Friends+Design
- Beautiful, elegant notch-based full screen design (that is clearly inspired from the iPhone X) - the device feels slick in the hand, with subtle curves on the back - and it looks great
- In terms of the ease of using the one-handed, the Vivo V9 actually goes one up on the iPhone X - it packs a bigger screen (6.2 inches) - and is still feels incredibly easy to use with one hand
- Fast fingerprint sensor
- Facial recognition to unlock works very well too
Display
- The tall 19:9 display is bright and vibrant, and ticks all the right boxes
Software
- Vivo's custom Android UI (Funtouch) is very inspired from iOS too - it works decently well, although a lot of Android users do tend to prefer close-to-stock Android UIs
- The UI also brings in a new gesture based navigation system, that operates without buttons (a la iPhone X), and thus gives you even more screen real estate to play with - the system itself is not too difficult to get a hang of - so it works out pretty well - and makes navigation on the V9 feel more 2018 than getting around on, say, a Samsung Galaxy S9 with its standard touch buttons
- The Funtouch Android UI continues to come pre-installed with about six or seven bloatware apps - which could have been avoided
Performance
- While the performance is good in regular use, the Snapdragon 626 chipset inside is not the best of the pack in this price bracket
Camera
- Decent set of rear and front cameras, especially in daylight - colors are accurate, dynamic range is slightly above average, and the camera focuses relatively fast - of course, photo quality falls quite a bit short when compared to an iPhone X or Galaxy S9 - but for the price range, it's decent
Battery
- Decent battery life - will last the day with moderate use
More
- Dedicated Dual SIM and MicroSD card slots
- On the whole, the Vivo V9 is an all-round good device in this price range - especially for people who are more interested in a great design, great screen, and decent cameras - at the cost of a little bit of raw performance power
- Doesn't support the modern USB-C port
