Look and feel
The Vivo V3Max isn’t a small phone by any means. With a 5.5-inch screen and weighing in at a chunky 168g, this phone is a proper phablet and not for anyone who wants a phone that is easy to handle. Although it is fairly slim for the size, the V3Max definitely has a sense of bulkiness to it. The body is almost entirely metal, with a dull finish at the back and along the sides.
The front of the phone has a small Vivo logo in the top corner, a signature touch of the company that we rather like. Apart from this, there is also the front camera and proximity sensor at the top, and the capacitive Android keys at the bottom. These aren’t backlit unfortunately, which makes it a bit hard to use the keys in the dark. At this price, backlit keys should really be a given.
The right side of the phone has the power and volume buttons, while the left has the hybrid SIM tray. The primary SIM slot accepts a Micro-SIM, while the secondary one will take either a microSD card for storage expansion or a Nano-SIM for dual-SIM connectivity. The top has the 3.5mm socket, while the bottom has the Micro-USB port, microphone, and speaker.
The back of the phone has the camera and flash, Vivo logo and fingerprint sensor, which works quickly and accurately to unlock the phone and let you access any files that you want to lock away privately. You can store up to five fingerprints for use with the sensor, and the phone can be directly unlocked from standby without first waking it.