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I received my BV9700 Pro a couple of days ago, and the first task was to unlock the bootloader and root it before setting everything up. In case i have to go through the fiasco I went through with the BV9600 Pro and the screwed up APN for my cell provider.  This was quite easy to do using developer mode and Magisk, since the stock boot image has been posted to this forum.

Other things I've noticed compared to the BV9600 Pro:

• The "Transformers" motif is just goofy. I have no nostalgia for the Transfomers cartoon and even if I did, I wouldn't want a phone to be designed around it.  However, the back looks a lot more sturdy than the glass back of the BV9600, so it should hold up to more accidental abuse than the BV9600, particularly the glass camera cover.
• I'm not sure, but I think the USB-C port is recessed slightly deeper than the BV9600's. I had some Micro USB to USB-C adapters that fit into the BV9600's port and allowed me to use a Micro USB cable, of which I have plenty. These adapters don't seem to work in the BV9700.
• The adapter that comes in the box is USB-C to USB-C with the longer USB-C male plug.  The one that came with the BV9600 was a Micro USB to USB-C adapter.
• The manual states that a rubber plug should be used in the USB-C port to ensure it is completely waterproof.  I don't understand why one wasn't provided with the phone. Is there an aftermarket plug available?
• The screen is slightly smaller and much dimmer than the BV9600. The AMOLED screen on the BV9600 was bright and vibrant. I have to turn the BV9700's screen up to full brightness to make it look half as good. I haven't tested it in sunlight yet, but readability doesn't look promising in full sunlight.
• I am happy to say WiFi roaming in a mesh network is much improved over the BV9600's miserable WiFi. Haven't dropped the signal yet, or gone into that SSID "network temporarily disabled" mode where I would have to toggle airplane mode to get my WiFi back on the BV9600.
• The magnetic compass works. On the BV9600 it had to be re-calibrated constantly, so much that I just gave up on it. Every compass app I opened on the BV96600 told me the compass accuracy was very poor and I needed to calibrate it. Not so with the BV9700.
• The speed improvement over the BV9600 is noticeable.
• The fingerprint reader is quite sensitive and the position has been slightly changed from the BV9600.  I find myself  activating it just be picking up or holding the phone.And then the phone says "too many tries" when I try to use my fingerprint and I'm back to the PIN. I might have to turn on the option that disables the fingerprint reader when the screen is off.
• All the autostart apps seem to be starting on reboot, unlike the BV9600 where they had to be started manually.
• The night vision camera looks like a gimmick.  Glad I didn't order it.
• Not sure why a smaller battery was used in the BV9700 Pro.  There seems to be enough room for a battery the size of the one in the BV9600. Haven't tested battery life, but I'm hoping the non-AMOLED screen, more efficient processor and Android 9.0 will make up somewhat for 1000 Mah less. 

I haven't swapped my SIM card into it because i want to get all my apps set up beforehand, and that takes a while. This is why a "factory reset" is such a pain; even with a backup it still takes a day or two to track down all the sideloaded apps, arrange everything, set up all the email accounts, log in to all the apps, set up all the schedules. Still to test is the camera and NFC Google Pay, which some people have reported not working.

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Looks like the WiFi roaming problem isn't quite solved yet. I plugged the phone into the charger not 2 metres from my WiFi spot, and when I came back an hour later, it was disconnected from the WiFi and the WiFi verbose setting said the SSID was temporarily disabled. So far it's only happened once but we'll see what state it's in in the morning.

Another thing that's weird: the phone wakes from sleep just by being handled. I pressed the power button to turn the screen off and put it to sleep, and the screen turned on by itself when i went to put it down. I hadn't touched any buttons and my finger was nowhere near the fingerprint reader. In fact if you just move it around in your hand without touching any buttons or the fingerprint reader, it will wake up. At that point the fingerprint reader says "too many tries" and fails to work.

Also I have the screensaver set to turn on while charging or docked. Sometimes it doesn't come on, sometimes it does and then turns itself off after a while.

