It seems that Vivo has studied the current market trends well to design the Vivo Z1 Pro. It remains to be seen whether this Vivo brand smartphone will be able to compete with Xiaomi, Realme and Samsung phones. Today we will review the Vivo Z1 Pro and it will also be interesting to see whether the Vivo Z1 Pro is able to make it to our next list of best smartphones under Rs 20,000 or not.
Design of Vivo Z1 Pro
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The first thing you will notice when you look at the front panel of the Vivo Z1 Pro is its oversized screen. There is a hole on the left side of the screen which houses the front camera. The camera hole is not very big and neither does it distract you while using the phone throughout the day. Our Vivo Z1 Pro review unit sent by Vivo had a screen protector on it. Even with normal use of the phone, the plastic film leaves marks.
The Vivo Z1 Pro sports an attractive glossy plastic rear panel with a multi-colour gradient finish. Our review unit is colored in Sonic Blue and has Emerald Green at the top of the back panel which blends with Cobelt Blue. The colors are saturated and the effect is visible when light falls on the back panel.
The design of the front and back panel of Vivo Z1 Pro attracts attention. Not only this, you will also get a fingerprint sensor for security on the back panel of the phone. The power and volume buttons are on the right side of the phone, while the SIM and microSD card tray are on the left side of the phone. The Google Assistant button is given just below this.
The Vivo Z1 Pro has two nano-SIM slots and a separate microSD card slot. The Google Assistant button cannot be assigned to other functions. We are disappointed that Vivo is still offering a micro-USB port on its latest smartphones like the Vivo Z1 Pro. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack and a speaker grille at the bottom of the phone.
The Vivo Z1 Pro is a replica of the Vivo Y17 and comes with similar dimensions and styling. The Vivo Z1 Pro weighs slightly more at 201 grams but measures 8.85mm thick. In the retail box, you get a flexible plastic case, a bulky 18W charger, a Micro-USB cable, a 3.5mm wired headset, SIM eject pin and some pamphlets.
Vivo Z1 Pro specifications and software
The Vivo Z1 Pro is the first phone in India to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 processor. This chipset was introduced earlier this year as an improvement over the Snapdragon 710 processor and is based on a 10nm processor. It has six 1.7 GHz Kryo 360 Silver cores for power and two 2.3 GHz Kryo 360 Gold cores for power.
It has an integrated Adreno 616 and X15 LTE modem for graphics. It is being said that this new chipset provides up to 10 percent better performance than Snapdragon 710 and 25 percent better performance than Snapdragon 660. The starting price of Vivo Z1 Pro is Rs 14,990. At this price, you will get a variant with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage.
The 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage model of the phone will be sold for Rs 16,990. The most powerful variant is equipped with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage and will be sold for Rs 17,990. Vivo Z1 Pro has a 6.53 inch full-HD + (1080×2340 pixels) IPS display. The battery of Vivo Z1 Pro is 5,000 mAh and it supports 18 watt fast charging.
This Vivo brand phone uses the company’s own dual-engine fast charging technology. Apart from this, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth version 5, GPS support is included but you will not get NFC and FM radio. Apart from all the usual sensors, Vivo Z1 Pro also includes gyroscope and e-compass.
Vivo phones run on Funtouch OS which is a heavily modified version of Android 9. The main feature of Funtouch OS is the game enhancement which Vivo has named as Game Mode but it is also called Game Cube and Game Box at different places in the UI. This includes special optimization for PUBG Mobile.
Apart from this, there is 4D vibration and you will be able to enjoy 3D surround sound. Vivo Z1 Pro has a countdown feature with the help of which you will be able to do other things till your next round comes. Vivo Z1 Pro has a sports mode which will close all the apps running in the background, as well as block notifications and disable temperature throttling to increase performance. According to Vivo, more features including voice chat filters will be added to Vivo Z1 Pro by future updates.
Vivo Z1 Pro performance, battery life and cameras
One good thing that has happened due to the increase in competition is that smartphones are being launched at a lower price, which is why today budget smartphones have enough power for everyday use. While using Vivo Z1 Pro, we did not experience any slowdown in the phone. Even after heavy modifications, we did not see any performance issues in Funtouch OS.
We have the 6GB RAM and 64GB storage variant of the Vivo Z1 Pro for review. The display on the Vivo Z1 Pro is very sharp and clear in all conditions. The viewing angles of the phone are also good but we think some people will find the colours not as vivid as they are on phones with AMOLED panels.
