?WHAT IS THE BLU VIVO 6
The Blu Vivo 6 is the latest in a line of mid-to-high-end smartphones that promise big things on paper – but without the matching high price. At just £239.99, the Blu Vivo 6 is the first handset from the US manufacturer to officially be offered for sale in the UK
Blu, which stands for "Bold Like Us", is offering the Vivo 6 direct to retailers and consumers , so if it takes your fancy then you'll be better off sourcing the handset from Amazon than in Carphone Warehouse
With a solid spec list that promises high performance, and a price tag that puts it somewhere between a Wileyfox Swift 2 and a OnePlus 3T, can Blu's debut UK handset make an impact in this increasingly crowded segment of the market
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BLU VIVO 6 – DESIGN AND BUILD
The Vivo 6 offers up a full metal chassis in a choice of Gold or Rose Gold. While it won't necessarily win any prizes for original design, the Vivo 6 feels considerably more high-end than its price tag would suggest. On paper, it measures 153 x 75.3 x 7.6mm and weighs 170g. For comparison, the iPhone 7 Plus is 7.3mm thick and weighs 188g.
In reality, it's unlikely that weight difference will be noticeable, but the Vivo 6 is easier to hold than the iPhone 7 Plus, being slightly shorter and slightly narrower. Both phones, of course, offer a 5.5-inch display. That said, the Vivo 6 isn't as comfortable as a device with rounded edges. Samsung has somewhat spoiled Android users there.
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Also missing is any form of waterproofing, now a common feature on most top-dollar smartphones – but the Vivo 6 is at least half the price of high-end handsets from Samsung or Sony.
That's not to say that Blu has skimped on the internal specs, though. Also included is the newer USB Type-C standard, rather than micro-USB, so prepare to invest in some new cables.
On the rear of the device is a 13-megapixel camera; at the front you'll find a wide-angle 8-megapixel unit. Embedded into the home button is an incredibly sensitive fingerprint sensor. Again, in comparison to the sensor the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, the Vivo 6's proved more reliable and faster to unlock.
BLU VIVO 6 – SCREEN
The 5.5-inch panel offers a Full HD, 1,920 x 1,080 pixel display with a 401ppi, meaning it offers exactly the same resolution and pixel density as the iPhone 7 Plus. This translates to a sharp image on the display and pixels that are tough to spot.
While colours appear fine in everyday use, in terms of brightness the Vivo 6 falls short of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, even on maximum settings. As a result, you might struggle to see it on the brightest of days – but if you live in the UK, that's probably only about 10 days a year.
Screen viewing angles are good, but when pictures are compared side-by-side with more expensive handsets, they lack "pop" when playing games or watching a movie.
On the whole, though – and when viewed alone – you're unlikely to be overly disappointed at this price.
BLU VIVO 6 – PERFORMANCE
The Vivo 6's hardware is ample to deal with your daily challenges. You're won't experience any problems switching between multiple apps quickly or watching videos. The Octa-Core 1.8GHz MediaTek Helio 10 processor is accompanied by 4GB of RAM, 64GB of on-board storage and room to expand it via microSD.
With the microSD integrated into the SIM slot, it's easy to expand the on-board memory – although 64GB will probably keep the average user happy for quite a while. If you play a lot of graphically intensive games, these can often take up a lot of space, as will high-resolution videos and photos.
Aside of the slight dullness to the screen, the Vivo 6 is well suited to gaming, and didn't miss a beat in the many hours spent on Micro Machines. Don't cover the speakers at the bottom of the phone with your hands if you're playing a game or watching a video without headphones, though.
Provided you're not blocking the speakers, they're actually pleasingly loud. However, as it often the case with smartphone speakers, getting any decent music output, particularly bass, from the handset is an impossibility.
The Vivo 6 is unlikely to blow you away in the benchmarks. The AnTuTu benchmark provided an overall score of 31,282, which puts its just below the Meizu M3 Note and about 3 notches below the iPhone 5s.
In the Geekbench 4 tests it performed similarly, scoring 687 for single-core performance and 2,465 for multi-core. That puts it around the same level as the OnePlus One for multi-core performance, and ahead of devices such as the Nexus 5x and 6. It scored significantly worse against high-end devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 in single-core tests.
BLU VIVO 6 – SOFTWARE
While the Vivo 6 runs on Marshmallow out of the box, it isn't an entirely vanilla affair. Thankfully, the tweaks have been well thought out and kept to a minimum. Existing Android users won't feel lost, but a few things will look different.
For example, the Vivo 6 uses the standard Android notification bar at the top of the display. However, rather than also displaying access to the quick tools, these can be found with a swipe up from the bottom of the display. It's a minor change, but one that makes sense on a phone with a 5.5-inch display, since it means you don't need to stretch your thumb to the top of the display to change settings.
