Blackview BV5000 review: entry-level tank

We see lots of new names entering the Chinese smartphone industry lately. One of them is Blackview – a company found just 2 years ago – in 2013. They started as a simple iPhone-copy manufacturer, but it quickly threw this idea away and now the company is trying to find its way on the industry map. One of their latest phones caught our attention – Blackview BV5000. It looks like a rugged terminator and it’s IP67 certified. The phone is waterproof, dustproof and shockproof.

Blackview BV5000 specifications

MTK6735P – 64-bit Quad-Core 1.0 GHz processor

Android 5.1

RAM 2GB+ROM 16GB (Support TF card up to 32GB)

5-inch multi-point capacitive IPS screen with HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixels)

2 MP front camera (interpolated to 5 MP) and 8 MP (interpolated to 12 MP) rear camera with flashlight

2G GSM – 850/900/1800/1900MHz;  3G WCDMA – 900/1900/2100MHz; 4G FDD – 800/900/1800/2100/2600MHz

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Design and build quality

Blackview BV5000 is everything, but not compact. The phone is thick and has massive bump protectors on each side. The exact measures are 150.7 mm x 78.1 mm x 11.9 mm. It’s bigger than a 5.5-inch phones like LG G4 for example. However it’s not the thickest one we’ve seen. For example Moto E (2nd generation) is 12.3 mm thick.

Being a rugged phone means that you must be well protected. Blackview BV5000 is all about protection. The frame, which goes all around the smartphone is made of solid plastic and screwed tightly. However it feels really smooth and because of that is also slippery. It’s a pretty heavy device, so the smooth plastic doesn’t help for the grip.

The power button is placed on the right side and the volume rocker at the left. Both buttons are made of aluminium placed over an aluminium frame. Unfortunately they are a little bit loose.  The bottom side is clean expect to the microphone hole, which is drilled in the plastic attached to the display. Both 3.5 mm audio jack and the micro usb port are placed on the top side and covered by plastic caps. Make sure that the caps are closed, otherwise Blackview BV5000 won’t be waterproof. The front panel is slightly curved (perhaps 2.5D glass) with capacitive buttons at the bottom. Unfortunately there’s no back light behind the buttons. The conversation speaker is placed at the top and the front camera stays right next to it.

The back lid is an interesting piece with some machine-like details in the plastic. The main camera stays on top with the flashlight underneath. At the bottom you can find the speaker. The back cover has four holes for screws. They screws are in a separate package in the box along with a small screwdriver. The back lid holds tightly even without the screws, but perhaps they help for the shock resistance. If you want to remove easy the back lid, then you can go without them, but you’ll leave questionable the shock and water resistance of the phone. However it’s not so good to bring a screwdriver with you all the time.

Once you remove the back lid, you’ll get access to the sim card slots, the microSD card slot and the battery. Everything there is covered by a rubber mat in order to protect the insides from water. However our rubber mat was kind of defective and it was not possible to fit perfect. We always had part of the mat coming out of its place. This is where we felt, that our phone lost its waterproof abilities. We hope that this defect is just with our unit and it’s not a common issue.

We have to mention, that the battery is removable although it has a big capacity.

Display

BlackView BV5000 has 5-inch display with HD resolution (720 x 1280). Disappointingly the phone has just 260 000 colors instead of the usual 16 million. You can easy spot this even, when looking at the icons. They don’t look so vivid. It’s even more obvious, when looking at pictures or videos.

Despite of the colors, the display is an IPS one, which means one – good viewing angles. Blackview BV5000 doesn’t disappoint here and we can really rate the viewing angles as good.

The sunlight readability is acceptable even under direct sunlight.

We didn’t see MediaTek’s MiraVision technology for adjusting the color representation.

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