You can adjust the colour temperature and there’s a system-wide dark mode, though not all third-party apps recognise it. The status bar at the top of the screen is quite thick and takes up the front camera hole when using the Funtouch OS UI and apps that don’t go full-screen.
When watching videos on the Vivo Z1 Pro, we found it a little distracting. A quick diagnostic revealed that the phone only supports Widevine L3 DRM, which means you won’t be able to stream HD content on Netflix. The single speaker at the bottom of the phone is loud enough, but it starts to distort at loud volumes.
The bundled headset looks similar to the Apple EarPods but the sound quality is just okay for calls. On paper, the Snapdragon 712 processor gives the Vivo Z1 Pro a slight edge and at this price, it could be attractive for customers who want the latest specifications at this price. But it is difficult to say how much difference it makes in everyday use.
Compared to the Realme 3 Pro (Review) and Oppo R17 Pro (Review), both smartphones use the Snapdragon 710 processor. CPU-heavy benchmark scores are significantly higher while GPU-centric tests see marginal improvement. The camera dot didn’t interfere during full-screen gaming as it was almost always covered by our thumb.
Both PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends ran smoothly on high settings. For your information, let us tell you that the phone heated up only a little. The battery life of the Vivo Z1 Pro was also very good. We were able to use the Vivo Z1 Pro for more than a day and a half and this includes using 4G data, streaming some videos, clicking a lot of pictures and playing games for about an hour.
In our HD video loop test, the Vivo Z1 Pro lasted for 18 hours and 32 minutes. The 18W charger that comes with the Vivo Z1 Pro is very fast and we were surprised to see the Vivo Dual Engine fast charging even with a third-party charger. However, the phone does get heated up when the phone is charged fast.
Vivo Z1 Pro is equipped with three rear cameras. On the rear side there is a 16 megapixel primary sensor with F/1.78 lens, an 8 megapixel secondary sensor with 120 degree super wide angle lens and a 2 megapixel third sensor. There is a 32 megapixel sensor for selfie lovers. Its aperture is F/2.0.
Camera features like AI Filter, Backlight HDR, Portrait Bokeh, Portrait Light Effects, AI Stickers, AI Beauty and Live Photo are part of this phone. Talking about Vivo’s camera app UI, the button to switch between the primary and wide-angle camera is small. Apart from this, instead of giving portrait mode, a separate button has been given for depth effect.
In video mode, options like slow-motion and time lapse are hidden in the menu. We were quite impressed with the photos we took with the Vivo Z1 Pro. The colours were good and details were captured well in the focus area. Natural and artificial textures looked good in most cases. Wide-angle shots taken with the secondary rear camera were much less crisp and looked over-processed. There was also a little warping at the edges of the frame.
After enabling the depth effect, we were able to capture some good photos with smooth background blur, although the edge detection was not perfect all the time. You can adjust the level of blur even after taking a shot by going into Vivo’s Album app. Photos taken at night also turned out well. Noise was also under control and colors were also captured well. But as expected, some blur was seen in the picture with moving objects.
Let us tell you that by default video is recorded at 1280×720 and some grain is visible at this resolution. You can shoot videos up to 4K at 30fps with Vivo Z1 Pro. Vivo has not said anything about video stabilization in the phone’s specification sheet. You cannot switch between standard and wide-angle lens while shooting videos. Photos taken with the front camera also came out well. You will not get depth effect or portrait mode, but you can apply lighting effects which are somewhat like subtle filters.
Our verdict
Overall, Vivo has done a great job with its latest Z1 Pro. When we reviewed the Vivo Y17 some time back, we said that it looked outclassed for the price. This phone has almost every feature that is needed for all-day use. Its selling point is that at a price of less than Rs 20,000, the Vivo Z1 Pro comes equipped with a hole-punch selfie camera and three rear cameras.
Vivo has offered good specifications in the smartphone considering the competition and we didn’t feel that the phone is missing out on any feature that other handset companies are offering. The Vivo Z1 Pro is a strong all-rounder and is definitely worth considering if you are planning to buy the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro (Review), Samsung Galaxy M40 (Review), Galaxy A50 (Review) or the Realme 3 Pro. However, the Vivo Z1 Pro scores well in performance and battery life and is equipped with a large display and a modern punch-hole camera.
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