Vivo V9 makes Malaysia debut priced at RM1,399

Vivo has been making a name for themselves with a series of rather fetching looking selfie centric camphones though their latest offering the Vivo V9 looks set to top them all as it comes with the best hardware they have on offer along with a rather distinct looking display.

The notch on a smartphone display is the hottest embellishment that vendors are scrambling to integrate into their designs and the Vivo V9 embraces it wholeheartedly as it sports a huge 6.3-inch, 1080 x 2,280 pixel display up front complete with the distinctive notch up top that was first seen on the iPhone X. It also ditches any form of front-facing buttonry and getting about is solely via the touchscreen with a fingerprint sensor mounted on the rear.

The notch isn’t there for vanity’s sake as it allows for the phone to maintain a massive 19:9 aspect ratio and still keep a huge 24-MP f/2.0 selfie camera facing in the right direction. Vivo’s selfie camera also has the notable addition of an AI-powered beautification. The reasoning behind this is that the AI is there to offer gender specific beautification so that a gent taking a selfie isn’t tarted up with a slab of makeup on their mug and a lady isn’t given a more hirsute makeover. Sweet.

The rest of the hardware on the Vivo V9 is suitably top-shelf. You get a new Snapdragon 626 processor running Android Oreo 8.1 out of the box overlaid with their FunTouch OS, 4GB RAM, 64GB of expandable storage and a 3,260mAh battery to keep things ticking along nicely.

The rear dual camera array on the Vivo V9 bears a rather familiar looking design and pairs up a 16-MP primary camera with a secondary 5-MP camera for depth data in addition to a dual-LED flash, phase detection autofocus and the ability to capture 2160p@30fps video on demand. The front selfie camera is rather capable though and is able to capture 1080P video.

The new Vivo V9 is available in gold and black and is priced at RM1,399. Preorders begin today and if you order at DirectD, you can score a number of freebies including a gift pack, an extended 6-month warranty and OneRepublic concert tickets too. For more details swing by www.vivo.com/my/