Technology
It will be making available its flagship V7+ and Y65 handsets from Jan 20.
The Chinese smartphone maker is bringing its flagship V7+ device to Singapore to mark its entry to this market. (Photo: Vivo)
SINGAPORE: Chinese smartphone maker Vivo on Monday (Jan 15) announced that it will enter the Singapore market for the first time later this week, with the introduction of its flagship V7+ and Y65 handsets.
In a press release, the company said the two devices will go on sale from Jan 20 via mobile retail stores here, and prices will be revealed on the same day. They will be available in Gold and Matte Black.
The V7+ was launched in September last year, and features a 24-megapixel front-facing camera, two card slots for SIMs or microSD and a 3,225mAh battery. It runs on its own Funtouch OS 3.2, which is based on Android 7.1, it said.
The Y65 device, meanwhile, runs on the same OS, but with lower hardware specifications such as a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, it added.
Vivo’s Y65 model will be available in Gold and Matte Black. (Photo: Vivo)
“Singapore is a key market for us and we want to establish our presence here,” said Mr Liu Hong Bin, CEO of Vivo Singapore, adding that it plans to offer more handset models in “the coming months”.
The company, which was founded in 2009, had said last October it had plans to bring its products into more markets as part of a wider international expansion. Then, it said it will bring its products to Taiwan, Singapore and Russia – the first foray into Europe – followed by a push into Africa.
Vivo made a splash at the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, showcasing its in-display fingerprint scanning technology which allows users to unlock their smartphones directly on from the display – beating Apple and Samsung to the punch in the process. This innovation helped it claim Best of CES 2018 awards from tech news blogs such as Android Authority and Digital Trends.
It also came in third in IDC Asia-Pacific’s top five smartphone companies in China in the third quarter of 2017, ahead of Xiaomi and Apple, but fell out of the top five smartphone brands globally during the same quarter.
