Vivax PRO 1 review – Rugged Android

The market for rugged and heavy duty devices has always been popular and appreciated by people who work in difficult conditions. Is there an Android device that can endure any kind of torture and water submersion? Here’s where the Vivax PRO 1 comes into play. This is an IP68 certified device which runs on an up-to-date version of Android OS and it offers everything you could expect from a modern smartphone. A spacious display, both front and rear facing cameras, DualSIM tray – and all that in a very well-protected magnesium casing wrapped in rubber which guarantees indestructability of this device. Inside the factory box, next to the phone itself, Vivax provided: user manuals, a 3.5mm headphones, a microUSB cable, Vivax charging adapter and a SIM tray tool. This device comes in a recognizable color combination: black-orange. Let’s now see together what this “bad boy” can do.
 

For the PRO 1, Vivax has opted for a 5” IPS display in HD 720p resolution. HD resolution on a 5” diagonal provides very decent results regarding sharpness, and it translates to 294 PPI. Views on the display are crystal clear, with well represented colors and nice saturation. MiraVision system is also available, so if you, for some reason, don’t like the preset settings of the display, you have an option to adapt them as you wish. Brightness can be automatically regulated using the sensor which is located to the left of the front facing speaker, and it offers great maximum and minimum brightness levels. Of course, brightness can also be manually adjusted. In order to retain the status of an indestructible and heavy duty device, the screen has to be protected, so Vivax has reached for the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

We will begin with the main feature of the PRO 1, which is its very durable casing. That chassis is made of magnesium, which is furthermore protected with rubber around the edges. The dimensions of the device indeed are slightly bigger, but considering the aimed durability – this size is completely justified. In the hand, the device really feels robust and very sturdy. Charging port, 3.5mm port and SIM tray are all protected with rubber plugs so the water cannot reach the internal components. These plugs are very well made, and they really feel safe. As we have said, the Pro 1 still is a modern Android device and as such it needs to have suitable hardware in order to provide a positive user experience overall. The chipset that powers the PRO 1 is MediaTek MT6580A, which is a quad-core processor clocked at 1.3 GHz. Combined with this processor there is also the Mali-400 GPU, which proved to be a decent choice to power up the HD panel of the PRO 1. User experience is average, in some cases under heavy use a somewhat slower response is noticeable, but nothing significant enough to ruin the impression about the device itself. Less demanding games work very nicely, but you can honestly forget more demanding ones. Simply, this device isn’t meant to be a gaming device. The system is free of bloatware, which we like very much, because it puts the device under less pressure and everything feels much more fluid. Viber, Facebook and Instagram are also a part of our test due to their popularity as Android applications. The PRO 1 didn’t show any signs of slowing down, and as a matter of fact, everything works perfectly well. RAM memory has the capacity of 1GB, while the storage of only 8GB can be too little, but thankfully, the PRO 1 supports microSD card expansion. Another big plus is that, at its price around 140€, the PRO 1 brings Android 7.0 Nougat. The phone comes with preinstalled security patches for March 2017.
 

Let’s now take a look at the cameras built into the PRO 1. We have the main sensor with 8MP resolution. Below the camera there is an LED flash for night time shooting. The camera supports: Normal, Beauty and Panorama modes. HDR mode is also supported and it really enhances photos where necessary. When it comes to the settings, you can add the GPS location to the photos, manually adjust exposition, add effects, chose scenes and a lot more. There is also the Anti-flicker which is there to remove any flickering from bright lights. A great thing is that you can shut down the shutter and auto-focus sounds, so you can make photos where the silence is of utmost importance. There are also Zero Shutter Delay, Face Detection and Auto-Scene Detection. ISO can be set on the Auto mode, or it can be manually adjusted when necessary. The PRO 1 doesn’t support optical image stabilization (OIS), but it does have electronic image stabilization (EIS) which will mitigate the effects of shaky hands. The quality of these photos is very decent for viewing on the phone and for social networks. You shouldn’t really print out the photos made by the PRO 1, because the camera sensor suffers from a lot of noise, and from pretty blurry areas. The interface is pretty simple, and the shutter speed is excellent. Videos are recorded in HD resolution at 30fps, and the camera does not support continuous auto-focus when changing views. The quality of these videos is only average, and it will do its job for a few relaxed videos, but nothing more. The front facing camera has 2MP resolution, and it provides decent results. Details are nicely reproduced, but it also suffers from too much noise. It records videos in 480p VGA resolution.

This device has a non-removable battery with the mammoth capacity of 5000 mAh. It guarantees a long time with no need for a charger which goes hand in hand with the whole story of a heavy-duty product. The device doesn’t support fast charging, so a full charge takes around 4 hours. The stock charger operates with 5V / 0.3A. The manufacturer states that the device can last around 10h of talking time in 3G networks, and we could also expect around 660h in stand-by mode! Impressive!

As many other manufacturers, Vivax has also followed a trend, and offered a rugged, modern Android device to the market. We also believe that Vivax has succeeded in offering a high quality device oriented towards working in hard conditions, with its enormous 5000 mAh battery, so if a plug is unavailable for some time, it won’t mean much to you. Of course, stronger hardware would be welcome, as well as higher quality cameras. Considering that the focus group for these devices wouldn’t be crazy about gaming, we cannot really take it as a downside. We are sure the magnesium casing along with IP68 certification can outstand all tasks put upon it, and we thing that this is a perfect device for users which will use it in mud, dust, and possibly even water.