For instance, the Xiaomi Mi A2 (Review) comes with a more powerful Snapdragon 660 processor and is priced at Rs 16,999. Xiaomi’s Poco F1 handset is a powerhouse device starting at Rs 20,999. In response to the growing challenges, the Vivo V9 (Review) received a price cut. Now, the company has launched the Vivo V9 Pro. It comes with better hardware and is priced at Rs 17,990. Does the improved hardware make the Vivo V9 Pro a better package? Let’s find out…
Vivo V9 Pro Design
Vivo V9 Pro and Vivo V9 look similar. It is slim. The curved edges provide good grip. Like Vivo V9, the Vivo V9 Pro also has a notch on the top of its display. This notch houses the earpiece, sensors, notification LED and selfie camera. The notch is very compact. The bezels on the rest of the screen are very thin except for the bottom portion. Vivo has managed to control the weight of this phone, it weighs 150 grams.
There is a 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB port and loudspeaker grille at the bottom. We did not like the position of the headphone jack. This is because it is inconvenient while playing games in landscape mode. There is a SIM tray slot on the left side of the device which has space for dual nano SIM and a separate microSD card slot. There are power and volume buttons on the left side. They are easy to reach. There is nothing on the top.
Vivo V9 Pro has a dual camera setup on the back. There is also a single LED flash and fingerprint sensor here. Although, most devices in this price range are made using premium material. But Vivo has used plastic in V9 Pro. Vivo V9 Pro is available in Black and Nebula Purple colors. We have reviewed the Black variant. To give a premium look, golden highlights have been given in the camera module rim, fingerprint scanner and Vivo branding. The phone already comes with a screen protector. Apart from this, there is also a transparent cover in the retail box. You will also get earphones along with a 10 watt charger in the retail box.
Vivo V9 Pro specifications and software
The main difference between Vivo V9 and Vivo V9 Pro is the Snapdragon 660 processor. Vivo has decided to use a more powerful chipset this time and has provided 6 GB of RAM with it. The inbuilt storage is 64 GB and if needed, a microSD card of up to 256 GB can be used. The 6.3-inch IPS display has full-HD + resolution. Viewing angles are good. There is no problem in reading the screen outdoors.
Apart from the powerful processor, some other changes have been made in the Pro model. Vivo has given a 13 megapixel + 2 megapixel camera setup in its Vivo V9 Pro smartphone, while the V9 model comes with 16 megapixel + 5 megapixel shooter. At the same time, Vivo V9 Pro comes with a 16 megapixel sensor for selfie, while Vivo V9 has a 24 megapixel camera. Bluetooth 5.0, dual band Wi-Fi, GPS, GLONASS, USB-OTG and FM radio have been provided for connectivity. 4G VoLTE support is available for both SIMs.
The Vivo V9 Pro runs Android 8.1 Oreo with custom Funtouch OS 4 on top. Our app store is updated with the September security patch.
The V9 Pro comes with face unlock. It is as fast as the fingerprint sensor in unlocking the phone. If you want, you can lock apps and games with the fingerprint sensor or face unlock. You will get customization like motorbike mode in which you can reject incoming calls and send SMS to the caller automatically. The app clone feature is similar to dual apps.
Even though this phone has many features, many apps are pre-installed on it. The good thing is that you can uninstall most of these apps.
Vivo V9 Pro performance, battery life and cameras
Vivo V9 Pro comes with a powerful processor. This is evident as soon as you start using the phone. We never felt the phone slowing down while multitasking. Apps and games load quickly. With 6GB of RAM, you will be able to multitask without any problems.
The Vivo V9 Pro’s 3260mAh battery lasted 10 hours and 8 minutes in our HD video loop test. The phone ran PUBG on medium settings. The phone did not heat up while playing the game in an air-conditioned room. The battery consumption was also not too high. Power saving mode was activated at 9 pm after using the phone a lot. The battery will last more than a day in normal use.
The camera app of this phone is the same as other Vivo smartphones. You will get toggles for HDR, Portrait and Live Photo. You can also switch to Panorama mode or Professional mode if you want. Beautification mode is available for primary and selfie camera.
Vivo has reduced the camera resolution on the Vivo V9 Pro. This seems to be a move to manage the budget constraints owing to the powerful processor. Photos taken with the V9 Pro’s camera were sometimes good and sometimes bad. Exposure was accurate in daylight and it focused the way we wanted. Photos looked decent at first glance, but the lack of detail became evident when we zoomed in. Macro shots were detailed, but it took longer to focus the way we wanted. Edge detection in portrait mode was sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect.
Tap to see full-size Vivo V9 Pro camera samples
Low light camera performance was worse than average. Noise was under control, but the pictures came out grainy. You will be able to take beautiful selfies with Vivo V9 Pro. Screen flash proves to be effective in low light. Portrait mode is also available for the selfie camera and its edge detection is good.
Both the camera setups on the V9 Pro will allow you to record videos at up to 1080p resolution. This is surprising as the Vivo V9 supports 4K video recording. The lack of video stabilisation makes the footage shaky. We found that you can activate the beautification mode while recording videos or on video calls. The change in camera sensor does not seem to have any major impact on the output.
Our verdict
Vivo has priced the V9 Pro more aggressively than other products including the Vivo V9. This phone has a powerful processor and more RAM so there is no problem in multitasking. But to keep the price low, a different camera sensor has been used this time. The good thing is that it has not had much impact on camera performance. The Vivo V9 Pro priced at Rs 17,990 is even cheaper than the Vivo V9 which is still listed at Rs 18,990. In such a situation, we can without hesitation suggest you to buy the Pro model.
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