While some mid-range smartphone brands may have a wider global reach than Vivo, many nations view Vivo as a standard in smartphone photography. Typically, the flagship X-series receives the most attention; however, the new X100 Pro has such exceptional imaging capabilities that I believe it was well worth the trouble to import one. Can the Vivo V30 Pro match it for a significant price reduction?

With lens specialist Zeiss on board to assist with optics and portrait processing, things are off to a great start. To improve the quality of photos taken by its three 50MP cameras, the V-series iconic Aura Light ring flash is now larger and brighter than before. A high pixel-count selfie camera is also located up front. In contrast, a Samsung Galaxy A or a mid-range Pixel A-series phone appears somewhat plain.

Vivo V30 Pro review

Design & build

As with all of Vivo’s V-series phones, the V30 Pro is a svelte device. With the protruding camera bulge at the back excluded, it is less than 7.5mm thick and weighs a trim 188g. This is partially due to the polycarbonate construction—a metal and glass build would be a bit excessive for a mid-range model, after all.

My Bloom White review unit has a pearl-like petal pattern that, depending on the angle, can look either silver or baby blue. I like how the light catches it. It does a decent job of concealing fingerprints without being overt. There’s also a Lush Green model with fluorite glass that changes color in response to UV light and a Waving Aqua variant that uses microparticles embedded in the panel to simulate water. If you don’t like having fun, you can also choose a simple black phone.

To make the phone sit more comfortably in your hand, the screen glass and back panel curve slightly inward towards the central frame. The in-display fingerprint sensor is logically positioned far enough from the bottom edge to allow one-handed unlocking without unbalancing the phone, and I had no trouble reaching it. As quickly as I would have expected from a mid-range phone, it recognized my digits. The splash and dust resistance of IP54 is also a nice addition for the money.

The Aura Light flash has been expertly integrated by Vivo into the rear camera module without taking center stage. When I take the phone out or put it away, the Zeiss-badged lens array remains the focal point and doesn’t protrude to the point where it gets in the way of my pockets.

Screen & soun

At least when spending this kind of money, I don’t think an AMOLED phone screen can ever be truly defective. The 6.78-inch panel on the Vivo V30 Pro, which has a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz and a resolution of 2800×1260, produces a clear, vivid, and sharp image.

When left to its own devices, the phone did a good job of switching between 60Hz and 120Hz modes, but for the few Android apps that didn’t seem to trigger the change automatically, I still preferred to lock it at 120Hz. The daily experience feels much more seamless as a result.

Vivo has increased peak brightness to an incredible 2800 nits, but only under certain conditions. Generally speaking, you get up to 1200 nits, which is more than sufficient for outdoor use. In the bright sunshine, I had no trouble seeing the screen.

While I’ve used many phones with fewer customization options for color accuracy, I’ve also seen phones with more options. Although I felt the display was fairly balanced right out of the box—not too vibrant, but punchy enough for appealing images and videos—you can get very specific with the color temperature.

The earpiece tweeter and one main driver make up a perfectly good stereo speaker arrangement. Given how thin this phone is, I wasn’t shocked that the little sound system had very little to no bass. Enough volume exists for listening to podcasts while seated across the room.

Camera

With the camera system on the V30 Pro, Vivo has truly gone above and beyond. There are three 50MP sensors at the back covered in Zeiss glass, and a 50MP camera up front that is only used for selfies. To illuminate close subjects, they can each turn on the Aura Light ring flash, which is 19 times bigger and 50 times softer than a standard phone flash and can automatically adjust color based on ambient lighting to produce the most flattering images.

It works incredibly well, in my opinion, to make people appear more radiant and natural, especially in dimly lit areas. It also functions incredibly well for close-ups of food. You can choose from a variety of Zeiss bokeh effects in the portrait mode, which are designed to resemble the company’s DSLR lenses. These effects are subtle and the phone may not always be able to pick out individual hairs, but they can produce some very pleasing images. The 1/1.49-inch main sensor used here is capable of impressive levels of detail, and it largely holds up once you start zooming into your shots—stronger sharpening is only visible at the pixel level. Exposure was nearly always accurate, with HDR kicking in to capture cloudy skies alongside shadowed buildings. For me, the indoor white balance occasionally leaned a bit too warm, but the Zeiss Natural color profile brings everything down to a subtler appearance.

