It owes a lot to Samsung’s Edge series smartphones in terms of design, taking on a curved dual-edged screen style, and wrapping it in an all-metal unibody. While the front is very reminiscent of the Galaxy S6 and S7 Edge, the rear has a distinctly iPhone-esque look, except with a square fingerprint sensor at the top. The Super AMOLED screen’s large at 5.43-inches, and the resolution is 2560 x 1440 pixels.
Vivo has added a whopping 128GB of internal storage to the XPlay 5, and fitted a fast charging 3600mAh battery inside the sleek body, that’s also equipped with a USB Type-C connector, ensuring no-one is going to feel short changed when it comes to specs. There are two cameras, a 16-megapixel cam on the rear and an 8-megapixel selfie cam above the screen. Vivo’s used a set of special amps it calls HIFI 3.0 to give the XPlay 5 some serious audio ability.
The monster XPlay 5 with 6GB of RAM is joined by a standard edition of the phone with ‘only’ 4GB of RAM and a slightly less capable Snapdragon 652 processor inside. Neither phone is cheap, and the standard edition costs the equivalent of $565, while the 6GB RAM ‘Ultimate Edition’ model is a pricey $655. The Xiaomi Mi 5, which may not have 6GB of RAM, but is still a real powerhouse, comes in at about half that amount.
There’s no release date for the Vivo XPlay 5 yet, but when it does come, don’t expect it to venture far outside of China without the help of a friendly importer.
All the rumors leading up to the XPlay 5’s launch
The Vivo name isn’t highly recognized, at least not in the U.S., but the company has always been on the cutting edge in the specs department. The Vivo Xplay 3S was the first smartphone with a 2K (2,560 x 1,440p) display, and the rumors leading up to the Vivo Xplay 5’s launch all pointed to it being equally as impressive. Now we’ve seen the official announcement, let’s look back at the rumors. Here’s everything we know so far about the Vivo Xplay 5.
Design
Newly leaked images show a different look than previous leaks. The biggest change has to be the fingerprint sensor, which is squarish in this current leak, but was either non-existent or circular in past images. The front of the device looks very similar, however.
Images of an alleged Vivo Xplay 5 that surfaced in early November show very little resemblance to an earlier leak. These images show a camera sensor at the top left with the presence of an LED flash. The fingerprint sensor shown on previous images is also missing. The front of the device is shown for the first time, so we have nothing to compare it to, but the bezels appear to be super thin. This device also appears to be much thinner.
Images of what is believed to be the Xplay 5 leaked in late October. It appears to sport a metal body, with the first image revealing a rear camera that will likely be supported with laser auto focus, as well as a dual-LED flash. A fingerprint sensor sits just below the camera lens. The second image doesn’t reveal too much other than a microphone jack at the top of the phone and a thin metal border at the front of the phone.
Cutting edge specs
The Xplay series is all about cutting edge, and it appears that the Xplay 5 will be no exception. For starters, the rumor is that it will sport a 6-inch display, but more importantly … it will be 4K, which is a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160. Vivo is used to being the first for such innovations, and unfortunately Sony beat them this time around with the Xperia Z5 Premium.
The Z5 Premium features a 4K display, but Vivo might still have something unique here. The Xplay 5 could feature a full-time 4K display, which the Z5 Premium lacks. The Z5 premium will only display 4K when 4K video or images are displayed. It’s 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) the rest of the time. The Xplay 5 could be the first such phone that shows 4K all the time.
This, however, could be a mistake since battery life is always a priority. Sony could have gone the “full-time” route, but decided to conserve battery life instead. This appears to be the right decision when you consider there really isn’t a lot of 4K content at this time.
Power is another area where the Xplay 5 could trump the competition. The rumor is that the Xplay 5 will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, which is Qualcomm’s newest and most powerful processor. It could also have 6GB of RAM along with 64GB of internal storage.
The Xplay 5 is also expected to have a 21-megapixel rear camera, and a generous 12-megapixel front-facing camera.
If Vivo does give the Xplay 5 a full time 4K display, it’s going to need a gigantic battery to keep it alive past lunch time. It could end up with a 4,000mAh battery, which is larger than what the Droid Turbo 2 and Droid Maxx 2 has.
Availability
It’s not clear when the Vivo Xplay 5 will be available for sale, but it’s likely to get announced on March 1. The company confirmed that an event will take place at Beijing’s Water Cube Convention on the same day. Furthermore, the device to be announced will sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and 6GB of RAM, so it’s a good indication that it will the Xplay 5.
Previous Updates:
Updated on 02-29-2016 by Robert Nazarian: Added in new leaked images and information regarding launch event.
Updated on 11-03-2015 by Robert Nazarian: Added in new leaked images.
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