Whoops I just found this new "lift to wake" feature that wakes the phone when it's being handled. Turned that off quick since its a nuisance. However when handling the phone, if you brush against the fingerprint sensor too often, it gets disabled because of too many tries. Seems a little too sensitive to me.

The manual states that a rubber plug should be used in the USB-C port to ensure it is completely waterproof.  I don't understand why one wasn't provided with the phone. Is there an aftermarket plug available?

That's exactly the question i also want to know the answer !
Here is the sentence from the promotion site which says:

Besides the waterproof and shock-resistance, let’s check the feature of dust proof.

So how could this be if a rubber plug is needed which isn't currently available and not provided with the phone ?
I already tried existing plug's but they don't match the deep USB-C port of the Blackview BV9700 Pro,
so what exactly should i do now to make the phone completly water- and dustproof like my "old" 
Blackview BV9000 Pro already was ? 

Ok screensaver not turning or stopping seems to be caused by Duraspeed. With that turned off screensaver is working correctly. But fingerprint reader is way too sensitive and shouldn't lock you out after too many tries since I am constantly touching it with my palm or the side of my hand. Maybe there's a setting I'm not seeing to stop that...

Hi - Newb to the forum as looking for a specific answer having just received my BV9700 Pro

Just like csewell I'm wondering why a usb cover plug is not included when the phone is promoted as IP68 and it was the driving reason for buying the phone in the 1st place.
The manual clearly states it is required to maintain the IP68 rating and without it the phone is not fit for purpose and miss-sold/advertised.

I've not even got to boot the phone yet and it's going back in the box as unusable.

Come on Blackview - for the price-point on this phone and the fact you have advertised as an IP68 device, where is the cover? you managed to provide a plectrum to remove the SIM carriage.

I've just checked a BV5500 Pro ordered at the same time as the BV9700, both units advertised as IP68.
The BV5500 comes with a rubber plug in the USB port that when the plug is removed its retained by a micro rubber lanyard.
The BV9700 does not have a rubber plug anywhere, checked the packaging and nothing - clearly not IP68 or there is a production issue!

what's happening Blackview?

After the last update which fixed the Google Pay problem, I put my SIM card in the BV9700 Pro and made the switch.  I can confirm Google Pay works. I'm going to miss the AMOLED screen of the BV9600 Pro. I have to keep the screen at full brightness on the BV9700 otherwise it's just dim and dingy looking.

A couple of other things I've now noticed:

• Very slow wireless charging.  I put the phone on my wireless charger last night at 35% battery and it was only at 65% this morning. This is the same wireless charger that would charge my BV9600 Pro in a few hours.
• I take back what I said about improved wireless over the BV9600. Maybe it was caused by the last update, but the phone is constantly disconnecting from my mesh network and not reconnecting. Verbose WiFi logging shows it constantly trying to connect and getting NETWORK_SELECTION_DISABLED_AUTHENTICATION_FAILURE and NETWORK_SELECTION_TEMPORARY_DISABLED. The solution is to turn WiFi off and on again or toggle airplane mode. I always make sure I have Mobile Network Data turned off at home because I don't want to be eating into my data plan when the WiFi disconnects and I don't notice it.
• Fingerprint reader seems to have settled down with fewer "too many tries" lockouts. Can I get it to vibrate when it unlocks the phone? BV9600 Pro did that.
• How do I get the stock ringtones back? When I looked they appeared to be a couple of numbers, one for each SIM card, but now they've disappeared.
• APNs are stilled incorrect for my cell provider which means no MMS messaging unless I stick to the 3G network. Fortunately APNs can now be created and edited in Android 9.0 which they couldn't in Android 8. However I still found it easier to root and edit the APNS-CONF.XML file to fix the APN settings.
• I can't believe this, but still no notification icons on new phone calls or texts!

And I'm back on my BV9600 Pro.  The WiFi band and AP steering in a mesh network is worse on the BV9700 Pro than the BV9600 Pro.  It's constantly dropping the WiFi connection as I move between access points and just won't reconnect again without manual intervention. It still happens on the BV9600 but much less frequently.