The majority of the obvious changes to stock Android come in the form of additional customisation options and tweaked menus, rather than delivering completely overhauled apps and service. The Theme Park app, for example, lets you quickly apply different themes and wallpapers across the phone in only a few taps, and change the appearance of the Blu clock.
Similarly, the Chameleon feature styles different elements of your phone and theme to specific colours that you set using a colour-dropper. You can pick any image or background to use as the source of the colours and the rest of the OS will be themed around your choices. Moving apps around and cleaning up all the icons in one tap is possible by long-pressing anywhere on any of the homescreens.
One thing that's likely to annoy dedicated Android users is the removal of the app drawer, which means you'll need to keep your apps organised on the desktop. One thing you won't find on the Blu Vivo 6 is an excess of bloatware or niggling prompts to install other Blu (or partner) apps, which is refreshing for a customised UI.
What you will get, however, are a couple of additional battery modes aimed at making the device last longer, plus some additional screenshot tools.
In my experience, "extreme" battery-saving modes often disable too many options but are a viable option if all you need to do is make sure your phone stays alive long enough to receive or make that important call. As you'd expect, enabling this on the Vivo can extend battery life dramatically, depending what you choose to turn off.
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BLU VIVO 6 – CAMERA
On the rear of the Vivo 6 is a 13-megapixel, f/2.0 aperture, Sony sensor-equipped camera that doesn't sit quite flush with the rest of the chassis if you're not using a protective case. However, our review unit came with a transparent case in the box, which stopped the worry of scratching the sensor each time you put down the phone.
A few additional tools are included on top of the standard shooting modes, including a "magic focus" option that lets you refocus an image after shooting, some "beautification" options that smooth your skin on selfies, and a smattering of live filters that can be applied to an image pre-shooting.
The camera can even capture HD video, although we wouldn't attempt this in anything but well-lit surroundings – it's still a budget snapper.
Still photos do better than video in most conditions, and phase detection autofocus and laser focus ensure that images are captured quickly; there's no lag between pressing the shutter button and capturing the image.
As is the case with the majority of smartphone cameras, in bright conditions the Vivo 6 can deliver some decent images with excellent colours and shadow detail. In less ideal conditions, however, images become noisy.
There's also a tendency in some cases for the white balance to be slightly off, resulting in an "overblown" sky in some shots. Colour reproduction – in this case of some fruit – is good, however.
White balance can be off, resulting in overblown skies
There's good colour production
Bright shades look good
The 8MP selfie camera is good, if not excellent
On the front, the 8-megapixel camera for selfies and video calling works particularly well thanks to the loud speakers on the phone, providing you're in a quiet space.
BLU VIVO 6 – BATTERY LIFE
With the inclusion of the slightly duller than desired display, reducing power drain, the Vivo 6's battery shouldn't struggle. In my testing, however, the 3,130mAh battery didn't last as long as I'd expected.
For example, watching an episode of Narcos on Netflix (on Wi-Fi), sapped around 11% of the battery, and 30 minutes of Spotify (with the screen off) reduced it by a further 5%.
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For average everyday use, the Vivo 6 should get you through the working day, but if you're a demanding user who does everything via their phone, you'll probably wish it lasted a little longer.
Playing relatively demanding games such as Micro Machines or Hitman for half an hour used the same amount of battery (11-12%) as less demanding games, suggesting the screen time accounts for nearly all the battery usage – as you might expect.
Charging to full took around two hours, with about 70% of that coming in the first hour or so. It's a USB Type-C connector on the bottom, rather than a micro-USB, but the retail units bound for UK customers ship with a cable and UK plug in the box.
SHOULD I BUY THE VIVO 6?
If you're looking for a solid – if not stellar – Android smartphone that won't break the bank, it's hard not to recommend the Vivo 6.
Sure, the camera isn't going to blow anyone away – but is remains perfectly acceptable for everyday shots. The slight dullness of the screen could put off some people, but for a handset costing less than £240, it's hard to find competitors that offer the same level of specs.
For those happy to opt for a phone announced over a year ago, the OnePlus X is a relatively similar device. Or, if you want to spend even less money, the Wileyfox Swift 2 could also be in the running, although this would mean taking a cut in screen size – as well as a maximum screen resolution of 720p, instead of Full HD – plus storage and RAM.
The audio performance, impressively accurate fingerprint scanner and ability to quickly modify the handset with some well thought out changes to the Android OS is a boon for a £240 smartphone. If you want an above average camera, however, you'll need to spend a bit more.
VERDICT
The Vivo 6 offers an attractive value-for-money package to UK buyers, with its 5.5-inch HD display, strong hardware lineup and thoughtful OS tweaks. It isn't perfect, though.
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