and a faster processor. It has its flaws but the design of it along with its key specs make this smartphone a good budget option for many.
Buy the Vivo U10 from here: https://amzn.to/2p23JU6 (Electric Blue), https://amzn.to/311flnB (Thunder Black).
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