vivo V7+: Big, near-bezel-less, and probably quite pixelated

After all the teasing, vivo has finally released its own version of a near-bezel-less smartphone and it’s called the vivo V7+. However, while one of the smartphone’s biggest selling points is its large display with minimal bezels, there’s one thing you should know about it before you get all excited.

Right off the bat, you should know that vivo’s V-series of smartphones is their premium midrange handset. The vivo V7+ comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD up to 256GB). It’s also got a 3,225 mAh battery.

Oh and, of course, who could forget the 5.99-inch 18:9 aspect ratio near-bezel-less FullView IPS display. Big selling point, since not many non-flagship handsets have this feature. However, the problem with this massive screen is, it’s only pushing a resolution of 1440×720 pixels, which is otherwise known as HD, or HD+ if you’re feeling generous since it has more vertical pixels. Insert grimace here.

Even the vivo V5 Plus it succeeds has a Full HD 1080p display. What vivo has done here is remind me of a similar attempt by LEAGOO with their famous S8 knock-off which also pushed 720p across a massive display.

However, since it’s a vivo V-series phone, the V7+ does come with vivo’s popular high-resolution selfie cameras. This time, it’s a 24-megapixel f/2.0 shooter with a screen flash feature vivo calls “Moonlight Glow”. It’s also got a new version of their beautify software Face Beauty 7.0 that now works for video calls too. Around back, you get a 16MP f/2.0 primary camera with PDAF.

vivo is also touting their handset’s good audio performance with the V7+ as it features an AK4376A Hi-Fi audio chip. Out of the box, the handset will run on Android 7.1 Nougat with vivo’s Funtouch OS skin on top. For more info, head to the V7+ product page.

The vivo V7+ is retailing for INR21,990 (around RM1,446) and is up for pre-orders now in India. As far as Malaysia is concerned, we don’t have a confirmed date from vivo yet, though we have reached out to them and are awaiting their response. One thing we did notice was that Vivo Malaysia has changed their Facebook banner to one with a photo of the V7+ and the text saying “Coming soon on 26/09/2017”. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a launch date to me. There is no information about the vivo V7, though.

What do you guys think of the V7+? Let me know in the comments below.