The “chip-on-sensor” concept of this detector minimizes the distance of the signal propagation from the double-sided silicon detector strips to the readout chips and thus reduces noise from strip capacitance. One half of the detector is built, the second half is being assembled at the time of writing. Prototypes have been tested in several test beams as well as in the so-called Phase 2 setup inside the detector structure. First results from a commissioning run of the Belle-II prototype SVD detector are presented. The measured signal-to-noise and timing performance are found to be according to design specifications. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.