Quite successfully, an in-app toggle can upsample and crop the 2x zoom telephoto lens to 4x. Although there is a slight increase in softness, the colors and exposure remain true to the primary lens, and the detail is still quite visible. When you start to look at individual pixels, image noise becomes much more apparent, but not to the extent that I avoided posting my photos on social media. At night, it’s best to limit your zoom to 2x. Even with optical image stabilization, I discovered that increasing your magnification further increased the sharpening.

With an amazing 119-degree field of view, the ultrawide lens is marginally wider than the closest competitors of the Vivo. Once more, there is abundant detail for the money, and the colors and exposure are spot-on compared to the main camera.

Even with all the beauty mode features turned off, the Vivo does appear to have a low level of skin smoothing that I haven’t noticed on other phones. Even though it’s extremely subtle, you can see it when you start to look at the pixels. If that doesn’t appeal to you, many competent mid-rangers produce equally beautiful images.

Software experience

When it arrived, the Vivo V30 Pro was running the most recent version of FunTouch OS on top of Android 14. This skin has a lot of customization options for the home and lock screens, a tonne of widgets, and a tonne of pre-installed apps. It is fairly heavy.

Since the Google Play store is pre-installed on the V30 Pro, I didn’t need the V-app store, and I detest how it overcrowds the app drawer with shortcuts to games I don’t want to play. Along with the standard selection of third-party apps that can be removed with a few swipes, Vivo also offers a few own-brand apps that mimic Google’s default settings. It’s unclear if the software configuration of the version I received is the same as in other regions; maybe some nations perform better than others.

The duration of Vivo’s software support is unknown; the company has only promised three years of Android updates for its flagship X-series phones so that the V-series may receive less. That’s not great, even for a mid-range phone; extended OS updates and software patches from Google could theoretically make a Pixel 7a last much longer.

Vivo has given the Pro a MediaTek makeover instead of recycling the Qualcomm hardware that it managed to cram into the more popular V30. Depending on the specification, it has either 8 or 12GB of RAM in addition to a Dimensity 8200 chipset. This combination is more than sufficient to make Android feel snappy and has a significant advantage over the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Vivo V30 in some apps.

When you tap the icon, apps launch instantly; web pages load quickly and don’t lag when you scroll through them; and split-screen multitasking doesn’t become tedious. For a mid-range smartphone, I found the performance to be spot on.

It performed admirably when gaming as well. When it came to frame rate and seamless frame delivery, MediaTek silicon used to lag behind Qualcomm’s chips, but all of the games I played performed flawlessly and at a high detail level. While vapor chamber cooling systems perform admirably, I believe prolonged gaming sessions lasting several hours are a bit much for the hardware.

One of the main advantages of the Vivo V30 Pro is its battery life. With its 5000mAh capacity cell, Vivo has more than enough power to last through the entire day between charges. Even after snapping hundreds of pictures, I was able to avoid getting red before going to bed. You won’t have to wait long—80W fast charging support allows for a full refuel in just over 45 minutes.

Vivo V30 Pro vs Vivo V30: what’s the difference?

The primary feature that gives this specific V30 its Pro designation is the camera. The standard model maintains two rear cameras—a primary and an ultrawide—and uses digital cropping to add any zoom. Furthermore, it lacks Zeiss optics.

With the same unique camera module, Aura light flash, and dimensions, the standard V30 and the Pro have an almost identical appearance. The IP54 resistance rating, fast charging speeds, battery capacity, and display are all the same.

Inside, they diverge more noticeably, with the standard V30 running a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset. Instead, the Pro uses a Dimensity 8200 MediaTek power source. Additionally, it has more storage out of the box. Base models have 256GB of storage, while entry-level V30s have 128GB.

Vivo V30 Pro verdict

The V30 Pro is a very well-rounded mid-range device with an excellent screen, acceptable performance, and a reasonable amount of battery life. The photography is what makes it stand out, even though the styling looks the part. With excellent range and powerful portrait lighting, the three rear cameras outperform their size. It’s still a very good performer despite a few complaints from me and not significantly better image quality than competitors at a similar price point.

The standard Vivo disclaimers are in effect: obtaining one will be extremely difficult unless you reside in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, India, or Indonesia. After that, it will take some time to remove every piece of bloatware from FunTouch OS. It’s not like there aren’t any excellent mid-range options available.

However, the V30 Pro’s distinctive flash and constantly excellent portrait shots might make it worthwhile to carry around in your pocket if you take more pictures of people than places.